but not in my house!
Coathangers
Have you ever noticed the way coathangers breed?
At one point, all the hangers in your wardrobe may be occupied, but as items get worn and washed and replaced you one day realise there are way more hangers than there are items of clothing.
I occasionally – not as often as I should – sort out clothes to take to a charity shop. Charity shops go by different names outside the UK, but essentially it’s where you take clothes you have hardly, if ever, worn to assuage your guilt for buying them in the first place. I also donate my unwanted hangers, but I’m willing to bet I’ve donated more hangers than items of hang-able clothing.
Home and garden invaders
I once read that if you find evidence of one mouse in your home, you already have a family of them.
When we first moved here, out of town, hubby would watch the mice run freely around the garage shelves while he was working. Then they ate their way through the water-hose supplying his garage shower-room. He’s since installed new garage doors.
In our garden, I pull the flower heads off dandelions. My husband tells me they look cheerful, but I look on them as lawn-mice – if you leave one to propagate, you have a garden-full (and those roots go a lo-o-ong way down). I can’t do anything about the little fluffy seeds that blow over our fence, but I can remove their relations before they take over my garden.
I’ve nothing against dandelions – or mice – as long as they stay out of my way. I even trap those BIG spiders under a glass when they run across the carpet, so I can release them outside (although I sometimes wonder if they survive out there).
Live and let live. . . but not in my house.
Fur moult
Dog hair is something else that seems to multiply once it has left the dog.
The washing machine doesn’t get rid of shed dog hairs; it just distributes them around the rest of the laundry. And weaves it into the fabric.
(I’ve known this for years, but apparently my husband didn’t – even though he once kept German Shepherds.)
On the plus side, at least the dog hairs now sticking like glue to towels and tea-towels are clean.
Writing Wrinkles, and Random Ramblings 
I sort my clothes out regularly and give to charity shops, but am still amazed each time I look in a drawer how many I have. I took quite a few pairs of socks with me last week when I was house/dog sitting, and didn’t wear one pair as the weather changed. I struggled to fit them in the drawer when I came home. And you are right about animal hairs. I find cat hairs here, and I don’t have a cat ( I’d like one) But I regularly wash my daughter’s bedding for her. She says my washing smells much nicer than hers. I know, flattery gets me every time. She has three cats.
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That’s a new one on me – perhaps you should gift your daughter a pack of your washing powder/fabric softener, as a hint. On the whole, I’ve decided the pets are worth the random pet hairs.
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I really LOVE washing, so she’s doing me a favour sharing her loads with me…LOL
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I’d be happy to send you mine… 🙂
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I had rather expected that! Lol. I’m sure I’d make a very happy Widow Twanky in her laundrette.
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I have the opposite problem – when I take something out of the wardrobe I remove the hanger at the same time. When the clothes have been washed and dried I never seem to have enough hangers in the basket to hang everything up again!
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Maybe I should try that! Thanks for your suggestion.
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I have the same thief in my house! Where the hell are all the hangers? I buy them in bulk! They’re like toilet paper! Great post! C
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My daughter once called me very upset from New York City. She had just put her hand into her winter coat, which had been hanging during the fall, and found a whole brood of baby mice. We knew her apartment was mice laden, but it was over the top that day. My husband went down with some kind of foam and squirted it around the pipes which the mice apparently used to freely roam the six stories.
I always get rid of something just before I need it. At the moment it’s bobby pins. I thought I would never need them again and then I grew out my hair! I used to have them everywhere.
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Sadly I tend to hang on to things in case I ever need them again (although hubby is far worse than I am at this). The trouble is, when I do find I have a use for something, I can never remember where I put it. 😦
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You said it.
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I like the math angle of this post, with all the talk of multiplication.
We have the opposite problem with hangers; right now we are a couple short.
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I confess to keeping one or two spare hangers in hand when delivering to the charity shops. The trouble with doubling up garments on hangers is that I forget abut the the one underneath.
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I think I would forget about that other garment as well…
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