Patric Richardson, LAUNDRY LOVE: FINDING JOY IN A COMMON CHORE
[0:01]Hi, this is Vivi Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast, Momstone Have Time to Read Books.
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[0:35]Okay, now back to this amazing podcast.
[0:38]Patrick Richardson is the author of Laundry Love, finding joy in a common chore.
[0:43]Patrick is a fashion pro textile expert and Kentucky native, who owns the Mona Williams boutique at Mall of America,
[0:50]where he holds Laundry Camp for all that's interested in learning his fun and easy laundry lessons.
[0:55]Previously, he worked at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and other great department stores.
[0:59]He lives with his partner in St. Paul, Minnesota, his other beloved state.
[1:03]Welcome, Patrick.
[1:04]Thanks for coming on Momstone Have Time to Read Books.
[1:07]Oh, thank you so much.
[1:08]Thanks for having me.
[1:09]This is going to be super fun.
[1:10]Oh, I hope so.
[1:11]I'm excited.
[1:12]Tell everybody, please, about your book, Laundry Love, and your really unique and awesome career
[1:18]and how you've encapsulated all of it in this fantastic book.
[1:22]So the book, Laundry Love, is I believe that you can wash everything you own and nothing
[1:28]has to go to the dry cleaner.
[1:29]So the book tells you how to do that.
[1:32]It takes you from sorting your clothes to washing them to removing stains and then along
[1:40]the way, it's also a love letter to these sort of these women in my life who were very pivotal.
[1:45]And the book actually started with the idea of the women, but also my love of laundry.
[1:51]My granny dude, who was very influential and very important in my life.
[1:55]And my mother, my stepmother, and just these other women.
[1:59]And so it kind of hogs up.
[2:01]I grew up in Eastern Kentucky.
[2:03]And the book actually starts with some early laundry memories that I have.
[2:08]And then it takes you through.
[2:09]So when you're done reading the book, I hope that you learn to love Eastern Kentucky
[2:14]and the Appalachians as much as I do.
[2:16]I hope that you wash all of your clothes and you don't send anything to the dry cleaner.
[2:21]And I hope that you confidently wear everything you own because I think that's part
[2:25]of the fun of having great clothes.
[2:28]And so many people have these beautiful things and they're afraid to wear them because
[2:32]they're afraid they'll get a stain on them.
[2:34]So I believe that you wear it all.
[2:37]And once you read the book, you confidently will throw on your very best jacket to go to
[2:42]the grocery store.
[2:43]Well, I love how you interwove some of the memoirs stuff about your family and even those
[2:48]recipes in the back.
[2:49]And there was one for like a sour cream cake that I might have to just try this weekend.
[2:54]But the advice you give is like so great.
[2:57]I do so much laundry.
[2:59]And so I think about this a lot.
[3:00]And there's all this time where you really can't do too much else while you're doing the laundry.
[3:04]And you had some tips that are easy to change like for my next load of laundry.
[3:09]And then some that are more of investment in the products that I should get or we all should
[3:14]get, but I'll just take it for me.
[3:16]So the first thing you said that I can do really easily, for instance, is always do an
[3:20]express wash and always wash on warm, right?
[3:24]And that those two things can change right away.
[3:27]Yeah, it's a game changer because I believe that a family of five can do all of their
[3:32]laundry in four and a half hours.
[3:34]And one of the ways you do that is go to the express cycle.
[3:37]And, you know, the reason the express cycle works is actually the warm water because
[3:42]the warm water boosts the cleaning power of whatever you're using.
[3:46]And so that you can shorten the cycle, you know, so that's the beauty of it.
[3:51]You speed up the time and then, you know, you can just go to this quick cycle.
[3:55]And if you're a mom, you know, then you have other things to do.
[4:00]You know, you don't want to like these two hour cycles are ridiculous.
[4:03]They're hard on your clothes, first of all, because you're just beating them to death.
[4:08]And then also who has two hours?
[4:10]You know, I mean, if I'm going to spend two hours, I want to like read or needle white.
[4:14]I don't want to, you know, watch the watching machine.
[4:16]And I love to watch the watching machine.
[4:18]I love that you got that as a present when you were three.
[4:23]I didn't even know they made like toy little washing machines.
[4:25]That's pretty awesome.
[4:26]Totally.
