I’m generally home on Mondays.
Generally. Translated – Usually. Most often. Probably. Should be.
So, if you ask me if I can guarantee that I’ll be home on Monday, I’ll have to say “No, I can’t guarantee it.”
But if you ask me if I can guarantee that after one week, will there be at least 35 pairs of dirty underwear in my house . . . I can answer with a confident reply of – “Yes, I can absolutely guarantee that there will be at least 35 pairs of dirty underwear!”
It’s my new laundry routine to do all of our laundry on Monday. By the evening on Monday, all pajama and sock and undie drawers should be full to the brim.
It worked very well on weeks one and two, because I was home all day on Monday.
But today was my first Monday that was out of the routine. I spent the day at a friend’s house because this was the only day that would work. And I may be making progress on changing my slobbish ways, but I don’t know that I’ll ever be at a place where I’ll give up a day of socializing for a day of laundry.
Pre-blog, and even pre-new-laundry-routine, I would have just let it pile up. But with Monday being “the day,” I couldn’t. I had a few options. I could change laundry day to Tuesday. That would probably be fine, but I decided to do something crazy.
Even though I was gone most of the day, I did the laundry anyway. I gathered it up last night and made the piles. I put in one load last night and changed it to the dryer as soon as I got up this morning. Another load into the washer, and by the time I was ready to leave the house at 8:30, I started another load. And then upon arriving home this afternoon, I changed it out again, and even folded and put away the loads that were completed.
Go me!
The big secret to today’s success isn’t a secret at all. It’s the same thing that makes the difference in all of my housekeeping endeavors. Focus. I was focused because I had a plan. A plan to do laundry, ALL of it, on Mondays. So rather than just floating along and letting it pile up and make me more and more stressed, I was focused on Mondays. This focus helped me think ahead last night and adjust for the fact that I wouldn’t be home today. It helped me head right to the laundry room upon arriving home so that I could keep it going. It helped me be motivated to fold and put away the finished loads because there is an actual goal in sight.
I absolutely love not worrying about laundry for the rest of the week, so I’m more than willing to be a laundry fanatic on Monday to avoid having it hovering over my head the rest of the week.
And as for the rest of my daily checklist? I did my evening tasks last night so this morning wasn’t stressful. I was able to empty the dishwasher, sweep and clean up the kitchen before taking the kids to school since I wasn’t running around finding clothes and making lunches.
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
You know what I did? I've wanted to do this FOREVER. Even though I was doing several loads throughout the week, I was incredibly backed up. I have six kids and being that they play outside a lot, they tend to change outfits a lot. Sooo, I took all 30 loads to the laundry mat and got in done in 5 hours. 30 loads in 5 hours! Wowza! So glad I did.
I remember hearing Marie Osmond say that she got so overwhelmed with laundry she had her kids (9 of them, I think) pack their suitcases with laundry and hauled them all down to the laundromat for a mega-laundry-fest. Just like you said, a few dedicated hours, and it was done. UNTIL NEXT TIME (dun dun dun)
I think that's a great idea! I have actually stopped to get information on laundry services. It is so tempting.
Go you! That's great planning!
Go you for sure! Way to adjust!! I think that's just about like having your cake and eating it too but in a good way. :>)
I try to put a load in at night then switch in the morning or if I'm not backed up then afterschoola and I have the kids do the switch (they alternate turns) my washer is then empty to fill with the clothes and towels after bath, etc… (Yes, we make about a load a day)
On Saturdays I do my sheets and blankets and yes, I have taken those to the laundramat to let the big king size comforters do their washers damage not the one in my garage that I have to pay for if it breaks LOL
Keep up your good work and following of your routine I'm so happy that it is working for you!!
Ha ha, mom2priceboys! I take all the dog stuff to the laundromat and let them have all the dog hair and lint! Plus, I hang most of my laundry now (I live alone, otherwise I wouldn’t), and the dogs need their blankets, rugs, and towels back as soon as possible.
They have heavy duty commerical machines. Much tougher than yours and mine, I’m sure!
I’ve done the laundry mat thing before, 8months pregggers with a 3 and 1.5 year old. Still, it was all done and folded! There was just so much! I have a front loader but I was still 20 loads behind because of company blankets and linens. I just hate how you can’t soak stuff and it never smells as good as from my own machines. One of my improbable wishes is for a second set of machines to speed up the whole laundry thing!!! Oh, the laundry room I would design if I could!
I tend to put lightly dirty blankets and sheets in a separate tall plastic hamper so they don’t overwhelm me since nobody really needs them until the day of company anyway.
Your comment about the separate plastic hamper gave me an idea!
