Back when I was still diapering our pair, I’d hang out the diapers to sun the spots* out, and it got me thinking more on the use of the phrase and the word. About old laundry and modern laundry and the pile of folding I’m ignoring.

You’d air dirty laundry if you just want to get some of the smell out, letting it dry out and get out. Much like you air your shoes out by rotating them through a couple of working pairs. And you sun dirty (soiled*) laundry to get the color out. After you wash it through your washer, or smash it on a river with rocks, ymmv.

So I decided** to try it out with a shirt my youngest had spilled spaghetti sauce on. Washed it twice, still had a stain, hung it out on the laundry line***. Stain was gone within two hours. Laundry line only fell over three times (first time I’d set it up and I didn’t have a proper foundation) before I leaned the bricks on it correctly.

Not just the “fresh feeling” of dryish clothes from the air, not just the de-scenting that can be done with some vinegar and airing, but sunning out of stains. Fun****! Got a bunch of work and workout clothes done for me, too.

* poop stains
** dryer conked out
*** don’t tell the home ogres assciation
**** dryer conked out at 5:30 in the morning with my work and workout clothes all tumbling around – luckily it was a dry run day and I didn’t have to actually be anywhere at any set time ..

My sister and mom decluttered the panlaundrium and kitchen a bit (See, I told you my methods make sense! They put everything where I expected except for my little plastic IKEA bowls – I think they ate them.) and it didn’t “hurt” as much as I expected. Decluttering for me, as opposed to me decluttering, drives me NUTS, but now that it’s over and I didn’t know it was happening, well, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.

And seeing progress makes it easier for me to make progress.

Anyway, I have ton of blogging and reading to do, but I need to go spend some hours on my clients first, catching up on their bloggy administrivia and support, then do the same catching up on my own (I’m revamping the site so don’t mind if I go dark a few days).

Stay tuned and happy back-to-school!

Dear Target,

Oh, Target, Target, Target, you make me laugh. Buying more underwear means less laundry? Noooooo. Maybe a less frequent need to launder for fear of running short of running shorts, but really? You’ll have to do more once you get there. I don’t call it our Laundry Pile of Doom for nothing.

Mad props for the SpiderMan lunchbag, though. Very cool; I need only add a napkin pocket and drink cosy (which he liked from an Arctic Zone bag that didn’t have Spidey adornments).

Dear Payless Shoes,

I heart you very much, but bigger kids like super heroes, too! My size thirteen boy really wanted Marvel Hero shoes, but they only go up to 12 in the stores we searched virtually. He went for Transformers, but still … And littlest one says thanks for bringing back AirWalk star shoes one more season.

Yo, Land’s End!

Nice quality policy! Backpack with zipper stuck? Send it back for credit. For which I’m happy – we have used it less than a year. Kiddo went for a darker blue of a different type, and is super happy it’s so “Spidey Blue”.

Sorry, boring and quick this week, but one I figured out by accident – folding the napkins in the dryer.

I usually just toss our cloth napkins in with any old load of laundry. This leads to a pile of randomness going from the panlaundrium to the sofa, and napkins getting lost along the way.

What I figured out yesterday, however, is that I can tilt the dryer tumbler to have a flat surface – and put folded napkins atop that surface. They are up and out of the way while I hang (sometimes) the other clothes up or roll the clothes (more likely) into a waiting panlaundrium basket.

Then, before I re-load the dryer, I tuck the folded napkins into my pocket, or make a trip to the little baskets I keep around for holding the napkins until meal time.

Growing up, we had a huge cake box full of cookie cutters. We’d get them out once or twice a year, taking over the kitchen to make COOOKIES. Great busy, messy fun during the summer and winter breaks. But excavating them was a major chore. And the box usually sat around until all the cutters were washed and put up – usually a few days or even weeks (eep!).

I was pretty good about cookie cutters at first, but they seemed to take up an awful lot of space in the “whatever” drawer (Which reminds me – any use for corn holders? I’ve given up on those little stabby knobs.). The cutters spread to the boxed lunch area (cute sandwich shapes!) and the toaster oven (ghostest toastest with the mostest!). I did a quick purging of the kitchen and came up with a count of seventeen, and I know that doesn’t even cover the ones in our art bins.

But out of the drawers they are. And how to store them? Hanging up! My little combination pantry and laundry room (panlaundrium) has several hooks installed here and there, so hanging them up was a breeze. Of the knicknacks uncluttered as I evicted the cookie cutters, I chose an old nebulizer tube on which to string the cutters. Easy to thread, easy to tie, easy to hang – and to un-do. If the youngest hadn’t been sleeping at the time, I would have set her to stringing and unstringing the set, but it seems to me that anyone old enough to push cutter into dough can put them away afterwards.

And never mind the drawer (or cabinet) space I got back. I don’t have to “wait until they’re all clean” to put them away again. I can wash them up, hang them back on the tubing, and store the clutch of cutters on a drip-dry hook back in the panlaundrium room.

If you don’t have an old nebulizer tube, another option are old breast pump tubes (I’ve got Medela tubes I have yet to un-rat from the house). Locally owned neighborhood hardware stores might sell some as well, if you don’t have anything just right that will do. And if the tubes get scungy, you can always soak them in soapy water, then use a flavor injector to force clean water through until the tubes shine.