The Laundress

I was living in my very first apartment when I met my husband, a dwelling equipped with its very own free washer and dryer.

No coins to collect. No waiting for someone else's underwear to dry. It was sheer luxury.

In my quest to seduce the man who now, 10 years later, romantically leaves his dirty socks on my kitchen counter (ah, youth, so stupid!), I impulsively offered to do his laundry one rainy Sunday afternoon.

"Oh sure," I breathed into the phone. "Bring it over, all of it."

I must have really wanted to see him.

From that day on, I've been washing his delicate underthings, hankies and play clothes. I draw the line at his dress shirts - no matter how poor we get, I can always manage to find the cash for him to get his shirts laundered off the premises.

For years before we were married, he would let slip his favorite teasing nickname for me.

"Oh, I call her my laundress," he'd tell a friend.

Gah.

The worst part wasn't doing the chore. The worst part was being compared to the original Laundress, his grandmother.

Gram is in her 80s and she does laundry like a professional. She irons hankies, people. HANKIES.

And it is rumored that she can remove any stain she comes across.

Not one to be shown up, I stepped up my laundry efforts, investing in all manner of potions and chemicals designed to make my clean laundry even cleaner.

Enter my first brush with OxiClean.

This stuff will get anything out. Blood, dirt, ground-in mud from a three-mile trek across the parking lot of Rich Stadium in Buffalo, NY (can you tell I was traumatized by that one?) ... you name it.

So when Parent Bloggers Network asked if I wanted to review this wonder product, I said yes, please!
I stopped buying OxiClean last year - not because I didn't like it, but because it seemed to be disappearing from the store shelves. But I am happy to report that I have seen it in Chambana, and that this last encounter only strengthened my love for this product.

Put it in your washer with every load, and you reduce the amount of fading in your clothes. And with The Poo around and into everything these days, her clothes see a tremendous amount of hot water. So I do my best to preserve them, and OxiClean helps.

Also, this stuff has removed paint from preschool, chocolate ice cream and ketchup from her Gymboree shirts.

Do I need to say any more?

As for Mr. C, I am still his laundress. What can I say? I love the guy.

Lucky for him, because I don't think any other woman on the planet would be able to stand his stinky socks.