Last week, I finally caught up on laundry. After Christmas-break-craziness and a January of e-book-tunnel-vision, my Laundry Loveseat was finally back to being . . . just a loveseat.
All it took was one Family Folding Night. And the kids didn’t mind at all helping with the folding and putting away.
Actually, I’m just assuming they didn’t mind.
Because I actually didn’t ask them how they felt.
Since I don’t actually care.
Anyway, I was happy to finally be caught up, and then I opened my big mouth and volunteered to help out at the school for a few hours and have a meeting with my pastor about ideas for drama.
All on Monday. Laundry Day.
It’s now Wednesday afternoon, and I’m chugging along at getting it done.
Here’s the thing. Even if I don’t have a successful Laundry Day, just having a Laundry Day Mentality helps. Most housework doesn’t get to end with a Big Finish, but laundry can.
Two days later, I’m still working toward the Big Finish.
Monday morning (as I was VERY tempted to skip it) I realized what is the most important step of Laundry Day.
It’s the gather-every-single-piece-of-dirty-clothing-in-the-house-and-sort-it-before-I-wash-my-first-load step.
Yep. That’s the key.
Making random trips through the house looking for darks doesn’t work. I’ll miss two or three or twenty and suddenly . . . it will be way too logical to put off that quarter-load of Hubby’s socks until next week . . . and then the story of the Laundry That Is Never Truly Done will begin again.
If I wait until I’ve emptied every last hiding place for dirty clothes, I know that all I have to do is work my way through those piles. Even if working through them takes two days (and newly-dirty undies appear in hampers), all I have to worry about are those piles. I can know (not guess) that the newly-dirtied things . . . are next Monday’s problem.
Make sense?
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
Susan says
“All it took was one Family Folding Night. And the kids didn’t mind at all helping with the folding and putting away.
Actually, I’m just assuming they didn’t mind.
Because I actually didn’t ask them how they felt.
Since I don’t actually care.”
I love it! You and I are kindred mama spirits! We’re also kindred housework spirits and kindred laundry spirits . . . thanks for all your thoughts and encouragement!
Patricia says
I love this idea. My problem isn’t necessarily doing the laundry (although the clothes scattered around my bedroom would probably argue with you), my biggest issue is with putting it away. I have a huge pile of clean laundry laid out on top of my washer. Need to focus and follow through to the finish line. Help! Will definitely try the Laundry Day concept. Your e-book already has me cleaning the kitchen nightly (after 10 pages) and thanks for the laundry inspiration too!
martha brady says
nony, it is so interesting to hear you putting all your hated laundry into one whole horrible day. i guess i don’t hate laundry nearly so much. i found ways to watch favorite TV shows when i was folding. i also caught up on ironing during favorite TV shows too…or a movie. the time went fast and the ironing was done in no time:)
the way i always kept up on laundry was to do a load or 2 a day (when everyone was home!) so i never got hugely behind. if i skipped a day, it wasn’t a big deal. i didn’t have much to fold at a time. NOW, of course, i only do a load or 2 twice a week! i almost feel lazy:)
so it is interesting how different people handle laundry. i guess it depends how much a person hates doing it:)
Megan says
If I was married with kids, I think I would be you! Saturday is my laundry day and I bring the dirty clothes to the living room and sort in piles…just doing that keeps me on task – most of the time!
