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The Charm In Chores: Laundry

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Alright, friends. It's confession time around these parts. I am not going to sugar coat this topic and pretend like I have it all figured out. Because....well....quite frankly, I DON'T!

Laundry is the chore around my house that haunts me. When I'm washing dishes I hear it calling me. When I'm relaxing in a bubble bath tub I hear a faint whisper, "Fold me...Put me away...Fold me...". When I'm sleeping I dream about mismatched socks dancing around taunting me with their whereabouts.

Guys, it's terrible.

I'd rather scrub toilets than do laundry. Or windex every mirror in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

I try to keep up with it, trust me. When my laundry basket is empty I think to myself "this is the start of a new relationship with my laundry." I vow to keep up with it on a daily basis so that I don't fall behind. Inevitably, life happens and laundry sits.

And sits.

And sits.

And frustrates the sin out of me.

Ideally, I would do a few loads a day, fold it as soon as it's dry (if I let things linger, they linger far too long), and put it away immediately.

But I have realized this likely will not become a reality, seeing as though I can't follow through with it. There are just too many OTHER things I have to do to keep up with. Oh, it's annoying.

I do have a few fun tips for you...

1. Try to separate your loads into rooms. For instance, do a load of just Weebie's things and then FOLD them in his room. It makes the put-away process so much easier.

2. When you become frustrated with the whole laundry debacle, pile up all your freshly dried clothes into a pile RIGHT when the buzzer goes off. Then, jump in it. Roll around in the warm amazingly scented towels and forget all your worries (and frustrations with having to fold them and put them away).

3. Use powder Tide. It is much less messy, lasts way longer and it's fun to scoop out. It's almost as fun as snow. (But I don't recommend having a "Tideball" fight. It just wouldn't have the same effect.)

4. Make a game out of putting away your clothes. See how fast you can do it. Time yourself. Pull out the stopwatch and time yourself. (Be sure to not twist your ankle trying to set a new record. Errr, ummmm, not that I'd know anything about that.)

5. Watch TV while folding. It will make you less stressed. Well, unless you're watching a show about laundry. Then you will be doubly stressed.


Okay all of you Laundry Pro's. Fill me in on your system. Do you devote a day to it? Do you do a little each day? WHAT? I NEED YOU! Help me with my laundry woes.

Pretty please?
I am a modern day homemaker with a passion for family, cooking, celebrating, decorating, travel, and memory making! The Lord has blessed me with the desires of my heart in my husband and our two sons. We recently built our dream home and cultivating a loving and happy haven for my family is where I find so much joy.

Comments

  1. Sunday's is laundry day in our house. It's seperated in certain baskets all week, then Sunday rolls around and it all gets done. The only thing that gets put off is putting it away, so I throw all the clean clothes onto our bed that way it HAS to be put away before we go to bed.

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  2. See I am the opposite. I can stay on top of the laundry but nothing else. I think I have a problem because I feel the need to wash anything that is in the hamper. Even if its one sock and a shirt.. I have to wash it. HA I know crazy.

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  3. The absolute worst part is ironing! In Australia we all have washing lines and the weather is usually good enough to dry teh washing on the line. Using the dryer is a heinous crime. However when things have been on the line EVERYTHING needs ironing. I don't mind the washing / folding, but the ironing kills me.

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  4. :) I love this post!!

    Ok, I have serious issues with laundry too. With three little ones, it piles up faster than I can blink, it seems! I wish I were organized enough to do the room thing, it sounds great, and I'll have to try it. Oh, and the rolling in the fresh laundry...I LOVE that idea, haha!

    My biggest help is finishing a load. After it is washed, dry it, after it is dry, fold it, after it is folded, put it away. Sounds like a normal process, but I have to FORCE myself to do it all right away or it will sit at one stage or another for a scary amount of time!

    Also, if you have a set time for throwing in the first load, say, after breakfast, and follow it to the end, it helps. I'm not there right now, but between child #2 and child #3 I did that and WOW, it made a huge difference!

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  5. My ironing pile is my nemesis! I have no problem keeping up with the washing, but I can't bring myself to put anything away unless I have ironed it first. So it sits...and it sits. No matter how straight the rest of the house is, there is always an enormous pile of ironing threatening to fall over and bury me. I actually enjoy ironing, there are just so many other things that require my attention! I can't believe how many clothes my family actually own! I dream of the day when all our clothes are clean, ironed and put away!

