I'm trying to sqeeze this in between making my son's lunch and taking him to school so this will be brief. But I really need to know something...When do you do laundry? According to Flylady, you should do a load everyday (after you've gotten dressed down to the shoes ;) to keep the CHAOS away, and I have done that. But what happens is that I throw the load of laundry in, forget about it, then realize, oh yeah, I better put it in the dryer. Then I forget about that. Then it gets so wrinkled that I have to repeat. (Not a word, folks.) I have also waited to do all of it in one day which just straps me down and results in an ALL day affair. AHHHHH.....Laundry, laundry, laundry....
I wish I could be wittier this morning, but I gots ta go... I have a very busy day.
21 Comments:
Hello, my name is Kat, and I am a princess. :-) My mom lives with us and she does the laundry. She loves the laundry. She would not want me to touch the laundry. Because if it's not folded correctly, it must be dirty. AND she likes to iron. (I won't mention all the other domestic type things that I don't do...that might just be a good blog post. But then you all will hate me, so I'll leave it at this.) So...I can spend my days blogging and reading and drinking diet coke :-) Now..."this is the life!"
we have a hamper in our bathroom. when it's full, i do laundry - normally twice a week. and it always equals 2 loads - one light, one colors. i start it in the morning - and am normally putting it away as i'm doing the bath/nighttime routine at night - but i just do it throughout my day. also another couple loads of towels/sheets - when i decide it's "necessary"
When do I do laundry? EVERY DAY! Doesn't everyone else? And Flylady can kiss it, 'cause I went to bed without a shining sink last night and felt not one iota of guilt this morning. Hooray for no shame!
Also...this is gonna sound Hallmarkish/preachy but it's totally true. Nearly every day I feel as if all I do is laundry and dishes...laundry and dishes, dishes and laundry. I have to quote Colossians 3:23--because I'm doing it for the Lord! This keeps my focus.
Ok, enough of the Hallmark card preaching. Back to your regularly scheduled stress& busy day.
Oh, Debbie, Debbie, Debbie...let me vent about laundry for a moment. With four kids, it's my whole life. I tried to do Flylady. I really, really tried. But I was bitter to the Flylady every time she sent me an email to hit my "hot spot". Are you kidding me? My whole entire house is a "hot spot". And doing laundry every day? I am exactly like you. There must be just one day devoted to laundry or else I forget what I'm doing and everything gets wrinkled. I just don't multi-task very well at all. I feel you, sister.
Don't hate me....
I have 2 three-bin sorters. They hold 1)red, purple, pink, orange 2)white 3)jeans 4)light blue, green, yellow 5)blue, navy 6)brown, tan, grey, black.
I also have those huge front loaders. I start laundry on Sunday evening when we are home for the day. Since I am a night owl to the nth degree I can usually plow through about 2/3 of the wash-dry cycles while I do other things. On Monday morning I fold the baskets that are piling up and finish the cycles. I put away my laundry, Honey's laundry, sheets and towels, and help 3yo sort and put his laundry away. The other 4 have to have thier laundry put away before we can set the table. That way it's done by Monday evening.
That's the ideal anyway....
Believe it or not, my sweet hubby does most of the laundry! Although now that he is gone most of the week I usually have to do a load or two during the weekdays (usually towels/sheets) but he helps me out a lot to catch up with it on the weekends. Even before he did most of it we have always been more likely to get it all done in a day or two. I also forget about clothes that are just sitting in the dryer and they become a wrinkled mess. And I DO NOT like to iron. I de-wrinkle most things by throwing them in the dryer for a few minutes with a damp towel. Works for most things...but I do still have to pull out the iron now and then--ugh!
I start laundry on Sunday evening and finish up on Monday morning! I usually do the kids laundry first and they put it away when they get home from school on Monday. Then I do the adults and put it away while the other loads are drying. Towels and everything is last. My cleaning ladies wash and fold the sheets. Works the best for me. Hope this helps.
Oh I totally share your feeling of the "dreaded laundry". with 5 kids I have been overwhelmed with piles of laundry in my basement. Throughout 24 yrs. of marriage I've run the gamut of laundry woes... When my kids were younger the responsibility was all mine, years later my husband helped a bit, at one point in my life (through illness), he did all the laundry... And now, my kids are young adults/teens and we finally figured out the secret: Everyone is responsible for their own clothes. For my older kids, they bring their hamper in and wash, dry, and fold their own clothes, returning it to their bedroom. The teenage boys will bring their hamper into the laundry room and I usually do theirs for them. (I must admit, I do enjoy doing laundry now.) I can honestly say after all these years of hating it, I finally found serenity in methodically sorting, folding,and stacking clothes. I made my laundry room a pretty place to be and it's made a world of difference.
I, too, am a princess. My husband does the laundry. How did I trick him into this, you ask? I let his clothes get wrinkled...no seriously, he hated the way I did laundry. So he has three baskets that sit in the bottom of our closet to let us self-sort. When a basket is full, he does a load and my clothes magically appear back in my closet.
I do all the cooking, so we figure it's a great trade. His meals magically appear, and I never have dirty clothes.
Oh, and I'm sure it could be "mealy", but I think our salesman said "mee-lay." It's German, right? Who cares?
Can we hate Ket, Megan, and Sissy?
