One of my favorite books as a child was my mom’s first- or second-edition, beat-up copy of Cheaper by the Dozen. If you’ve never read this gem, published in the 1940s, it’s a real laugh-out-loud family classic that should be at the top of the list of books you read to your kids.
“Dad,” the character around whom this memoir written by two of his twelve children is based, is an efficiency expert. Evidently I was born with efficiency DNA because Dad’s experiments, such as determining whether it takes longer to button a shirt from the top to the bottom or the bottom to the top, really spoke to me. I was completely fascinated with his attempts to shave seconds off of the most mundane tasks, mainly because I found myself naturally doing the same thing.
You see, even as a little kid, I hated to waste time, energy or movement. Ever since I can remember, whenever I’ve been on my way to another room in the house, I’ve done a little check to see if there’s anything I should take with me in order to save time, movement and energy. Going somewhere in the house empty-handed is usually a big no-no in my brain.
As I folded laundry this afternoon, I realized how ingrained this time-saving thinking is in my head. There are certain items I never, ever fold: underwear and pajamas. When I first got married, it just killed me that my then-husband would always neatly fold up freshly-washed underwear, as did his mother. My theory is that no one who views these items is going to care if they’re wrinkled, so I just stuff them in my drawer, yet another time saver. It just seems like such a waste of time to bother.
So I’m curious: How many of you fold underwear and/or PJs? If you do, why? Is it just some innate need for order, similar to my innate need for efficiency?
I so now, not because I’m super neat or efficient (I could totally live out of my dryer or laundry baskets), but because we have too many clothes, and it’s easier to fit more in a drawer and find what you have with them folded neatly.
.-= Raine´s last blog ..Weekly Roundup – May 30, 2010 =-.
I totally fold underwear and socks, but because I love efficiency. For me, the time sacrificed in preparation (you should see me pack a suitcase—psycho!) is regained when the time to use those things later on. If I want to wear a certain color sock, I don’t want to waste three minutes finding its match (or just plain finding it) because I didn’t waste 30 seconds folding it.
But, I’ve said on many occasions that folding socks would be my assigned occupation in Hell. There’s nothing I like less.
Is that irony? Or just stupidity?
.-= Ron S. Doyle´s last blog ..Day 29 – Farewell, Dennis Hopper =-.
I never fold underwear–except my husband’s because he’s always liked his folded. Even 10 years into doing the family’s laundry I still hate folding his, because I never fold mine or the kids’. But it’s less about efficiency than about hating to do laundry.
My efficiency thing is to never go up or down the stairs without taking something that belongs on the opposite floor and putting it away. So it drives me nutty when everyone else in the family bounds right past the piles of stuff clearly meant to go up or down!
I am somewhat of an efficiency expert [sounds better than saying I'm lazy
]; I do try to get the most work out of the least effort, and think that’s a good thing to do. However, I do fold my husband’s underwear (not my own), and usually sort-of fold our pajamas. When I’m folding a basket full of clothes, it takes about the same effort for me to quickly and “loosely” fold pajamas as it would if I just wadded them up out of the way. It’s not neat and precise like towels, but it’s not a shapeless heap either.
With underwear, friends of mine taught me how to fold men’s/boys’ underwear so that it ends up as a neat package. [Hold the underwear by the waist, and fold it into thirds, overlapping the ends -- like folding a letter to be put into an envelope. Then tuck the crotch part into the stiff waistband, and you're done.] When I was babysitting, I’d fold that family’s laundry including their underwear (4 boys plus the dad’s). So, I got in the habit of folding men’s underwear like that, and when I got married, I started folding my husband’s underwear like that.
It’s funny: before we got married, my husband had a month’s supply of underwear in his dresser and just tossed clean ones in, willy-nilly, whenever he’d get around to his laundry. But after I started folding his clothes, he got used to folded underwear; and once I didn’t fold some underwear and he complained about it. {shrug} Men!
.-= Kathy´s last blog ..Skin-to-Skin in the O.R. after a C-section =-.
I fold my underwear (not very neatly) but only because I have a drawer organizer in my lingerie drawer to keep categories of things separate. I’m with you on the idea that there’s no need to do extra work. (I don’t fold my husband’s undies.)
No folding for me. I am always amazed when I meet people who not only fold, but iron!!!
.-= Alexandra´s last blog ..Preservation Hall Goes to the Birds … =-.
I don’t fold underwear, but I had an ex who wanted me to fold his. He’d also learned this from his mom. Is it a Midwestern thing? It didn’t bother me; I just didn’t see the need.
Oh, I definitely sort and fold together socks. Usually. Sometimes.
OK, really, it’s more that I *intend* to sort and fold the socks, but that is something I was taught to do and I like it when it’s done.
I totally hear you on the piles on the steps! My whole family does this too and I’m always after them, saying, “Um, how could you not SEE your stuff right there on your way by?!?!”
Sarah: I’m not sure if I was born with the room sweep gene or it became second nature after years of picking up after 3 kids (and a husband and dog). Maybe it’s just a mom thing. How can it not bother my 17-year-old son that he’s got more shoes on the floor of the kitchen and family room than in his closet?
As for underwear, I’m in the folding camp. Less wrinkles that way and I don’t like wrinkles. And it takes up less space in the drawer. My husband is a roller – he rolls his underwear, T-shirts and gym clothes – something somebody taught him way before I entered the picture. After 20+ years of marriage he’s still trying to convert me, and now the kids, but it ain’t gonna happen. Once a folder, always a folder.
Michelle Rafter
.-= Michelle Rafter´s last blog ..You’re invited to the 2010 WordCount Blogathon June 1 wrap party =-.
Great post and what a closing question! I do not fold my undies, but the pjs do get a fold for space saving purposes only.
I fold! Never really thought about it, but I can definitely get more in the space by doing so!
I’m not a big tv watcher, but I usually fold laundry in front of the tv, and find it kind of mindless. If it’s not folded, it doesn’t seen finished. I think it’s one of the only things I feel like is finished, even if it needs to be done over and over! Maybe that’s why I don’t like to think about it while I do it!