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  6. I fold my laundry right out of the dryer into a basket immediately, because if I wait, it will sit and sit. This has been my lifesaver. It's simple and it works. :) Good luck!

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  7. I devote one day every week to laundry. But then I "forget" that I have to iron that pile of clean clothes... So I devote another day to ironing...

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  8. I try to do a load a day. It's on the daily chores list. I don't like it, but I do it. Come to think of it, I don' t really like anything on the daily chore list!

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  9. I do the folding as soon as the clothes come out of the dryer, so I know it's completely done. Also, if you have a newer washer with a timer it can be really helpful. You can set it before bed, or before you go out to run errands so when you get home or wake up in the morning the washer is already running. All you have to do is put the clothes in the dryer.

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  10. I do a load a day, just throw it in there, whites, darks, colours and woolens. Then I dry and fold as I go along, takes a few minutes a day. One motivator is that when you take the clothes fresh from the dryer, just tell yourself if you DON'T fold them then and there, they will get wrinkled and then you'll have to IRON as well!! Nooooo, double the work!!! (That is my motivation for folding immediately, hehe!)

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  11. I've turned into a one-load-a-day kind of girl, too. I loathe laundry, but this helps me keep it at bay. I'm not perfect at it, but I'm learning! A good friend of mine has separate laundry baskets for each room and once Naomi is born, I think we'll go that route, too, to help keep things organized.

    Do they make powder Tide for HE machines?

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  12. It is so funny how we are all different in our chore likes and dislikes. I kind of enjoy doing the laundry (I can hear you all gasping!!) I, however, despise emptying the dishwasher and basically, just cleaning in general! Ugh. Why, why, why can I not just have a cleaning lady?! :)

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  13. I have the best of intentions as well. I currently have an empty laundry basket ... I wish I could be naked so I wouldn't dirty any clothes.

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  14. My Mom only ever did Laundry on Saturday---so I only thought people did it one day a week. With my husband and I we like to start it Friday night, and finish it Saturday. Our dryer takes like 3 cycles to dry 1 load! And then we pile it on the bed, and fold it and put it away at night--before we go to bed. I would never in my life imagine that people did laundry every day. That seems like a waste of water--like you really have a load to do every day!? Craziness.

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  15. I pretend it's other people's laundry. Weird, I know, but I don't mind doing others laundry so it kind of helps if I trick my mind. I also have laundry dayS: Monday & Thursday are clothes & towels, Sunday is for sheets. Fortunately, my husband helps fold the laundry at night when we're watching TV and he puts 90% of the clothes away because he can't stand it sitting around :)

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  16. I have turned our laundry room into a huge closet. All our clothes are in there, it saves me soooo much time putting up clothes, and there is no need to seperate out the laundry. I also have plasic bins with hold socks and undies.

    I just toss everything in the washer when it is full I wash it on cold. I do not seperate anything. If my clothes can't handle this then I don't want them anyways.

    I do not fold socks or undies. Once a year I will gather up all the socks. Trash ones without mates. Then go and buy 10 packages of new socks that ALL MATCH! That way when we and in a hurry in the morning we can just grab socks and go.

    My husband is also a medical student and has to dress professional. These pants are the best - Dockers Iron Free Pants. I know they are $60.00 but I find them on sale all the time, and they have saved our marriage. And I will not buy him a shirt unless it is wrinkle free. I don't care how cheap it is - if it needs to be ironed we will not buy it.

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  17. I don't really have too much of a problem with laundry. We also tend to wear our pants and shirts a few times before we wash them so it keeps the laundry low. I do one load every Sunday and then put in on my bed and fold/put away before I go to sleep. It's not too bad - the real problem is getting the clothes to fit. My husband and I have to share a dresser and closet and so there is NO space! Good luck!
    PS. Maybe the key was I spent two years in Honduras washing all my clothes by hand - makes me SUPER thankful for the washing machine.

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  18. I love this post! It's comforting that someone as put together as you are still struggles with my least-favorite chore!

    I totally agree about watching TV. I usually do a big laundry day on a weekend so I can watch TV the whole time.

