Never let him do the laundry again!
 

Okay. I had rehearsals for 14 hours this weekend (yesterday and today). So I asked DH to do the laundry and in return I would do the dishes (usually his job). So I get home and all the laundry is neatly folded and ready to be put up.

So I go into the living room and tell him how much I appreciate it only to find out there was a "tiny problem."

He washed and DRIED a chapstick with several of my key work clothing items!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I immediately started crying and went in and unfolded everything to survey the damage.

So it appears that he got 6 articles of my clothing. However, it could be more since my view was clouded with tears of despair. Then he blamed it on me for leaving the chapstick in my pocket, to which I answered that he should know that checking the pockets first is standard laundry protocol. I called my mom sobbing wanting to know how to get the greasy, dried-in spots off of my clothes. She thought something terrible had happened! She was relieved to find that it was just a laundry thing :(

Anyway, DH brought me a hot chocolate that he made just now, so I think he is trying to make a peace offering. I have been sick this week and PMS'ing on top of that so I am sure that didn't help much...

Anyway, I just kinda wanted to vent this. Thanks :)

I mean this in the nicest way, but you are a little psycho :p

You do realize, of course, that he did this deliberately so that you would never ask him to do laundry again?

Obviously, your husband knows my husband... :p

Shhh. There is no reason to reveal our most cherished tactics.

Normally, yes, I would consider this a bit psycho of me...However since I am a second year teacher and he is a graduate student, we aren't exactly rolling in wardrobe replacement cash at the moment...and I don't have too many outfits for work...


The same thing happened to my mom when she was first married (and a teacher then, although she wised up and is not anymore!) Anyway, someone at the laundromat at her apartments turned the heat up to high when she went to get a book from her apartment and came back to clothes built for a toddler...

***edited to clarify: She is not a TEACHER anymore...but she is still married :)

I feel your pain!!! I have done this many times.... the cursed chapstick tubes!! And I have also cried when I've discovered my favorite jeans or shirt ruined by the grease spot.

I don't think you're psycho at all. I would've been upset too. I accidently did this to a roommate a few years ago and she was not happy. I left chap stick in the dryer on accident and her clothes turned blue (blueberry chapstick). I had to pay for some new clothing items which was tough on a poor college student.

Marti, I can't guarantee this will work but I've had good luck using the following steps on greasy stains (including a Burt's Bees lipbalm) out of clothing:

- spray the spot with Shout or whatever stain remover you have
- wet a toothbrush and dip it in the detergent box so that detergent sticks to it.
- scrub over the stain with the toothbrush; really grind the detergent in there!
- wash in as hot water as the clothing can withstand
- check for stains when the clothing comes out of the washer BEFORE you put them in the dryer (because if you bake in the stains, they'll be all the harder to remove), and repeat if necessary.

Good luck!

**Edited to Add: Now, I'm talking about an old toothbrush; NOT the one your DH is currently using! ;)

I'm sure he felt much better after you reemed him out, then called your mom on the phone crying. That probably wasn't necessary, even considering what he did was stupid.

I ruined my bf's new pair of pants by accidentally putting them in with the bleach. He somehow has managed to get over it and still allows me to do his laundry. I am a lucky girl, a lucky girl, a lucky girl. :rolleyes:

I think that it might be time to 'accidentally' bleach something else. :p ;)

take them to the dry cleaner. dry cleaning solvent gets out most grease & oil stains

My theory on laundry is simple: nobody should ever do anyone else's. Period.

I'm sorry that you're upset, but I don't think it's fair to blame him. Checking pockets is not "standard laundry protocol" -- by the time clothes are in the hamper, everything should be out of the pockets. Laundry is bad enough without having to go through each piece of clothing to make sure something isn't in there. Of course, under my theory, if they're your clothes, you know what's in there and it avoids these problems.

*cheers* A sensible woman.

Ha! I was expecting to get called out for not sitting at home tending to my boy's laundry needs. ;)

It's a good thing you don't plan on having kids, then... I'd hate to see what a 2 year old did to a washer/dryer :p

The GPMom has the same rule - if I left it in my pockets, sucks to be me. She also takes any money that's in the laundry as a tip for her services. :p

My daddy once shrunk a cashmere sweater that I had tossed in my hamper on accident, and while I was mad, he was trying to be nice and help out, so I couldn't really be too upset.

I agree. Everyone should do there own laundry (provided they are old enough to reach the washer :D )

I get pissed when some one does my laundry. I usually leave my laundry in my laundry basket in our laundry room. Well my dad...thinking he's helping out will wash my clothes. But he washes everything in hot water and then drys it on super extreme ridiculous heat.

I don't know how many items of myu clothing he has shrunk making them unwearable.

If the laundry is not in your way, there's no need for you to touch it.

I have washed and dried my husbands chapstick so many times that it is uncountable. After the first time I told him to wash his own clothes and then he just complained that he didn't have any clean clothes. After the next couple of times he was really good about taking things out of the pockets and has recently been bad about it again. Lucky for me I have figured out how to get the oil stains out.

I'm sorry but my boyfriend and I share our laundry duties and rule # 1 has been and always will be - CHECK THE POCKETS! No matter if you're doing your own or someone else's laundry. That is all. :D

Chapter 3 of the Men's Manual clearly states that they should screw up any task assigned that they don't want to do again. He obviously has the Manual. Don't let him get out of doing laundry again! This only reinforces the behavior and leads to washing the no-wax floor with bleach and various other atrocities in housekeeping.

I also get any money left in pockets. I can usually at least get one Diet Pepsi out of the vending machine at work on laundry money.

Dee

Thank you ztabchbum, I love you! :)

Hey! No problem! Also all money that we find in pockets goes towards dinner out usually Hooters but hey - it keeps him happy for a week! :D

Ok, maybe it's just me but I've left chapstick in my pocket a few times and it's never done anything to my clothes. Just ruined the chapstick..........which SUCKS. I think I went through 3 in one week.

BUT, my mother leaves kleenex in her pockets. Now THAT really sucks.........

We strictly adhere to the "do your own friggin' laundry" rule. I would do his laundry if he broke both his arms, for example. Other than that, he's on his own.

Yes, Ginger I realize that a small child is incapable of doing laundry, but since his sperm was actively involved in making that small child, he has to share the laundry duty.:p

DARN IT! Stop spreading all our secrets - like leaving just a few crumbs on the casserole, so we don't have to do dishes again...a spot on the faucet, to not clean the bathroom again...dogonnit - we have worked generations to get these to an art form, and don't need them blown up in public!

...or course there are the benefits to doing laundry (I made $3.25 in loose change last week)...etc....

However, since the post started on chapstick...the question remains - how do you get that out of the laundry? (Not that I have to worry about it - wife doesn't use chapstick, but she IS notorious for the kleenex...ends up only on the black items of clothing in the dryer of course - some sort of physics principle there, I'm sure...but...) :p

I'm the one that does the laundry, and while I am good about checking pockets I don't do it all the time. Sometimes the man leaves kleenex in there...that is just plain annoying. I think recently he even left one of those mini packs in there and I noticed it in the dryer...:rolleyes: Oh well...chapstick? That is why I leave it in my purse. :p That is almost as bad as the time I washed a pair of my mom's wool trousers...my mom is 5'11" and by the time I was done with the laundry ( I didn't know, I was about 12 and hadn't learned about reading the care label yet) the pants could have fit a 10 year old. Oops...sorry mom. She still mentions it every once in a while.:o