If I had an obscure, materialistic love language, it would be aesthetic versions of everyday items – glass jars, woven baskets, matching hangers. So, the fact that I am almost emotionally attached to these
visually dominant features makes me lol. And they’re both laundry items.
UGLY THINGS FOR AN UGLY CHORE.
Just joking. These items aren’t ugly, just bulky. Laundry is not my favorite task but I take it seriously. So serious that I haven’t quit these items’ functionality for over a decade, no matter how clunky they are to store or how they look in my house when in use. They work too hard to let them go.
Items That Keep Laundry Washing Low Threat
Laundry Sorter
As a serial laundry sorter – delicates, synthetic workout wear, whites, to name a few – a laundry sorter does NOT make washing dirty clothes a chore. Emphasis on the washing part only. If I’m ever running low on a type of clothing (gym socks? Pjs? White tees?) or need a specific item cleaned (where’s my favorite shirt?!), I can easily take the individual canvas bag out without a second thought. Also, this feels low commitment for me. Rather than having a huge mound of laundry to sort and then inevitably fold and put away, I can deal with small piles at a time and still feel like I finished the job to completion.
Clothes Drying Rack
Of course if you’re taking laundry sorting as seriously as me, it doesn’t stop there. We hang dry most items that call for it – to include synthetics and even our favorite t-shirts we’re worried about shrinking. I’ve had a clothes rack like this for well over a decade. This rack is actually my second after my first one quietly succumbed to the literal pressures of upholding a decade of clothes.
An additional feature I love on mine is the upper hanging rod. Save your door frames and shower curtain rods from all the hang drying laundry. Save your clean laundry from blowing in the dirt strewn wind. Keep everything drying congregated together. And as a bonus to freeing up your doorways and shower curtain rods free, you can easily transfer clothes hanging on hangers from the rack straight to the closet. Sometimes this is the only laundry that makes it back to my closet in a timely fashion.
Habits That Keep Laundry from Free Rent in my Mind:
- Because my items are sorted immediately, I’ve eliminated the chore of sorting laundry. We don’t have a designated “laundry day” in my house. We regularly have clothes cycling through the laundry room if a hamper/sorter bin gets full or we need an item. Truly, laundry doesn’t feel like a mental burden when I’ve grown into the habit of tossing a load of laundry in the washer so regularly.
2. Every few months we will go into kid drawers together and do a less raccoon-like folding. I try to habit-stack when I do this. It becomes a subsequent opportunity for me to pull out any clothes that are either too small, worn beyond use, or no longer in my kids preferable wearables. I love efficiency and taking care of future me, so if I potentially have LESS clothes to worry about in the future, I will do it.
3. Find friends that have kids smaller than your own, with similar style. Seriously. When you have too many things, having a community to share with creates a meaningful place to spread the overflowing wealth. I’ve only found this outlet recently and the amount of pressure it’s relieved from having so many clothes – especially kids clothes! – has been enormous. Clothes still get use and there’s less to take care of and therefore worry about.
How I Actually Get Clean Laundry Put Away
At this point in my life, I cannot stake claim to being an aficionado or lover of folding laundry. Some tips that make it somewhat manageable:
- Put the laundry on your bed so you’re forced to confront it before resting easy for the night. Also, invest in a chair to move said pile of clothes off the bed so they at least stay clean when you inevitably don’t fold them.
2. Come to terms with not having perfect drawers. But, and at least organize your clothes by type into separate drawers or drawer dividers. High likeliness of wrinkly clothes but also high likeliness that you’ll know exactly where to look if you are looking for a particular item.
3. Maybe the most uncontrollable/luck-of-the-draw: find a complementary significant other who either likes to or doesn’t mind doing the folding.
Laundry is a chore but it doesn’t have to be the worst one
These things may not make you have a change of heart around laundry, but I hope they help you find some routine and ease around laundry!
