Ever since I started working, April 15th has meant only one thing to me: Tax Day. Taxes are not fun. I am tired of allowing something so un-fun to take over an entire day of the year in my psyche.
You may wonder what the heck could possibly occupy that space in the deep recesses of my mind. One word: laundry. April 15th, my friends, is Laundry Day – not only here in the good old U-S-of-A, but around the world. This is not some fly-by-night celebration, either. Laundry Day has been around since the 1800s.
You’re riveted now, aren’t you?
Emmett Lee Dickinson, who also invented the laundry basket on wheels, started Laundry Day. He was a big fan of clean clothes, too. He sounds like a positively bewitching dinner party guest.
There is more!
Did you know that the word “laundry” is derived from two Welsh words that essentially mean crazy and dirty? I know it now.
I know that I need to get a life, but I feel like I need a new reason to love April 15th – or ANY reason to love it … any reason at all.
You are probably wondering how one goes about celebrating Laundry Day. Well, let’s just say clean clothes advocates really know how to have a good time. I found a few suggestions at nationaltoday.com.
The obvious choice, of course, is to go on a laundry bender. You know, get a jug of bleach and just wash anything you own that has the “washing machine safe” icon on the label.
You can take this whole thing one step further and find some poor, laundry-challenged soul and share with them your vast knowledge of the spin cycle.
Another suggestion, which I find far more suitable, is to do absolutely zero wash – or warsh – whichever way you prefer to say it. I feel it also gives the old washer (or warsher) and dryer a little break, too, kind of like a paid holiday.
You can set a more serious tone for the day and review your detergent and fabric softener brand choices. Are they eco-friendly? Do they really have a fresh, mountain spring scent, like the label says?
Of course, you could always reflect on the memory of the smell of fresh, clean clothes. Think back to hugging your grandmother, and breathing in the scent of Tide, Jean Nate’ and Bengay (that’s what my gramma smelled like).
You can be a dud and obsess over having the correct postmark on your annual tithe to the IRS. I’m going to throw caution to the wind and luxuriate in the extra rinse cycle. I will crank up the volume on my dryer’s “load complete” alert. I may even deep-clean my lint screen.
April 15th can be a day to freak out, or a day to laugh about something that someone, somewhere decided we all need to celebrate. I choose the latter. You never know how many April 15ths you have left.
Fluff and fold, my friends. Fluff and fold.