[4:27]But I did.
[4:28]It was, and I was so excited to get it.
[4:31]And it's funny because, you know, I'm now like scouring eBay trying to find another one
[4:36]because, you know, I kind of need to recap for that.
[4:39]Totally that somebody has to start producing that toy again.
[4:42]That's pretty awesome.
[4:43]Exactly.
[4:44]So I do like at least two to four loads of laundry every day, particularly on the weekends
[4:49]because I have four kids and my husband and me and everybody.
[4:53]And there's just a lot of clothes.
[4:54]But when I read your book, I felt like I was doing it all wrong because well,
[4:58]the first thing that I was worried about is you said after,
[5:01]what did you say after 50 washings?
[5:03]You've like ruined the piece of clothing forever.
[5:06]So now I realized that like.
[5:08]it's not ruined.
[5:09]It's just, that's the life of a quality garment is about 50 washings and 50 drawings.
[5:14]So if you stop the dryer, you get more washings, which matters a lot for you and your
[5:19]husband.
[5:20]I mean, because, you know, your clothes aren't really going to change the sides.
[5:23]I mean, your kids, you know, I always say throw kids close in the dryer.
[5:27]The reality is they're going to outgrow them before they wear out.
[5:31]So who cares?
[5:32]Okay.
[5:33]You know, even if they're beautiful things, I mean, you can pass them down.
[5:37]I mean, you can have four children and pass the same out of them down four times and it
[5:41]probably still won't wear out, you know, so but adult clothes, you know, and not because
[5:48]I don't think you should care for children's clothes.
[5:51]It's just, you know, the life 50 washings and 50 drawings, kids just don't get that kind
[5:56]of life out of their clothes.
[5:58]And you also talk about air drying and not only how it's better for the clothes, but also
[6:02]for the environment and how we should air dry or even sometimes just like hang clothes
[6:07]outside or even skip the wash all together and just spray your clothes with vodka, which
[6:13]I couldn't.
[6:14]I was like, did I read that correctly?
[6:15]All right, tell me, tell me about this trick.
[6:17]Am I literally going to like pick the pajamas off the floor and start like shooting vodka
[6:22]all over them?
[6:23]I think people will think I'd lost my mind.
[6:25]They might, but it doesn't mean it's wrong.
[6:28]I mean, costumers do it.
[6:29]If you go to a Broadway show, I can promise you all of those costumes have been sprayed
[6:34]with vodka because they don't wash them or monitor them between every poshing.
[6:38]It's a great trick.
[6:39]It's especially a great trick for something like your pajamas.
[6:42]I'd probably throw those in the washer, but like your shirt that you wore to a party
[6:47]or that you wore to work or something, I mean, it's not really dirty.
[6:51]You just had it on all day, you know, there's nothing dirty about it.
[6:55]Spray it with a little vodka vodka is any bacterial.
[7:00]I spray my countertops with vodka and my cutting boards with vodka.
[7:03]I use vodka everywhere.
[7:04]It's very any bacterial and so you can spray it on something that, you know, just smells
[7:09]kind of stale or, you know, that you want to kind of get a couple extra lives out of.
[7:15]I mean, your kids, like I don't know how old your kids are, but, you know, like they're
[7:19]gym bags.
[7:20]You can spray with vodka.
[7:21]And what's great about vodka is when it dries, it's completely odorless and completely
[7:25]colored us.
[7:26]So it, you know, it just evaporates into sort of the ether and, you know, everything smells
[7:31]better, but there's no scent behind.
[7:35]It's a great trick.
[7:37]Okay.
[7:38]We had a lot of, you know, antiseptic for the pandemic and little spray bottles, I'll
[7:41]remember.
[7:42]So I guess I could toss that and put in some vodka and just, you know, so do you drink
[7:46]the vodka?
[7:47]Like, are you a vodka drinker?
[7:49]I am a vodka drinker, but my rule is if it's good, if it's good enough to clean with,
[7:53]it's not good enough to drink.
[7:55]So it's cheap vodka for the laundry.
[7:57]Good vodka for the bad trick.
[7:59]What's your favorite friend of vodka to drink?
[8:01]I don't know.
[8:02]My partner always buys him.
[8:03]This is totally irrelevant to it.
[8:04]Yeah, I know.
