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Yay! I stayed up all night but I am finished for now! Now comes all the hanging out to dry, folding, putting away, ironing etc. but at least it’s clean. How’s everyone else doing?
This year I have post 10 days laundry, since I could not commence my laundry at Chatzos ov Ov 10th.
dont ask!
In my anxiety over the workload I decided to eat in the laundry room to get a quick start. Which was fine til I poured my oj into the wash and drank the fabric softener.
I rented 5 washing machines for two hours = 30$ And had 5 cleaning ladies fold all the clothes in 1 hour. I payed them all 12$ each.
Last year I dropped it all off to the laundry service and had them deliver it back to me clean oroned and folded folded this year I only sent off the ironing stuff to the dry cleaners and did what I did in my above post.
My white shirts, undershirts, etc… 11:15 pm, black socks, other clothes 3:30 am.
more_2: what a cool idea
I HATE LAUNDRY!!!!
I’m sorry for screaming, but I had to get that out of my system!
SiDi™
Socks undergarments shirts pants ok i posted my laundry now how does it work?
Someone once told me about a sign that hangs outside someones’ wash room as follows” Yiddishe Nachas”.
OK, I confess. Really my husband did the laundry while I sat at the table and talked about how much work I had to do. But I did turn on the dryer this morning.
still clueless
All you busy launderers-
How do you have time to post today?
Gotta run. The dryer buzzer just buzzed.
Again.
I’ve always had trouble understanding this halacha in context with today’s technology. It’s a d’Rabanon so it has to make some sense. I understood the reason the Rabbis assurred it is because it would make us lose our focus on the aveilus, and that’s it’s not a chore that an avel wouldn’t do. So, I understand how back in the day, laundry wouldn’t be a weekly thing. You had to make your own detergent, or find money and go to the market and buy some. Then, it would be a shlep out to the river where you had to find a nice boulder to slam your clothes against for hours on end. Then, you would have to shlep back, this time, with heavy soaking wet clothes. Not to mention hanging them out to dry one by one, and then taking them down. It was a serious chore that took almost a day to complete.
Today, however, it’s a matter of pushing a few buttons and takes about 15-45 minutes of total work. Where’s the hessech hadaas from the aveilus? Answering a telephone call could take twice as long for some people, and yet that remains permissible. Could anyone please help me see this from a different perspective? I know we are not mevatel a gzeira d’rabanon just because the cause no longer applies, but it seems like we are ignoring the cause (ie: hesech daas from the aveilus, which applies to new things like phone calls and the like) and continuing on like lemmings with an irrelevant example of the central idea of the halacha. Not trying to be disrespectful, just trying to understand.
I don’t think it’s just a matter of hessech hadaas from aveilus to do laundry in the 9 days. In order to appreciate and really feel the loss we’ve suffered one has to go around in not completely clean clothes, unshowered, sticky and hot in most parts of the world (yes I know it’s permissible to shower just to remove sweat). That’s just from Rosh Chodesh until 8 Av (this year until Shabbos) Then on Tisha B’Av, when we’re not supposed to be masiach daas from the aveilus until at least chatzos hayom, then we wouldn’t even dream of doing laundry, as if we were sitting shiva for a parent, lo alienu.
The other thing I always think about is the joy I feel when the laundry basket is empty (at least for the next 5 minutes) when I put the last garment into the washing machine and press the button. No it’s not complicated to do laundry anymore like in the old days, but knowing everybody’s got clean clothes to wear the next day is a certain pleasure that we could forget until we have to deal with only having the last things left on the 8th of Av and knowing we can’t start the laundry until the 10th. Depriving ourselves of pleasure in order to feel the loss is also an important aspect of the 9 days.
I was very happy last night when I finished my last load of clothes laundry. Of course more grew overnight, but I made sure in the first load to wash at least 1 complete garment for each child. Now I’ve finished all of the towels, etc.
I figure I have it easy – my downstairs neighbor had a baby yesterday morning (planned C-section), so all she really could do was separate the clothes into bags to organize for her husband. A big job with 6 kids at home, one being a 15 month old baby. I plan on dropping by to ask for a load to pop in my washing machine if their nieces haven’t had a chance to finish everything already.
Guess what I only have 3 loads left, BUT BARUCH HASHEM , one of my kids are coming home from camp, with all his laundry!!!!!Here we go again!!!!!
Curiosity – Just from having experienced shiva and shloshim too many times I am thinking that the difference between laundry and the phone, for example, is more a gashmius vs. human issue. Laundry is purely gashmius, having the clothing you want to wear and having them clean and available. Answering the phone is about speaking to someone who is trying to contact you. I know that I don’t answer every call that comes in just because the phone rings and less personal calls were definitely left for the answering machine.
Did anyone find an extra two black shabbos socks, a grey one and a sweat sock? They seem to have gone AWOL from my dryer.
if you would be able to see all the laundry you’ll be doing in your lifetime, you would never start!
“Laundry is purely gashmius”
Part of Yiddishkeit is taking the gashmius and making it ruchniyus. So we make a bracha on food and have in mind to have strength to do more mitzvos.
One can think of doing internal laundry at this auspicious time, getting rid of our dirt, before the Elul rush…
Just finished blacks. Next comes shirts.
HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SiDi™
Chavrusa- I hope that wasn’t directed at me… Unless the Baal Haturim says it, waxing homoletics just don’t do anything for me. Thanks for the effort though!
He was talking to me, but I think it was a bit out of context. I liked it though.
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