Take the laundry as an example. I really dislike doing laundry. All those dirty clothes; remembering to check Padawan Learner's pockets for stones, tissues, scrap pieces of paper and bits of wood; trying to remove stains from white school shirts and don't even get me started on woollens that need hand-washing. And then the hanging, picking-in, folding and or ironing. Bleh.
Doing the laundry would be much easier if home designers assigned reasonable space for this loathsome task. Space to sort clothes, a decent trough to handwash, if one must, and the ability to put clothes into the washing machine without having to first stand on the kitty litter and reach over the dirty clothes hamper while resting one hand on the dryer to balance.
Check out our doozy of a laundry. I do not live in an inner-city apartment. I live in a four-bedroom home in the suburbs. The previous owners thought it appropriate to assign this small corner of the kitchen to the laundry. It's in a space smaller than our powder room. In a previous life I think it may have been the verandah 'outhouse'. This means that, due to space constraints, both clean and dirty laundry spreads itself all over our house rather than being kept out of sight.
I don't want a big laundry because I love doing the washing but because I hate it.
Home designers are putting in home theatres and parents retreats but placing the laundry in a cupboard in a far corner of the house. It's like hiding it under a rock and hoping it will go away. I understand that sentiment, I do, but I've tried that tack and it just won't disappear.
Wash-day-haters unite! I say we march on our local Architectural practices and reclaim our right to a decent laundry.
* Can anyone guess the historical reason that I've called this post Blue Monday?
12 comments:
It's not the architects (at least not the one I sleep with) causing the problem. It is all the people who think they have a skill for designing houses without any real education in the area.
PS is it for the fabulous new order song from the 80s that always got everyone dancing...
Blue Monday...I was going to guess because you are feeling a little down about your laundry, and 'Blue Monday' is the term given to the most depressing day of the year. But from memory, I think that is usually a day somewhere in the middle of winter, not May. So I'm stumped.
And as for laundries...I'll buy (or not buy) a house on the basis of its laundry. A cupboard IS NOT a laundry.
Now that's tight!!
My laundry is big enough, its just that its outside. So, yesterday in the pissing rain, I had to go outside, down a flight of stairs, over a huge pile of stones that would have been put in the garden were it not raining and under the house to get to the washing machine.
No. 1 item on our renovation / extension plan is a new, large, inside laundry.
We have been looking at many new homes recently and they all have an enormous laundry - the 2 top things on my list of priorities are the kitchen followed closely by the laundry. Although I would say that the parents retreat is probably at the top of Major Dad's list. M do you remember my laundry in NB? Floor space of about 2 washing machines but that including being able to open the door inwards. I completely sympathise.
My guess was the most depressing day of the year but I googled it and along with the weather it is also calculated on lots of other things so now I'm not sure.
*Hint*
Blue Monday has something to do with laundry, Mondays and the 19th century.
I'm like you _ in a four-bedroom home in the suburbs, and my laundry is in a cupboard. With a folding louvred door off the passageway to the garage. No sink — so you can imagine the problems of dealing with wetsuits, let alone hand-washing.
There's also no clothesline, as everyone uses the drier. And our average daily temp is 21! Thank god for Ikea airing racks.
You've called this post Blue Monday because traditionally, Monday was washday, and you'd stick some blueing agent — in a little muslin bag — in with the whites as you were boiling 'em up in the copper, to counteract any greying that may occur and give everything a slightly blue-white gleam.
Those blue bags were apparently also good for bee stings.
Can we get shirts printed up and everything? Banners, too? We could march in parades and do interviews on TV. I have an average size laundry room, but wish I had taken out a couple of cabinets and made room for a folding/sorting table. Right now, the laundry gets piled on the seldom used formal dining room table.
My mother-in-law smartly put in a huge laundry room with built-in bins, a long folding counter and a rinse sink. Very nice.
Laundry is my continual nemisis. I detest it.
Now that you mention it, a big laundry does sound good. In our three-bedroom rental we have a reasonably sized laundry; although there is no actual bench space and once you put 3 whitegoods in there (washing machine, dryer and upright freezer) you lose any actual floorspace. However our bathroom is teeny-tiny so my dreams all centre around a full size bath and heaps of cupboards...
I hear you ... and in fact I am currently writing a feature on laundry design for the magazine I work on (oh lucky me). I'm thinking about laundries a bit and speaking to architects ... so perhaps I can start championing your cause!!
There can´t be many people out there who actual likes doing the dirty laundry, eh:-)
hope you had a great day,and without any laundr, of course
//Gunilla in Singapore
I took the title of this post from the following quote from Home Comforts: The art and Science of Keeping house by Cheryl Mendelson
"Once upon a time, Monday was laundry day, and this was such an onerous chore in the nineteenth centre that it was called 'Blue Monday'."
I do, however, like your guesses. I can go along with Blue Monday being the most depressing day of the week (rather than year); and Mum had relayed to me the story of the blueing agent in the water (just as Lesley mentioned) and I think that is also excellent.
So, many reasons why Monday is Blue.
Oh and Tracey is right - cool song too!
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