First let me say, “thank you Suzy!”

As some of you may know, Chrissie and I have a differing of opinions on the subject of laundry.

Most recently Chrissie has become exasperated with my clothing classifications:

1) Clean – can be worn at anytime and should be neatly folded and stored in the appropiate drawer

2) Dirty – should not be worn, should be put in the laundry hamper (aka basket at the side of our bed)

3) All Most Clean – Worn just a little, not really dirty, and can be worn again without any loss to personal hygiene

4) All Most Dirty – Worn several times, not very clean but not so dirty as to affront personal hygiene standards of most dearest wife (usually)

Now classes 1 & 2 do not offend my wonderful wife. But she takes great offense at classes 3 & 4. I think it’s really because groups 3 & 4 do not have a storage area. Clean and Dirty clothes have the appropriate storage centers and are thus very well organized. The main storage area for classes 3 & 4 is the floor. More specifically the floor on my side of the bed in close proximity of the wife’s clothes closet. Often I’ve heard the Wife growl in disgust as she tromps by a pile of class 3 or 4 clothes on the way to her closet. Typically she will often kick a pile of said articles and mumble, “are those clean or dirty? And why do they have to be left on the floor?”

After I cringe because she’s just sullied an almost-clean pile, I’ll usually reply, “they’re almost clean (or dirty) and they’re stored on the floor ’cause they’re too clean to be neatly folded and put back in the drawers (they would contaminate the actually clean clothes). Or they’re not dirty enough to be put in the laundry basket (and would become contaminated themselves).”

“Grr..” Is my usual answer.

It seems perfectly logical system to me, but then again I came up with it 🙂

So, on our daily lives went until Chrissie was complaining about my system to her sister Suzy, who said, “why don’t you just get some hooks to put the clothes on?”

Genius, shear genius. It often takes an outside perspective to solve very complex problems. It wasn’t the actual classification system that was the problem it was the storage area! Now the class 3 & 4 clothes hang on some hooks on the back of the closed door (the dirty the clothing is the closer it is to the hamper) and Chrissie doesn’t complain (or even care). As long as all types of clothes are stored in their appropriate place the Wife is happy.

Thank you Aunty Suzy, thank you!