How to Tame Your Laundry « The Zenplicity Coach

How to Tame Your Laundry

24Jul07

Good morning! Did you get some restful sleep last night going to bed earlier? How did it feel having extra time this morning? If you think you might have some trouble with changing your sleep schedule, read Steve Pavlina’s article about how to become an early riser. He’s got some great tips on how to make it work for you.

For today, though, we are going to talk about clothes … dirty clothes! How many piles do you have in your closet, bedroom & laundry room right now? Go ahead, I’ll wait while you count … 1, 2, 3 …

Dum, dee, dum, dee, dum …

OK, so what is it about laundry that makes us wait until it’s so out of control that we dread the act of starting it? Besides the fact that it just feels like work, I think I might have an answer — laundry is easy to hide in baskets, so we temporarily forget that it is building and building and building. It’s easy to forget about things when we can’t see them, plain & simple. Not only that, normally we don’t separate anything until the very end, so that takes even more time on top of doing the actual washing of the clothes. So, if laundry becomes a morning habit, just like anything else, you won’t forget. And, how do we do that, you ask? Here are some simple tips to get you started:

#1) Separate clothes as you go from this point forward. It doesn’t matter if you have 3-4 piles in your closet with nothing separating them but space (for now) or if you go buy a laundry separater (I made up a word) specifically for this purpose … just work on keeping your colors, darks, lights & whites separated whenever you throw something into the “pile”. Also, you will want to designate specific areas for dirty clothes … either everyone throws their clothes into the separated piles in the laundry room, or everyone has their own separating system in their bedrooms, and all of that comes together each time laundry has to be done. Perhaps every morning, everyone can put their basket of colors, darks, lights (whatever that day is) on the outside of their door.
#2.) No more “laundry day”. Who likes to spend all day dreading the sound of the dryer buzzer in the middle of lunch and dinner? Yuck, we don’t need that! If Monday is your Quick Clean Hour, starting on Tuesday you can begin your 1 load of laundry per day (do 1 load every day until it’s all done for the week). What this means is, pick a category (dark, whites, lights, etc.) and do just that one load on Tuesday morning. Throw it in the washer right when you get up, before you do anything else. Just “do it” as they say. By the time it’s done, you will have eaten breakfast, checked your calendar and done all your other morning stuff. Throwing the clothes into the dryer won’t seem like a big deal because you won’t have another dreaded load coming shortly thereafter. Then, when it’s done drying, you can fold and put away! Make sure you do this as soon as possible to just “get it over with”. If you go to work and can’t do this, you can do it right when you get home. But, with your extra hour in the morning, it should be possible. Doing one load a day keeps the all-day laundry monsters at bay, and you can enjoy your everyday life (and your weekends) so much more.
#3.) Keep a separate dry-cleaning & hand-washing pile (although dry-cleaning is not good for the environment, I’m sure there are some people who cannot let this luxury go quite yet). You can do these once a week so the pile does not build and build and build. If you have a lot of hand-washables & dry-cleaning, you may want to consider updating your wardrobe to clothing items that do not require this. It saves time, energy and is better for the earth.

That’s it as far as laundry goes. Simple. Simple. Simple. I told you it would be easy!

Other Daily Stuff that you may designate for a Tuesday:

Run your errands today! Have everything waiting for you at the door (library books, returns, etc.), so when you leave, everything is right there ready to go.
Make your weekly grocery shopping list.
Enjoy your day!