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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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The Lost Load

Laundry... oh how I used to love thee! Honestly, if there was one chore I relished doing it was laundry. Of course, this love was before I had a total of 3 kids, worked from home, started homeschooling, and long before my daughters discovered their inner Princess.

Halimah, or shall I say Her Royal Highness, insisted on incessant wardrobe changes. Initially I didn’t realize she was chucking the perfectly clean clothes in the hamper - but after discovering Mt. Everest in her hamper a day after I washed laundry I knew I had a problem on my hands.

As any good (and wise) mom would - I did my best to salvage the clean clothes from the pile and immediately took away ALL of her clothes (I hid the clothes in a basket and put them on a shelf well out of reach inside my closet). Then, since the only items left in her drawers were socks and panties Her Royal Highness subsequently decided a single pair of socks was not sufficient for her precious feet and started wearing 8-9 pair of socks at a time. “Away with the socks!” I say!

I quickly grew weary of all laundry - clean or dirty - so much so that I would end up with mountains of laundry to do and I’d grudgingly spend ALL day doing it. When I finally felt I had worked out a routine and got things under control life decided to throw a wrench in there and mess things up.

My husband informed that we would be having guests over for a day. Rather than do my typical loads of laundry I had to help prepare the house and food for our guests. The dirty diapers were already a day overdue and since I had forgot to toss them in the machine that morning I had a diaper pail full of dirty and super stinky diapers.... Although I couldn’t smell anything outside of the pail - I thought it best to just put the pail out in the garage and I would get to them later that night.

My darling husband ended up moving the diaper pail to the other side of the garage next to the car. Out of sight - out of mind! It didn’t dawn on me that the diapers were “missing” because I typically alternate between my diaper pail and my Planet Wise Hanging Wet/Dry bag and I (thankfully) have a very generous stash of diapers. It wasn’t until a few days later when the Planet Wise Wet/Dry bag was full and I needed the pail that I realized I had an entire diaper pail full of dirty diapers missing in action.

Kudos to the pail and Planet Wise Pail Liner because they performed wonderfully; never once did I smell anything funky in our garage. However, the stench once I took the lid off was on par with the stench of decomposition! Seriously, I can’t recall smelling anything more foul! I knew this load of diapers would call for some drastic measures...
With some gloves and a respirator mask I put the diapers inside the machine and said a little prayer (Please, please let the stink come out)! To play it safe I ran the diapers through 2 full heavy duty cycles on cold water - with Rockin’ Green (a full 2 tablespoons for each load - I wasn’t taking any chances). Following the cold washes I ran them through 2 full heavy duty cycles on hot water - with Allen’s Naturally (my son has sensitive skin so this works best for his skin). Then, one final short cycle warm wash with no detergent - just for good measure!

When all was said and done (a full day of washing) I opened the washing machine door (again, with the little prayer of hope) and took a sniff... nothing! HOORAY! My diapers were saved! I was relieved for a brief moment... until of course I realized I still had another bag full of dirty diapers to wash in addition to several loads of clothes! DRATS!

14 comments:

Alesha @ Full Time Mama said...

I am horrible about folding laundry, even worse with each kid (as the amount of laundry increased greatly). And, I too have a cihld who insists that every stitch of clothing worn (even if for 2 minutes) is dirty. Once we start cloth diapering I'm sure it will be worse! LOL! However, I do look forward to trying the different detergents to see what works best, making me a little less anti-laundry. =)

Andrea Kruse said...

Lol! Did you sneak in and take a pic of my basket of clothes to be folded?

Glad to hear your diapers were saved. Luckily I have just enough to get me through 2 days, so I would know they were missing if that ever happened. I really want to try some of that Rockin' Green Soap!

Carly said...

That is such a Funny story,I just started washing my Diapers this morning after I realized it's been 3 days. I normally do it every 2. Glad to know that they will be safe.LOL

Megan said...

Ha! I can so relate to the princess daughter. My daughter likes to put on several pairs of socks at once too.

MuchAfraid said...

Ew! I've done it too though! My travel wet bag fell out of my diaper bag and I didn't find it for nearly a week! Wow was it foul!

Secret Mommy said...

I have so had to deal with situations like this before and have also been happy to get all the sench out of the diapers. Bravo!

Pumpkin Bear said...

I am glad that you were able to get that smell out!

I have thought about trying Allen's Naturally but I have hesitated because my baby has sensitive skin. After your review I may give it a try.

Mindy said...

What a story! May this never happen to me :). Thanks for blogging about it.

Mindy said...

Oh, my goodness! This made me laugh and feel so bad for you at the same time! This absolutely sounds like something that would happen at our house with my ever-efficient husband. I don't have enough cds for them to go "missing," but that could certainly happen with other laundry!

Alicia W said...

So funny! But there sure isn't anything like fresh diapers!

Krystal said...

love the tale! wish i had a stash that big. i have to wash every other day without fail.

hubby and son were teasing me the other day because i always smell the diapers when i open the washer. ya gotta make sure!

Arizona Girl said...

I have never enjoyed laundry. I don't mind the diaper laundry, its all just laundry to me. When I was in college I would put off doing laundry until I have no more cloths to ware, I once even went out and bought more underwear so that I wouldn't have to do laundry for another week.

Minnie said...

This had me in stitches!!!

So good to know that if anything happened where I could not wash when needed that the diapers can be saved!!!!

Thanks Serena. :)

Amanda G.

Jill said...

So funny!