Monday, November 26, 2012

Something About Laundry

     Its no secret that although I love clean clothing I despise the trip to the laundry room in my apartment building. Though I have managed to pinpoint the least busy times of the day to do my laundry there are always glitches. Today was no different.
     I got up early this morning to do my laundry as I have the day off. The laundry room was empty. Great. I go back to the laundry room seven minutes before my wash was to finish and there is one woman there who informs me that she is waiting for my machine. There are 6 other machines yet she is waiting for mine. If I hadn't been downstairs before my machine finished she would have taken out my laundry to put hers in even thought there were 6 other machines free. I would have been pissed. The other machines looked "dirty" to her but she felt that if I was using the machine I was using it must have been clean. Whatever. I tell her that I purposely do my laundry at this early hour to avoid having someone waiting for me to quickly remove my clothing from the machine. She didn't flinch. Fortunately she thought that the dryer that takes one quarter at a time for payment instead of the dryers that take 5 quarters no matter what was clean enough for her otherwise she would have been hovering for my dryer as well.
      I am so going to move into a home that allows private washing machines and dryers for my next residence. I am sick of this laundry room drama.

3 comments:

Mr. Cohen said...

Thanking HASHEM for Laundry

(an original short essay by the moderator of the DerechEmet yahoo group)

If you acknowledge the correctness of thanking HASHEM for clothes [Baruch Atah HaShem Malbish Arumim] then you should also be able to understand the correctness of thanking HASHEM for laundry. Without laundry, our clothes would soon become too dirty to wear. Insects eat clothes only if the clothes are dirty.


Many years ago, every item of clothing had to be washed and dried by hand, often at rivers which were sometimes far from home. Now we have conveniently located machines that wash and dry our clothes for us; we must THANK HASHEM for these machines, because they free us from many hours of boring manual labor.

When I do laundry, I often say things like this:

THANK YOU HASHEM for machines that wash and dry my clothes.

THANK YOU HASHEM that the machines are conveniently located.

THANK YOU HASHEM for giving me detergent that helps clean the clothes.

THANK YOU HASHEM for repair men who help to keep the machines working.

THANK YOU HASHEM for giving me the strength/koach to do my own laundry.

THANK YOU HASHEM for the electricity that makes the machines work.

THANK YOU HASHEM for giving me the money that makes the machines work.

If you use a public laundry then you might also want to say:
THANK YOU HASHEM that nobody stole my laundry.

When doing laundry, have in mind that you are making your clothes clean so you can perform mitzvot correctly with clean clothes.

Have in mind that you are making your clothes clean so you can: recite berachot, and attend synagogue, and go to work to support yourself honestly, and do acts of kindness, and study Torah. These things are difficult or impossible without clean clothes.

I once heard an Orthodox Rabbi say: Every time you change a diaper for a baby, you are performing the mitzvah of malbish arumim [clothing the naked].

If you do laundry for an entire family, then have in mind that your are enabling an entire family to perform mitzvot by making their clothes wearable.

If you think that this is too much, then please consider
Tehillim, chapter 34, verse 2:
I WILL ACKNOWLEDGE HASHEM AS THE SOURCE OF ALL BLESSINGS AT ALL TIMES, HIS PRAISE WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY MOUTH.


If you possess the correct understanding, doing laundry can be a spiritual experience :-)

frum single female said...

Mr Cohen- All I have to tell you is that you really need to read the John Gray book Men are from Mars and Women are From Venus and then re-read my post.

FrumGeek said...

*pats head*
Oh, you poor thing! The nerve of some people!