I love getting emails from people who are excited about giving Laundry Day a shot.

But then I get nervous. 

Because even though a weekly Laundry Day has improved our home by leaps and bounds and is perfect for my needs-to-see-an-end-to-the-task personality type, that first one . . . is brutal.

And overwhelming.

And it doesn’t give you any idea of what Laundry Day really is.

That first day, you’re washing outgrown clothes that never made it into the rotation when you were only doing Survival Loads.  If wedding guests over-gifted you with bath towels, there’s a chance you’ll need to do six or seven loads of towels.

A chance.

When the next Monday rolls around, and you feel like you JUST finished Laundry Day (since maybe you did), it’s easy to rationalize not doing it again.  I mean, it’s not like you have as many clothes as last time . . .

Which is the point.

It’s the second Laundry Day that will give you hope. That hope comes when you see how much ONE week of laundry really is.  And how much less time it takes to do ONE week’s worth of laundry.

It’s the same with doing the dishes.  If you’ve read 28 Days to Hope for Your Home, the day-by-day plan in How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, you know that the biggest thing in the plan is getting into the habit of doing the dishes every day.

But the very first day isn’t a reflection AT ALL of what the habit is going to feel like.

The first day is a make-up day. You’re making up for all the habit-free days.

It’s not until the second day of the habit that you actually get to see what it’s going to feel like.  Then you’ll see what one day’s worth of dishes actually is in your house.

You can guess and you can assume, but in my personal experience . . . my guesses and assumptions were/are always wrong.