I struggle with laundry, and it should be so simple. A load a day. Why can’t I achieve that? Even Flylady couldn’t get me there.
So I revert back to my old methods - if I’m not getting some household task done, start eliminating and winnowing out and decluttering.
But I ponder this: if we had fewer clothes (which we certainly could get by with here at mi casa) would I do laundry less often? Or would I just wash the same clothes more often.
OR, would we be more diligent about re-wearing things that aren’t dirty? Would I be better about putting a bib on the little one when we are at home to preserve her clean-shirt status so the shirt could be reworn? It’s not like she sweats or anything. Except her head, which sweats like a flowing river, usually when she is sleeping next to me, leading to her being adhered to my body by sweat. But I digress.
What I think would happen is this: I think that if, say, the worst it could ever get is an accumulation of four loads of laundry (except for bed linens & towels), then I would never be overwhelmed by Big Laundry Mountain. I would know “L, there are no more than four loads there, babe, and if you get your tail in there and get started, you will be done before supper.
I think I need to eliminate some laundry potential. You know, like debt potential. Debt potential is the amount of debt trouble you could get into, if you added up the available credit you have on your cards. That right there is your debt potential. My laundry potential remains high. We can go easily a week without doing laundry. Probably because I never did laundry often enough so the husband bought himself enough socks and underwear and garments in general to last him at least two weeks.
So tomorrow is laundry day, and I am sad about that. I don’t want it to be laundry day. I want it to be World of Warcraft Day, but that’s not gonna happen. I’m trying to get excited about it, like it’s a big initiative that I will feel super about when done, but I don’t feel any excitement stirring AT ALL.
So maybe it’s time to go back through and remove ten items from each family member’s wardrobe. I’ve been ruthless with mine, but the girls tend to accumulate garments from hand-me-downs and sales and me sewing little things for fun. They’ve got more than they need though. Way more. And other people don’t. So maybe I could feel a little excitement about laundry day tomorrow IF I vow to winnow out garments from each load of clothes as it comes out of the dryer. AND if I said that since it’s laundry day and that’s my primary objective for the day, and everyone knows that laundry requires about 10 minutes of activity followed by about 45 minutes of waiting, then repeat the cycle….well, what else could I possibly do with my waiting time than play World of Warcraft! So there you have it. I have a sound reason for it to be WoW Day because it will facilitate my laundry operation.
So if you play WoW, I can be found running happily through Lothar tomorrow, hoping to level up and engineering a mechanical squirrel or two. And now I’m smiling about my Wednesday plan.
L
I say let kids go nekkid so you don’t have to wash the shirt OR the bib.
There are 7 people in this house. DH does 2 loads of sheets, one load of towels, and 3-4 loads of clothes PER WEEK. I wear my Moo-Moos, the little kids go nekkid, and DS wears his school uniform twice before it gets washed.
When DH and both WOHM in decent jobs, we did even less as our job offered uniform service and all that good junk.
Steph
I’m working on this. I’m not buying my girl child anything new this year as she can still wear last summers clothes. Fashion changing drastically caused me to donate most of my old clothes and I’m making a concerted effort to not replace more than 1/3 of them. I did not need so many. Hubby is the hoarder.
Steph: wow - y’all are doing great. I am still trying to come up with a good uniform for the girls and me, something we can throw on every day that functions in the garden or out and about, but kind of interchangeable. Jean shorts and t-shirts or something.
Missy: My hubby has more clothes than the rest of us put together. I think it’s wonderful that you can get away with not buying your daughter anything new. That’s quite an accomplishment if you think about it!
L
Oh how I hate laundry!!! We don’t have much clothes, but I’m still stuck buying a ton this year as both girls outgrew EVERYTHING (well, some of dsd’s fit, but aren’t appropriate anymore as she’s grown almost two cup sizes…..). Plus I’m finally replenishing my wardrobe (prior to the current buy I think I’ve bought 3 pairs of jeans and a package of underwear in the last 3 or 4 years). So it seems like all I do is buy and wash clothes, but it’s pretty well done….two or three pairs of shorts and a bathing suit (all for dsd) and we’ll all be set. Oh…and dh probably needs some new work pants, I noticed the other day that one pair has holes in the butt above the pockets, and he only has three pair! Now I just have to bag up and haul out to the dropoff the minor mountain in my laundry room!! It’s clean but it doesn’t fit. All the raggedy unuseable stuff has been transformed into cleaning rags already (that’s FUN…tearing, chopping and otherwise doing all the destructive things your mom never let you do to clothes!)
For laundry I do a load a day, then on Sundays catch up the missed stuff from doing bedding on a couple days. We generate on average a load a day between towels (I’m apparently the only one who can hang a towel up properly so it will dry and not get musty *sigh*) clothes and the kid’s jammies. Of course some days there isn’t a load of any particular thing, so those days are when beds get washed. Then by the end of the week we usually have 2-3 loads that just weren’t full yet so they get done on Sunday (since that’s the day we’re least likely to have commitments outside of taking dsd home). Oh…dh and I rewear regularly, but the kids can’t. They’re simply both too filthy! I swear dd comes home from school more days than not looking like she wallowed in mud, and dsd’s no better.