[8:05]I mean, it's probably what we probably keep on the hand most of the time is Greg Ace.
[8:09]Yeah.
[8:10]I like vanilla vodka, but maybe that doesn't have as many good cleaning properties.
[8:14]So I'll just say that.
[8:15]Yeah, say that to drink and just tell yourself some, you know, inexpensive, clear
[8:19]vodka, you know, spray, like spray everything else.
[8:22]Okay.
[8:23]Let's talk about the lack of dry cleaning.
[8:26]I was thinking, oh, how great.
[8:28]I bet he could sell this book in like every dry cleaner and that would be such a great
[8:31]marketing vehicle for him.
[8:33]And then I was like, oh, no, he's now told everybody never to go to a dry cleaner again.
[8:36]This is not going to be a good mood for the dry cleaning community.
[8:39]So we shouldn't dry clean anything.
[8:41]I really haven't dried clean anything honestly since the pandemic started.
[8:44]So I'm glad you say that.
[8:46]I also haven't really washed most of the stuff either that's dry clean only.
[8:50]So tell me when I'm supposed to put it in a little zip bag, because you said sometimes
[8:54]sweaters, you're supposed to fold and put in a little mesh bag.
[8:57]And then other times you don't have to tell me, okay, what do we do with our sweaters?
[9:02]So anything wool or silk, so anything wool or silk goes in a little mesh bag.
[9:07]And you want to step it in the bag so tight that it's like a little sausage, like I'm
[9:12]a big guy and my overcoat, which goes all the way to the floor because it's called in
[9:17]Minnesota.
[9:18]I think it's 70 degrees right now.
[9:20]My overcoat goes into a bag that's smaller than a colloke, guys.
[9:23]You want it really tight in the bag.
[9:25]And the reason for that is the reason everybody doesn't wash wool, right, is they're afraid
[9:29]that it's going to shrink.
[9:30]Like, you know, that sweater that you have on now goes in the washroom when it comes
[9:34]at it.
[9:35]It's the dog.
[9:36]Well, that's felting and felting happens when fibers rub against themselves.
[9:41]So when you put it in this bag, so small that it can't move, it can't rub against
[9:45]itself and it can't belt.
[9:47]But the water and the soap can still go through it and still gets it clean.
[9:50]The one thing about, you know, watching your suit coat or the trousers, you know, it's
[9:55]the thing that I have to get people over is, you know, you do have to iron.
[9:59]You know, your sweaters.
[10:00]put them in a mesh bag, throw them in the launcher,
[10:02]and they come out great.
[10:03]And it's funny, if you've dried clean them before,
[10:06]when you bring them out,
[10:07]they're gonna be softer than like you ever knew they could be.
[10:10]It's like a revolution.
[10:12]I mean, you just, it's amazing.
[10:15]Wow.
[10:16]And when am I supposed to be bawling up the aluminum foil?
[10:19]That was another trick.
[10:20]Now that's great.
[10:21]That's great, the winter, because the static,
[10:23]you make a ball of aluminum foil and toss it in your dryer.
[10:26]I never leave it out.
[10:27]I put it in the dryer,
[10:29]and I just leave it in there all the time.
[10:31]And it absorbs static better than any dryer sheet
[10:34]or anything that you've ever used.
[10:37]And, you know, I mean,
[10:38]it doesn't have aluminum foil around it.
[10:40]I mean, how you see is that, right?
[10:42]I like to use it when I'm really desperate
[10:43]with the kids, my kids range in age from six to 13
[10:46]to make little animals.
[10:48]So you gotta use lots of fine lots of uses
[10:53]for the aluminum foil.
[10:54]And you suggested also tennis balls
[10:55]that was for getting your towels nice and fluffy.
[10:58]Yeah, towels are down because,
[11:00]and the reason for tennis balls is they're active.
[11:03]Like, you know, wool balls are great for, you know,
[11:05]like you can put essential oils on them
[11:07]if you want to sit your clothes like something.
[11:09]But tennis balls are active, they're meant to spring.
[11:12]So I mean, when they're in the dryer,
[11:14]you, I mean, it sounds like, you know, you've gone to war.
[11:17]But because they're so active,
[11:19]they actually do beat the loft back into things
[11:23]that you want to be fluffy.
[11:26]You know, it's also great right now,
[11:27]like for plantal sheets.
