Fresh Perspective

Originally uploaded by laundrylessons.

This is not my laundry room. Too bad. Because if it was, I would be living in a beach house in South Carolina. Playing host to our beach towels, shorts and t-shirts, this functional laundry closet was mine to use last week. Some people shun the thought of doing laundry on vacation, instead stuffing their bags with a change of clothes for each day, and counting out underwear, plus a few spares. But I, on the other hand, love to do vacation laundry.

Like eating my best friend’s cooking or babysitting my neighbor’s kid, washing laundry in someone else’s house gives me a fresh perspective. A borrowed set of machines, a counter in the kitchen for folding, and a really loud buzzer that couldn’t be turned off on the dryer, all made me either grateful for my own laundry set up or envious of this petite space. When I step outside my usual routine, the world seems bigger, better, even cleaner, than the habits that form my days at home.

Vacation is a good thing on so many levels. Not just a fresh space to wash muck from an afternoon crabbing out of shorts, but, vacation, no matter where, breaks our habits and serves up a platter of choices. When I step out of my way of doing things and listen to vacation’s lulling voice, I hear her variety of activities I never would have done at home. “Work on this puzzle for a couple hours,” vacation whispered one day. And, “How about riding the waves with the kids?” she asked me later. Boy this vacation had grand ideas for me. So even when I felt called to do a little laundry, I did it in vacation mode. The chore didn’t bother me because I was mellow, the polar opposite of my wild, jam-packed, get-it-done laundry mentality of home.

School starts next week and the drudgery of the routine is already knocking on the door as e-mails about practices and lists of school supplies arrive. I’m wondering if I will remember the fresh perspective of the beach vacation when I’m feeling overwhelmed by finding the right 1” binders in five different colors and waking up at 6:00 to get everyone out the door. I doubt it. That’s why I have to keep going on vacation. But since I can’t go every week, maybe I’ll just hang this picture in my laundry room and try to conjure up the feeling of sand flying out of towels and the smell of sunscreen in t-shirts. Too bad the picture doesn’t come with the sound of the ocean attached.