It’s 2020 and doing laundry is still a drag.
Laundry sucks! I hate it! There, I said it. I have tried everything out there and I have come to the conclusion that the real life answer to Laundry is consistency. Not the sexy answer you were looking for? Me either! But it’s the real truth.
Laundry is one of those things that can keep me up at night. If you know, you know. I am a proud mommy and wife to a beautiful family of 5 — 6 if you want to throw the dog in there. Thankfully for me, the dog doesn’t have any clothes to add to my nightmare. After trying many different approaches and driving myself crazy, I have found these real life laundry tips to be the most effective.
Address the Root Problem
With any issue or obstacle in your life, you need to identify the root cause. Asking yourself questions is a very effective approach to identifying problems. If we are going to fix anything, we need to be real with ourselves and realize that everything is within our own control. If something is not working properly, then there are improvements that need to be made. Laundry is no different. I take it seriously because it really has an effect on the way that I feel — sometimes too much. If laundry is a pain in your life, like it was mine, then this should help you conquer laundry.
Consistency is Key
Moms are low-key super heroes. We are expected to do so much as it is. Then we take it one step further and place a high level of expectations on ourselves. Because, it’s just what moms do. I have found through my constant battles with laundry, that the key to sanity is to stay consistent. If I fall off with laundry, it will pile so fast you would think it’s a pile of trash sitting in my house. It doesn’t matter what approach you decide to take with this beast, if you don’t stay consistent, you will achieve nothing. The sooner you come to terms that this is your life, then the sooner you will get results.
Discover your Process
You need to discover your own process. This requires experimentation on your part and a lot of trial and error. No matter what I write here for you to try, you will eventually fall slowly back into how you prefer to get things done. Maybe in your home, you find it better to do laundry every other day. Or you might be a weekend warrior and like to tackle your laundry in one day. If you are struggling with laundry, it could be that you are going through the motions of doing laundry, but never put much thought into figuring out a process.
My husband tells me all the time “there is an order of operation for everything.” I usually want to punch him in the throat when he tells me this about laundry, but that is a whole separate post. Maybe I’ll write about, why I hate laundry one day. Or maybe this is it 😂 who knows. The point is, you must discover your process. Once you discover your own process and preferences, the easier you will find it to stay consistent. Once you find this groove, then you can start to tweak little things, add or remove processes and see exactly what happens to your sanity.
Call for Reinforcements
This is the part where you tell the other people you are washing clothes for in the first place to come help. This is the part where you hear them complain and moan. I don’t care though! If I am going through it, then so are they. It’s what all these people signed up for once they breathed air into this house.
I like to run through my own process, and once I have laundry ready to be folded and put away I call in the calvary. They are not the most motivated bunch, but they get the job done. If not, they know what is waiting for them.
If you are a mom and you are out there battling with laundry and you have other human people with arms and legs under the same roof that you sleep – then they must be helping with laundry. They can complain and moan all they want, you just need the help.
Stay Organized
This is the first mistake I made when embarking on my voyage towards happiness with laundry 😒. I had a mess going on for myself. I had my husband and my 3 girls throwing their dirty clothes into one hamper. When It came time to do laundry — you guessed it, I had to sit there and sort. This was my introduction to insanity.
After experimenting and learning from moms who are more experienced in advanced warfare than I was at the time, I learned that there are different accessories that exist out there to help people like you and me. The more organized that you are within your laundry process, the better off you will be. This is a real life tip to conquering laundry that holds true. Part of staying organized is getting the troops to fall in line. Sometimes, I wonder if they are the problem and not the poor old laundry. 🤔
My Process = A Little Everyday
A real life tip to conquering laundry, is to do a little everyday. So simple, yet so effective. I have gone from doing laundry every other day, to doing one full day of laundry and everything in between. I have found that the most effective approach, is to just do a little everyday. I schedule one hour of time to get my little load of laundry for the day done. This includes the process from A-Z. I take the clothes from the hamper, wash, dry, fold, and put away. I do this everyday. I don’t know about you, but I rather do a little bit everyday than to let laundry build up on me and increase my stress levels. One small load of laundry everyday helps me keep my sanity and it also provides real life results.
Procrastination is the Enemy
Some things just require work. You can’t be afraid of it, you need to run towards it and attack it. Laundry and I meet everyday, and although sometimes I feel like laundry is the enemy, it’s not. The real enemy is procrastination. All of my moments where I have felt like throwing in the towel, is because I have fallen off of my own process.
My process delivers results for me. When I find myself putting it off or cutting corners, this is when I feel the burden getting heavier. Laundry sucks, there is no way around it. It needs to get done daily for me. I have learned not to put it off, because what comes with procrastination, is never fun. I have been there done that — no thank you!
The tips here are not rocket science. They are simple and practical. That is why I call all of these, real life tips to conquering laundry. This advice can be so simple to your ringing ears, but believe me they require a lot from you. However, if you follow these tips, you will see real results.
Good Luck! I am with you in spirit!
Now to give my family a piece of my mind on laundry…💭
