It all comes out in the wash

It was at this point last year, in the throes of post-holiday laundry, that I decided there had to be a way to break up the monotony a bit. Inspiration wasn't hard to come by, as I sifted through the few odds and ends that didn't belong in the laundry but had found their way there anyway. Next thing I knew, I had a large jar sitting beside the washer and dryer, and I have been collecting the laundry oddities ever since. Today, the great Laundry Treasure Hunt of 2014 comes to an end. Let's see what interesting things have made their way into the laundry this year, shall we. (This excludes any items found during the two months when we were living in North Carolina and Florida.) I have no idea how most of these things got into the laundry. All I can offer in the way of explanation is to tell you that I am not a diligent pocket checker and that everyone over the age of seven is in charge of their own laundry.

• A 3"x6" bright green plastic tub
• One thigh pad, which must have escaped from Weston's football pants
• An artfully decorated paint stir stick
• A guitar strap
• One oversized plastic glove
• A stretchy orange wrist band
• A golf ball
• A ski lift ticket
• Three lovely rocks
• Two collar stays
• A fun hair elastic
• A used band-aid shaped like a flower
• A two-foot piece of string with a number of knots tied in it
• Two balloons that have seen much better days
• Both end pieces of a blue crayon
• One intact sticker, featuring a boy and girl riding in a wagon
• A ragged, unusable pencil with a faded design
• A total of six keys, which might go to absolutely anything
• A broken necklace chain
• Three washers in various sizes and colors
• A dismantled earring
• A teeny, tiny rubber snake
• One binder ring
• Two parts of a plastic sample cup, like you get at the grocery store
• 15 whole or partial candy wrappers, four of which still contain their original contents
• A wingless styrofoam airplane
• A tube of Chap Stick
• The remnants of a Nerf dart
• A pair of blue kid scissors
• Four washed out Buddy Buck stickers
• A sporty Hot Wheels car
• Four little pieces of batting
• One hex nut
• Two lag screws, of different sizes
• One bolt
• A small black marble, with orange and yellow squiggles
• Three small pieces of plastic tubing
• A cuckle burr
• A triangular Magformer magnet
• Two tiny twigs and a small piece of bark
• A piece of willow off a laundry basket
• A clear, two-hole button
• A sticker from a piece of fruit that originated in Argentina
• Nine little bitty green plastic beads
• Two square-shaped blue jean embellishments
• One plastic yellow bead
• A pile of paper that is way beyond identification
• A scripture memory card featuring Psalm 23:6
• Five Perler beads in shades of red and blue
• Two sections of a once-but-no-longer useful zipper
• A small pile of pea-sized gravel
• One little leaf
• A couple of broken acorns and some of the smallest whole acorns I've ever seen
• A $5 bill, 8 quarters (one purple), 4 dimes, 3 nickels, 22 pennies--for a grand total of...wait for it...$7.77 (You cannot make this stuff up!) I guess that proves that laundry is my "divine calling," so I guess I better get back to it!

collection site

laundry treasures revealed