Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I'm NOT Compulsive

Yesterday, I was in a panic to get ready to leave town.
You know how it is.
You have to pack but you also have a long list of things to accomplish before you can leave-
like vacuuming your shoe shelves and ironing the sheets.

How did this happen?
Why am I not just ironing a blouse for the trip, but why do I insist on ironing my pajamas?
(Should pajamas have a crease in them?)
And WHO got me started on ironing sheets?

Oh, I'll tell you where the illness started or got worse or found me ironing undershirts.
Years ago, we took the family to Italy.
We were staying in a villa and the owner assured us there were laundry facilities.
The end of our stay at the villa was nearing and so were our clean clothes.
We still had a week of travel left, so I wanted to avail myself of those promised laundry facilities.
We found the owner and asked him

Turns out, there were no laundry facilities on the property.
He meant that the same person who did his laundry could do our laundry.
How convenient.
I emptied a large (and mean large) duffle bag and packed every dirty pair of pants, shirt, pair of socks and boxers I could get my hands on and presented it to the owner.

Turns out the laundress wasn't on the premises.
He took the laundry to town.
I don't know where.
It came back the next day
with a bill.
150 Euros!
Are you serious????

We choked. $200 to get a week's worth of clothes washed. 
It was laughingly ridiculous.  But it was what it was.  We weren't going to let it ruin an otherwise incredible trip.  Lesson learned.

BUT EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF CLOTHING WAS IRONED.
Every polo shirt.
Every pair of pants.
Every undershirt.
Every pair of boxers.
Everything.

I fell in love!
I fell in love with the Italian laundress or at least her ironing.
And so, from then on, I wanted neat little stacks of pure white t-shirts with nary a wrinkle.
I ironed all of my kids clothes (including jeans) when they came out of the dryer
That lasted about two months and then I realized that meals had to be made, toilets cleaned and the dishwasher unloaded.

Wear the wrinkled undershirts!
No one will ever see them!

But I haven't given up the sheets.
I can't NOT iron the sheets.
There is NOTHING better than climbing into a bed with clean, IRONED sheets!
I'm a sick, sick girl.

6 comments:

Jenn said...

Amen to compulsive ironing! I ALWAYS get made fun of for ironing jeans, hoodies, and practically everything else. On occasion, I would be late to work/school because I was so OCD about everything being ironed. I even ironed all of the crib bedding I made - baby's not due until early July.

Shirley said...

My youngest son told me one of the best things about going away to college was that he didn't have creases in his t-shirts anymore. BRAT! I will argue a little about sheets. The best sheets are line dried. Pillow cases definately need to be ironed. : )

Christina - Rant Rave Roll said...

Thankfully, even with OCD I hate ironing.

Charlotte said...

If someone paid me 200 dollars every time I did laundry, I would consider ironing...

Melissa said...

You are sick. Maybe next time you're sick, you can come to my house and at least iron Jacob's shirts, because I am allergic to ironing.

Unknown said...

When my husband complains that I am too OCD, it is always good to have an example to share with him about someone who is even more obsessive than I am :)