Megan K says
What has helped me for years is taking the few minutes to fold the clothes as they come out of the dryer. I tended to procrastinate on the folding part because there was so much, and everything would get wrinkled and that would make my husband mad, and on and on! So, I started folding the laundry as it came out of the dryer. I’d put all the folded clothes in a basket and my hubby would separate by kid – there are 5 of them – and put their clothes in their room. Last year, my hubby deployed overseas, and I no longer had a “separator”, so I had to come up with another plan. In talking to others and listening to Divine Inspiration, this is what I came up with – smaller laundry baskets in the laundry room for the clean clothes, separated by kid and the room they sleep in because some of them share rooms! I have 3 baskets for clothes for the kids, 3 baskets for socks and underwear for kids and 1 for me and 1 for my husband, and a large basket for my and hubby’s clothes and towels, blankets, sheets. It works like a charm! It did take me a couple of weeks to get used to separating the clothes right away, but now it’s the best idea I’ve ever received! So glad I have a large pantry/laundry room that I can afford do this! 🙂 It’s actually the only thing in my entire life that is organized! haha
I LOVE the blog and bought your book. Thank you for taking the time to share your struggles. Now we know we are not alone in this venture! 🙂
Nony says
I’ve been trying to do that (the folding straight out of the dryer) this week to keep from having another pile-up. Every time I do that, I wonder why I don’t always do it. It really doesn’t take much time at all and prevents so many problems!
aopenshaw5 says
The problem I keep running into is that the dryer door opens to the side whereas my other dryer used to open downward… Just annoying and I let it be the excuse. Tsk Tsk me!
Pam says
It makes sense & it frees one from the mind clutter.
I love your perspective. I read something yesterday from another mom that is true for her & others, but not me or you, or your followers. She indicated that being organized was about our will power. I had that moment of self-doubt, loathing, really, & then I remembered you!Thank you for helping me see how I can manage my home, family, mind (?) without so much guilt & feelings of inadequacy. Love & God’s Blessings!
Christie says
Laundry is one area of my housework that I feel like is fairly under control.; I finally figured out what works for me in this area. I have one of those pop up hampers in each bedroom (2 in the master…whites and coloreds). All clothes go straight into the hamper and I do 1 load almost everyday…ok, maybe 4-5 days I actually do it and some of those days I’ll do 2 loads. I don’t mix hampers. That way when I have a clean load it just goes into the appropriate bedroom and gets folded on site (while I listen to my mp3 player, often while the kid are taking their baths). My 2 year old boy has his own bedroom and while he tries his hardest to go through as many outfits a day as possible, sometimes it’s not a full load but I always have towels to toss in! When I’m doing a load of kid’s clothes I check the shoe box at the foot of the stairs for stray socks. Having a puppy around has really helped with making sure the shoes actually get put in the box, btw!
BethB says
Have you ever thought of getting one of those hampers with different compartments? I have this one:
http://www.target.com/p/Whitmor-3-Compartment-Chrome-Laundry-Sorter/-/A-502327
It’s a life saver. It makes laundry so much easier because I can just grab the clothes from a bin and wash them. Although I do sort the colors into darks and not so darks, only because I use a special detergent on the darks. The only thing is all the laundry needs to go in the bathroom rather than being scattered throughout the house. For some families that might be a problem but our house is set up in a way that makes this easy.
Shanna says
It really makes me want to scream to take care of clothes right out of the dryer but it’s getting easier. It always creates a terrible clog in the system!
I am enjoying the echo in my laundry room very much and I look in there quite often to admire my EMPTY washer and dryer. If anyone vomits I will be able all over it baby.
I am now the Laundry Warden, inspecting kids clothes to see if they can just wear them again the next day.
Also, the hampers do not call out to me “I’m a load! I’m a load! Shouldn’t you be WASHING ME?!!”
Put a sock in it load and wait your turn. 🙂
Jeanine says
I’ve just discovered a benefit, for me, of “laundry day”. I used to just throw in a light and a dark load whenever underwear or socks got low, searching around for enough to make a load of each, but not so much that it would make a second load of either.
Today, I knew I had a lot of clothes to wash since I had started dabbling in decluttering and had items to wash before putting them in the garage sale box. Soooo, I made today a laundry day and did the “gather-every-single-piece-of-dirty-clothing-in-the-house”. I discovered clothing that hadn’t been worn in years under piles of other stuff in the bedroom. Clothing that was too small or disliked, or in too poor condition to be worn and could just be thrown out.
So, instead of doing laundry because I decluttered, I decluttered because I did laundry. Next laundry day I’m hoping to go through the closet as well.