# How long have you been doing your own laundry? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 1, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110 "2004-07-01T21:03:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/21 "2004-07-02T04:35:43Z")
I had to go along to the laundromat and help when I was a kid. As soon as we got a washer and dryer at home, some time when I was in high school, I learned how. That was quite some time ago. Hey, I’ve got a pal who’s 40 and is so insecure that she actually went over to a friend’s house to do her delicates because her mom was hospitalized and not available to “advise” her. ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/22 "2004-07-02T05:26:24Z")
> [@SanibelMan](#): > > So am I right to be shocked and just a little appaled that some people are too lazy to learn how to operate a washing machine and dryer? Or am I the crazy one, abused by my parents for having to do my own laundry at the tender age of 12? I’ve been doing my laundry since I was 12, too. For whatever reason, I never had a problem with doing that, either. Now, if there was ever a way for me to get out of doing dishes, though… I was also cooking basic stuff by the time I was tall enough to reach the counter, around the age of 10 or so. I knew how to cook things like hamburger patties, baked chicken, rice-a-roni, steamed vegetables, cakes from a mix, etc. What blows my mind is that my husband never really did any laundry (except in a dire emergency) or any other major household chores until he was well into adulthood. He grew up in a Latino household where, as the eldest son, was expected to go to school, get good grades, secure a career, and not worry with such ‘chores’. Plus, his mom and grandmother just do all the housework. Not that I let him use that excuse now in _our_ home. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Grasshopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Grasshopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grasshopper)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/23 "2004-07-02T05:36:40Z")
I started doing my own laundry the summer I turned 12 (or was it the summer I turned 13?) - around then anyway. _deliberates a moment. Should I tell them the reason I wanted to do my own laundry? What the hell_ slightly tmi alert - I knew I was going to get my period soon, and I didn’t want my mom to find out when she was doing my laundry (cause I didn’t plan on telling her when it happened!). ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/24 "2004-07-02T10:52:20Z")
About an hour… oh, I see. Four years, since I moved out from home. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/25 "2004-07-02T11:37:51Z")
I don’t remember, exactly. I do remember that it was certainly routine for my sister (1 year older than me) and I to do our own laundry when our family moved into the new house, which was just before my fourteenth birthday. I remember this because the laundry was now in the basement; in the old house the machines had been in the kitchen. And if my sister got on my nerves enough, I could just mention the spider I saw crawling behind the Downy bottle… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/26 "2004-07-02T16:16:41Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > Sorry, dear heart. I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted to make sure **Twiddle** commenced squirming as soon as possible. 😛 > > I do hope she explains one thing–how is it that she thought that “Cosmo is chained to a radiator” or “Cosmo’s parents have an S&M parlor in the basement” were more likely scenarios than “Cosmo has mobility problems.” Perhaps she’s been watching too much _Law & Order: Special Victims Unit_?? Nah, I just have a filthy mind. 😃 Cosmo, thanks for answering me so good-naturedly! Twiddle ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/27 "2004-07-03T16:39:20Z")
[http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/15594/](http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/15594/) (warning: sound. work safe.) A new way to fold tshirts. So cool. I’ve been doing laundry for about 13 years (I’m 25), but when I lived with my parents, my mom would throw stuff in if I needed something washed and vice versa. I can’t do laundry there anymore because I’m allergic to the detergent they use. I’m really bad about separating clothes. Everything goes in together unless it’s new and could bleed (then it goes with the dark towels). Now that Arded has work clothes, I have to be more careful (his shirts and pants are hang to dry). When I was in college I’d bring my laundry home, but I had to do it (unless my mom was feeling particularly generous). Free machines are worth it, though. Now that I have my own machines I do all the laundry and Ardred does all the dishes. I’m actually caught up right now, too. We both have clean socks _and_ underwear. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/28 "2004-07-03T16:53:47Z")
As soon as I went to college I started doing my own. Two things I can’t understand, why my mom bitched about it so much and how anybody could have difficulty with putting clothes in the machine, putting in soap and turning the knob. And drying is easier! 😕 I still think it’s cool that I have one in my house and that I don’t have to go to a laundrymat like I did at Clemson. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/29 "2004-07-04T04:29:15Z")
Wow, I’m not sure whether to feel guilty for being a lazy teenager or just grateful. I was pretty much taught by about 10 or 11, and expected to help Mom, but laundry was definitely her domain still. We might fold and put away the clothes, but until I left home at 21 Mom still did all the household wash. OTOH, I have friends with teenaged kids that still put their children’s laundry away for them as well as collect it to be washed, yet I was cutting out pictures of shirts, pants, socks and underwear and taping them to dresser drawers for my son was he was pre-literate age to help him get the hang of putting his own away. He’s eleven now and I’ve started explaining how towels and jeans take longer to dry than tee shirts and undies, for instance, I still supervise but he’s pretty much got the hang of the machines. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/30 "2004-07-04T04:52:31Z")
My Mom would bleach the stripes off a zebra in a month. I learned to do my own wash as self-defense, and have continued to do so over the last three decades. ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/31 "2004-07-04T14:26:56Z")
I learned to use the washing machine the first time my parents went on holiday without me. (About 16.) When I moved out last year to go to uni I started doing my own laundry. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/32 "2004-07-04T17:35:29Z")
Although I remembered from past threads that \*\*Cosmopolitan \*\* uses a wheelchair (because I do, too), I’m sure **Twiddle** wasn’t the only one puzzled by that post! 😃 As for myself … I started doing all my own laundry when I was twelve, simply because my mum _insisted_ on mixing my washloads with my brother’s … and he, at that time, was The Enemy. I couldn’t _stand_ the idea of my clothes going round and round in that tub with His Socks … :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110/33 "2004-07-04T17:49:43Z")
I’ll admit, I’m spoiled. I know how to do laundry, and I’ve always been able to do my own laundry. But I HATE doing it. Laundry is the one thing I absolutely abhor. When I moved to NYC six years ago, I discovered drop-off laundry service, so I always dropped my laundry off in the morning and picked it up after work. And when I moved back in with my parents a year and a half ago, my mother actually insisted on doing my laundry - not because she wanted to or because I was lazy, but because the washer and dryer were broken and had to be run in a certain way - and she was the only one that could get them to work properly. So I did other things around the house instead. I hated having her do my laundry, especially since I was 28 years old at the time, but it was easier just to let her do it than argue with her. Now that my SO and I have been in the same apartment for six months, he usually does the laundry. I hate it still, and he knows that. I usually cook and keep the apartment fairly clean, so he takes care of the laundry. I’ll fold it most of the time, but when it comes to schlepping up and down the stairs from the laundry room, it’s up to him. Yes, I’m almost 30 years old, and if I can get away with it, I won’t do my own laundry. Ava [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-long-have-you-been-doing-your-own-laundry/253110.md?page=1)