towels, tees, and diapers, oh my! how is that something that has been so streamlined for the modern household is such a hassle for us? i mean, we have washing machines with 8 different cycles and dryers with multiple heat levels and timing abilities. (thank you old owners of this house for leaving your awesome appliances!) i think these conveniences have actually deceived us into thinking that we won't need to carve out time in our daily schedules for the work. and it is still work. and with most, you need to have a plan to get it done.
this summer, we have slowly started to get in a groove when it comes to laundry. it started with adding a hamper in the downstairs hall for miscellaneous household linens. i used to make a pile near the basement door for these, and it always felt sloppy and messy.
next i made a list. how many loads do i accumulate each week? 3 for diapers. 3 for clothing (kiddos, jesse and i, and whites). 4 for household (mix of bath towels, kitchen towels, napkins, bibs, and bedding). until i made that list i had no idea i needed to aim for 10 loads a week. i wondered why i quickly was 4-5 loads behind each week.
so i made a goal. aim for 2 loads of laundry a day. considering i take sundays off from housework and i am bound to miss a day (usually fibromyalgia related), the math: 2 loads x 5 days = 10 loads a week.
every morning around breakfast, jesse or i throw a load in the wash.. at lunch, we switch it to the dryer and add a second load to the wash. sometime in the evening we pull out the first load and stick the second in the dryer (which comes out in the morning when putting load one in the wash). i have taken to finding chunks of time in the morning and evening for folding and putting away. if during the day, i fold on the nursery daybed while enzo plays on the floor. i have the older two put away their own clothes. at night, i turn on the tv and plant a basket next to me on the couch. that's about it.
(and sometimes when i am folding clothes, we take photo shoot breaks; hence the above photos.)
such a breakthrough for our family.
and feel free to laugh at dorky me, devoting an entire blog post about our laundry habits.
and as of tomorrow afternoon, this photo will be very dated. i'll share more then.
(linking up to works for me wednesday.)
