A day of enforced domesticity

This is the first day I am planning on spending entirely home alone since July.  No wonder the house is shambolic. And I have to admit, I am only doing it because we are expecting a delivery. But instead of pining for the fact that I could be playing tennis, I have decided to make a virtue of my house lockdown. Today is the day I am going to get things sorted. Oh yes.

It is before 9am. I have taken children to school, whizzed round the supermarket, done a load of laundry and pegged it out, put the second load in, changed two beds and am about to empty the dishwasher. Seriously doubt my ability to keep up this pace all day.

The delivery is Hubby's birthday present. It's a rowing machine. Anyone else smelling a mid-life crisis? It has probably been precipitated by the fact that I weigh less than him for the first time ever. That and the five minutes of me crowing with laughter when I realized. He tells me that we will all use the rowing machine. I'm thinking it will make a very useful hook for shirts when I'm doing the ironing.

Not sure when the last time I really did the ironing was. Possibly before we went on holiday. The pile has taken over the spare bed. Not a pretty sight. Ironing is the pinch point in my finely tuned laundry process. Because bits of laundry, I like. The washing machine whirring away means I am "being productive", even if I am sitting drinking coffee with a book. And I positively enjoy pegging out the wet washing on the line.

Though perhaps I am investing more energy in that simple task than I might. You see,  I am beginning to recognize that I have a stict mental peg heirarchy. In my peg bag (homemade, but badly - yet another domestic shortcoming to add to my list) there are an assortment of peg styles. In fact, delving in there is like exposing the geological strata of my line drying history.

The most elderly are the classic wooden pegs. Everyone has them - they do the job, but tend to migrate to the very bottom of the bag and are thus not in heavy rotation. There are a few plastic pegs from our time in Japan - they are shorter than your average peg (probably some fiendish oriental space saving plan) and I can clearly remember buying them in Yokohama Tokyu Hands and nearly crying at the eye watering expense. Still, twenty years on and they are still in rotation, so cost per use is looking pretty negligable. There are a few primary coloured pincer style pegs - useless at holding washing. I got them as a plaything for Mark when he was a tot (he never liked proper toys) because some Montessori style article said pegging was good for developing fine motor skills. I really should turf them. Along with the other elderly plastic ones which have gone brittle from being outside in cold weather and have a habit of snapping as you squeeze them.

Then come the birthday pressie pegs. Would you be offended to get pegs as a gift? Not these ones - they look like blackbirds  perched on your line. I squealed with delight - but they are not good for bulky things - best for tea towels and pillowcases.

 

I like to arrange the line so they sit next to some of the leaf and twig pegs that Monica found me. Like a naturalistic pegscape. Perhaps I should be concerned that not one, but TWO of my friends know my peg obsession is worthy of buying interesting pegs they come across, knowing how delighted I will be with them....

Gift pegs also have the benefit of someone else making the decision for you - because the agony of selecting my own when I got a longer line and realized I needed more, knew no bounds. In the end I hedged my bets with two different versions of the soft grip, non marking kind, which completes my asssortment. 

It goes wothout saying, that pegs must be matched to the item being hung, though not colour co-ordinated. Because that would just be taking matters too far, don't you think? There are limits to my madness.

Hark, I think I hear the beeping of a reversing delivery truck. Thank goodness! Because I think I've shared quite enough domestic luncacy for one morning. Possibly this is the reason why I try not to spend too much time home alone...

Comments

[Isabelle]

I love your fancy pegs, particularly the two-tone ones!
Hubby bought a cross-trainer a while back; midlife crisis too, perhaps?

[Thomasina Tittlemouse]

I absolutely loved reading this Ali because it felt so familiar and I completely get the whole clothes peg thing. I am afraid to say I too have a whole system for my clothes peg use. Like you, I have a mixed bag of assorted colours and types of peg acquired over the years which you'd think I could just use as they came to hand but not a bit of it - pegs can only be used in pairings with fellow pegs of the same type and no two (or more) pegs of the same colour must be used on the same garment (or next to one another on the line)! More sensibly, obviously some pegs are more suitable for some items than others but sadly this is an inferior consideration! I know, the men in white coast will be calling shortly! Especially as this habit of mine extends to re-pegging items to conform to the system if someone else has pegged stuff out without observing "the rules"!! Mornington Crescent has nothing on it!! Your blackbird pegs are wonderful! And of course they must be interspersed by leaves and twigs! Enjoy every moment of your domestic day! E xx

[rusty duck]

I love the blackbird pegs. Especially if they do double duty and keep the birds off. The blackbirds around here use my washing for target practice.

[Sue]

Fabulous.

My domestic lunacy is not confined to pegs (they must be wooden) but also to the way items are pegged on the line. Getting others to hang a load of washing is not timesaving if you then have to rehang it all correctly. In fact pegging out is a subject for an entire blogpost.

By the way, a rowing machine is infinitely preferable to a motorbike when it comes to mid-life crises.

[Avril Horn]

Ah pegging out ( of clothes, not of people), a topic of many varied threads. I knew I had reached middle age when I had a 20 minute conversation about whether I hung out knickers and pants like kippers ( single peg) or like flounders ( two pegs). And I recall much hilarity when my friends and I realised how long we had spent on that topic!

[Amy at love made my home]

I love your blackbird pegs!! I think that I would be playing all sorts of silly pegging out games with those if I had them. I have a mix of the old wooden ones - with the spring, not old enough to be the dolly kind - and plastic soft touch type ones I got a few years ago when the wooden ones started to die. I did have some of the plastic ones that break, but I turfed them out! What I really need are some really big fat pegs for bulky things! I hope that your hubby likes his present and that you like hanging the ironing from it! Well done you for weighing less than your hubby as I assume that means that an exercise plan has been in place, so well done you!! xx

[CJ]

Wonderful pegs. I'm a bit obsessive about having the right pegs too. I stock up whenever I see the "right" ones. The thing with ironing is you need to completely stop doing it. Just shake the stuff well when you take it out of the machine and fold it/hang it nicely when it's dry. Tell people you are doing it because you're environmentally friendly and you can totally get away with it. Ask me how I know. CJ xx

[Claire]

I thought I was alone! I too HAVE to have two of the same pegs and they must coordinate with the item but i also take perverse pleasure in hanging my husbands and sons clothes with pink pegs. Once when i was out for the day, my daughter emailed me a photo of a rotary line full of non matching, randomly selected pegs. Torture!

[Julie]

Domestic lunacy is good Ali and makes all the mind-numbingly boring chores a little more fun - it's also always nice to know that others share your foibles! We once had an exercise bike that made a very useful clothes hanger.

[driftwood]

I have bird pegs. they are too nice for outside. I hang things on string in my study

[monica]

I hadn't realised that your pegs issues went so deep....

[Toffeeapple]

I have a friend who does colour co-ordinates the pegs and the clothes...

[Isabelle]

I have never thought about pegs. Well, up till now.

Happily - though I am far from thin - my husband has never weighed less than me. True, he's nearly a foot taller, so it would be very upsetting if he did...

[Paola]

My pega are all white and all the same.
And boy do I hear you Sue.
Other than pegs I have an infinity of issues with my home ...