Revenge of the Quilt

*Editor's Note* this is the second post about laundry the first one is here.

Sometimes it seems like all I do is laundry! I either have a big pile of clean laundry to fold and put away or I have a big pile of dirty laundry that’s waiting to go into the washer. Sometimes I have both, particularly on a Saturday afternoon when the kids clean their rooms. That is when they gather up every stitch of clothing they own, clean or dirty, throw it in their dirty clothes hampers and deposit it haphazardly on the mudroom floor. Assuming I can climb my way through the maze of socks and underwear, I am rewarded with the privilege of doing their laundry. 

You would not believe the things that come out in the wash. I told you a couple of days ago that I hate it when the dog pushes her food bowl into the dirty clothes. That means picking mushy bits of dog food out of the washer before I can put in the next batch. But the worst thing is when a diaper or piece of toilet paper gets washed. Little pieces of cotton and paper cling to everything! No, wait, the worst is when a crayon gets washed! I never see it until it has run all the way through the washer and the dryer. Then I have to check each and every piece of clothing for crayon marks. I’ve even had to throw things away when the crayon insists on clinging to the fabric. 

The absolute worst thing I ever washed was a beautiful denim quilt my mother-in-law made for us. It was pieced from old pairs of jeans that were stitched into squares with a red flannel back. The edges were fringed and the quilt was wonderfully warm. My sweetie is always at least 10 degrees warmer than me, so I put that quilt on my side only and then I don’t freeze to death when he wants to keep the temperature in the sub-arctic range. Anyway, because this quilts lays at the foot of our bed for just such occasions, it is always accessible when a kid is in need of comfort. 

Dryer Lint Monster courtesy of Aurora4298

One night we were busy soothing a sick child in just that way when he (who shall remain nameless) heaved all over me and my favorite quilt. It had never been washed before, but there was no way it could be sponged off. I drug it down to the washer (of course it was about 3:00 AM) and threw it in. I was still bleary-eyed in the morning when I lugged it into the dryer (I swear it weighed a hundred pounds wet), but by the time it was dry I was wide awake. I couldn’t believe my eyes! The dryer was stuffed full of little pieces of denim and flannel that used to be fringe. I kept pulling it out of the lint trap and out of the sides of the dryer. It took me about ½ an hour to get it all cleaned up and even then a bunch of it reappeared in the next batch and the next…. I vowed never to wash it again! 

So today I was putting in a batch of laundry. My little two-year-old Curly was in the bathroom right off from the laundry so I could hear him in there talking to himself while he was going about his business. I pulled wet clothes from the washer and tossed them into the dryer. There were a few candy wrappers that must have been in someone’s pocket and I tossed them into the garbage. I couple of shirts later I noticed three $1.00 bills (Score! Sometimes I do get paid to do the laundry). 
 
Then I pulled out a pair of jeans and heard a thunk. I fished around in the bottom of the washer. What was that? My fingers touched hard plastic and I pulled out a PEZ candy machine with a BYU football on top. "Curly!" I was definitely annoyed. "I washed your PEZ!" I heard him shut the lid. "Thank you!" he called back cheerfully. Maybe laundry isn't a thankless job after all.