Am I Making Too Much Of This....?

Dad has always had a saying which is..."a hundred years from now, you'll never know the difference". So, as a means to find out if I'm making too much of something, I'm posting my dirty laundry on my blog and asking for a response.

It's this...my sweet husband came to me and said he was going to wash his dirty tennis shoes and the dogs sleeping blankets together. I've no problem with that - it's an okay combination since it's his groddy tennis shoes. But, and I repeat but, I do have a problem when my sweet husband comes in and says he's also added a pair of dark slacks and dark socks that he's taking with him on our trip out West this week. I sweetly assure him (yeah, right) that that is not okay and he says he'll go pull them out of the washer. Not hearing this take place, I decide to take matters into my own hands and see if he's just been pulling my leg and trying to make my blood pressure shoot up a bajillon points. I stop the washer, see the floating tennis shoes and the dogs blankets. I dig deeply into the washer and find a couple of tee shirts, a pair of dark socks (but not dark pants), but then I find dishtowels. Dishtowels that are used to dry hands and dishes. These have been mixed in with the extraordinarily hairy dog sleeping blankets and groddy tennis shoes!

My question is this...Am I making too much of a little thing?!?! For four years I've tried to explain to my sweet husband that you DON'T wash certain things with other things. For example, you don't wash undergarments with tennis shoes or the last pair of dark jeans left in the basket. You don't wash thick, dark towels with my sweaters, etc., etc., etc. Joe thinks if it's in the basket, it's fair game. His washing rule is apparently "we leave no dirty item behind or alone". I've had clothing that was one color turn into another color. I've had bleach spots turn up in the middle of my favorite blouse or pair of pants. I had to institute a rule that my clothing was off limits and it generally works on most occasions.

I appreciate that my sweet husband wants to help, but sometimes I could just _____________(well you fill in the blank). I've tried to teach him about whites with the whites; darks with the darks; leave my clothing alone, period; towels together; etc., etc. However, clothing is fair game if it's in the basket for him. Nothing has seemed to work. I've even gone so far in the past to hide the washing powder so he can't wash. Perhaps the problem is:

(1) I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks;

(2) Maybe that's the way his mother taught him:

(3) He thinks he saving water and washing powders;

(4) It's his way of "getting back at me" for things that I do that bugs him;

(5) He wants to see how well my pre-menopausal hormones react;

(6) Or maybe that's the way people in Indiana wash clothes?

I know, I know. I've spent waaaay toooo looooong on this blog. I just want to find out if I'm the only person who has issues about how to properly wash clothes. Did my mother teach me wrong lo those many years ago? Have I taught my own son wrong in the finer points of washing clothes? Sorry, but I just had to vent. I just don't want to have someone eating dinner with me some evening picking black or brown dog hairs off their dinner plate that was dried by some dishcloth that Joe washed. Especially when I'm sitting there with dark blue dingleberries all over my bleach-stained pink sweater.

Just please don't remind me that "a hundred years from now, you'll never know the difference". (Do you think Heavenly Mother ever has these types of issues with Heavenly Father)?