Fellow blogger Carol Paxman inspired me with her recent blog, “Taming the Clutter Monster.” I couldn’t help but think of my least favorite chore, what I consider to be a monster…the laundry. Although it has gotten better since I have learned to delegate, it still sometimes feels like it’s all I ever do.
I remember a few years ago a friend of mine who lives a couple of hours away was feeling burdened by her housework. She has five children and they were younger at the time. I offered to drive that couple of hours to come help.
I couldn’t believe her laundry room. You couldn’t even see the washer and dryer because her laundry was so high. I looked at it and thought, “You have got to be kidding me??!!”
No wonder she felt so discouraged and depressed…I would be too. But that can easily happen if you don’t learn to tame the laundry monster.
Some of us have to face the fact that if we are ever going to stay on top of the laundry, it will have to be done on a daily basis. Despite how much I dislike laundry, I know that my life will only be more miserable if I don’t stick to doing it daily. Sure, I may miss a day once-in-a-while but if I keep that limited, I can still manage it.
But I go back to what I say in most of my blogs, you have to learn to delegate. By the time my children are in 8th grade, I expect them to be doing their own laundry. My youngest son has one more year to enjoy me doing his laundry. But I know some parents start earlier.
This is up to you and what works best in your family. But there is no reason for any teenager to not be doing their own laundry.
Once you determine how often you need to do laundry (which could be every-other-day, once-a-week, or whatever works best), then you need to come up with a method. I find that a method helps you to maintain it better.
For instance, my method is this. Every night before I go to sleep, I throw in a load of wash. Then in the morning the first thing I do when I wake up is throw it into the dryer. In the next hour I can expect it to be done.
This works for me because I am a morning person. I would rather do the folding and putting away in the morning. But for you it might not work. The point is to come up with your own method.
A key to taming the laundry monster is to not let it sit. As soon as you do that, you are on your way to being overwhelmed. As I pull each item of clothing out, I either fold it or hang it. Then I immediately put away the folded clothes and take the clothes that are on hangers to their proper
closets. I don’t procrastinate and within a few minutes I have laundry completely out of the way
for the day.
I also switch off each day. One night before I go to bed, I throw in towels and bedding. The next night it’s clothes. Find a system that works for you.
How do you tame the laundry monster?
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