Laundry and the Lint

Off kilter of late, I didn’t post at all last week, seemed to be a bit on the brain dead side. Then I went and did my laundry.

There is one common laundry room for my complex, so you never know who you might meet in the laundry room, or what you might find. Last night I met a neighbour I’d never seen before.

We were pulling our clothes out of the washers at the same time, tossing everything in the dryers. She checked the lint screens before starting the dryer. That’s something I usually do after, not before. I guess I’m more trusting that the person before has been responsible enough to do it. When she found both of the lint screens full in the dryers she was using, I checked mine and found we were 3 out of 4 dryers where the screens had not been cleaned.

As she was leaving she commented that it must have been one of the men. I had to laugh as that had been my thought too, but I hadn’t said it. I don’t mean to be disparaging about men and their ability to do laundry, what has through the ages been thought of as “woman’s work”. I know the men in my family do laundry, dishes, and windows and floors.

I’m not a very good housekeeper, something I learned from my mother. Sorry, Mom. We both had the belief that creativity came before neatness. After all, it’s sometimes hard to be creative and neat at the same time.

My place is a mess, and as this is garbage day, my day to clean up. I have made a start, and then sat to enjoy my coffee. I’ll get back to it, as I’ve put the painting on the back burner until after the holidays. I have too many Christmas projects to finish.

Thinking about my Mom, and laundry, I remembered a funny story. My Mom was living in Florida at the time, and her laundry room was in a small room off the carport, separate from the house. She was having trouble with the dryer; found it wasn’t drying very well.

I was visiting and checked it out. When I pulled the lint screen out, which was very inconveniently located at the back of the machine (out of sight, out of mind) I found the screen full of fluff, matted into layers more than an inch thick.

I had to figure she’s never checked the lint screen in all the time she’d been there, as a woman living alone, she didn’t have that much laundry. How she’s never had a fire I’ll never know.

So, it’s not a gender issue at all. And I apologize for thinking it had to be a man who was negligent in cleaning the lint screens.