#The laundry guy patric richardson book how to

Of course, we eventually do our own laundry. Because everything was just washed and pressed and done.” “So that’s where it started, my long association of laundry with being taken care of, with my mom taking care of me. “My mom was an incredible homemaker and always made sure my clothes were perfect,” he says.

“My granny washed everything,” Richardson says.

#The laundry guy patric richardson book how to

While he learned how to do his own laundry before turning 10, he also watched the women in his family take care of the washing, too. I loved to go out in the garden and pick strawberries.” “I loved to play in the creek,” Richardson remembers. This was a time before children spent so much time on screens, so his clothes actually did get dirty. There was certainly a lot of clothes to wash, growing up surrounded by nature in eastern Kentucky. “My great-uncle Quinn is holding me up in the air so that I can gaze down upon my mom’s washing machine, and I am mesmerized by the clothes swimming in circles in the sudsy water.” “I have a vivid memory from when I was 2 years old,” he writes in the opening paragraph of his book. It begins with his mom’s washing machine. Martha is not where Richardson’s story starts, though. “Life is better when done with care and loving.” Instead, his sensibilities then are his sensibilities now: He’s not asking us to make our own shower curtains, though, or fold paper into origami boxes to cover our string lights (unless we want to, of course). She knows life is better when done with care and loving.”Īlmost 20 years later, Martha is still relevant - Harper’s Bazaar called her “ the original influencer” in a February feature about her evolution that went viral - but it is Richardson whose influence is now on the rise. “I think they’re also intimidated by her because so many people throw things in the dishwasher, never iron anything, and Martha says we need to have the silver polished. “I think people are intimidated by her because she’s very powerful, and she takes risks that they’re not willing to take,” he said at the time. When we asked if it was just too much - Martha’s expectations for us to cover our string lights in origami or make homemade shower curtains - he disagreed. His shower curtain was homemade, just like Martha’s. His furniture included pieces that had been antiqued and gilded according to Martha’s instructions. Paul loft that had string lights covered in Martha’s origami paper boxes. Actually, she was probably at the height of her stardom for all things home and garden (it was about a year before she was indicted on federal charges related to insider trading).Īhead of Stewart’s appearance at “Art in Bloom” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that spring, we profiled a few super fans - or, as we described them, “Martha groupies.” Richardson was one of those fans (this was before Richardson had met Raihala, who started at the paper in 2004).Īt the time, Richardson lived in a St. It was 2002 and Martha Stewart was coming to town.īack then, Martha was the rising star. So a few of us here at the paper, especially those of us who also write about arts and entertainment, have known Richardson for years, since before he became known locally and nationally as a laundry expert.Īctually, some of us have known Richardson even longer than we’ve worked with Raihala. Richardson, 48, is the partner of Ross Raihala, the Pioneer Press music critic and an arts and entertainment reporter. Paul’s cleanest celebrity for a disclosure: