A family member recently asked me what the hardest part of military life has been.
“The smell,” I answered instinctively.
OK, so maybe it isn’t the hardest part, but I expected most of the hard stuff. What I didn’t expect was the stench my shower-twice-a-day husband would bring home on his uniform.
After a two-week training exercise, I was happy to bring my other half home, to have him sitting beside me.
Then I inhaled.
The only smell I can compare to what I experienced that day is that of rotten, molded mayonnaise.
To make matters worse, we don’t have a washer or dryer, so I do our laundry at a laundromat. I saw five people wince when I pulled his uniform from the laundry bag. Two people left the building altogether.
Other spouses I’ve talked to say they face similar laundry crises. Most have told me to make my husband wash his own laundry. Sometimes I dream of this moment, the one where he tells me he’s out of green socks and I say, “So?” But I knew when I married him that the laundry was on me, so I’ll deal with that.
Someone else suggested lemon juice. Now, my husband is very particular about how his uniforms are washed, dried, folded and hung up, so I hesitate to try anything new, but it’s apparently good for pulling out the smell.
 For you brave spouses out there, let me know if this works. For now, I’ll just plug my nose.