My New Best Friend

You know how people say they can't imagine their life without their spouse or child? Well, I can't imagine doing laundry without my New Best Friend. Last month we flew to Maryland to see hubby's sister, C. While we were there we paid a visit to Ikea - that's right, I don't shop at Ikea, I visit Ikea, like it's friggin' Disney World - and I spent some time wandering around the clothes organization section. I was admiring all the beautiful baskets, bins and hampers when I found my New Best Friend (NBF). My NBF is 5 feet tall, enclosed on 3 sides, has 5 storage compartments and is on wheels. It seemed perfect for sorting clean but un-folded laundry. For only $30 there was no way this thing wasn't coming home with me. Only one problem. My NBF was available in the self-serve warehouse, but the tag was torn so I had no idea what aisle/bin to look for. I asked an Ikea employee for help, but I'm pretty sure I sounded like a giant idiot. "Yeah, I want to buy this thing and I need to know where to find it. It's white, and it has shelves, and it organizes clothes." I had just described 75% of Ikea's inventory, which would explain the blank stare I was receiving. It took 3 salespeople to help me, only because the last one was smart enough to ask me to point out my NBF in the showroom. Why didn't I think of that? After I tracked it down, my happiness was short-lived. I had my NBF in my greedy little hands, but the bag was going to be too big to fit into our suitcase. Hubby didn't appreciate my suggestion to drag it through the airport and gate-check it with the stroller, so it had to stay in Maryland until C drove down to NC for a visit in a few weeks. But I had just found her! How could I leave without my New Best Friend? Sob! As promised, C took good care of my NBF and we were soon reunited. Look how happy she is, sorting my clothes for me:

I swear, this thing makes all the difference in the world with my laundry. One thing I cannot stand is to have a giant pile of clean clothes that has no home, but migrates from couch, to bed, to dresser and back to the couch again. Mainly because my cats LOVE to lay on clean laundry and shed all over it - it gives them some sick satisfaction, I'm sure. Also, I hate when hubby wakes me up just to ask where he can find clean boxers. My NBF takes care of all of this and more. Whenever it's time to unload the dryer, I just wheel my NBF to the laundry closet, and put all the clean clothes into the appropriate compartment. Then I just wheel it into our room or the nursery to put away the clothes. If I don't fold them right away, as is usually the case, the separate compartments help narrow the search if we need something specific. The 3-sided enclosure works wonders at keeping the cat hair at bay. Lastly, it is the perfect size. It is large enough to hold 2-3 loads of laundry, but it isn't big enough to allow me to REALLY get behind on folding clothes. The only thing it doesn't do is fold the clothes for me. Surely one of you can invent me an automatic clothes folder? Pretty please?