Zen and the Art of Laundry

I readily confess that I was a spoiled child; I had a stay-at-home mom who took care of me, my sister, and the house, which meant I never had to do my own laundry until I left for college at age 18. My mom gave me the basics, but over the years, I've developed my own technique—oh, let's be honest and call it a ritual, shall we?—that I have elevated into a zen-like state of meditation.

The past week has afforded me the opportunity to get in touch with that state of inner laundered peace, as I've had my last week off from work as part of my college's holiday break, and Amy's been taking care of her mother, who has been ill in the hospital. I wanted to help her out by helping keep up with things in the house, and while I loathe most household chores, I find peace in a basket of clean laundry.

The meditative process begins with the basket or the hamper, which is chaos. Order must be sorted out of this chaos. Whites are separated first, followed by grays and khakis. Next comes dark colors, which are blues and purples for me, then bright colors, finally concluding with reds. Denim jeans and towels are separated into their own piles, forbidden to mix with the other clothes.

We next approach the washer. I have discovered laundry pods, pre-measured gel packets of detergent ready to toss in the washer. These are ingenious and should always be used instead of sticky liquids or dusty powders. Whites and towels are washed in hot water. I still like bleach with my whites. Everything else can be washed in cold water. The hot and the cold are the yin and the yang, the balance of all things.

When the load is finished, it goes into the dryer, making the transition from cold and wet to warm and dry, a perfect metaphor for how we move through this life. Dryer sheets are a necessity, and never forget to empty the lint trap. We should never forget that inner peace often comes at a messy price. We reload the washer with the next group of clothes, moving in the same order as we sorted them.

When the dryer is done, we experience the joy of warm, dry, freshly scented clothing. Folding is where we achieve the full consciousness of inner peace, making sure that each similar item is folded the same way, precisely, exactly, with no edges or corners out of place. Only the most advanced should attempt fitted bed sheets, however.

The joy of the process is short-lived, however, as one must put away all the laundry or risk the painful reality of a basket filled with clean laundry taking up unnecessary space on the bed, in the closet, or worst of all, at the foot of the stairs...