[11:28]So just to make sure I understand,
[11:30]I have like, I don't know, six towels that I need to wash.
[11:34]They're mostly white ish or white enough, white adjacent.
[11:38]I throw them all in the wash.
[11:39]I put them on warm in an express cycle,
[11:41]but I'm not gonna buy any store bought detergent or pods
[11:44]because you think those are all terrible.
[11:45]I'm gonna get some of your soap flakes
[11:47]or something like that, and then,
[11:49]and then I put them in the dryer with the tennis balls.
[11:52]And do I put it on high heat?
[11:54]Or like they usually do extra long.
[11:56]I always use it on warm,
[11:58]but my dryer senses when it's time to burn it off.
[12:01]Oh, okay.
[12:02]So if your dryer doesn't,
[12:03]for your towels, you can use warmer hot.
[12:05]Warm is so much better than hot.
[12:07]It may add three or four minutes to the dry cycle,
[12:10]but it's gonna be so much better for the thread.
[12:12]Because your towels are cotton, they're totally fine,
[12:15]but the thread that sets them together
[12:17]is actually polyester,
[12:18]and that high heat is gonna cause them to break down.
[12:21]And that's why your towels get that kind of ripple
[12:25]at the ends, you know, they kind of get that,
[12:27]that's actually from the polyester thread starting to shrink.
[12:30]Hmm.
[12:31]Yeah, I feel like my towels get crunchy over time.
[12:34]I feel like they only last about a year.
[12:36]Too much detergent.
[12:38]Too much detergent.
[12:39]It's just a thing in crunchy.
[12:41]Wow.
[12:41]So yeah, use less.
[12:42]I mean, less is always more when it comes
[12:44]to whatever you use.
[12:47]And what about, I'm sorry,
[12:49]I will ask more about your career,
[12:50]but I felt like this knowledge is like so great.
[12:53]So there are these pajamas like from Roberto Roller Rabbit
[12:56]that are so soft when you touch them.
[12:58]But then as soon as you wash them,
[13:00]the softness is gone.
[13:01]Maybe it takes two washes.
[13:03]What do you do about clothes like that?
[13:05]Is that because of the dryer or the washer or both or what?
[13:08]What am I doing wrong?
[13:10]So they're soft and then they're not.
[13:12]Yeah, they're almost like a bamboo softener,
[13:15]like so soft.
[13:16]Oh, okay, got that.
[13:17]I'm guessing that,
[13:20]I mean, you wash them and you put them in the dryer
[13:23]and you're using good detergent.
[13:24]I mean, I'm using tide.
[13:27]It's residue from your detergent.
[13:29]Okay.
[13:30]I mean, if you go to something that rents is completely clean
[13:32]and I'm not going to tell you you have to buy myself likes.
[13:34]I mean, go get a hoshing wash, you know what I mean?
[13:36]Or draft something that will rinse completely clean
[13:40]because what's happening is you're getting a residue
[13:43]from the detergent that's coating the fabric.
[13:46]And so you're not actually feeling the fabric,
[13:48]you're feeling the detergent.
[13:50]Albed, if you took them right now
[13:52]and just wash them in vinegar,
[13:53]if you just put like a cup of vinegar in the water
[13:56]in the washing machine and nothing else,
[13:58]they would deal soft when you took it out
[14:00]because it would break that residue down.
[14:02]So you think I should put a cup of vinegar
[14:04]in the washing machine?
[14:05]Right, with nothing else.
[14:06]And then run it and then whether you're pajamas
[14:09]and then run just the pajamas on water
[14:11]and it'll break that vinegar down.
[14:13]And it would nothing bad will happen.
[14:15]Okay.
[14:16]No, vinegar is right.
[14:16]Just like plain white vinegar.
[14:19]Yeah, like cheap white vinegar, yeah.
[14:21]Okay.
[14:22]And then I should go buy some drift and throw out the type.
[14:24]Yes.
[14:25]If you're gonna buy something
[14:26]that's a grocery store, I buy draft.
[14:27]I mean, I like other things.
[14:29]I mean, obviously I love my soap likes,
[14:31]but I like, you know, I love the laundress.
[14:34]I mean, there's a few of those kind of premium detergent brands
[14:37]that I love and they're really not more expensive
[14:40]because they're so concentrated, you use so much less.