Yes we can ;)
Wow...sounds like laundry is a really HOT button! Look at all those comments I had to scroll through!
I hate the putting away and the collecting. I love the folding. I do it all in one day usually. I have given up on putting it away. We no longer have dressers or closets. All the laundry, claen AND dirty goes in one room. When they want to start having their clothes in their own rooms they can figure out for themselves how to get it there. This system works for me. I totally DO NOT mind a dedicated day to get it all done. It is actually a job I can say I've accomplished and it makes me feel good to get it done...and I don't mind have a family dressing room, for now atleast.
Hi, yes I am a lurker every once in a while, but this post made me laugh out loud! (So I just had to comment.) I love Flylady, (I try, but can't do it)! I try to put a load in the washer in the evening, in the morning I run it through the rinse cycle with softner, then toss it in the dryer. When evening comes again and the kids are in bed, I turn on my mom shows, fluff the clothes in the dryer for a few, then fold them as I watch t.v. Then put a new load in the washer for the cycle to begin again. I've loved hearing how everyone does their own laundry. So enlightening.
I had to look up Flylady after so many people mentioned her...and that is one crazy site. Who has time to do all that? I watched the video about shining your sink and about lost my mind! There is a CD??!! With inspirational songs??!! This woman clearly has too much time on her hands and not enough life to live if she wants you to DRY your SINK out each time you use it! Who cares if your sink has water spots...it is MADE for WATER! That is about the most ridiculous thing I have seen. NONE of you should feel bad that you can't live up to her standards. NO ONE could do all that work and have kids and a husband and a job and still have time for important things like American Idol!
I will stop ranting now. Seriously, no one should ever feel bad about a messy sink or junk you might have to shove in the closet to have people over. Feel bad about that rude thing you said or that birthday you forgot, but not about water droplets or dust.
Live in peace, Ladies.
Oh, and please don't hate this princess. I would be in your place if the husband weren't so organized.
Hi Debbie. Laundry is a tough one. I usually have lots of it!!! I can't stand it in the summer when everyone and the cat go swimming in the creek. Each gets out dirty and smelling like the creek. Each one wants a shower, "Cause I'm cold and smelly." Each one has already used a creak towel, and now needs clean one ~ two for the girls, cause of their long hair. Then they get hot and bored and want to go to the creek again!
Well, I've made rules. One shower after creek!!! So they have to wait until they are sure they are finished with the creek before showering.
Anyway all of those towels. Now I have lots of help. My girls are pitching and doing their own and throwing in a load when needed. Then they put in a movie and fold three or four loads together.
Great post! Kathi
I wash it, and then it sits in a basket until my husband comes home. It's "his chore." I hate folding it. I would rather just pick from a basket for weeks and weeks! ;)
I have never read Flylady, although I hear about her all the time. But after reading all of your comments, and basically everyone said they can't do everything she suggests, what's the appeal? I mean, instead of helping, isn't her site a place to go to feel guilty? That's not how I roll. I avoid things that add to my guilt. :-)
I do laundry all at once because doing it every day sounds like a nightmare and I would be like you and let everything get wrinkled. Not to mention that if I did it everyday, the kids' laundry would not get put away unless I did it. I guess my system is wait until someone complains about being out of underwear. When I do it, I usually have to do two big loads each of lights and darks, then one of pinks and reds. If something has to be "babied" (ironed, specially dried, dry-cleaned, washed in a special load, bleeds badly, etc), then it is no longer welcome in our home. As long as I do the laundry, there will be no special care items.
TTYS - Sniz
Deb,
I do all my laundry in one day, mostly but I have a secret. When we moved into our new house, with the unfinished basement, the owners left their w/d. Our buyers didn't want our own w/d. So I had them put in the plumbing for both sets. So, I do two loads of wash at a time and dry two loads at a time.
Lauren
I have a method to my madness when it comes to laundry.
I ONLY do laundry on Mondays and Fridays. This started because I tried the FlyLady method and decided I didn't want to do laundry every. single. day.
I used to wait for the laundry to pile up and do 10 loads at once only to be ticked that night when the laundry basket started to fill up again. My current method has been very freeing because I know if it's not Mon or Fri I don't have to think about laundry.
My husband carries the dirty clothes downstairs before he leaves for work. I wash, fold and stack it back in the baskets and he carries it upstairs for me when he gets home at night.
I used to hate putting the clothes away until I realized we had TOO MANY clothes. Now that we have purged some of our excess and there is actually room in the drawers I don't mind putting it away.
Glad you asked. I just love talking about myself/to myself.
You've seen my laundry woes. I'm definitely a let it pile up and then spend two days washing laundry. I can't stand having to think about laundry every day, and I don't multi-task well. What's worse than forgetting that clothes are in the dryer and having them get wrinkled is forgetting the clothes in the washer and finding them mildewed. Yuck!
I loved reading through these comments; especially the last one from Sissy. She made me laugh out loud. I feel the same way about Flylady's adage to keep your sink shining! Trying to do so turned me into a obsessive complulsive crazy lady. And who needs shoes anyway?
Monday, Monday, Monday! I wash, dry, fold, hang up, but don't always get it put away on Monday. Like you, I forget about it if I do some everyday. I also like not having to think about it the rest of the week.
I do wash diapers during the week though. Gasp!
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