If you’re like me, January is actually a time to be embraced wholeheartedly. Yes it may well be cold, damp and dark but it’s the month of cleaning up the Christmas chaos, resolutions, the freshest of fresh starts, and not to mention ‘no laundry day’ on the 1st January!
Sounds strange? You’d be right. New Year’s Day seems like the perfect time to pop a load of washing on. It’s a brand new year so what better way to start it with fresh, clean clothes to put your best foot forward?! Not so fast. Legend has it, or perhaps your grandma, that you should never, ever do any sort of laundry on New Year’s Day and here’s why…
What does tradition say?
It’s not entirely clear where this superstition has come from, but it’s likely to have been a way of thinking that’s been passed down through families for generations! Supposedly, it’s said to be very bad luck to pop a wash on, on that particular day and you’re much better off leaving that pile of dirty washing until the next day.
Why?
The superstition goes that if you wash your clothes on New Year’s Day you may “wash a loved one away”. *Yikes*! Understandably a family bereavement is the last thing you would ever want to encourage into your new year in any capacity.
To add further fuel to the superstition fire, this thinking also changes as you move from one country to another, with several variations of what’ll happen if you clean laundry on this day being mentioned. Other versions of the ‘no laundry day’ superstition claim that whatever activity you do on New Year’s Day is how you’re likely to spend the rest of the year. With that in mind, doing the washing on the first day of January means that you’ll be doing laundry for the entire year. There are some people who believe that by doing this you’re actually welcoming in larger and more frequent piles of washing to do throughout the coming year.
In yet another variation of this superstition, if you wash clothes on the first of January, you’ll be washing away all of your good luck for the next year! This outcome tends to hold a lot of people back from washing clothes too. Of course there are many people who think any and all of the above is complete rubbish and continue to wash their clothes regardless on New Year’s Day!
The bottom line.
Wherever you sit on this soapy issue, Little Beau Sheep can help. Adding our 100% British wool dryer balls to your tumble dryer drum during a cycle helps to separate your clothes, increasing their exposure to airflow, therefore reducing their overall drying time. This means you can sneak in that extra wash in just before the end of the year in record quick time! TOP TIP: for a match made in heaven why not add a few drops of our heavenly laundry fragrance onto each ball before you add them to your load. Perfect for a deliciously lingering fragrance for the start of the year AND no bad luck!
IF you believe in that sort of thing…
Until next time,
Sarah x
