By Mark Krahling

I have to admit that I really kind of like doing the laundry. I mean, I’m not crazy about it, but there is something about doing the laundry that resonates with me, or maybe serves me, would be a better way of putting it.

Before I go on, though, we need to have an agreement. This isn’t just about laundry. In order to explain my relationship with laundry, I’ll need to reveal some secrets about my inner workings that are a little sensitive and embarrassing. I need to know that you have an open mind and that you won’t judge me too harshly, and that you will appreciate what I go through to produce that pile (actually those FOUR piles, but we’ll get to that later) of whiter whites and brighter brights.

Do we have an agreement here?

Another thing that you need to know is that I am far from being the primary laundry/house maintenance person in our family. My wife, Heidi, can survey the disaster that our house has become by Saturday morning, and then list and prioritize what needs to be done in a nanosecond because she was born with this instinct, and assign tasks to various family members who then struggle for the rest of the day to complete them. Or, if she so chooses, she can do it all herself in an hour. While talking on the phone.

But this story is about someone who is wired a bit differently.

The truth of the matter is that I have a touch, just a mild case, of Attention Deficit Disorder. I know that probably sounds to you like someone saying that they have a “touch” or a “mild case” of pregnancy, but don’t judge me until you hear me out.

This is what my ADD is like: Let’s say I’m watching the TV news and the weather report comes on. Let’s say that I really want to know if it’s going to rain tomorrow because I need to know if my son can ride his bike to school. So I’m watching the weather report with a purpose-my purpose is to find out if it’s going to rain tomorrow right here in my hometown.

I start watching the weather report and pretty soon I become distracted by the clownish bow tie that the weatherman is wearing and his breezy off-the-cuff remarks. I start to wonder why they always put the goofy guy on the weather report-do they think that it’s so boring that we have to be entertained by his antics? Now he’s doing the thing with the weather map. Let me see if I understand this. He is actually standing in front of a blank, green wall and looking at a monitor. He’s pointing at specific things but he can’t see them unless he looks at the monitor. How does he know where to point, at the same time that he’s making incredibly corny comments and lame jokes? Like for instance, he just pointed at San Francisco and there were some clouds over the sun and he said … Damn-I just missed the part about San Rafael. Is he moving north or south on the screen? Did he already talk about Marin? Damn again-I just missed the five-day forecast! Oh well, at least sports is next.

So that’s what I like about it.

By the way, I just realized that I pulled a “Widget.” Widget was a college friend of mine who had an annoying habit of completing a sentence that he had started a half-hour before. He would suddenly start talking about something-often beginning with a pronoun so that you had no idea what he was referring to-until you racked your brain to think of which first half of a sentence matched up with this second half of a sentence during the day’s conversation. So when I say, That’s what I like about IT, then IT, of course, refers to … laundry!

It’s because the laundry helps me focus a bit. You see, my house is a lot like that weather map. There are these swirls throughout the house which represent the different projects that I have started, things that I should do, time-wasting opportunities, the refrigerator, the computer, and so on. I start in one of the swirls-let’s say working on this story-and pretty soon I realize that I need a cup of coffee. I head for the kitchen and warm up the coffee in the microwave. While it’s warming up, I have 25 seconds to kill, so I’ll take a look at the newspaper. The sports section catches me in its swirl for a little while and the coffee sits cooling in the microwave. Done with the paper, I’ll put it in recycling. That reminds me of the clutter in the house-got to avoid the swirl of the garage. How can I do that? Head for the coffee. I’ll just pour a cup and put it in the microwave to warm up. Oh, my God, there’s already a cup there! I know-I’ll warm up both cups and then I’ll really get some writing done!

Wait. Let’s try it again with laundry. Okay, let’s bring the laundry down to the laundry room and start a load of colored clothes. All right. Now, I’ve got that working so I can try to get some writing done. A little writing, a little swirl-surfing. I hear that the wash is done, so I’ll put it in the dryer. Start a load of whites. It’s so efficient-the two machines are working together now, even when I’m not-I’ve delegated some of my duties to the two of them! Visit the weather map of my house, hear the beep of the dryer and come back.

Now here’s the important part. Open the ironing board and get ready to start the four piles! No ironing needed, the clothes come straight from the dryer. The ironing board is just for piling. My daughter is the youngest, so her pile is on the left, then my son’s pile, my wife’s pile, and mine. Take a piece of clothing out of the dryer, shake it a bit, fold it, and put it in its pile. I’m getting something done! Just like a normal person! This is so cool!

But it gets even better. You see, there is a system here-sort of like an assembly line. All I have to do is start another load. The washed stuff moves to the dryer. The dryer stuff moves to the ironing board, one piece at a time. And then, one pile at a time, the clothes are delivered to their respective closets.

It’s like Ford’s Model T factory. It can’t be stopped! No matter how caught up I get in the swirls waiting to gobble me up, the factory keeps running. I’m getting something done and if I also happen to pay a few bills, write a sentence or two, or make a bed, that’s like getting a bonus check at the factory!

Maybe I can even figure out a way to pay more attention to that too-sorry, I pulled another Widget there. Maybe I can even figure out a way to pay more attention to the weather report. Let’s see, I’ll cut out the weather report from the paper and paste it to the wall behind the ironing board. I just need some scissors. They’re here in this drawer. It’s a little messy-maybe I should straighten it out. I’ll need a cup of coffee for that. I’ll just microwave it for 25 seconds or so…

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Mark Krahling’s stories have been published on the literary websites Redroom and Bust Out as well as on the travel blog Notes from Spain. His book, Still Blinking, is a collection of short stories dedicated to the notion of slowing down and noticing what’s extraordinary, humorous, and meaningful in the everyday. To learn more and to purchase the book, please visit his website at www.pauseforpurpose.com.