Having recently moved to Johnson City as a transfer student to ETSU, I expected to be faced with a whole host of new challenges and obstacles to overcome that would most likely change my life forever.
Only too soon did I realize exactly what these obstacles would be …
Amongst them included: learning what the other appliances in the kitchen are for (besides just the microwave), memorizing the numbers of all of the local pizza delivery locations (and, of course, committing them to speed dial), coming to grips with the fact that my new apartment does not magically clean itself the way my parent’s house did – and the biggest and most confusing challenge of all – sorting out the dirty laundry.
I had avoided it for so many years. It doesn’t look that hard, most items of clothing even come with specific instructions: “machine wash cold with like colors,” “hand wash cold-iron if needed,” “machine wash cold, gentle wash cycle,” “lavar a maquina con agua tibia.” – seemingly simple – until one actually does the laundry.
Take “like colors” for instance. If I actually followed these instructions and sorted my laundry according to color, I would have a pile for each color of the rainbow, and then some. That equals out to be about 10-plus loads of laundry every week.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t even take into account the striped and multicolored clothing. What if I had a blue and yellow striped shirt? Wash it by itself? Buy more blue and yellow striped shirts? Take the shirt to my parent’s house and sneak it into their laundry?
And what about the instructions: “gentle cycle.” I don’t know about most college students, or the laundromats, but my poor little cheap washer has about four buttons on it, none of which include gentle cycle.
We also have the light vs. dark debate to analyze. Deciding whether or not my neon orange shirt is light or dark keeps me agonizing for hours on end.
Often I have to present any articles in question to my patient roommate who tells me into which pile each should go. But no one has a clear-cut method to do this – it is mostly guesswork.
People have different opinions on what is light and what is dark. Both my roommate and my parents have assured me that I will get used to deciphering this on my own – but what am I to do in the meantime?
I do not think clothing companies should be allowed to sell clothing that could be so potentially confusing to the untrained eye. Perhaps a level of difficulty rating should be added to washing instructions tags: Levels of difficulty rating
Level 3. Warning:professionals only
Level 2. Novice
Level 1. Helpless college student

Now having lived on my own for a few weeks, I am slowly starting to see the light (and the dark – ha!).
Even though I am starting to accumulate a colorful array of slightly discolored towels and washcloths, I have yet to actually ruin any significant item of clothing. In fact, lately I have rather been enjoying myself.
It is almost like a science project – how blue can I really make those white towels if I keep throwing them in with the dark colors? I am even learning to be more daring in my laundry excursions. Just last week, I learned how to use an iron on my successfully washed clothing, and only burned myself once. I am also hoping to start a new fashion trend.
What says “college student” better than discolored, faded, shrunken clothing?
I can tell that this new chapter in my life will be an important one; I will be learning new things everyday.
I have learned to keep these three important things in mind, and I have come to find that they not only come in handy when washing clothes, but for all other everyday obstacles in life:

Laundry Lessons
1. Always look for a chance to learn new things.

2.Stripes are bad.

3.When in doubt, call mom.

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