Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Works for me Wednesday - overwhelming laundry

Ever since I started thinking about starting a blog, my mind has been filled with ideas for "Works for me Wednesday". Here is my first WFMW post! (So excited!)

Sometimes Often Lately the laundry has been overwhelming for me. It's not so much the washing and drying part. That's easy enough to do and to keep going. It's the folding and putting away part that sneaks up on me and brings on significant panic attacks, causing me to obsessively start writing to-do lists. It seems I keep turning around to find that another load has been added to the pile of clothes that need to be folded.

Instead of continuously chipping away at Mount Laundry and never making any progress, I've found a way to break it up so it feels like I'm actually getting somewhere.

First I get out my second laundry basket. Then my daughter KK and I go through Mount Laundry and find everything that goes in her room. We make it a game.

I hold up a pair of her pjs, "Does this go in KK's room?"

"Yes!" she shouts gleefully and in the basket it goes.

I hold up a pair of Daddy's pants, "Are these KK's pants?"

"No!" she shouts and we laugh uproariously because what could be funnier than mixing up Daddy's pants with hers?

And on we go until everything is sorted into two piles "KK's room" and "Not KK's room".

If Mount Laundry still overwhelms me, then we continue to sort into smaller piles until I feel like I could tackle ONE of them. That's the key. I only have to fold and put away ONE PILE. But suddenly, that didn't seem so hard...and that sense of accomplishment felt really good. Maybe I'll just do one more pile.....

Next thing I know, everything is folded and maybe even put away.

I didn't know it was possible to use such trickery on oneself!

For more great ideas, head on over to "Rocks in my dryer" where Shannon hosts "Works for me Wednesday" weekly.

6 comments:

  1. I have a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. One of those things to do was to put away the laundry.

    It seems so silly that something as simple as putting away laundry needed to be on such a grandiose list, but it did. I found a way to get it put away and so did you. That's the key. Making it work for you!! Bravo!

    Have a great day!
    Kristin

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  2. YES! I'm the same way. Only a lot of times I wash and/or dry and then don't look at it again for a few days. Not so fun when I have to re-wash a load two or three times.

    I have the same problem with folding and putting away laundry. I'm going to try your trick. Just this week I found that if I put everyone's own laundry in their room, I can quickly fold it and put it all away since I'm right there. That keeps all the laundry from piling up on the couch, and I don't have to make eleventy-four trips from the couch to the rooms to put it all away.

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  3. http://flourishingmother.blogspot.com/

    visit this blog about how to view your laundry...it's really neat and has helped me as I'm navigating through the never ending chore!

    Good ideas!

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  4. I found the best way to make sure the laundry is always washed, folded and put away! Have your husband do it!! I've been very lucky, Jim takes care of the laundry. He is good at it (much better than I was). He keeps up on it, folds it and puts it away, most of the time. We usually take the weekend off so on Monday, when I'm at work, he has many loads to catch up on! Works for me!

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  5. Great plan! Because most of my kids are a little older we do it on a bigger scale. I tell everyone they need to come into the family room where the pile has grown all day. Then I toss each kid their own and have a couple do towels and little sibling's clothes. It is so much easier broken down like that.

    My other brilliant laundry advancement was to buy everyone their own brand of socks (with prominent logos). No more matching socks! They each just get a pile of their brand, they can match them as they wear them - or not.

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  6. How cool to make up a game that is fun for you and KK and GETS the chore done in a way that's not a chore.

    I think I need to borrow a little person. I somehow doubt that my visiting 24 yo dd would be thrilled with this game. :-)

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