Family Life - Laundry

Laundry – feel like a slave to it?

I’ve felt that my weekends have been consumed with laundry as I try desperately to see the bottom-of-the-basket if only for a sense of relief or “catch up”! Underneath this desperation is a low-grade anxiety and low-simmering resentment. I’d rather be outside. I’d rather be spending time with my daughter in a fun way. I’d rather be getting a root canal…

Having a child did NOT decrease the load – figuratively or literally – and rather than yelling at my toddler for being so messy (I’m a realist, and I realize they are messy!) I’d often turn my angst either overtly or passively against my spouse. Clean your own eff-in’ socks! Put your own freakin’ clothes away man! I’m not YOUR mother! To be fair, we have a reasonably equitable distribution of household tasks and the laundry is mine by choice. All the same, I feel like laundry’s bitch and I’ve yet to see the bottom of the damn basket!

Insert deep sigh here

I’ve developed, through no long term planning but entirely by fluke, a system that seems to be working and I thought I’d share it. Here it is in a few shorts steps:

a) DON’T do laundry on the weekends. You really need to commit to this – NO LAUNDRY ON WEEKENDS! The absolute only task for weekends is to ensure that all dirty laundry is gathered into laundry baskets. These said baskets can remained wherever they are stationed – in the closet, in the hall, in the way…

b) Starting Monday morning – bring the laundry baskets to your laundry room/area and dump. Sort into darks / lights piles and put first load into the washer to wash. Now, get on with your day – don’t look back – the laundry is not going anywhere and it will happily wait for your return later today.

c) Now, whether you are a working-outside-the-home mom or a working-inside-the-home mom you each have something (many somethings!) that seems to require all of your attention and most, if not all, of your minutes throughout the day. Attend to that stuff. At the end of that day – before you begin whatever you’ve planned for dinner – return to the laundry site and pop the washed (and patiently waiting) load of wet laundry into the dryer. Now walk away again…

d) After you’ve settled for the evening – kids are tucked in, house is quiet – fold that load, sorting into appropriate piles. You don’t have to put it away tonight. It can wait until the folded piles get a little higher and then you’re not packing away folded laundry over and over and over.

e) Next morning, repeat by putting next load into the washing machine – and walk away –

f) Your loads will very likely run out before the end of your week arrives. As part of the final efforts – when there’s no further loads in the morning or no further loads to fold, use the next step to put it all away at once and return the baskets to their stations. Now, the weekend is around the corner – commit to NO LAUNDRY – and get outside, spend some time fun time with you kid(s), book that root canal…

Random Tips:

• ensure you have more than enough laundry baskets. Nothing makes you feel like you MUST DO LAUNDRY when your one and a half baskets are full and you’re only on Tuesday. Get a 3rd, 4th or 5th basket – it’s worth the investment.

• Ensure you have enough underwear and socks to last 8 days. Nothing precipitates a resentment-filled laundry frenzy than an absolute need to good personal hygiene. Don’t stress, be realistic and allow yourself a week’s worth of clean gitch without the bitter resentment.

• Pay attention to laundry habits of your housemates and ask, without fingers wagging, for changes where it is appropriate. For example, I noticed that my hubby would remove his pj pants and tshirt and dump both in the dirty pile each day. Could he get another night (or two) wear out of the pants? Or, perhaps, the jeans that he wore that day are still in reasonable shape for another wear before laundering. Ask him to be more conscious of those things. He’s often asked “what can I do to help decrease your stress?” well, my dear, this is one small thing you can. How about the kid. How many outfits are worn / changed in a day? Did it all really need to be tossed in the laundry in exchange for spotless garb or could that tshirt from this morning with the spot of chocolate pudding on the front also be happily worn through the manic crafting session this afternoon also? Frankly, I think a splotch of pudding and a dollop of glitter could be considered ‘artistic’ and a healthy means of accounting for the days activities visually.

• Take a look – an honest I’m-not-making-excuses look – at your own compulsions. What has you determined – without success – to do it, do it, do it?? Really, does the stress feel good? Are you willing to let it go?

Get you thinking a new system for your house / life? I found it reiterated here: http://www.flylady.net/pages/FlyLaundry3.asp

Leave a comment – I’d love to hear from you!