To hang my bl**dy MIL...

[Lunar270]

.....for re-hanging my washing on the line.

It was a nice(ish) day for hanging out the washing so there I am, pegging it all out. MIL pops round, sees me finishing the last of the washing and precedes to unpeg and hang it out again.

Now, a question for MN. I honestly don't spend much time thinking about it. However, I tend to peg garments using the strongest part of the garment. So for a tee shirt I'll peg the seam at the arm/shoulder as this also minimises peg marks. But nope, MIL turn the tee upside down and pegs the bottom seam, which results in the tee drying out of shape as it then droops (plus peg marks 🙄).

So I call her out on her ludicrous behaviour. First why the hell she's re-hanging my washing and also that she's doing it incorrectly (for me). I should bite my lip but no-one can ever do anything right in her eyes.

"Oh I've been a housewife for over 30 years so know what I'm doing". I could've hung her out with the washing too. AIBU?

Yeah....

NO

youd hate my anal
laundry ways 😂🤣😂😂👍🏻😂👍🏻

I did kind of ask so am happy being told I'm wrong 😂

But no, I peg the seams so I don't get marks. My MIL will peg a plain part of fabric so you do and it gets all out of shape when dry.

Ha! Controlling people always have double standards. Hilarious how you turned the tables on her @BarbedButterfly - well done.

For those of you who are anal about drying clothes I assume you don't use tumble dryers as how would you cope with the clothes being mixed up

You do realise this is supposed to be a light hearted thread right? No need to be insulting about any poster or their quirks.

It's not lighthearted when someone is so controlling they change what someone else has done, when what that first person has done is perfectly valid. And another poster used the term anal to describe their own laundry habits!

I like to hang washing out in order. Underwear together, grouped by person, then tops, jumpers, long trousers on the outside as it’s the highest part of the whirligig. Sometimes I’ll peg from the top but otherwise the hem is well folded over. Dh pegs stuff up any old how in a complete muddle and it drives me batshit. I don’t know why, I’m glad he does his share but I hate the way he does it. I have to grit my teeth. He has however managed to ruin three of my tops by hanging them by their very pointiest end of their hems and now the sides of my tops have droopy points to them.

I do T shirts from the bottom too (and never had peg marks or mishapen T shirts to my knowledge - I also do all the ironing, so would have noticed!)

But a good tip for things that go on hangers (jeans, trousers, hoodies, shirts etc) is to hang them on the hangers, and then peg the hangers to the line. That way, no peg marks, the trousers/bottoms obey the 'bottoms from the top' rule, and then when you come to iron them, you don't have go chasing around for coat hangers for items that need hanging!😅

My neighbour has always done this, and I started copying her about 5 years ago and have never looked back! I can't do it any other way now! But T shirts, PJ tops, yes always from the bottom, and non-hanger bottoms (PJs etc) always from the top.

I'm in a similar position, I thought it was just me being oversensitive but a number of other relatives and family friends have become quite exasperated with her because of this behaviour lately.
But like you, I have found this thread has given some much needed light relief 😂 never did I realise that people had such strong view on laundry

Nooooo! Any dust and grime on the surface sticks to the rim and goes in your mouth when you drink!

Who cares whether mil’s way was the conventional way or not - how dare she unpeg your own washing in your own garden! I’d be very peed off if someone did that and it left peg marks. I peg my washing to not leave visible peg marks.
If DH or the kids peg their stuff out their own way I leave them to it, but I couldn’t be doing with mil undoing what I’d just done and re-doing it in a way I don’t like.
Can you arrange for her to be at your place only at times you’re not doing washing etc?

it depends on the weather. If i hang a towel one way, oh shows me that that its better to hang it long ways, stretching out across the line and it is to be fair. More of it gets exposed.

I hang tops from the bottom and bottoms from the top but wouldn't repeg someone's washing

This sort of thing grinds my gears! If you want to hang your tshirts by one corner flapping in the wind, that's your privilege in your own house. Who is this person to undo what you've done??? Did someone appoint her Minister for Washing Lines??? 😡

Who cares what's the "right" way to hang a t-shirt, if it's someone else's laundry? If it's OP's family's clothes and OP's house and it was already done, you leave it alone. To do otherwise is slightly insane, imho.

I'd have mild sympathy for MIL if she came over half-way through, volunteered to help with what was left in the basket, and then hung things differently to how OP does. But rehanging someone else's laundry is champion-level passive-aggressiveness.

YANBU to be intensely irritated.

Neither OP or PP have been controlling though @toomuchlaundry - it was OP's own choice to post, lightheartedly, about her MiL's controlling antics.

The PP who called herself anal was mocking herself. Also lightheartedly.
There are plenty of solemn threads to choose from if this one fails to rock your boat.

@ThatCheeseIsMine how do you feel when the washing is going round the washing machine!

No that’s ok, they like that! Obviously that’s the equivalent of having a nice bath for them.

@ThatCheeseIsMine 😀

Well yeah I suppose. Especially if your line goes higher, but still, not, not really. The same amount of towel is exposed wether pegged out portrait or landscape style.

And how big is your line, I could get two towels landscape style on each line and not much else.

And why tf am I asking, I use the dryer.
Sorry very very lighthearted.

It will be spider-shit next, or whatever else MN is convinced our eight-legged friends do to laundry when they think no one's else is looking. Messy, web-spinning bastards ...

The only time I've ever judged anyone on their laundry hanging was my old neighbour who had a washing line but preferred to hang her washing out on her fence! It was a wire fence (farmland) so can't have done the washing any good. I never let on that I thought it was awful, though, because it wasn't my business.

It really doesn't matter how you hang the washing out. There are different theories. Your MIL obviously likes to show herself as superior.

Tbh I spent years hanging t-shirts upside down and (you’re quite right) they go out of shape! I now hang them right way up but it was a ridiculously hard habit to break.

Some of you will really appreciate Ursus Wehrli. His laundry is near the end of this article.

avax.news/wow/the_art_of_clean_up_by_ursus_wehrli.html

Tops from the bottoms
And bottoms from the top