Outside the bathroom, the distant sounds of the washing machine are heard through the wall separating both rooms from each other. Despite the autonomic sounds the machine makes, they’re a source of comfort as she busies herself with another load in the sink. It’s laundry day and her small stash of clothes need cleaning for whatever troubles the next few days will bring.
Her hands are caked with soap lather and cool water as she squeezes, wrings, and scrubs the dirtiest places of her undergarments before rinsing them off under the tap. But despite the labors of washing clothes by hand, she feels a sense of pride in knowing that she can be responsible for her own well-being. After rinsing a pair of socks under cool water, she sighs and stretches. Her fingers are pale and waterlogged, but strong. It’s time to dry the undergarments.
The last week of June is here and after working four to six hour shifts for four days straight, it’s time for me to get some rest. I’ve been trying to pick up more hours at my current job and it’s draining me, but the hard work has paid off. I’ve received a small raise (even after asking for a $0.50 raise, but I got the usual $0.15 raise for the 3rd time), my paycheck is slightly bigger than usual, and I’m managing what little bills I have.
But I’ve run out of clean clothes to wear due to last week being busy. Oh and who could forget about Father’s Day? At least I got to see a movie for the first time in a while, so that was great!
So, with all that being said, I decided to do some laundry this week. My work uniform needs the bi-weekly wash and since I don’t have a lot of undergarments for my choosing, I have to wash those too. But the roughness of the machine can damage my underwear and socks (it’s happened before).
I decided to hand wash my underwear, socks and bra in the comfort of the bathroom sink.
Why? For simply three reasons.
- My clothes get much cleaner when washing them by hand.
- It doesn’t cost much to wash them by hand; a bar of laundry soap (or any unscented soap) and some water will do.
- I’m old-fashioned in a few ways and this happens to be one of them.
Plus, there’s just something so proud and soothing about doing some of your laundry by hand. I feel better after getting my hands dirty and my clothes clean afterwards. It’s like a sense of peace followed by accomplishment at getting your work done. The same feeling I get after completing a shift at my job and I can clock out, go home, and go to sleep.
As a side note, I still have a project to focus on. It’s going to be a personal one and I definitely have a story to tell about myself. I won’t tell everything; there are some things I like to keep private. But it might be a refreshing change from the other projects I did in the past.
le fleur artsy 