Important Questions of the Decade ;-)

[Cudedog]

Have you ever noticed, as you unload a full(ish) clothes dryer, that no matter how careful you are, something (usually several somethings!) invariably and always falls out on the floor?

In the past, before this whole 'situation' started, I wouldn't pay it any mind and just pick up the fallen items off of the floor and put them back in with the other clean and recently dried laundry items.

These days, I'm really having to beat back my OCD tendencies, which are always bubbling just below the surface. This one has really jumped out at me.

I mean. . . just what, exactly, is on the floor, anyway? My dryer is right beside the door to my backyard where my dog goes in and out. Did my dog step in. . . 'something' while he was out there in the yard? He DEFINITELY rolled in it!! Are little dry bits now falling off his back onto the laundry room floor as he comes in the door and walks by the dryer? Likely. Probably.

Is it safe to put these fallen-floor laundry items back in with the clean items - or should they be re-washed? There is bacteria on the floor, for sure. Is there also maybe a stray virus or two? (I could hear my next-door neighbor coughing his brains out in his backyard a day or so ago as I was working outside. I made a bee line for my back door and went inside as quickly as I could.)

Whose bright idea was it, anyway, to design a clothes dryer, where stuff is guaranteed to always fall out on the floor?

Every. Single. Time.

Obviously, someone who doesn't spend a lot of time doing laundry!!

Or is it just me? Could it be possible that I am now 'laundry impaired', along with everything else?

These are the kinds of things my mind runs on after 71 days (and counting) of not leaving my house.

Anne

[Shirlv]

Anne, I would pick up the dropped item (if in my home) and put with clean calories. I always put the laundry basket in front of the dryer and do not drop laundry on the floor. My dryer door opens sideways, does not fold down.

[cnq50b]

Deep....
Since I do my laundry in a community laundry room, I didn't want my things falling on the floor either - especially when I move things from the washers to the dryers since they are across from each other - about 4 feet away. My solution is to place my laundry basket under the dryer door - both when switching laundry (washer-to-dryer) & taking things out of the dryer. Anything that falls goes into my clean laundry basket. Problem solved.

[Acadianmom]

I never really worried about things falling on the floor until now. Thanks a lot Anne. My dryer is by the back door where the dog and cats go in and out. I will have to be more careful taking thing out of the dryer.

I had gotten more careful washing my hands and using hand sanitizer going in and out of the nursing home. Now the first thing I do when I come in the house is wash my hands even if I just went to the barn. There are other people using the gates.

Martha

[JudyJB]

I can't remember how many decades ago it was, but I used to love the dryer I had where the door opened down. You could put it partly open so you could just drop the clothes in, or you could open it all the way so the door was horizontal and put in or take out clothes that way. Very little chance of dropping anything on the floor. Now, dryers and washers have door that open sideways--increasing the chances of dropped clothing. Yes, the door was sometimes in the way, but I managed.

Frankly, I am lazy, so I usually just shake the wet item out and put it in with the clean clothes. Of course, that depends on the condition of the floor.

And, Anne, I think you need to get out of the house, like for a very long walk or an RV trip. Just driving somewhere and enjoying the scenery is good medicine and will get your mind off the laundry. And you don't have to socialize with your neighbors--just stay inside and relax.

[snowball]

or maybe start a new book???
yep need to get out and what beauties our Heavenly Father gave us...
me I pick up and toss it into the clean clothes...
sheila

[retiredhappy]

I guess there's something wrong with me but I just don't worry much about GERMS. Our world is FULL of germs and frankly the more we're exposed, the more immune we become. Other people in the world laugh at Americans because we're so "germ" crazy. Do I take precautions like wearing a mask, yes. Covid 19 is a different ballgame from normal germs. Hell, my dogs sleep with me on the bed, under the covers and always have. Never gotten sick yet.

[JudyJB]

And for the last 7 years, I have drunk the water from my water tanks. No more buying bottled water. I do have a hose filer and a house filter, and I buy the better filter cartridges that filter things like girardia and cryptosporidia, etc. And I periodically shock it with chlorine bleach to keep it clean. It tastes really good, even in Florida! And, I also have not gotten sick from water.

As I travel, I have enough problems carting around all the plastic bottles from milk and soft drinks, so the last thing I need are more plastic bottles to add to dumps.

[Bethers]

Karen and Judy, what you both said in the two previous posts! I truly believe we were better off when we played outside and ate dirt, etc. That said, yes, there are times I don't fool with things, like now with Covid.

Judy, I have used the water tanks in both rv's I've owned. I, too, am not toting around water, with one exception. In the sw, I get a couple/few gallon jugs for drinking water. There's a reason there are reverse osmosis water places on every block LOL I only need those gallon bottles for drinking. I still use the tank for everything else, including brushing teeth and cooking.

[JudyJB]

Speaking of eating dirt, we played with asbestos in kindergarten, and to my knowledge, we all survived.

Here is what happened. We went to a very small school district that had only one kindergarten room. I am sure the school had a very small budget, so we did not have an art room in our five-room elementary school. Baking clay pots was out of the question, so the teacher used to get these really big bags of what she called "asbestos clay." She would scoop out some of this grey powder, put it in a bucket, and add water until it had the consistency of clay. We kindergartners would then shape ash trays with our hands and make small pots and let them dry. When dry, we would paint them and give them to our parents as gifts.

My brother said he and his friends would run around the room and hit the bag of asbestos with their hands as they went past, creating large dust clouds as they went by. Obviously, no one provided us with hazmat suits or even made us wash our hands when we were done.

We were also of the generation where on nice days in the summer when our mothers had cleaned the house, we would be tossed outside to play and told not to come back in until lunch or dinner. Where we went and what we did was mostly our business.

[Bethers]

Oh, Judy, you're bringing back so many memories!

[MandysMom]

Judy, in our neighborhood, in summer, it was come home when the street lights come on! I'm not paranoid about dirt either, though I'm reasonably cautios ESP with the Novel Corona virus. I'm comfortable going to our neighborhood grocery store, wearing a mask, then washing with a wipe when I reach the car and soap and water when I get home and after putting groceries or mail away.
Velda

[BarbaraRose]

As far as dropping laundry...it is ALWAYS my panties...every...single...time!!! I then wonder if I should rewash them or just pretend it didn't happen. I try to remember to put the laundry basket in front of me now when transferring clothes from the washer to dryer, etc.

As far as germs, I have always been kind of a germaphobe. However, with two cats that are in and out of litter boxes and then walking around the house and up on my bed and furniture, and Maya putting her paws on my face and mouth, I am not as OCD about it as I used to be. (however, if food hits the floor, there is no 5 second rule! Out it goes!). I do wash my hands a lot tho.