There are 14,233,064 posts about laundry on Instagram.  Actually, I made up that number, but I know it’s a lot.  #laundry alone has 2 million posts, and when you add in #laundryproblems, #laundrylife, etc. — you get my point — there is a lot of talk about laundry.

What is it about laundry that makes us talk about it so much?  

There is SO. MUCH. GOOD. in laundry:

• Fresh, clean clothes!!!!  No more stains, nice, bright colors, that super-clean look and feel
• They smell nice!  We’re not a family of heavy fragrance in this house, but even unscented and pure laundry products leave clothes smelling fresher than when they were tossed in the hamper (or on the floor near the hamper . . . or really, nowhere near the hamper)
• Better fit.  I feel like my clothes go back to the shape they’re supposed to be — knees that were stretched in jeans go back to fitting the way they’re supposed to, necklines on cotton t-shirts get a little better shaped again.  And those sleeves my kid chewed on go back to fitting around his wrist instead of soaking wet yucky misshapen bell-bottom sleeves.
• Fresh, clean laundry is like  a new start.  Easier mornings because the kids aren’t yelling “why didn’t you wash my favorite pants?” and you know there is plenty of underwear to choose from.

And so much bad.

• It’s truly endless, unless everyone in your house becomes a nudist.  If I were a washing machine & dryer manufacturer, I think I’d name my newest model “The Infinity,” because that’s truly how long you’ll be doing laundry.
• It’s time consuming.  I need to put stuff from the washer in the dryer, but the prior dryer load isn’t fully dry yet, so now I have a backlog and I need to wait . . . 
• There are lots of stages.  Not just wash, rinse, spin, but everything else:  throw dirty clothes on floor, throw clothes you haven’t worn but don’t like in the hamper, sort them to figure out what really needs to be washed, decide whether you’re going to separate lights and darks or just go all in, determine which clothes are needed first — like special pants for hockey practice, specific sweater for an event this weekend . . . Lots of thinking.  You get my point.
• The reward is fleeting:  by the time you’re done with laundry, there are new dirty clothes in the house
• It can be hard to put away.  Have you ever been so accomplished with your laundry that just about everything is clean, and you realize you can’t possibly fit it in your drawers?
• It gets wrinkled.  It comes out of the laundry process nice and pristine, and then it’s either folded (but I’m a messy fold-er) or sits crumpled in a basket waiting to be folded, gathering wrinkles even faster than the corners of my eyes.
• Socks.  They go in together.  They come out alone.

Through good and bad, laundry is a common topic for parents.  One we complain about, one we laugh about, one we cry about.  An activity we count as a punishment, a never-ending sentence we’ve been given as adults raising humans.  In some cases, it’s exercise — all that bending and picking up clothes and putting them in the washer or dryer and then moving them and folding them and putting them away — if you’re ever lucky enough to actually make it to that step.

Don’t forget the surprising:

Beyond the good and the bad, don’t forget the SURPRISING!  The washing machine has been the source of demise for many a random object.  In a M.O.B. Truths survey of over 100 Mothers of Boys, most agreed they had found something other than clothes in their washing machine. (I’m guessing this is true for parents of girls, too!):

The usual:

Legos
Small plastic toys

The common, loud, and clunky:

Toy cars and trucks
Rocks

The problematic (especially if they make it to the dryer):

Crayons
Chapstick
PIece of gum
Lollipop
SLIME!

A bit of nature:

Leaves
Sticks
wood chips

And wildlife . . .

This one gets the “most horrifying” award: A FROG

The funniest:

My son

The most surprising (for one boymom):

A naked Barbie doll

And, the most expensive:

An iphone!!!!
And a remote control!

What have you found in your washing machine or dryer?

Thanks to lots of honest humans and witty content creators, we can find lots of laughs in laundry online.  I hope you enjoy this Laundry Meme Roundup from some of my favorites.