Tweak: Laundry Routine

January 9, 2009 · Posted in Laundry Routine, Tweaks

I’m passionate about travel, and in the past few years I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel and live abroad, which is a dream come true. When I weighed 350+ pounds and lived in the midst of clutter and chaos, this dream was out of reach. Now we’re able to see the world, I have so much gratitude! Incorporating a good laundry routine will help give you the freedom to follow your dreams.

Something that unites us all, no matter where we live, is that every single one of us has to deal with our laundry one way or another. Maybe this is why it’s so fascinating to travelers to see how people in other parts of the world manage their laundry. (The photo here was taken in Venice.)

When I created a laundry routine, it started as a way to gradually eliminate the huge clothing clutter pile that had taken over our laundry room, with satellite piles in the bathroom and bedrooms. Instead of panic laundry marathons once or twice a week, I resolved to wash, dry and put away two loads of laundry every single day until the clutter was gone. First thing in the morning I would start a wash, throw it in the dryer and start a second wash as soon as I got home later in the day, and then dry the final load and fold, sort, and put away everything while I was watching TV in the evening.

We’ve moved several times since then, and our laundry facilities have varied tremendously, but the habit of keeping up with the laundry every day or almost every day has stuck with me.

Laundry Strategies and Tips

I’ve found that if I keep my dirty laundry in more than one place (hampers in the kids’ bedrooms for example) the laundry creeps up on me and before I realize it there is more than I can do in one day. Therefore, we have a single hamper in the bathroom and I get the kids to bring their dirty laundry out every morning when they tidy their rooms. (When the kids’ rooms were still messy, I would sweep through once a day and pick up their dirty laundry for the hamper.)
I don’t separate the colors from the whites until it is time to wash, but you might find that one of those hampers with two or three compartments saves you sorting time — as long as everyone in your family is on the same page about sorting laundry.
If you have your own washer and dryer (or better yet, a clothesline for drying) then you can do laundry every day. If you live alone or have a small family, perhaps you’ll choose to skip a day here or there when there isn’t a full load of dirty laundry. You can make it a daily routine to check the laundry baskets every morning, or whatever works for you.
If you have to use a laundromat or a shared laundry room, and you have enough clothes and linens, it might work better for you to pick one or two days a week and take everything that is dirty. I hate laundromats, and it helps to have a really juicy novel to read while I’m waiting for the wash and dry cycles.
This past summer we moved to a new country and we spent a couple of months in temporary housing that did not have a washer, but it did have clotheslines. Remember, I hate laundromats. Since it was summertime and we’re in a warm and sunny climate, I decided to get a plastic tub and try washing our clothes by hand. Believe it or not, it worked just fine. Even with five people in the house I was able to keep up with the laundry by washing a couple of loads by hand (and foot — think grape pressing!) every morning.
Sometimes I get lazy about the final laundry step, folding and putting away. I put the dry, clean laundry on the bed (which I make first thing every morning) as a visual cue to encourage me to fold it and put it away before bedtime. Usually this works, but occasionally I just move the pile and then deal with it the next day Folding laundry is a great job for the kids to help out with!

Remember:

Choose no more than one tweak per month – don’t try to pile them on! Practicing a single tweak for at least a full month gives you the best chance of forming a real habit and life change. Do not try to add another tweak until the previous tweak has become a habitual part of your life (this can sometimes take longer than a month).

This is all about loving yourself and creating a joyful life! Therefore, when choosing a new tweak to practice, pick one that is appealing and gives you a sense of anticipation.

Read all the laundry posts here.

Click here to get updates and information about the NurturingHope.com Tweaks System by email, FREE.

Click here to find out more about our private, supportive Member Forum.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13010608@N02/

Comments

3 Responses to “Tweak: Laundry Routine”

Michelle on January 12th, 2009 7:59 pm

I, too, have found a pre-emptive laundry routine key to my overall sanity! A a single person, it’s much less time-intensive but no less effective in boosting my spirits. It reflects an overall lessening of chaos in my life.

Also, I adore the picture from Venice. Thank you so much for these posts. I’m loving them, especially the “Tweak” aspect. Only one at a time; wait until it becomes a habit before adding another. These are very wise ways to embark on personal improvement. Bravo! I’ll be reading on…
Steve on January 22nd, 2009 10:13 pm

Where and when did you live abroad? One of the reasons we started on this debt and clutter free journey is to realize our dream of living in Germany for a while.
Catherine MacDonald on January 22nd, 2009 10:19 pm

We lived in Malta for three years and now we’re in Tunisia for a little while It has been amazing! A few days before Christmas this year we went into the Sahara on camels for an overnight camping trip — really a surreal moment in the morning to watch the kids running around on the sand dunes almost too far away to see. Once the children are settled into university we are planning to make a list of maybe 20 to 40 more places we’d like to live before we get too old to travel and see how many of them we can manage Travel is our passion and it is a great motivator to stay as unfettered by clutter as possible — it’s too expensive to move too much stuff!