Monday is Laundry Day. One of the best things about doing laundry this way is that I am much more thorough than I ever was with the one-load-a-day method.
Doing “all” of my laundry actually means something. With one-load-a-day (which was a delusion anyway), I pulled the most desperately needed items off the top of the pile mountain, and created my load from that. Things that I didn’t wear often were passed over. And over and over.
Because the first step of the Laundry Day method is to gather and sort every last stitch of dirty clothing in the house, even those less-necessary items get washed.
But there are still leftovers.
Most of these leftovers are things that were stuck in the laundry basket . . . that aren’t even laundry. Like shoes. Or shopping bags. Or hats or freebie-water-bottles or doll clothes.
I’m pretty sure those Build-a-Bear shorts have been washed fifteen times since the last time they covered a bear-hiney. And yet somehow they end up back in that basket. Because of the chaos that (until recently) was my master bedroom, I can guess that most of this stuff ended up in there during various moments of shoving.
So, as my chosen detail for yesterday, I emptied the laundry basket. Truly emptied. I used my two decluttering questions and took things to the spots where they were supposed to go . . . right then.
That, my friends, was a lot of walking. Everything that didn’t have a place went into the trash.
It looked so good empty that I even pulled out the vacuum cleaner.
And vacuumed.
And put it back. (Yes, yes I did.)
This detail took an entire five minutes. Not a lot of time, but way longer than the others I’ve tackled so far in my 31 Days of Details.
This post is just one of my 31 Days of Details, which is part of The Nester‘s 31 Day Challenge.
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
I love this!! This is.my fourth week of moving to one day of laundry a week and I L O V E it! The one load a day thing never worked for me either. Traditionally I have hated laundry & in our 13 yrs of marriage my husband just gave into my laundry mountain method. But when my 4 kids demonstrated a great aptitude for choosing “less dirty” clothes from the pile, I decided itwas time for drastic measures! I put myself on a house cleaning schedule (i have always balked at that idea) with laundry on mondays & a strict “don’t leave the house” rule for Mondays, & it is now my favorite day of the week! Whoda thunk! So ALL that too say…I get the significance of an empty clean laundry basket, way to go!
How do I even begin to do this? Did you just take one week to focus on all your laundry to get it down to a managable enough pile that would be done by the end of one Monday? Or am I the only one with too big a pile for this to even seem possible. I’m embarrassed but fed up enough to ask for help.
Hi Jen, I COMPLETELY understand your frustration.
I would say that you should just make it a goal to get every last piece of dirty laundry done. Sort it ALL first, making piles of loads, until there’s not a stray piece in the house. The piles may take up your entire hallway or living room.
Then just work through it one by one, until you are done. It might take two full days at first, but after the first week, you’ll be amazed that the second week (which truly is just one week’s worth of clothes) will be so much less. If you can commit to being home all day that day, and folding as you go, that’s best.
It took me three days the first time I did it…it is amazing to see just one week of laundry now! Don’t be embarrassed, you are in good company here!
This comment made me get misty-eyed. I love it when we can rally around each other!
I finally got caught up on my laundry today after 11 loads and 2 days of working on it. It is only me and my husband…there should not be that much laundry!! I know it had been at least two weeks but since I had 11 loads I’m starting to wonder if it had actually been 3 weeks since I had done the laundry. Grr why do I do this to myself!
Hooray! Well done, Nony.
I’m so jealous, I wish it was possible to get to the bottom of our baskets in one day. I used to use that method….and then my kids got bigger, my hubby’s job caused 4 sets of clothes most days, plus kids play clothes and practice clothes for football and such. We had to switch to a 6 day a week schedule just to keep it all managable. I love the day with no laundry, I wish I had 6 of those days like you!
Well done on finding what works best for you.
You’re so right that it’s the 6-days-with-no-laundry that’s my favorite part! And good for you adjusting your routine as your family grows and changes. Things really never stay the same for long, do they?
It’s amazing what one small step can do. I imagine you walking past that spot now and have a sigh of relief – terrific job!!
Good for you for finding what works best for you, hope you took some time to celebrate the empty basket(we never seem to celebrate our wins, do we?). I do a load of laundry in the morning before I go to work and at night before I go to bed finding that works best for me. With my schedule there’s no way that I could spend a full day doing the laundry so we’d be walking around naked all the time – I think there’s a law against that :). I love the fact that I rarely have any dirty clothes since they are all washed the same day. However, the absolute best part about doing laundry (and folding it right out of the dryer) is that I have tamed the sock basket monster. Since we’ve changed the way we’ve done laundry, socks are washed with their mate and I can fold them together immediately.
By the way – love the shoes in the before picture.
LOVE it! It really is all about finding what works for you and your family!
I love reading about your laundry days because they give me hope. Yet, my laundry is never done. 🙁 I fail every week. I try to pick a day to get it all done but for a million reasons it never works. I have no good excuse. I just seem to fail each time. My husband always winds up finishing it, which just makes me feel like the world’s worst housewife. As I type this, I have a half-full laundry basket, clothes in the dryer, and clothes hang-drying that probably will continue to hang for days. I NEED to get better!
Nony, you are my freakin’ hero. Someday we will meet and I will give you a crazy huge hug (hey, those two words look a lot alike!). Jen & Cathie, I’m Sherry; I’m a (hopefully recovering) laundry failure, and I’m right there with you. My mountain always seems to maintain an inner core and I only get around to washing the things on top. As I attempt to emerge from the chaos (my 31 Days project), Mt. Laundry looms large ahead of me, foreboding as all get out. But I am trying hard to be a brave girl. So, if you’ll pardon me, I need to go do a little hiking…
Hi Nony! I just checked the calendar to be sure and I actually started one time a week laundry 3 weeks ago tomorrow (Monday).
The first week was awesome, only about 10 or 12 loads to empty every basket. My husband said, “Wow, the laundry room looks bare!”. It was great and I even put almost everything away by Tuesday. I started on Sunday night with 3 or 4 loads so I wouldn’t wake up overwhelmed, I also started on a holiday so I had a little extra husband support. I even have a certain order of loads to make it really automatic and logical (adults clothes first so Mon morn there are outfits, towels last as a reward because who doesn’t love folding easy towels?).
A small bump in the form of 4 snow days and an entire family with head lice totally destroyed all that work!! I lost track of how many loads of laundry I did and now have around 15 or so?
Still, I saw for one little minute how nice it was and how it would be easier each time. I also commited to 4 to 6 months (!!) to get into the habit because I knew there would be setbacks and I wanted a fair trial over time to gauge effectiveness. I am being casual and calling it “Laundry for 30-36 Hours that ends on Monday Night” but then all laundry goes in hampers not to be seen again until next Sunday.
Anyway, to anyone reading through it does feel great and the Sunday start really focused me toward the coming week. Also, having a sense of completion was restful to my brain, no laundry “I shoulds” to distract me from other daily chores. I would add this is laundry for a family of six with no sports uniforms.
I just had one question Nony, do you include changing beds on this day? I am afraid to overwhelm myself but I want a scheduled bed change day. Maybe since I wash and put directly back on beds this is more work than just switching to new sheets and I have to do a special day.
Thanks Nony:)
love it! i have about 4-5 items that live in the bottom of my last basket. outgrown kids clothes, extra pillowcase, some rags i don’t want to walk all the way across the house to put away (cause they go in 3 different spots) i really need to get on this.
Those left-overs are almost exactly what I have as left-overs. haha. funny how that works.