Why I rarely iron

Last night was the Homecoming dance for T. I honestly was surprised to hear these words come out of my mouth, "Bring your clothes out, and I'll iron them for you." I almost had to ask myself, "did you just volunteer to iron?" It's funny, but it's not really the ironing that I mind; it's just that it always seems to lead to something more.

So T brings me his clothes, and I go into the laundry closet to get the ironing board and the iron. (We live in an apartment and the laundry closet is just that, a closet in the hallway that's big enough for a full-size washing machine and dryer with a storage shelf above and space to the side for things like ironing boards and mops.) The iron is up on the shelf, no problem. But the board is in the space between the dryer and the wall. I go to pull it out, and there's this enormous amount of lint on the bottom, and there's all kinds of stuff that seems to have fallen on the floor. Naturally, I decide to investigate, and clean up the mess.

Fast forward 40 minutes, and I'm just finishing dealing with it all. Somewhere along the line, the vent hose from the back of the dryer to the outside world has come disconnected, which explains the enormous amount of lint. I don't know how long this had been going on, but I'm glad I found it; all that dry stuff floating around near a source of great heat is a fire hazard. I also found about 20 double-A batteries (large pack from Costco had fallen on the floor), half a box of dryer sheets, one of those Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponge things, 7 socks, and a couple of pairs of panties. In the end, I cleaned up between the dryer and the wall, side and back, between the washing machine and the dryer, and between the washing machine and the wall. Then I had to climb behind the dryer, loosen up the collar that holds the hose in place, replace the hose on the dryer, and tighten the collar back up. Then slither out from in behind the dryer and between the dryer and the washing machine (which I could not have done a year ago, thank you Weight Watcher's), and finally, in my last fit of madness, I cleaned off the outside of the washing machine and the dryer and got them back into place.

PSA: Periodically check all the connections on your washing machine and your dryer; trust me, you don't want to have to clean up that much lint; I could have taken what came off the floor to Build-A-Bear and stuffed a medium-sized teddy with it. Which would be gross, but you know what I mean.

After all that drama, then I could plug in the iron, set up the board, and iron Tony's clothes. Then it was time to vacuum. And that's how I spent my Saturday late afternoon. I tell you, I'm livin' the dream!

And that's why I rarely iron. It just makes more work, even though in this case, I'm glad I did it.

CURRENTLY READING: Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris which I picked up at the library yesterday. It's the second in a series (first was Grave Sight which was just released in paperback). I liked the first one quite a bit, and I read a chapter of this one at Charlaine Harris's website and was really intrigued. I really do like the way she writes; I've literally never been disappointed in one of her books.