I emptied the washing basket yesterday (what Superwoman could resist the combination of dry, warm and windy?) only to find my lovely silk 'hand-wash only' dress that I'd bunged in there months ago. I picked it up and tipped it back in again. Again.
I go through this ritual every few weeks. Each time I see it I make a mental note to "hand wash soon" along with "maybe I'll do it when I wash that ever-so-expensive-keep-for-best-bra that really shouldn't have gone back in the drawer after the last time I wore it".
Another month or so will pass. The M&S no-iron shirts and the Primark doesn't-matter-if-it-shrinks-because-it-only-cost-25p t-shirt will be dropped in the basket, fetched out and washed lovingly by Persil, Lenor and Miele. Meanwhile, the hand-washing will either lie there, getting more and more creased - or be taken out, sprayed with perfume and given one more outing before washing. (Oh, come on. Everyone does the spray-and-wear thing.)
It's not just hand-washing I DON'T do. I have a cupboard full of jars that I DON'T use for homemade jam or pickled garden-grown shallots. Beautifully washed too-nice-to-throw-away jars that once contained marmalades, chutneys, peppers and coffee. (Have you seen those Douwe Egbert's coffee jars? You'd pay a fortune for those in Habitat. They even have nice little glass and plastic tops that create a lovely "pop" when you open them.)
I also have a sewing basket full of bits of material that will one day become a patchwork quilt. Or be used to give the Gok Wan treatment to a dull old dress. I have a box of buttons that's so old that the clothes they came from went to the charity shop 2o years ago. And I have an old suitcase of photos taken at birthdays, Christmases, holidays, girlie nights out and school plays long gone by. They will definitely get put in an album one day.
Do we really believe that we WILL one day take up a hobby that we saw on Blue Peter 30 years ago? Do we actually think that we WILL use the 43 jars of spices to make a proper Lamb Jalfrezi when we've barely got time to grate a bit of cheese on top of a shop-bought pizza? And why don't we just resign ourselves to chucking the hand washing in the machine the first time we take it out of the basket because it WILL go in there eventually?
I'm sure that if I stopped wasting my time carefully collecting and saving all that stuff that I "will definitely get round to doing something with one day" I might have the time and space to actually DO something!
I go through this ritual every few weeks. Each time I see it I make a mental note to "hand wash soon" along with "maybe I'll do it when I wash that ever-so-expensive-keep-for-best-bra that really shouldn't have gone back in the drawer after the last time I wore it".
Another month or so will pass. The M&S no-iron shirts and the Primark doesn't-matter-if-it-shrinks-because-it-only-cost-25p t-shirt will be dropped in the basket, fetched out and washed lovingly by Persil, Lenor and Miele. Meanwhile, the hand-washing will either lie there, getting more and more creased - or be taken out, sprayed with perfume and given one more outing before washing. (Oh, come on. Everyone does the spray-and-wear thing.)
It's not just hand-washing I DON'T do. I have a cupboard full of jars that I DON'T use for homemade jam or pickled garden-grown shallots. Beautifully washed too-nice-to-throw-away jars that once contained marmalades, chutneys, peppers and coffee. (Have you seen those Douwe Egbert's coffee jars? You'd pay a fortune for those in Habitat. They even have nice little glass and plastic tops that create a lovely "pop" when you open them.)
I also have a sewing basket full of bits of material that will one day become a patchwork quilt. Or be used to give the Gok Wan treatment to a dull old dress. I have a box of buttons that's so old that the clothes they came from went to the charity shop 2o years ago. And I have an old suitcase of photos taken at birthdays, Christmases, holidays, girlie nights out and school plays long gone by. They will definitely get put in an album one day.
Do we really believe that we WILL one day take up a hobby that we saw on Blue Peter 30 years ago? Do we actually think that we WILL use the 43 jars of spices to make a proper Lamb Jalfrezi when we've barely got time to grate a bit of cheese on top of a shop-bought pizza? And why don't we just resign ourselves to chucking the hand washing in the machine the first time we take it out of the basket because it WILL go in there eventually?
I'm sure that if I stopped wasting my time carefully collecting and saving all that stuff that I "will definitely get round to doing something with one day" I might have the time and space to actually DO something!
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