I usually dedicate one weekend day to laundry. That night becomes “too tired to fold laundry night.” Sometimes I skip a week because I don’t see nearly enough full laundry baskets hanging around the house, but when they’re overflowing and drawers are empty, I know it’s time.
I go into the project with the best of intentions, “I’m going to switch the loads over and fold them immediately.” It never works out. I end up with a bunch of constantly moving piles and baskets tripping me as I walk around the house. I put them in my way on purpose so I’ll have to see and fold them, but my inner procrastination wins the battle and I move them out of the trip path or off the bed so they can call to me another day.
“I’m an unmatched sock! I need my mate!”
“Don’t you see me? Your favorite shirt? Crumpled near the boy’s stained clothes? Get me out of here!”
When I don’t remember a specific basket, I usually assume it’s clean, and I fold it up and put it away by the middle of the week. The same holds true with piles on the ground. Piles without visible stains or pronounced odors are probably clean. If an item of clothing has been in the pile long enough that I don’t remember wearing it, I safely assume the molecules of dirt and contamination have fallen to the ground–it’s the basic science of gravity. Clean by default. Fold. Put away.
Days like today where I’m out of socks and undergarments, I know I’ll have to finish the laundry process at all costs. Today, I have committed to making the Mount Fuji of laundry into a molehill.
Here’s how I get the job done:
1. Hang up and fold the things I don’t remember wearing. I don’t dress up very often if I can help it. If it belongs on a hanger, chances are I didn’t wear it very long, if at all. Back into the closet it goes.
2. Check baskets for scraps of Kleenex. A basket’s definitely clean if it has scraps of Kleenex throughout. Only teachers understand this–I always stuff my pocket full of tissues in the morning because I never know if I’ll get stuck in a school bathroom without toilet paper–often I don’t check until it’s too late. If you’re female, you know the emergency Kleenex is a lifesaver. Problem is, I forget to take them out of my pocket, and they disintegrate all over my laundry. That’s okay–they prove the laundry is clean.
2. Take out all the cloth napkins, face cloths, and dish towels. Crumple them and throw them in the cabinet. It’s ultimately what happens when I use them. No need to fold them too well.
3. Throw socks into sock drawer. Matching socks takes up good time I could be spending doing something fun. It’s more frustrating than I imagine golf to be. Luckily, teens have figured this out. They wear mismatching socks to make a statement. I’m taking a cue from them.
4. Find dirty clothes and throw them in the washing machine. Separating laundry is old-school. That’s what your mom did, wasting time when she was supposed to be ordering you around. This is a new generation. Don’t worry about separating clothes, they all reintegrate in the basket, anyway. Life, like laundry, is a melting pot.
5. Think briefly about changing the loads over and starting a good habit of folding clothes right away. Every week I speak a promise over the washer. “I’ll fold the clothes today.” The day progresses. Clothes begin to bore me, and I leave them in baskets until the fateful day toward the end of the week when I run out of socks or underwear once again. Time to repeat the laundry ritual.
Maybe one day I’ll get it right. I’ll plug in the iron rather than throwing a wrinkled t-shirt into the drier for dewrinkling. Maybe I’ll fold all the clothes. Maybe I’ll sort the laundry. Maybe, I’ll even make a clothes line and hang them out like I should. The drier takes more unnecessary electricity than I’m comfortable expending.
Or maybe…I’ll simply look at that basket, dump it out looking for a sock or a pair of jeans, and scoop the remaining clothes back in until tomorrow. It’s too early to decide.
Perhaps, after one more cup of coffee…
I am quite sure my son is going to tennis camp today in dirty clothes because “if you don’t put your clothes in the laundry room, I am NOT going to wash them!” Pathetically, he has learned to look for clothes sitting in a rumpled heap, unfolded, for days, inside the dryer.
Haha! I’m training The Boy to put his laundry in “the frog” and tell me when the frog (hamper) is full. Then, I wash them with him. Everyone else does their own pretty much so my pile ends up being mine and dish towels, bath towels, cloth napkins, etc.
You had me laughing and then my compulsive or anal issues got fired up! It’s killing me reading this, as I came from such a line of perfectionists around the house-and several of them worked too. My grandmother taught me the proper way of hanging clothes on the line, my great-aunt how to compact trash before t.c.’s were invented-and they all praised me at 5 yrs. old for ironing my father’s handkerchiefs so well-lol(and I love ironing to this day!) Yes, sad but true.
I have worked out of the home, with kids still living with me; and living totally alone is the only time of life I am able to wash when I want. Being alone and bored at times, I welcome the chore!
But, If you want to get out of that over-whelmed feeling I’ll give unrequested advice.
You know how habits are-as a working mother and wife and multi-tasker…I would take any colored clothes for instance-I did separate them! But, put a load in the washer, when you get home, don’t do anything, but put it in the dryer and in an hour take them out and fold them-like you’re a robot. It’s not particularly fun or easy, but when it’s a habit you don’t even realize you’re doing it. Just don’t sit down ’til you’ve done the have to’s. And each day if you do it, you’ll never get behind-or at least have small hills instead of Mt. Everests!
I’ve been a Nanny to several families, and the way those parents did it was to be obsessive or anal-I always get the meanings mixed up-but whichever, it works. It’s for your sanity-not mine. It’s like when your Mom told you to pick up your clothes each day and clean your room; otherwise on the weekend it was overwhelming for anybody to do!
Delete if you want…I just can’t help myself! lol! Chris O.
Well, Chris, I folded the three loads yesterday while chatting on the phone with my sister for an hour. Multitasking. Thank God for phone headsets, as I’m not really good with phone calls, and then if I can get housework done at the same time, it’s productive use of time.