I stash a whole set of sheets inside one of the pillowcases, so I keep the set together. The guest bed is made and ready, and extra linens are kept in that room’s closet. That means I could have a bed with 6-month-old (clean) linens on that bed by the time it get used. I’m thinking that when I do get around to washing blankets and sheets, I will store them in a plastic bin (or vacuum bag or whatever) to keep the fresh scents in. My guests will think I just washed them this morning.
I’ll just throw the comforter over the bed so it looks presentable until needed. Thoughts?
I think that makes sense!
For a while when the kids were little, my DH put in a second drier. It made laundry go quicker because we were never waiting for the stuff to dry, just put it in the other drier. Since then we have moved and no longer have 2 driers, but it sure helped then.
What a great idea!
Can I just say I love your blog!!! Seriously it is so helpful for me. I have slob vision. I love a clean house… I really do, but I too suffer horribly from slob vision. I can get the house amazing in a couple of hours…just don’t look under beds, closet, or any closed door. Being a stay at home mom has always been my dream. But, I feel like a failure almost everyday as I look around my messy house. I mean really should we have to step over stuff to get down the hall? I always thought when I have my own house, when we are settled, when we move, it will be clean and yet I never change. I have been working hard on changing my ways. We are moving this summer and I refuse to bring all this junk to our new place, which is guaranteed to be smaller then what we have now. I want to start over this move. We need to put our house on the market, but it is a disaster and I keep telling our realator/friend our house isn’t ready yet. It is so embarrassing. It really makes me feel awful. We do the mandatory laundry, undies, and hubby’s work clothes. I feel so embarrassed when he has to do laundry after a 10 hour day, because I didn’t get it done. I just loose focus and motivation. I love your post and am so glad to know I am not alone. I have come across things I bought my two year old that he only wore a few times because it got swallowed by the laundry monster. I have been trying to do the laundry once a day, and after one week I fell behind and we are back to square one. Slightly better because I did donate a lot of things… shhh don’t tell my husband! So Monday is now going to be my laundry day. It is a great day. I baby sit from 8 to 3. Two toddlers are so helpful when it comes to staying in control of cleaning:( But I think I’ll try it. Oh and one more thing every time I feel discouraged or have no motivation I just start reading your blog posts. Thanks for sharing, it is so nice to have company in the deslobafication (you know what I mean). Thanks again!
That first Laundry Day is brutal getting everything done that’s been ignored for who-knows-how-long, but just be sure to do another Laundry Day the second week, and you’ll be amazed at how much faster only ONE week’s worth of clothes will go!
It’s just two of us and we are both retired. I bought a large 3 bag hamper system and have (mentally) named each bag: dark clothes, white clothes and towels and sheets. I only do the laundry when the dirty laundry in at least one of these bags reaches the top (I push it down frequently so I mean it’s really, really topping the bag!:) when I decide to actually do the laundry usually. However I never let it get piled really high above the bag or to the point it topples over. I usually only have to wash one or two bags but each bag can be 1-2 due to their size. Occasionally one or both of us is needing something…usually underwear and when that happens, I do launder that particular bag (s), but that really isn’t often because we have plenty clothes. And if we run out of something like underwear or socks before the bag (s) are really full, I put those items on our shopping list to buy as soon as we can. Realize this won’t work for everyone, it probably wouldn’t have for us when we had the children at home, but it does for us now. I keep this large hamper in our bedroom and everytime I walk in I see it and know whether I need to do laundry or not.
Forgot to mention I also have a plastic hamper in the garage, right outside the door and I throw dirty cleaning rags and throw rugs in there. These I usually wash on the same day I do the towels and sheets in a separate load depending on how much I have collected there and also my time.
I would suggest never leaving a washer or dryer running when you leave the house.
Once I left the dryer on and four hours later, when I got home, it was still running!
Last year, the solenoid in our washer, which is supposed to stop the flow of water into the washer, got stuck in the open position. I was actually in the house, but not paying attention to the washer. When realized that washer cycle was running longer than normal and I went downstairs to investigate, there were three inches of water on the floor around the washer. Water was pouring into the washer and the washer was endlessly spinning to attempt to remove the non-stop water.
I can assure you that any efficiency that you gain from running the washer when you go out is quickly dissipated if you have to clean up an enormous flood.
What I now know is that one solenoid (made in China?) is all that keeps water from pouring into your washer, even if the washer is not running. We now turn the faucets off when we are not doing laundry.
Hello.
I have to say I could have never gone to a friends house knowing I had laundry waiting on me. I’d be constantly thinking of it until I got home and tackled it. I’m just a worrier I guess.
~*~ Lisa ~*~
We are on septic but I am fortunate to have children that are old enough to do their own laundry. Our system is a day of the week for each of us. I will say that I do my husbands laundry with mine and the oldest 15yr old helps my youngest 4yr old. This works with septic there are 5 of us so that splits the laundry into smaller loads per laundry day to help with the septic system.