I Own a Perpetuum Mobile!

No, you say – there’s no such thing! Well, I’m telling you – I’ve got one!

It’s white, it’s bulky, it’s situated in a small utility room under the stairs, and it’s a washing machine… And yes, it runs eternally, and I’m pretty sure it powers itself.

We’re 8 people in this household.

There’s 4 teenagers who seem to think that if an item of clothing has touched any part of their body for more than 5 minutes, it qualifies as “dirty”. They also have this peculiar sorting system for clothing – in their rooms, I might add, that goes something like this:

Clean clothes are carried in, left unattended on some surface for a while, until they end up on the floor. The floor being their laundry basket, it’s then impossible to tell what’s what, and everything ends up in the laundry. Not until I’m almost at the bottom of what was already there, though… They clear out their rooms once a week, if I’m lucky.

Then, there’s little miss Princess, 4 years old, who dotes on everything pink, changes 4 times a day, and leaves everything wherever she drops it.

Little Newbie is 6 months old, and does what people his age do – some of it being quite messy…

Dad also drops everything everywhere, especially socks.

And then there’s me…

To top the whole thing off, our family hobby is horses, which accounts for heaps of grimy, smelly clothing – all dropped in the hallway or in the small utility room I mentioned before.

I definitely own a perpetuum mobile. It runs 24/7.

I’ve tried everything except violence. And a strike. So next week I’m off on my first trip alone for years – and I won’t be back until all the laundry baskets are empty!