[14:43]It's like, like when you go to this lawn,
[14:46]you know, you buy really expensive shampoo at the salon,
[14:49]but you find that the bottle lasts to like, you know,
[14:51]six months, whereas if you buy a cheaper bottle
[14:54]at the grocery, you know, it's less expensive
[14:57]than it lasts a month.
[14:58]So really, when you average it out,
[15:00]it's all kind of the same.
[15:02]So that's how I feel about premium laundry to do.
[15:05]Okay.
[15:06]And if I wanted to buy your soap plates,
[15:08]where do I get this?
[15:09]The laundryofangelist.com,
[15:11]or you can buy them in my store at Mall of America.
[15:13]If, you know, you want to buy just seven to great temperatures.
[15:17]I'm going to skip the trip to Mall of America,
[15:19]but I can easily go on your website.
[15:22]Yeah, laundryofangelist.com.
[15:23]I formulated, it's funny,
[15:25]they're based on a 200-year-old recipe,
[15:26]but they're formulated and the woman who makes them for me
[15:30]is familiar with soap all over the world
[15:32]because, and she says,
[15:33]I truly make the best soap likes the world.
[15:35]So I'm going to trust her because it sounds good.
[15:39]All right.
[15:40]And then you spoke really negatively about pods,
[15:44]like detergent pods.
[15:45]There's just way too much detergent in them.
[15:47]I mean, there's just,
[15:48]there's enough detergent in one pod
[15:50]to do five loads of laundry.
[15:52]And you just can't rinse it out.
[15:54]And if you talk to laundry with a pair of guys,
[15:56]they will tell you those pods don't 100% break down.
[16:00]And what ends up happening is they
[16:02]turn up the sensors in your washing machine.
[16:05]You know, so you paid up fortune for this washing machine
[16:08]and they're gumming up the sensors.
[16:09]So whatever detergent, please don't use pods.
[16:12]And it's hysterical.
[16:13]I've met people who are like,
[16:14]oh, I've thrown in three.
[16:16]And then like your clothes must feel like cardboard.
[16:20]Well, I do,
[16:21]sometimes usually we don't have pods,
[16:22]but this last time that was all that they had on like,
[16:24]I don't know, fresh stretch or something.
[16:26]And so on the label, it says,
[16:28]if you have a big load put in two.
[16:30]So I've been putting in two when I do all the towels,
[16:32]which is probably why I'm ruining this.
[16:33]No, no, no, please don't do that, please don't.
[16:37]Just one, if you're gonna use them, use them up.
[16:40]I don't believe you should ever, you know,
[16:42]toss them and use them up,
[16:43]but please only use one.
[16:45]Okay.
[16:45]It's more than enough.
[16:46]Okay, wait, back to the dry cleaning goods.
[16:49]I feel like I, so I put them in the bag.
[16:51]What about air drying?
[16:52]I have to air dry all the,
[16:53]I'm getting all my chips.
[16:54]I'm literally going to like take everything you said
[16:56]and change the way I do everything.
[16:58]So okay, awesome.
[16:59]I love the air dry.
[17:00]Do I do everything air dry that I do that's dry clean only?
[17:03]Yeah, you just hang it up like if it's woven
[17:06]and it's not going to stretch out a shape.
[17:08]Just put on a hanger and let it dry.
[17:10]Like I'm not throwing them on the closet rod
[17:12]or I mean on the shower rod.
[17:14]And if it's a sweater or something
[17:15]that you're worried about it stretching,
[17:17]just put it across the drying room.
[17:18]I mean, in a pinch, if you don't have a drying rack,
[17:20]then literally throw it across the back of the chair.
[17:23]And that will dry.
[17:24]I mean, that will do it.
[17:25]You just don't want to hang sweaters
[17:26]because you get those sort of hanger ears.
[17:29]Mm-hmm.
[17:30]So you just throw them across the drying room.
[17:32]I mean, and it really is fast
[17:34]because especially when you start using a cleaner detergent,
[17:38]when your clothes spin, they spin almost dry.
[17:42]So I find, like the shirt I have on, you know,
[17:47]when I took it out of the washer
[17:48]and I hung it up to dry.
[17:50]By the time the next load was done,
[17:52]the shirt was dry because they spin so dry.
