The Day My Shirts Smelled Like Dogs

I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don't have any clean laundry because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life?
-Unknown

I feel like many of my posts on this blog are about laundry (such as this one, or this one). Maybe because since doing laundry is such a momentous occasion in my life that I feel the innate urge to document it for the whole world - as if to say "See, I actually DO take care of myself!" Regardless, this summer I've been doing laundry a lot. I have a house with a washing machine and dryer and it doesn't cost $10 to wash all my clothes. Therefore, I don't have to wear my jeans for months in order to justify a washing and my permanent dirty-clothes pile is slowly becoming nonexistent.

A goal for my summer is to be as human and environmentally friendly as possible. From my food choices to the way I dispose of my waste to how I shop, I've been attempting to be intentional about the way I live my life in order to increase my well being and decrease any negative impact I may cause. I believe that this is what we all should be doing as divinely appointed caretakers of the creation we have been blessed to inhabit. Therefore, one of the first things that I did was remove any traces of harsh chemicals from my house and start using purely environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable cleaning supplies. This, of course, also translates to my laundry. Gone are the conventional detergents and softeners - they have been replaced with healthy alternatives.

I was so extremely excited about my new products that I just had to do a load of laundry to celebrate, so I rounded up a bunch of dirty things, popped them in the machine, and put three squirts of fun new detergent into the machine. I closed it, placed the large car tire on top of the lid (otherwise the machine will escape while vigorously spinning), and walked away.

45 minutes later the wash was done and I was running slightly late for a wine tasting that I was attending. I ran to check on the laundry and transfer it over to the dryer when I realized that the dryer was already full of clean, dry, fluffy clothes that had been forgotten. There was no time to take them out, walk all the way to my room, put them down, walk all the way back (my room is right across the hall from the laundry room), and transfer over the wet clothes, so I just opted to leave them - "I'll change it when I get home."

I forgot.

In fact, I forgot about them for three full days. I only found the clothes when I decided to to laundry again ("I get to use my new fun detergent!!"). I opened the machine...something smelled slightly funny, but no matter, surely the heat in the dryer would sanitize (or at least, psudo-sanitize, obviously the dyer doesn't get that hot) whatever was on the clothes after being left wet for three days. I put the now almost dry clothes into the dryer, added a new biodegradable healthy dryer sheet, and started the cycle.

Two days later, I decided that I needed more clothes and discovered the dry ones in the dryer. Thankful that I didn't have to resort to washing more of the permanent dirty pile, I pulled the clothes out and took a whiff (I love the smell of clean laundry, so I always breathe deeply as I remove things from the dryer). I started coughing.

The laundry smelled horrible.

Stupid new healthy biodegradable dryer sheets, I thought, I'm never using those again, what a waste of money. Who would make a dryer sheet that smells like wet dog. Gross. In true college student style, I decided that I would just grin and bear the smell until I could get around to doing laundry again.

The next day I put on my dog-smelling clothes, used an extra amount of my new healthy deodorant, and went to face the day. Occasionally, when the breeze was just right, I would smell wet-dog trailing me, but for the most part my mountain breeze scented armpits kept my nose out of misery. That night some friends came over and in the course of conversation, I told them about my new dryer sheets and how awful they made the clothes smell. We all shook our heads in pity as I ran to my room to grab a shirt to prove my point.

"See, SEE, it smells like wet dog!" My friend took a tentative whiff and looked at me. "Matthias," she said "that doesn't smell like wet dog, that smells like mildew." I froze. Mildew. I glanced at my friend, "well, now, come to think of it, these are the clothes that I left in the washing machine for three days before I dried them." My friend gave me a look of horror and quickly handed my shirt back to me.

The next day, I took the pile of mildewed clothes (they still smelled like dog to me), popped them in the machine, used four squirts of my fancy new detergent, and immediately transferred them to the dryer when they were finished. They came out smelling nice and fresh, just like they should.

I feel like I'm going to learn so many lessons this summer.
-Matthias