Although most of us bathe – and yes, I do know some that
don’t – the cleansing process is not done.
Unless you reside in a nudist colony, you wear clothes that need to be
cleaned, as well.
Your ability to wash your clothes should be commensurate
with your job, hobby, exercise regimen, or dining habits. Allow me to explain.
Lawn care, sanitation, janitorial, nursing, mechanic, military,
fast food, and a variety of other jobs lend themselves to soiling ones clothes
with mud, grass clippings, bodily fluids, and grease. These stains are difficult to remove from
clothing which often dictates the use of uniforms that are professionally
laundered and maintained.
You may be saying, “What does this have to do with me?”
Plenty.
Many folks like to walk, to jog, to bicycle to their
professional jobs or school for their personal physical well-being. Admirable as it may sound, that exercise
should be reserved for after-hours when these folks don’t have to sit in your
office or one nearby, unless they have access to a shower upon arrival. Yes, they may be healthier but, they are
smellier, too.
But, before we get to the point of entering the work force,
we grow as children. Many kids play in
dirt, with dirt, and eat dirt. They
enjoy games such as baseball, football, tag, hide-and-seek, and dodgeball, all
of which is likely to soil them and their clothing. That is not a news bulletin.
Still, 236 words into this story brings me to the crux of
all this – getting clothes clean.
Doing laundry is analogous to riding a bike. Since I was single for nearly four decades, I
developed some real-life skills one cannot learn in school, one of which was
cooking, the other was doing my own laundry.
It seems as though the cooking part helps introduce
spattered grease to ones shirt hence, the invention of the kitchen apron. The real danger comes from preparing edible
food which then results in staining ones shirt, again, while eating. In fact, this happens so often, I actually
buy my shirts pre-stained.
All my cooking and laundry skills were brought to test when
my sainted wife took a recent trip to visit family out of town.
A quick trip to Walmart let me secure some pre-wash stain
removers and OxyClean to assist me clean my spotted t-shirts. As usual, they came out clean and like new.
Now as pointless as this ramble seems, it is important for
those post-high grade-12 off-to-schoolers who are heading out to be on their
own for the first time in their lives. It’s
likely Mom didn’t devote a Saturday to showing her offspring how use the
Whirlpool washer and dryer, sort colors, pre-spot stains, add detergent and
bleach, effectively dry them with few wrinkles and shrinkage.
Being thrust into learning to care for those sweat-laced clothes, sour towels, stained shirts and slacks, and well-used bedding, can be
intimidating to laundry rookies.
Although I haven’t checked, I’m almost certain you can learn these
things from YouTube or even get an app on how to tidy-up your haberdashery and
linens.
If you are thinking twice about this, please refer to
paragraph six. I don’t want to sit next
to you.
