Laundry !

Let’s talk about the dreaded, seemingly endless, laundry piles that many never quite catch up on.

I remember my mother saying, “Where did all of this come from?” as she sorted piles of laundry to wash. I couldn’t (at the age of 10) truly appreciate the frustration she felt doing a chore that was repetitious and never ending.

I can appreciate it now! After 40 plus years of doing my own laundry I find myself asking the exact same question.

Keeping up with dirty clothes (in a busy household) is hard enough, let alone putting clean clothes away in a timely fashion.

For my husband and myself we find by doing a load of clothes every day (approximately) we spend minimal time sorting, folding and putting it away.

For those of you that are overloaded with piles of dirty laundry you might want to think about hiring someone to wash and ‘catch up’ your laundry by coming to your house or by taking it to your local Laundromat and getting it done in one fell swoop. Sometimes it’s worth the money and expense to start with a clean slate.

If you choose to ‘catch up’ the laundry on your own then realize it will take you an intense week or so to have things back on track. Set time aside and dedicate yourself to the effort. This is also a perfect time to get rid of items that are redundant or no longer fit.

Once you’re ‘on track’ be sure to have a schedule in place for when you need to wash and remember to give yourself time to fold, hang and put everything in its proper place. Example: if you have a family of four with pets you can schedule two loads every day to be run which should cover clothes, sheets, towels, dog and cat bedding. Make a schedule that works for YOU!

Another helpful hint: If you have other family members helping with the laundry be sure that everyone is on board with how clothes are folded, hung and put away. Meaning…. if everyone folds clothes/sheets/towels using the same method you’ll find chaos often turns into calm. My husband is delighted to compare folding notes so we can remain consistent.

Most children can eventually understand how to separate darks from lights and to use a hamper. Older children can bring their dirty clothes to the laundry room and pick up a basket of clean clothes to be hung and stored in their closets. After all, sooner or later they’ll be doing laundry on their own!

If you also have some semblance of order in your closets and drawers it’ll make the job of ‘putting away’ much easier. Example: Coming home from vacations, my husband showed his daughters that by emptying suitcases and putting dirty laundry in the hamper, clean clothes back in their closets that life got back to normal quickly. His motto was…vacation wasn’t over until luggage was back in storage. Order WORKS!

Laundry is an unavoidable chore that has to be done on a routine basis. Routine is the key word here to be successful.

I wish all of us the best of luck in our ongoing ‘laundry soap operas’!