What’s Your Worst Laundry Disaster? I’ll Tell You Mine if You Tell Me Yours! [Tide Pods $100 Giveaway!]

AppId is over the quota AppId is over the quota “For not as good results drag behind car through puddles and blow dry on roof rack.” YESSSS! I have actually done this. (Not on purpose but it still ended up with a nice fresh scent!)Disaster was in the cards, er, dryer sheets, from the beginning on that fateful day. Whether it had been too many years of living in the pampered comfort of an en suite washer and dryer or just one more ignominy to be suffered during our protracted stint 0f hotel living, I should have known things were going to go badly when I hauled my family-of-six’s laundry up three flights of stairs only to discover I needed my hotel key to open the laundromat. The hotel key that was sitting on the dresser in my locked hotel room. (Is it still an omen of disaster if you completely fail to see it? I mean, what would have happened had the Hobbits looked up at the sky of Middle Earth and mistook the Eye of Sauron for Jupiter on a clear night?)So I trekked down to the front desk to ask them to open my door – a process that took a tedious twenty minutes of waiting, verifying and re-keying – and then I marched back up all those stairs, opened the door to the laundry and dumped my clothing in the only washer. Which is when I realized they were pay machines. (Because duh.) Back down the stairs I trotted, found some bills, made a second trek to the front desk for change and then back up again all the while praying that no one else had chucked my stuff on the floor. (At least I remembered that much from my college laundromat days.)

I shoved the quarters in (FOUR DOLLARS a load – pretty sure it’s laundromats that pushed Robin Hood into a life of petty crime), got ready to press start and… no soap. I had brought no laundry soap. Hadn’t even bought any actually. And there was none to be found anywhere in the laundry room. A garbage can might have been kicked. And then I headed back down the stairs to the front desk where the night clerk said dryly, “Have you ever done laundry before?” before handing me a sample pack of two Tide detergent Pods. Yay! Exactly what I needed for my two loads!

As I walked back down the hall I realized that a task that normally took me two minutes at home had now sucked up more than 45 minutes. I decided to give myself a break and take the elevator up the three flights. Just as the doors were closing, a woman carrying her own very large laundry basket wiggled in. “Are you Paris Hilton on vacay or just moving in permanently?” I joked, eyeing her Matterhorn of wash .

She gave me a look of pure exhaustion and answered, “We were just evacuated because of the forest fires. This is everything we could grab.” Did I mention she was heavily pregnant? And towing a toddler?

Then she eyed the laundry detergent in my hand and I saw her sigh. “I didn’t think to grab any soap.” (And who would? That definitely wouldn’t be on the top of my evac checklist.)

I held out my precious pacs. “Here take mine.” I muttered under my breath, “I’ll just run back to the lobby and grab some more.”

“You sure?” she said, already reaching out.

“Yeah. And feel free to just dump my stuff in the basket by the washer,” I smiled as I let her off on the third floor and punched the down button.

See? Disaster. Of the best kind. For something so mundane, it suddenly seemed like a privilege to be able to do laundry. Even if I did have to face that clerk again. (He must have felt really sorry for this clearly idiotic lady because he gave me 6 samples. Or maybe he was just hoping to not see me anymore that night?)

So: Laundry. Chances are if you’re anything like me you are a) doing it all the time and b) probably doing it wrong. At least that’s what I discovered after reading this handy primer called, oh yes, “Laundry: you’re doing it wrong.” The author washes laundry for a living and so is an expert in all thing whites, brights and too-tights (from too hot drying – #7 on the list of things you’re doing wrong). She even has you branch out from the standard three-pile sort into five piles! It was at this point where I realized that I may be doing my laundry wrong but I’m going to be doing it wrong forever because when you workout as much as I do, have a husband with very specific dress code requirements and kids who do this:

 

then there is no time for deciding what is a “color” and what is a “bright.” I’m going to admit it: I just throw everything in the washer. Together. Then I push some buttons on my machine and away we go. Thus far the laundry gods have smiled on me because I have only dyed a load of whites pink once and everyone seemed to think pink undies were an improvement. Everything else seems to come out relatively clean, even my sweat-soaked gym clothes. So when I was contacted about reviewing Tide Pods, I was instantly down with their whole low-maintenance mojo. (Plus, I still had fond feelings for them from my Gift of the Magi moment in the elevator. Oh and coupons – I still had those too!)

 

How does my already lazy laundry routine get even easier? Now I don’t even have to measure stuff!

 

Even better, Tide Pods go with my fashion sense too. Even though I can’t be bothered to sort my clothes, I do care quite a bit about them being clean and living long, healthy, pill-free lives. Especially my workout stuff. I have kind of quirky style and so I’m willing to spend a bit more to get high-quality stuff that stands out.

   Gotta protect this awesomeness! (I miss you like Crayola misses burnt sienna, Gym Buddy Allison!!)

I’m definitely not a “basics” kind of girl when it comes to workout wear so a lot of my stuff is irreplaceable and I need it to last, well, forever. But while I love to look funky I don’t want to smell funky and one of my biggest laundry issues has been getting that sweat stank out of my clothes. And since the pacs have built-in stain fighters and odor releasers they’re like doing triple duty. (If you still have lingering sweat-smell issues, check out this awesome post about how to use vinegar and other household stuff to get it out!) Plus (shhh!) I love my workout gear so much I often wear it in real life too. For instance, this top is actually an Athleta wicking running top but it also happens to look super cute with my high-waisted floral skirt (the 90's are coming back, yo!)

Jelly Bean’s rocking her florals too! And yeah, I just did a dressing-room selfie. I’m 13.

The best part however is that the Tide Pods are so easy even my kids can use them – no measuring, no spilling, no fussing. (The downside though is that the cute lil’ pacs look like candy so I have to be really careful that only my older kids can reach them.) Tide Pods saved the day again! And I didn’t even have to give them away this time!  But I’d love to share with you – Leave me a comment telling me about your worst laundry disaster to be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card from Tide to keep your gym fashions awesome!

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