Are you ever discouraged by laundry? You need to know you’re not the only one, Mama! There is hope for taming the laundry blues!
Guest Post by Sarah Mae
IT WAS SO BAD I decided it would be easier to burn than clean.
I was looking at the laundry.
Clothes everywhere.
Piles and piles.
Standing in the middle of the mounds, I thought: Maybe that’s why Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck and jeans every day. He could go for days if he needed to, and no one would notice if they were clean or not.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just go through, say, five outfits a week? Seems like a good idea to me!
Burning everything? Too dangerous with children around.
image from pixabay
But, seriously, all those clothes? It was not going to work for me anymore. It was time for a change.
With garbage bags in hand, I took care of business in that laundry room, and when I was done, I had five bags full of clothes to get rid of (some to Goodwill, washed first; some to the trash, not washed).
While I’m not actually doing the five-outfit thing, I have significantly reduced our clothing load, and it is glorious.
Are your clothes wrinkled from sitting in the basket after coming out of the dryer?
Do you have a hard time getting your clothes from the basket to the closet and dresser drawers?
Has your laundry basket become the go-to place for clean clothes?
If so, my friend, you may be suffering from what I call LBS—Laundry Basket Syndrome. (No, not “lazy bum syndrome”!)
image from pixabay
And girl, you’ve got to get ahold of this problem and nip it in the bud!
I know, because this is what I do: I put the laundry in the washer, then the dryer, and finally into the laundry basket, assuring myself, “I’ll get to that later.”
But I never do.
A few days go by, and we’re living out of the laundry basket, but the shirt I want to wear is wrinkled. Since I don’t like to iron, I just find something else—and the cycle continues.
I usually just end up washing all the clothes again because they get dumped out, and I don’t know what’s clean or dirty anymore.
I know it’s my fault, but I still feel like the laundry mocks me: “It will never end . . . muhahahaha.”
It’s true, laundry will never come to an end, so I had better find myself a new perspective on my so-called nemesis. In fact, I think I will stop using the word nemesis in the same sentence as laundry. It’s time for a perspective check.
“Thank You, Jesus, that my family has clothes to wear.”
We have a lot of clothes. You know how it is—clothes, like bunnies, just multiply. I am sure if I were to just quit with the “Oh, but that is just too cute, I can’t get rid of it” mentality, I would have much less laundry on my hands and all over my floor.
Here’s the deal: I believe thankfulness goes a long way and we need to have grateful hearts when it comes to our things, but I also think there is a reality at play that just makes taking care of our things very difficult.
What’s a gal to do when it comes to taming the laundry beast?
The number one answer seems to be “Do one load a day.”
You already knew that though, didn’t you? Now you just have to do it.
So friends, let’s link arms and declare, “I WILL NOT LET LBS RULE ME!”
And then, you know, when you leave the clothes in the basket again, give yourself some grace, thank God for your clothes, and keep on.
Love and cleaning fairies,
Sarah Mae
What are your best laundry tips? Do share!
You just read an excerpt from Sarah Mae’s new book, Having a Martha Home the Mary Way: 31 Days to a Clean Home and a Satisfied Soul! Learn more about it here: MarthaHomeMaryWay.com.
Ashley
Great tips! I’ve tried to pare down our clothes as well, but it still seems like the laundry is never-ending. Especially when I have twin toddlers whose clothing I can’t put away while they’re sleeping. So either somebody else has to entertain them (which never happens), or they destroy their room as I’m trying to clean it up lol.
Ahhh, motherhood 🙂 This is why I drink coffee.
Erin
Wow–twin toddlers!! I think having clothes for them to wear, period, is victory! Blessings to you, Mama!
Meg
I used to have this problem too, but I finally made a rule that laundry can not leave the drier until I’m ready to put it away. In the last house, where the laundry room was right next to the bedrooms I went so far as to get rid of all the laundry baskets, so I had to put it right away. Now that my laundry room is downstairs the laundry basket is necessary but I don’t keep any extras around, and I still hold to the drier rule. Now, I have been know to let laundry sit in the drier for a day or two, but it still beats the laundry basket for a couple of reasons: 1- I can never be more than one load behind putting it away, it can’t stack up. 2-it can’t mix with dirty laundry, if it’s in the drier then clearly it is clean, and 3- if it does happen to sit I just turn on a quick 10 minute warm up cycle before I put it away so it goes away fresh and up wrinkled unlike laundry that’s been sitting in a basket all week.
Erin
I love that rule! Thanks for sharing, Meg!
Keelie Reason
Basically…I let the clean, unfolded laundry pile up on the couch. 😀 No, seriously, I do. I make the kids fold everything and clear it off every few days, but it is not unusual for us to have some laundry on the couch a couple days a week, and I’m ok with that.
I have a laundry room where all of the dirty stuff goes, so that keeps us from having a pile of dirty stuff I need to look at.
My kids are old enough now to wash, dry, fold, and put away their clothes…at least the two older ones are. So, that really helps keep the pile down. We tend to do all of the laundry in the house and then give it a rest for a few days. I find that keeps the pile of clothes off the couch better, because we do not have a load to fold every day.
I say, do what works for you! If a load a day helps, do it! If doing it all at once helps, go that route. 🙂
Erin
That’s hilarious, Keelie! I love that your kids help so much, and I love your grace-fille attitude. It’s so true–What works for one doesn’t work for all!
Lisa @ This Pilgrim Life
Paring down my kids’ clothes was huge for me too. My boys, in particular, gravitate towards the same few t-shirts anyways and then usually only need a nicer shirt one or two days a week. In other words, they just don’t need that many clothes! Reducing their clothes by half made a big difference and makes it easier for them to keep track of putting their clothes away.
As far as when I do the laundry, I have gone back and forth from a load a day to doing all the laundry on one day. The latter worked for a while, but I don’t think it’s working anymore. Time to try a new system again!
Erin
Paring down our clothes helped me SO much!! We still do one load/day, and it’s a huge sanity saver for me! I do find we have to tweaks things during certain life seasons!
Stace
My husband and I care for 6-8, elementary aged foster children. Each child has a day of the week that their laundry gets done. They help sort their laundry, load the washer, add the detergent, set it to run, switch the load into the dryer and then fold and put away the load when complete. They do this with supervision, some more than others. This is the only way we could survive the laundry room chaos around our house. My husband and I do our laundry whenever we can fit it into our week. I may or may not have 6 large laundry baskets in my room right now waiting to be folded. I can’t get to it now, because I am on vacation. I think I may have too many clothes though. Time to donate. Keep less and donate more.
Erin
I love how you are teaching your foster children responsibility!
Val
My husband and I do not have kids and we both work full time opposite schedules. I’m trying to be a good wife by doing all of our laundry. But it is challenging since we do not have a washing machine in our apartment and wash our clothes at my in laws on a weekly basis. We wash out clothes on separate days due to the time it takes. My day is on Saturday and his day is Sunday. Usually, I don’t like doing my laundry since I know his is coming. But, by the time we get home on Sunday nights, I am so exhausted from the day. Any tips?