So my girlfriend Karen advised me that the only way to keep up with laundry is to wash a load a day. Who woulda thunk it? A lifetime of doing laundry and that never entered my mind! Duhhhhh. I was washing clothes all weekend and being MISERABLE. Never catching up. Always stressed and feeling like a failure. I guess I never thought of it because my mother washed clothes on the weekend. (and there were FIVE of us kids!) I think that's all she did all weekend...
So on that April day in 2009, I started doing a load a day and I have to say - JOY.
Well - the other night I was out with my chicas (yesssss - cornbag night...) and we were discussing laundry. I was commenting about my obsessiveness with laundry - that I hang almost every piece of clothing to obviate the act of pulling clothes out of drawers and crumpling them up and stuffing them back in. ( That is - if I'm lucky and don't find them on the floor pretending to be dirty clothes.)
My chicas were astounded. They couldn't believe that I put clean clothes away. Or didn't at least make my kids responsible for it (no way - I'd lose my mind if I tried to do THAT!)
To my shock and delight, most admitted that their families lived out of the laundry room! Piles of clean clothes decorate their laundry rooms 24/7. Many said clean clothes never make it to the bedroom. I was feeling like, "Wow - this is a dirty little secret!" I had no idea. Was I crazy making myself crazy doing laundry and putting clothes away???? Are their lives less stressed because of this protest of sorts?
But NO! I would truly lose my mind if that was what I did. I have heart failure when I walk into my laundry room and there is a basket of unfolded clean clothes. But PILES????!!!!! Just commit me - seriously kittens - it would put me over the edge.
Then one said it. And the rest agreed.
"But I change all the beds every Saturday."
I do the beds once a week... and I fold that load of laundry every day as it comes out of the dryer and put it away immediately. I think it takes five minutes. No piles, no ironing, no big mess. My daughter started doing her own laundry at 15 and it's been a beautiful thing. My son? Forget it. I'll do it to save my sanity.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some day I'll celebrate Mount Clothes-NO-MORE!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Joey, I hopped over from Karen's blog and am following! I see my secret is out... I've been meaning to post about my laundry struggles over the years. I not only leave my clean clothes in the laundry room in piles, but I had shelves made for them because it works so well! Mount Clothesmore- very clever!
ReplyDeleteOMG!!! The husband and I were discussing just this subject last night! The worst thing about moving from our large new house with the laundry room right next to the master bedroom with its double walk-in closets (which made putting one's clothes away a breeze)is now having to do laundry in the scary basement, with less-than-ample closet space. It is wonderful to know that I am not alone, in dressing off of the hanging rack in the laundry room or a basket of clothes on my bedroom floor. The ONLY things I can put away completely, with our current bedroom configuration, are undies, socks, and jeans. Everything else has to fight for the available space, and good stuff gets lost in the inaccessible, unreachable, blind ends of the shared closet. I hate it.
ReplyDeleteLater this year, my #1 project is to remodel the closet end of our bedroom, so each of us will have a small walk-in closet. This will provide a place where I can see my hanging clothes, access my shoes, and hide my laundry hamper. I'm so excited!!!