[17:55]I mean, that detergent also holds water.
[17:59]You know, so that when detergent residue also holds water.
[18:02]So, you know, your clothes are wetter
[18:05]when you use a commercial detergent.
[18:08]Wow.
[18:09]So it's pretty effective, you know.
[18:12]It doesn't, when I tell people to air dry everything,
[18:15]they panic.
[18:16]But when you really start doing it,
[18:18]it doesn't take that long.
[18:20]And it's funny because it's really kind of easy
[18:22]because, especially with your children's clothes
[18:25]that you want to hang up, I mean,
[18:26]most of their stuff should just go on the prior.
[18:28]But the things you want to hang up,
[18:29]you're not going to have to iron them at all.
[18:32]Well, I don't really iron anything.
[18:33]Oh, okay.
[18:34]But you don't have to,
[18:35]I mean, it'll really cut back on that anyway.
[18:37]I love, believe it or not, I love it.
[18:39]I feel like my mom, when I was a little girl,
[18:42]she would like take her beautiful napkins
[18:45]and we would go and like, you know, she would show me
[18:47]and I would do the little napkins
[18:49]and we would fold them and put them away.
[18:50]And now I'm like, I can't even, I don't know.
[18:52]I don't iron, I just don't, I'm sorry.
[18:54]You don't have to.
[18:57]But I feel like this is my last technical question.
[18:59]I feel like when I take out clothes
[19:02]and I air dry them like some jeans
[19:04]and some t-shirts, even and things,
[19:06]they, they harden in the air.
[19:08]And so when I go to fold them and wear them,
[19:10]they feel like stiff.
[19:13]It's also detergent.
[19:14]If you cut back on the detergent that won't happen,
[19:17]they'll be softer.
[19:19]It's the detergent is actually, it's just the coating.
[19:23]You know, so if you imagine that you wash your hands
[19:27]and you didn't wash all the soap off
[19:29]when it dried what it would feel like.
[19:31]Well, that's exactly what's happened into your clothes.
[19:34]Wow.
[19:34]So the trick is to get that softness.
[19:36]Just come back on, you know, even whatever you're using.
[19:39]I mean, if you want to continue to use your detergent fine,
[19:42]but you know how they say like you use like a fourth
[19:45]of a cup for a full load and an eighth of a cup
[19:47]for a small load, use half of that.
[19:49]Use about three tablespoons of your detergent
[19:52]and that'll be more than enough.
[19:54]Oh, yeah, no, I use a lot of detergent.
[19:57]Yeah, yeah, if you cut back on your safety money,
[19:59]which is.
[20:00]Right, right. I know, but I'm always like, what if it's not
[20:02]they won't know crunchy.
[20:04]Okay. All right. Wow. There's still more than enough to get your clothes playing.
[20:08]So interesting. Yeah. Wow. This is like life changing. We'd so tell me,
[20:12]oh, no, I'm it is like because I think about it's something that I don't ever talk to
[20:17]anybody about. And yet I spend a lot of my time doing. So your book was like,
[20:21]it was just really helpful. And even my husband, the other day, he was like,
[20:24]all right, well, show me what to do. Like do I sort them by whites and darks? And I'm like,
[20:28]no, just like throw everything in and throw these pots. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. So now everyone
[20:34]does his clothes. Sorry. Okay. Well, Patrick, tell me a little bit about writing this book. What was it
[20:39]like for you to write it? How long did that take? Well, it's funny. It parts of it just blue. And then
[20:45]parts of it were harder. It took about eight months beginning to end because I mean, there were
[20:51]things I had to like research. You know, I mean, because I didn't want to I knew them imputively,
[20:56]but I needed to know like technical terms. And I didn't remember because it's been a while
[21:00]since I was in Holland. But it was really fun. And it was it kind of made me fall in love with
[21:06]my childhood all over again. Because I sort of realized, you know, just how incredible my life is.
[21:13]You know, and how wonderful these people were in my life and how ridiculously I lucky I was. I mean,
[21:20]you know, my granny. If you read the book, I mean, truly the book is a love letter to her
[21:26]because I loved her so much. And my mother, and I had this next door neighbor who
[21:33]was just this fascinating woman and she under mangled. And I thought if you were really
[21:37]sophisticated, you had a mangle. So it was a goal. It's going to happen. And it just reminded me like,
[21:44]you know, how great sort of everything was. I mean, you know, my mom was an incredible cook.
