Drabble by Kevin Fagan for July 09, 2023

Been there, done that, except for sweeping. I always threw the clothes basket over too. Much landed in it if it fell rightside up.

She’s unhampered by convention.

Whatever works Honeybunch.

June Drabble aka Honeybunch?

Use a laundry basket like everyone else!

After they’re clean just throw them back upstairs.

We had a chute in an old house. From second floor to basement. When we rented the house out we sealed it. Although one family had rotten kids. I always thought they wouldn’t mind if we unsealed it. One kid had a sniper’s nest upstairs (using a soft pellet rifle) in his bedroom and would pellet people in the street. I hope he enlisted…..

Why not just carry the hamper downstairs? Or better still, put everything in a laundry bag?

It’s wash day, and for five people, that’s ALL? Maybe just hers – nah!

When I was a kid, my mother would say don’t worry about what other people think, they aren’t thinking of you. When you see how judgmental people are of a cartoon it makes you think she was wrong.

When you have back and joint issues, you get creative. I never did the tossing down the stairs thing but figured out how to cut a hole directly from the closet to the basement and covered it with a hamper with no bottom, screwed to the floor. At least it cut the burden in half. Then I just had to leave clean folded laundry downstairs for whoever needed it to bring it upstairs. We sold the house and featured the laundry chute as an amenity.

Sweeping the pile of clothes across that distance seems like it would take more effort/work than picking them up in a bunch or in bunches – even if you would have to make two trips.

I used to do this. My washer/dryer was in the basement and with old, wooden, rickety steps. I had a wire-mesh laundry basket and I would send it head-over-heels down the steps into the basement and then follow down, holding the bannister. Worked great.

A mesh laundry bag would save the sweeper step.

Could just put the washer and dryer on the same floor you do the most laundry on. Never understood why the washer and dryer are always put in the basement.

Never seen anyone use a Barn broom like that before

They need to put the washer and dryer upstairs. Then all she would have to take up is the dish towels and cloths.

Our laundry room is on the second floor along with most of the bedrooms. The master bedroom is on the first floor and no kids at home, so …

I have been afraid for years that my death would be caused by tripping on a dog sleeping on the stairs while I am carrying a laundry basket.

Why aren’t laundry rooms upstairs? There are bathrooms so plumbing shouldn’t be an issue. There are showers so an emergency floor drain should be ok.

“New from Amazon! Portable, inflatable laundry chute for the overworked housewife! Just pull the chord and it inflates like an airplane emergency exit!”

There is actually a ‘laundry jet’ that works like those office tubes that people used a long time ago. You put your laundry in one end and air sucks it to the laundry room straight into the washing machine. https://youtu.be/-GiFfCELdiw

At first I was like uh oh, Ralph cheated on her…

And you get a (somewhat;) clean floor!

I had lived in 16 different houses by the time I WAS 16. Of all of those only one had a basement. It had a hatch at the bottom of the linen closet in the bathroom that dropped everything onto a table down there. Of all of the places I have lived (now at 26) only three had basements. Granted I don’t remember the places in Maryland, Ft. Bliss and Germany, but we were in post housing, so I doubt that there were any in those. The house with the hatch was in Indiana and that was my favorite actual house. It was fancy (at least to 12-year old me).

A net bag for the dirty laundry would be another improvisation. Drop it down the stairs and the clothes stay together for further transport to the laundry room.

Laundry chutes are awesome!

Works for me.

After guests leave, that is how I get the bedsheets and towels downstairs, I dump them over the railing upstairs. I prefer to have at least one hand free when walking down the stairs on the railing. I’m clumsy.

In college I just threw my laundry against the wall. Then I washed anything that stuck.

My bedroom closet opens directly into my laundry room.

Ralph should carry the hamper down for her instead of just sitting there. It’s the least he could do!

I lived in a small condo in Mayport, Fla, the bedroom was a loft above the rest of the Condo. That’s how I did it.

A laundry bag would have been so much easier.

Everyone talks about how to get the dirty laundry to the washer, but how about a way that’s easy on the back to get it all back where it belongs? It’s just as, if not more, awkward handling a batch of clothes without wrinkling them.

We have a laundry bag in our upstairs hall closet – it is attached to the front of the lowest shelf and the sidewall with 3 hooks on them and 3 rings on the bag – so the bag sits open at the bottom of the closet. On Wednesday night when it time (around 11:30 pm) to do laundry I close the bag and start it rolling down the stairs. I walk down the stairs.

I then drag it to the basement stairs (in the kitchen) which are directly under the upper stairs. I drag it down these stairs since on the wall facing the bottom of these stairs is our collection of electric train cars to play with.

I then carry it to the other room in the basement to do the laundry.

When I am done with the clothing (either same night or next night) I bring down the smaller laundry bag which is hanging on the basement side of the door to it located in the kitchen and add same to the towels from upstairs. Then I do the bedding and towel laundry loads.

The clothes are carried upstairs when done in a basket. The towels and bedding will make the trip upstairs in the laundry bag.

I fold the laundry in bed as I wait for husband to get ready to go to sleep and then continue after the lights are out. Hang his shirts in his closet. Underwear and socks are put away. If towels and/or bedding is downstairs they are folded also, but generally they come upstairs the following night in the upstairs laundry bag and when folded are put into the laundry basket for distribution to upstairs hall closet and the kitchen towels to the drawers in the kitchen.

And writing this may have taken almost as much time as folding does.