With my own washer/dryer, regardless the amount of loads, I use the laundry as a timeline.

Every Saturday morning I gather up the laundry and start my four loads.  Every week, four loads...I can start it Friday night or Sunday night, regardless, the four are always there as a constant.

Ching has frequently suggested that we send it out to be done.  I have enough guilt having our house cleaned every few weeks and using a landscaper for our postage stamp like lawn.  I can do my own laundry.  First of all, there is a chance I won't get all our stuff back.  Secondly, I don't want a stranger touching our undies.  This may seem like an odd fear but back in the mid-nineties, I tried doing a laundry service.  (I was sick of both hauling my stuff down a block to the laundry mat and hoarding quarters.)  I stopped doing (this service) when one pick up was light a few pairs of my undies. (At this time I was single.  My undies were a lot more expensive than they are now.) There was also a muscle tank top included in my load.  This wasn't a typical guy tank--the front had a grid of bug species.  The shirt freaked me out so much that I had to toss it--it was weird and I didn't want to think about the type of guy that would wear something like that.  So after that, I went to hoarding quarters and hoping for the day that I would have my own washer/dryer.

I believe Ching's suggestion is to quell his own guilt.  He needs to get over this guilt.  Laundry is my task that I do. You don't see me sitting down at the spreadsheet, paying bills.  Just leave me alone to my routine of the laundry.

With my own washer/dryer, regardless the amount of loads, I use the laundry as a timeline.  Sounds odd but I like the smell of a good detergent as I fold Ching's t-shirts that he wears on the weekends.  These are t-shirts that he has had back when we first were married.  These T's have little holes in the back and they are so soft.  Folding your kid's clothing is like walking on a tightrope of hoping the stain got out but also appreciating their current size.  Rachel is a girl that needs short pants and roomy top.  She loves wearing the T that says she "gets her looks from her Daddy."  Laurel just is trying to be understated, comfy and cool.

But Friday night, he caught me in an off moment...maybe I was drunk.  "Jude--I have a gift for you  Well, not so much (way to sell it CCW)..Anyway, please gather up all the laundry and I will take it tomorrow to be done. And for some reason, I agreed..

He left with with the load at 1:30 on Saturday...and came back with it at 2:15, the same Saturday.  The amount of laundry couldn't guarantee a wash and fold service until Monday morning.  Ching thought it would be ready in a couple of hours.  Good God (a clear sign that he has never done the laundry)...and for some reason, I know he is looking for praise at the attempt of the gesture. I can tell as he is looking for something as he is carrying it back in...still dirty..looking defeated and then at me.

So as I take my loads downstairs to the washer/dryer, Ching faintly says he will fold them and put it away.

No he won't...and I don't think he will touch my Saturday routine again.  These clothes...well, my family is getting older...and it's mine.. Back away!