[21:51]The recipes in the back. I had to call her for all of them because there were things that
[21:56]I remembered. And a few of them I had to do to make. And so it was fun. It was really fun to write
[22:02]the book. And it was really fun to just get to remember all of these things. I mean, I think it's
[22:09]funny. I think we all have memories of like our, you know, like our childhood or, you know,
[22:15]whatever. And you're making memories for your children. And, you know, they do have them.
[22:21]So, you know, it's just it's great to have these memories. So it was really, it was so much fun
[22:25]to write the book. I'm like ready to write another one just because it was so fun. I don't know what
[22:29]it's going to be. Well, I do actually know what it's going to be about. But, you know, we'll get through
[22:33]the first one first. Can I make a suggestion? Although this isn't really in your wheelhouse given
[22:38]that you are like Mr. Textile and know everything from like, you know, ancient Chinese rituals to,
[22:44]you know, I know this is your, but in the interest of helping everybody through their daily life,
[22:49]I think you should do another one on doing the dishes. Maybe there's like,
[22:53]maybe there's something where you can make that easier. What you should hand watch with soaps,
[22:57]I don't know if it's a whole book, but maybe even an essay on it or something.
[23:01]Okay. Well, it's really funny because my second book is going to be the out of clean your house.
[23:05]Is it really? Oh, my gosh. That's really what it is. Well, not a ton of green of that process.
[23:12]Because, you know, I always say it that, you know, my stick is kind of echo luxury.
[23:17]Like, I think you should be able to live this really luxurious life like the cashmere sweaters
[23:21]and, you know, cloth napkins, but it still can be eco friendly, you know. So yeah, that's really
[23:28]funny. Yeah, that's perfect. That's the perfect thing you should do. I'm excited about that.
[23:33]I really love blue land cleaning supplies. Have you tried those? Oh, I haven't.
[23:36]Oh, my God. It's amazing because they give you just the pods and then three glass containers.
[23:42]One is bath and window. They used to be a sponsor of mine, but I like use it all the time.
[23:46]So I'm not saying this because they're a sponsor. But anyway, I use there's one for multi thing,
[23:52]multi surface. So I do that like on the kitchen table and anywhere in the kitchen, honestly.
[23:55]And then there's one for bath and window and then they have hand soap and you just take the little
[23:59]pod. That's like the size of a quarter and you put it in the glass container with warm water
[24:04]and shake it up. And it lasts for, I don't know, a couple of weeks each time. So you never have to
[24:09]throw the plastic away. And all you have to do for storage is keep more of these little pods on
[24:13]hand. Wow, I'm probably going to look into it. I've not tried them. And they actually have
[24:18]totally better. They have a washing machine detergent pod. So I felt like it didn't work very well
[24:25]in there in the laundry. So I stopped using those. But I love the multi surface and the kids love
[24:30]to use it too. And they love to make it. You know, it's like a concoction. Sure. And they're all
[24:35]different colors. So one is yellow and then the window one is blue. And anyway, I'm going to
[24:41]check them out. Yeah, blue and cleaning. Or even have a gift set. Okay, I'll stuff.
[24:47]Actually, what you should do is partner with blue and cleaning. I'm going to find whoever it was
[24:51]who put me in touch with them because you should have a gift set with your book and their products.
[24:56]Oh, yeah. Because there already should have the book. Everybody should have the book.
[25:00]Yeah. You know, and then they can make, you know,
[25:03]Granny Jall's sweet potato balls on top of everything else. Yes. Well, okay, maybe.
[25:11]Do you have any advice for aspiring authors? Yes, my best advice. It's really funny
[25:17]because, you know, I wanted to write this book. And I kind of got, we got kind of got the first
[25:23]part of it down. And then it had a stalemate. And I was talking to a friend of mine who happens
[25:30]to be an author. And he's like, Oh, well, I need to connect you with somebody. So my best advice for
[25:35]any aspiring author is tell everybody that that's what you want to do. Because you never know
[25:41]when somebody's like, Oh, I know somebody who, you know, can connect you with an agent or connect
[25:46]you with, you know, whatever it is you need because lots of people have great ideas. But if you
[25:51]you can't get it to the person that can help you get it published, you know, and then beyond that,
[25:57]my other piece of advice, which is something that I've mentioned already is, you know, look at like,
[26:03]just look at your path. I mean, even if you don't think you have great stories, you have great
[26:07]stories. You just have to remember that. Okay, you know, because everybody has interesting stories.
