Article & Newsletter
Archives
|
| Conquering the Laundry Monster |
|
Laundry is my least favorite chore. It just seems never-ending. I have to collect it all, wash it, dry it,
iron some, fold, or hang it and put it away. Before I can complete all the family's laundry, there is more to do.
It always made me feel inadequate just because it was never all done, and because I hated doing it, by the third or
fourth load I would give up, or get busy with something else. I would forget there is still a load in the washer
and I would find it three days later smelling sour. Or I would find a load of wrinkled laundry in the dryer.
I don't even want to think about the number of times I went hunting through baskets of laundry that hadn't been
folded or put away, because somebody needed something to wear.
In order to overcome my aversion to laundry I took the advice of Marla Cilley (aka: The Flylady and author of Sink
Reflections) and changed my expectations. The fact is the laundry is never going to be done unless we stop wearing
clothes. ( I just had my 40th birthday and I'm in pretty good shape, but that is not going to happen!) Now, I don't
try to do it all. I do a little bit every day. I have a hamper for darks and a hamper for lights in each bedroom and
in the laundry room. Every morning before I come downstairs, I bring down any hamper that is almost full and dump it
into the hamper in the laundry room. If there is enough for a load and I have time to complete the wash, dry, iron,
fold or hang, and put away I will put in a load. While it's washing and drying I get my other chores done. Then I
iron, fold or hang, and put it all away. Doing it this way, I never feel overwhelmed and always have something to wear.v
The other change I made, thanks to the Flylady, was to teach my children to do their own laundry. It is a skill they
must learn sometime, so why not teach them early. Children can do their own laundry as early as 5 years old with a
little help. They are proud of their accomplishment and tend to mess up fewer clothes because they take pride in keeping
them clean. My children each have an assigned laundry day when they complete a load of darks and a load of lights from
start to finish. They know how to fold all their clothes and put them away. Probably the most compelling reason to teach
your kids to do their own laundry is that you will never hear the words (yelled from another room) "Mom, where are my jeans?"
-Haike Tremblay
|
|
