Funky Fresh

I love me some clean laundry scent, y'all.

Ever since I've started doing my own laundry, I've been on an endless pursuit of the freshest-smelling clothes possible. I want my clothes to be the kind people want to bury their face in and inhale - like in the Gain commercials. At any given time, you can find an arsenal of detergents, bleaches, and fabric softeners in my laundry room due to my mad quest for the best scent. It borders on ridiculous, really.

So you can imagine my surprise when yesterday, Curtis came upstairs carrying a basket of laundry that he had (wonder of wonders!) done himself - and I could smell the freshness as he came up the stairs. What?!

He put the basket down beside me (I guess nobody has ever explained that "doing" laundry means washing, drying, and folding) and the clothes were just emanating scent like never before. Curiously I picked up one of my kitchen towels that was sitting on top of the pile, and the fresh scent was so strong when I sniffed it that my throat actually locked up.

"How many dryer sheets did you use?" I asked suspiciously, after I'd finished choking.

"Just one!" he insisted, but I knew better. I've been doing laundry, mounds of laundry, MOUNTAINS of laundry, for years - and I have yet to achieve that result with ten fabric softener sheets, let alone a single.

There's no arguing with him, though ... and I folded the entire basket and didn't find more than one used sheet ... so I tried to let it go, the mystery of the super-overly-fresh laundry destined to remain just that - a mystery.



This morning, though, it was still bothering me. Every time I walked past my overwhelmingly-scented kitchen towel, I could smell it. Not a bad air freshener for the kitchen, but how on earth had Curtis gotten it to smell so potent? Then it hit me. It wasn't a bad air freshener because it smelled ... just like my air freshener. And immediately, I knew what had happened.

To explain, let me first provide you with a visual, in case you've never been to my crib:

These are the stairs leading down to the laundry room. In lieu of a hamper, we usually just toss our dirties lazy-style over the railing, where they land (pretty much) at the laundry room door. On the ledge, as you can see, I keep a variety of houseplants and an essential oil air freshener: clean linen scent. Can you see where this is going?

Yep! You guessed it! The other day, while throwing some clothes onto the ever-growing pile below, Curtis accidentally knocked over the open bottle of scented oil. What I knew is that it trickled down the bannister. What I didn't know was that he used my kitchen towel to sop it up - and then consequently threw it in the wash with the rest of the stuff, scenting the entire load.

Mystery solved!