Saturday 6 September 2008

University lessons

I have a bad habit of getting very emotionally attached to my stuff. That's why my dorm room is crammed full of various books, CDs, and posters that I like have with me. I freak out when I lose anything, because it's worth so much to me emotionally. Some people think this is weird. Others would call it unhealthy (probably rightly so). This is why I was so afraid of doing laundry - I love my clothes.

My wardrobe is a carefully assembled collection of pieces that make me feel good. Each one has a purpose and a story. My Westfest T-shirt I bought on sale after Andrea's concert that makes me feel, okay, well, cool. My fancy jeans I bought on sale with my mom while visiting King's this past spring. The vintage skirt my favourite babysitter gave me when I was still in public school and continues to be a staple of my wardrobe* How I feel depends a great deal on how I feel I look, so clothes are important to me.

Today was the day. Sarah and I made plans to do our laundry together so she could supervise med since I had never done laundry before in my life. Not once. This is a valuable skill to have, one I likely should have acquired years ago, however, did not and now I'm here. I gathered my dirty laundry, my quarters and my book and met Sarah in the laundry room. What I learned: laundry is not so scary. Well, the final load is in the dryer right now, so I could have just shrunk all my underwear very very small, but those are easily replaced. Everything I cared a lot about I hung up on my lovely, old, wooden drying rack my mother passed on to me (and which I'm very attached to). It's drying as we speak.

It was a light load, since I haven't been here long, but I have a question for next time: can I put jeans in the dryer? Sarah did, but at my house we hang dry almost everything. That's ok with t-shirts, but hang drying jeans will take forever... and I don't want to leave my jeans unattended in the laundry room overnight.


*It's a wrap skirt, not a magical growing skirt as might first be assumed**
**I always assume magic when I don't understand something! Like, for instance, calculus.

4 comments:

LB said...

On the tag inside your jeans, it should tell you. There might be some symbols. It will either say "hang (or lay flat) to dry" or "tumble dry (medium, low, something else)". Those are pretty self-explanatory. If there are symbols, this site will help you decipher them: http://www.textileaffairs.com/lguide.htm I miss you and love you!

Anonymous said...

Anything that can't go in the washing machine is not worth having. Anything that isn't really flimsy (bras, silk, transparant stuff) can go in the dryer. YES, you can put jeans in the dryer. They might shrink up a bit, but once you have them on they'll get back to their comfortable state. Sheesh, I want to shake your mamma for never getting you to do laundry.

Anonymous said...

If you are worried about the length of your jeans, don't put them in the dryer ( i have really long legs). Dry them hung up and then maybe put them in for a few minutes.

Kerry said...

Be careful about wrap skirts and bras in the dryer, they tend to get wrapped around other things and the constant tugging on seams etc wears them out faster.

CBC was asking what you wish you'd known before leaving home and I was yelling at the radio "EVERYONE MUST LEARN TO DO LAUNDRY BEFORE LEAVING HOME!!!" but then I think NOT knowing how, and finding a load of shrunk sweaters/pink or grey whites is a classic signpost on the way to true independence.

Oh yeah, handwash your sweaters OR, as I discovered later in life - hang them on the laundryline before a big ol Nova Scotia storm and then bring them in and dry them flat - they will look BRAND NEW and be softer than anything you can imagine!