Tide Pools

I'm too artistic to do laundry.  That's what I'm calling it, as opposed to "unfocused" or "distracted."  Sorting by colors is so hard, I can't do it.  I started out with some white things and a light gold table cloth because it was light enough to be with the whites.  Then I spotted a pair of darker gold pants.  I thought, "I could do a load with a gold theme."  I rummaged around and found a rust-colored towel that went nicely with the tablecloth and the pants.  Then I veered off into oranges and wound up with a load comprised of white clothes, gold clothes and orange clothes.  They all looked pretty together but something is going to come out a different color than it went in, I just know it.  But the color palette of the load was so pleasing.

Another load started off with a red and white striped towel.  Should I put it with the reds or the whites?  Should I use it to tie together a load of half red, half white?  Even my dad knows that's not a good idea, but a red and white load of laundry swirling around in there has such a pleasant circus-tent quality to it, I should add a black scarf as an accent color.  What about that white shirt with the black sleeves?  Add it to a load of greys?  Is it colors you separate by, or color saturation levels?  Because if I have a really green pair of pants, (and you all know I do!) can I wash it with a slightly green towel?  Or should I wash it with a really blue shirt and a really purple skirt?

I'll tell you what I've done, which has saved me from having to do the laundry of all the smart people in my family:  I use a method called "survival of the fittest."  I wash all the colors together and whatever doesn't come out the same or better than it went in, is thrown out.  I've had to sacrifice a few nice things to this method, but the world has lost the wooly mammoth and the dodo bird.  What's one shrunken cashmere sweater in the whole scheme of things?  One less thing I have to categorize, I can tell you that much.