February 4th, 2007

I started doing my own laundry in my first year of university. My Mom had showed me a few tricks of the trade like color separation and had bought me a fabric softener ball (I love those things). She even went so far as to try to teach me the meanings of the odd hieroglyphics stitched into the labels but unfortunately they are still Egyptian to me.

I made out reasonably well since realistically I only had sweat-shirts, t-shirts, jeans and other non-volatile clothing items to deal with. After a while I purchased a pair of warm-up pants so that I could become even more clothing lazy and travel to class in my PJs. When it came time to do the laundry I put them in the color pile then washed and dried them as normal. Here is where I first realized I had no idea what I was doing, the pants were somewhat ruined. I had used the hot setting on the dryer and the fabric, in small patches, was all messed up and a little melted.

Some number close to ten years later Sara does not trust me to do her laundry. I am allowed to start darks with the special dark soap, whites with a little bleach and others with regular soap but the dryer is off-limits. I must hang up everything that doesn’t belong to me and now that she has me buying nicer non-lazy clothes some of mine get hung too. It is a sorry state of affairs but I don’t think I am alone in my laundry confusion. Right guys?

I am a terrible klutz when it comes to nice shirts and staining food. Cooking or eating usually results in a speck or more finding its way onto my belly area (which is a fair sized target). I should really invest in an apron but the snickers I hear in my head are a signal not to cash in that manliness chip too soon. Needless to say I have a shirt or two that I can’t wear anymore without commentary from Sara and a requisite shirt change.

Now to my success! One such ruined shirt had a large grease stain front and center, it was probably McDonald’s special sauce but that is secondary. I decided to try my hand at this spot removal game I hear so much about on TV. I grabbed our bottle of Javex 2 (which it says is color safe) and tried pre-treating, which from what I understood involved dousing the spot, waiting, then washing. When I finally pulled the shirt from the dryer I was amazed to see that it had worked. Spot 10, Adam 1 (It had won many battles but I won the war).