"What are you doing?" asked Pippa from the doorway to the laundry room.
Charlotte and Mariah looked at the smaller doll.
"We're doing the laundry," Mariah said. "The Writer is very tired."
"So we're helping out," Charlotte added.
"What's The Writer doing?" Pippa wanted to know.
"She's resting," Charlotte explained. The two younger grandchildren and their parents had just left. They had been with us for a visit for a few days.
"We're doing the laundry," Mariah explained, "to save her some time, so she can write this story."
"May I help?" Pippa asked, coming closer to where the two older dolls were working.
"We can always use help," Mariah agreed.
"What do I do?" Pippa asked, looking at all the dirty clothes.
"We're dividing up the laundry, first," Charlotte explained. "We're putting the dark things there, the lighter clothes here and the white things here," she added pointing to three of the piles on the floor.
"We also go through the pockets and take out anything that's left in them, especially tissue," Mariah added. "Tissue makes a real mess. It sort of melts in the water and then the little bits cling to everything. That's a very important part of getting the clothes ready!"
Pippa thought she could help. She knew which things were dark and which things were lighter, and she really knew when something was white.
"Why do you have to separate them?" she asked, picking up something that was a very, very dark red. "Why can't you just put them all in together?"
"Sometimes colors run," Charlotte explained, as the smaller doll put the very, very dark red shirt in the dark pile. "That means that some of the color leaves something dark or bright and goes into the wash water. Then it can end up in something light, like a white shirt can turn pink if it's washed with something dark red."
"It helps that we wash most things in cold water," Mariah added. "Hot water makes the colors run more, but it's still better to divide things up, especially if you have lots of things to wash or you can set the washer for a small load, and wash the white things alone."
Pippa thought she had the idea.
The three dolls worked together to finish separating the clothes. If Pippa wasn't sure which pile something belonged in, she would ask the older dolls, like when something had lots of different colors, some dark and some light, but most of the time she could figure it out for herself.
Sometimes they changed their minds about which pile something belonged in.
Pippa was careful to remember to feel around in the pockets, in case someone had forgotten a tissue in there. Whenever she found one, she put it into the trash.
When they had all the clothes divided up, Charlotte climbed up onto the washing machine and opened the lid.
Next, she put in the detergent.
Then other two girls threw clothes up to Charlotte. It was like playing basketball with one player standing over the hoop.
Charlotte caught the clothes and made sure they went into the washer.
Then she closed the lid.
Charlotte started the machine.
With that done, the three girls went back into the workroom to read for a while while the washing machine worked.
When the washing machine stopped, they got up from their reading on the day bed in the workroom and went back to the laundry room. It was harder to get the clothes out of the washing machine than it was to put them in. They were heavy now, because they were still wet.
They couldn't throw the clothes. Mariah handed each item to Pippa and asked her to drop it down to Charlotte, who caught it and put it into the dryer.
When all the wet clothes were in the dryer, Mariah showed Pippa how she set the dryer to start.
After that, the dolls had another load to put into the washer. They did it the same way they did the first load.
Again the three dolls went back to the workroom to read some more.
When the washer stopped, the dryer was still going, so they couldn't put the next load in yet. They listened until they heard the dryer make a buzzing noise. Then they took everything out of the dryer and put it into the laundry basket. Pippa really got into it! She found she could help better by climbing inside the dryer and handing the dry clothes out to Mariah and Charlotte.
After they finished putting the wet clothes into the dryer and starting the final load in the washer, they dragged the laundry basket into the workroom. Mariah and Pippa pulled while Charlotte pushed from behind with all her might.
They worked together to fold all the clean, dry clothes. Charlotte and Mariah folded all the big things, working together.
Pippa matched up all the socks.
When all three loads of laundry had been washed, dried and folded the three dolls were tired.
"I'm exhausted!" Mariah exclaimed. "Let's go get a snack to pretend to eat!"
Pippa and Charlotte thought that was a great idea.
"Yes," Pippa agreed. "We're all washed up!"
"We’re done with the wash," Mariah laughed, "and we're tired. You could say we're all wiped out, but we aren’t all washed up yet!" She would have to explain this to Pippa.
"May I join you for the pretend snack?" Billy asked from the hallway, where he had been taking photos.
"Of course," Charlotte told him. "You’ve been working hard, too!"
Yes, Billy took all the photos with the camera he received for Christmas. He did his part, too!
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19832501/?claim=j3fj3mbb8kt">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
Copyright © 2022 by Peggy Stuart
