Less Doing the Dirty
- Whitney Crawford
- Jul 19, 2018
- 3 min read
Laundry, obviously.
Not my favorite thing, but also not my least favorite. No one seems to bother me when I do the laundry. They know they will be promptly put to work, so I guess that's the silver lining.
I used to hate it. I did a little every day. There were a couple of towels, a few of dad's clothes, a few kids clothes, some of mine. You know the story. Wash it all, fold it all, put it all away ALL OVER THE HOUSE. I hated putting it all away just to turn around and have to visit all of those same places the next day. It seemed like such a waste to have to go to every spot clean laundry needs to go every single day with only a handful of items. It literally NEVER ENDED.
"What if I could figure out a way to visit each of these places once a week instead of every day," I thought. So I started. It took a couple of weeks to get everyone used to the routine, but this is me every
Thursday ----->
AND ONLY ON THURSDAYS!
Here's what you need to make this work:
Each bedroom has a hamper that is filled through out the week.
On Thursday mornings, I collect all of the towels that are hanging on doors (more about that later.) This includes kitchen towels. This seems to be the quickest to fold and putaway so I get it out of the way first.
Then, I collect each laundry hamper and line them up by the washing machine.
Each hamper holds about a load. Then I simply wash, dry, putaway.
Now, I go to the boys room ONE TIME and put everything away together. Then to my daughters room ONE TIME. And so on...
Since each hamper only has items for that one room, the putaway is SO easy!
If you're a working mom, I know you're thinking "Yeah, but you have all day to be at home and knock out laundry. I wish I had time for that!" Believe me. I was in your shoes for a LOOOONG time. Here is what I would recommend for you.
Each bedroom still needs it's own hamper.
Set your own weekly schedule. Mine would look like this:
Monday - Towels
Tuesday - Mom's Clothes
Wednesday - Dad's Clothes
Thursday - Kid 1 clothes
Friday - Kid 2 and 3 clothes
Saturday/Sunday -
You're still only having to go to each room to put stuff away once a week!
As a side note, if we have a swimming day, stomach virus, or something else that creates it's own set of nasty clothes, I do go ahead and throw them all in together. I fold them all together and sit them on top of the dryer. When it is Thursday, I migrate these clothes back into the putaway of the regular clothes. Still ONLY PUTTING UP LAUNDRY ONCE A WEEK! So, here and there, I do have to wash and dry a load of laundry in the middle of the week.
This will take a couple of weeks to get used to. Don't give up too quick! Once you set it in motion, it is SO much easier than the daily laundry grind.
One other thing you will need to know about this plan - Everyone will need enough clothes to get them through the week. We pick out clothes once a week to wear for the week. So my kids have about 2 weeks worth of clothes. That's about 14 tops, bottoms, underwear, and socks. Once you start this plan, it will be very obvious what you need or have too much of!
Also, If you are on the journey to minimalism. Laundry day is a great day to purge. While you're washing the clothes from the week, go see what is still in drawers and closets. Chances are, its the things that aren't getting worn. Things that could be beneficial for someone else to own. Things that need to move on.
There is no better feeling than shutting the Laundry Room door Thrusday evenings, knowing that
I DON'T HAVE TO DO LAUNDRY AGAIN FOR A WHOLE WEEK!
How do you deal with laundry? Any tips for the rest of us?
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