When the girls are away, the man, uh, well, does laundry and cleans out the fridge.
At least that’s what I did on the weekend.
The ladies went to Lindsay to visit friends, while I remained home and played house.
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Laundry is a regular chore for me. I don’t mind doing it at all. Well, except for stuff that needs to be hand washed, or receive some especially gentle treatment. That’s where I fall short.
And, naturally, with two ladies in the house, my wife and daughter, there is a fair bit of hand-wash stuff.
I just refuse to do it. First off, I’d likely mangle it (I have beat up some clothing in the past), and secondly, as a result of my mangling ability, my wife really doesn’t want me near it.
I always tell her that when she’s buying our daughter clothing to only purchase stuff that doesn’t need any special treatment. But our kid dances, and some of those outfits are in need of someone else’s touch when it comes to washing them.
Yep, I can wash in cold water. I can hang clothes to dry, but if it involves running the machine on “Gentle” or having to hand wash stuff, I’m out of my league.
That’s why we have a clothes hamper at home with three separate receptacle bags. One is specifically for the fine clothing that I shouldn’t touch.
When I do laundry on weeknights, I do it after 7 p.m. I’m cheap; I like running such appliances when electricity costs are at their lowest.
But trying to fit laundry around dishwasher cycles, showers and work means once in a while we end up with a pile of laundry to do on a weekend, and too little drying rack space for all the clothing.
It’s all in the time management, and some days, I’m terrible at it. But on a weekend with no one else around, I can manage. Having a spring training baseball game on in the afternoon doesn’t hurt. It does lead to a nap, however, which did delay me changing over the laundry. But that was just once, honest.
Well, I only nodded off once on Saturday. I have slipped into snooze mode on one or two other laundry nights. OK, I nap a lot when I have sports and laundry on. More time management issues…
As for phase two of my home chores this weekend I went into fridge organization mode.
We are usually pretty good at eating leftovers in a timely manner, or at least tossing them in the trash after a few days but cold spells this winter have almost put us in hibernation mode at times.
That led to a game of guess what’s in the Tupperware.
I opened containers where the food still looked and smelled fine, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
And then there was the fuzzy spaghetti sauce.
And the shrimp. Yes, the shrimp.
This container was jammed into the back of the fridge. I have no idea when we put it in there after an evening of entertaining. Regardless, it had been in the fridge way too long.
I pulled off the top and had my olfactory senses assaulted. I have a strong stomach, but I almost gagged. I couldn’t get that into the outside trash quickly enough. And then I left the side door open. Not enough. I opened the kitchen window. Not enough. I opened the back door, and finally a cold breeze swirled through the kitchen, providing my nostrils with some relief.
OK, I won’t let that kind of old food buildup occur ever again. Well, unless we have another winter like this one…
