February 8, 2010

The Laundry Basket Game

I'm going to share the secrets of the Laundry Basket Game.

What you do is get a clothes basket, set it in the middle of the hallway, and when you empty the clothes drier, put all of the items into the basket.  Repeat.  The goal is to see how close you can get to the ceiling before somebody breaks down and puts the clothes away.

A variation is the "Damn it, if you'd shake them out before you put them in the basket instead of rolling them up your jeans and shirts wouldn't have those big wrinkles in them."

We had it up over thirty inches Saturday morning, not counting the stuff that fell out on the floor when my compadre rampaged through it looking for clean socks and drawers four days running. We'd have set a new world's record after I washed and dried two blankets, but he wasn't feeling well, so I put the cozy warm blankets on him rather than in the basket. And then I hung up the hangable things and put all the underthings away. Whatever's left is rising 8 inches above the basket rim, and I've got clothes in the washer heading for the drier now.

Lest you think my time has been devoted completely to Wildly Interesting Housekeeping Tasks, I mailed the last of the Christmas boxes this morning and have only another half dozen or so Christmas/MLK jr./Groundhog Day letters to get into envelopes. I can't remember what else I swore I'd finish before I went back on facebook, but December's completion has freed up a lot of space, what with gifts and wrapping paper and boxes and files all over the couch and coffee table.

Also, last week I dragged home a tree branch, plugged it into a large holder, set it in the corner behind the couch, hung all of the ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) I've received on its branches; and put underneath it a lovely electric vanilla candle that throws a soft light through the branches.  This morning I found an even larger branch and dragged it home. My aim is to transfer the ATCs this evening -- unless I continue in this focused mode and begin working on my income taxes. In any case, photo of branch to follow because what you think it looks like and what it actually looks like are radically different.

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