A tale of the unloved

Living at home with my parents I took so much for granted, meals were cooked for me, the bills were always paid on time and I barely had to do anything except for keep my own bedroom clean and tidy – and I didn’t do that too often if I am honest.

I moved out of home aged 25, a whopping 12 and a half years ago now and nothing prepared me for life where i would have to do everything for myself. I know I expected to do it, but nothing prepares you for actually having to keep on top of the housework with no help at all.

Dishes remain unwashed if I don’t wash up or put them in the dishwasher and then that dishwasher actually needs unloading again…it’s a vicious daily cycle, if I don’t unload the dishwasher and put the plates and cups away then the next lot pile up on the side awaiting dealing with.

With kids and a large moulting dog in the house hoovering needs doing daily, sometimes twice a day, if it’s not done daily then it really does look messy and the dust builds up on the sides and TV far too quickly.

It actually took me a long time to get into the swing of housework, it sounds silly but not being used to doing it all for myself it just didn’t come naturally, I started off with the impression that it wouldn’t matter if I only hoovered once a week – just how messy could one house get with only 2 adults and a dog living there especially when those adults worked full time? It turns out that it gets far messier than expected and it doesn’t just go away.

Washing is another issue, the washing basket is no longer magical, living with my parents the clothes would go into the washing basket and then re-appear cleaned and folded a few days later. Now, clothes go into our washing basket and it can be a few weeks before they re-appear again, it is a never ending cycle and the bottom of the washing basket almost seems like a mythical thing, it’s very rarely seen in this household.

Since Friday I have actually found the bottom of our washing basket, it has meant I have done 11 loads of washing which is a rather large task in itself, thankfully the weather has been beautiful so it’s all gone onto the line and dried within the day, meaning I can put it straight away, this has including all the towels and the bedding too.

I do find that there are always a few items at the bottom of the basket which stay there for weeks, these are either delicate items which need washing on a low setting such as a silk wash and there are the items which I’ve purchased by mistake and turn out to be dry clean only – it’s only after wearing these items do I then realise they are dry clean only so they are shoved to the bottom of the basket where they remain unloved until the next special occasion where I want to wear them so have to then make that really annoying trip to the dry cleaners just for one item.

I know I’m not alone with this mistake, I’m sure you’ve all got an item awaiting dry cleaning which you’ve been putting off getting cleaned. Data Label ran a survey of over 500 people and over 56% of those questioned said they found laundry labels confusing.

This of course isn’t my only laundry mistake. Paul has lost many jumpers which would now fit Emmy’s dolls comfortably, and a few of his best shirts have a rather pink tone to them which I couldn’t hide or fix, apparently you need to separate the white from the darks and colours also need a separate wash! Who knew?

Rather late to the party, and a lot of washing ruined I now finally have the grasp of checking the laundry labels and separating out the clothes.

“Some information within this post was provided from a press release by Data  Label”