Laundry Day. Oh, Laundry Day.
How I love thee.
I know it sounds a little (or a LOT) over-dramatic, but seriously, y’all . . . Laundry Day is the best thing that has happened to me in this whole deslobification process.
It’s 10 a.m. on a Monday morning right now, and the second load is in the dryer. I’m driven to get it all done so I can NOT do laundry for the next six days.
Lest you think I’m some super-organized person who does things perfectly, it’s actually Tuesday morning. When I wrote that, I totally believed in my heart it was Monday since the kids were out of school yesterday and my allergic-to-schedules brain is all off-kilter.
Whatever.
I big, puffy-heart love Laundry Day. There are two whole chapters about it in my first book. I blather on about exactly how it works even though it seems like it shouldn’t work for people like me, and exactly why all the reasons I resisted it for so long are wrong.
But that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about decluttering. And how Laundry Day helps me declutter.
#1 – I’m Aware of How Many Clothes We Have
Pre-Laundry Day, I had no clue how many clothes we had. Or how many we needed. I just knew we were always running out of clean clothes. Always. So I was always buying more.
Buying more meant I could wait longer before I had to do laundry. Waiting longer to do laundry meant the piles were bigger (and were more like mounds than piles). Bigger piles/mounds/monstrosities meant I was more paralyzed and overwhelmed at the thought of doing all that laundry, so I waited. So I thought we didn’t have enough clothes because we kept running out. So I bought more.
The first step of Laundry Day is to sort every last piece of dirty clothing in the entire house into piles. If you are against sorting by color (as some are), sort into random-colored piles the size of your washing machine’s capacity.
One look at the piles on the first Laundry Day was enough to break through my Slob Vision and show me we had too many clothes. Way too many.
I also saw, as I worked through those blankety-blank piles, that we had clothes we would never, ever wear. That at the bottom of our hampers and baskets, never to make it into an emergency load, had been outgrown clothes, doll clothes, and other-and-assorted made-of-fabric stuff.
SEEing our dirty clothes all in one place showed me our excess.
#2 – Confidence in My Undies Undie Supply
One reason I couldn’t even consider getting rid of clothing was fear of going commando. I had zero confidence whatsoever that I’d find clean clothes when I opened my dresser drawer. Which meant purging clothes never entered my mind as a possibility.
Once Laundry Day became a consistent thing, I was able to relax. I could finally trust that I would have the clean clothes I needed when I needed them.
#3 – Kids Choose Their Favorite Clothes Without Knowing That’s What They’re Doing
The best perk I experienced of Laundry Day was that my kids didn’t even realize they were identifying their favorite clothes.
When I got to the point I was truly only washing one week’s worth of clothing (which doesn’t happen on the first Laundry Day), I saw clearly what wasn’t being worn.
Clothes left in drawers aren’t favorites. Favorite clothes, when they’re clean every week, get worn every week.
Decluttering clothing was ridiculously easy when I could see so clearly which clothes my kids chose to wear last. Or didn’t choose at all.
I’d love to hear about the laundry system that works in your house and if it has opened your eyes to Clothing Clutter.
If you have no laundry system, or if you’ve tried unsuccessfully (like I did) to do a load a day, I encourage you to give Laundry Day a shot.
Here’s the podcast I recently recorded with my husband. In it, he talks about how the change in laundry has been one of the biggest and best changes in our home.
If you’re overwhelmed with laundry and/or your home in general, check out my book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. I tackle laundry and everything else home-management-related in that book. Go here to learn where to buy or order.
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