[26:12]You just have to, you know, go in your mind and pull them out. And, you know, if there's something
[26:17]that you love as much as laundry, you know, that can be your thing. So, you know, who knew, who knew
[26:22]a book about laundry, right? It's fantastic to be honest to you. I it was supposed to come out a lot
[26:27]earlier. And then you push back the pub date, right? And I was so sad about that. Because I was like,
[26:32]I need this book now. It was like when we were all home all day every day. And I was like, Oh, no,
[26:36]I didn't want this one pushed. But anyway, I'm sure you didn't either. I agree. I didn't either.
[26:43]But you know what? It's funny. It's going to come out at just the right time. You know, everything
[26:47]comes at just the right moment. And it's going to be fun. You know, it's going to be a super fun
[26:53]book. I'm hoping, you know, laundry is kind of picked up kind of in the world. You know, more people
[26:58]are talking about laundry. So it really probably is a better time. You know, Drew Barrymore loves laundry.
[27:03]Oh, there you go. And she talks about it all the time. I mean, it's just kind of a commit thing.
[27:06]So it's fun. But I was disappointed. I was very disappointed that it was pushed back. Because,
[27:11]you know, when it comes out, it will be about just a little over three years from conception,
[27:17]which feels like a long time. You know, and I mean, when I've talked to other people, they're like,
[27:22]yeah, that's a little longer than most books. But it's coming out at just the right time, you know,
[27:27]just to have a spring cleaning when you change over your closet. Yes, everything happens as it should
[27:32]as it should be. Exactly. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for all of the advice in your book
[27:39]and letting me pick your brain about some of my clothing issues here. And I can't wait for the
[27:44]cleaning book for the house cleaning book. But laundry is really like the pain of my existence.
[27:48]So I'm so glad to get some good tips, which will make my family feel better, which is great.
[27:54]Yeah. Can I give you two final tips? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. You should I get disco ball in your laundry room,
[27:59]because it's always more fun if there's a disco ball. We have a disco ball in our playroom,
[28:03]but I can move it. We get a second. You can always have more disco balls.
[28:09]The girls are great. I love them. The second one though is something that I tell everybody about
[28:14]laundry. You know, when I was a kid, like long before, like, you were born, everybody, like, if you
[28:19]watched like sitcoms or whatever, people, primarily women, would complain about having to make dinner,
[28:25]because it was like this chore, like, oh, I have to make dinner. And it's this huge chore. And now,
[28:31]you know, we have how many different celebrity chefs and we have networks devoted to cooking
[28:37]and cookbooks are a huge category. As you would know, and it's the exact same process, you know,
[28:44]Julia Child put the cake, put the chicken in the oven, the exact same way on a garden,
[28:48]but it's the chicken in the oven. And the only difference is somebody decided that cooking wasn't
[28:54]a chore, that it was a hobby. So if you decide that laundry is a hobby, and it's not a chore,
[29:00]then all of a sudden it's fun. I love that. I love that. No, that's so great. Yeah. And even
[29:06]something you can get better at, right, that you can't, it's not just something you're doing.
[29:10]Yeah. And you know, when you start tackling the stains, you get this real sense of satisfaction.
[29:16]You know, when the ketchup comes out of, you know, the school uniform or whatever,
[29:20]you really get this sense of satisfaction about it. Well, maybe we have the laundry TV channel coming
[29:26]then. Never know. Never know. All right. Well, thank you so much. And thanks for all your time
[29:32]today. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And thanks for loving the book. Because, you know,
[29:38]I love it. I'm just better people do too. I got so much out of it. I'm so glad and make that
[29:45]cake. It is delicious. Okay. All right. I'll get some sour cream when I get my drift. Exactly.
[29:52]All right. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[29:58]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram.
[30:00]Graham at Zibi Owens and at Moms don't have time to read books.
[30:03]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com
[30:05]and sign up for my virtual book club
[30:07]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[30:10]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound
[30:12]for the Sound Editing.
[30:14]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[30:15]for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.