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  19. I like Jaye's style!

    We only do laundry every few weeks. So it piles, and piles, and piles...and becomes an overwhelming monsters that necessitates a trip to a laundromat. UGHH. I know we should start doing a few loads each week, I just can't bring myself to it. We also have to pay to do laundry in our apartment building, so that makes it even harder to motivate myself.

    Still yet, we do separate everything out. Some of the more delicate things couldn't handle being with towels and whatnot.

    Sigh.

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  20. Laundry is actually my favorite chore - I HATE cleaning the kitchen, love doing laundry.

    I try to do a load at least every couple days, but it still piles up, and when I get in a domestic frenzy, I do laundry ALL DAY LONG. I don't have a specific system, except to fold the laundry RIGHT after the dryer goes off ... much less ironing that way. (Which, by the way, is my least favorite part of laundry.)

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  21. A load (or two) a day keeps the chaos away!

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  22. I don't so much mind the laundry, but the ironing and putting away? Ugh!

    I have a GSD puppy, who 1) will steal clothes if she's near them and 2) will get into trouble if I don't watch her. So, folding MUST be a race. I immediately take the clothes out of the dryer, and fold them by person and type/location in the basement. There is a door she can't get through there. When I get a chance, the sorted piles will come up one at a time and make it to the location (e.g. my pants, or husband's t-shirts). Best I can do for now!

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  23. I try to wash our towels every Wed. and Sun. so that they don't overload. I wash our sheets every other Wed. Other than that, I just go by when the hampers get full. I try my best to fold them as I am taking each piece out of the dryer. Then Saturday is my "put laundry up" day. I get tired of opening and closing drawers all week to do this, so I feel like I can just save it up for Saturday, and put it all away then!

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  24. My main problem with laundry is I don't have a washing machine/dryer in my apartment. This means I have to walk outside, go downstairs, walk to the laundry room, and unlock the door. All while trying to hold my laundry basket, huge bottle of detergent, laundry card, dryer sheets, etc. It's such a huge pain. I dream of my very own laundry room inside my very own house. Oh, the possibilities!

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  25. I don't mind doing laundry, but HATE dusting!!!! I have a laundry sorter basket in our closet and we sort the clothes as we take them off at night (or Curt's workout stuff in the morning). When a section is full, I wash a load. I absolutely adore my front loading washing machine!!!!! (Yes; Tide powder comes in HE) I usually do laundry on Monday, Wednesday or Thursday, and then again on Saturday. It may be 1 or 2 loads, but it's done. As soon as the buzzer goes off on the dryer, I'm out of my chair and folding them or hanging them up. I don't want to have to iron, so I do it right away ... because I hate to iron!

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  26. This may seem harder but it works for me, at least lately! I always do laundry every day. I make sure to do towels after a load of darks, because towels are easy to fold and put away so obviously we cant let them sit in the washer to avoid folding the darks. So I always follow darks with towels to force myself to take the darks out. Then once I have them on the bed, rather than folding them all and having piles all over and dreading the put away, I get the big things out, like pants and shirts that need to be hung and hang them right away. I will pull out all the boys pants right away and go put them away, along with the shirts! It seems to make it easier for me!

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  27. I used to hate laundry too but now I don't mind it so much. I try to do a little each day. Like maybe 1 or 2 loads at night that way on the weekends I don't feel overloaded with how much laundry I have. I also put it away immediately after folding it. I try to have all my loads done by Thursday night so I don't have to worry about it over the weekend. Its so nice to have a free weekend and not worry about laundry.

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  28. I love to do laundry, but it does take time. I usually wash up everything either Monday or Tuesday, then I also wash up everything on Thurday or Friday. So I normally do laundry two days out of my week. I like that way the best, because I don't feel like I am doing it all the time! But the key is to get it ALL done on that given day (folding, ironing, and put it all away). Because I too, can leave a load sit for a while if I do not get it all done on that given day. It is a lot easier and faster to fold and put it away as soon as its dry. I liked your tips! Hopefully mine were of some help!

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  29. Laundry isn't my favorite, but I'd rather do that than dishes! We both work, so it gets done on the weekends. Usually have to do like five loads in one day! But it's so exciting cause you feel like you have new clothes, cause you haven’t seen them in weeks, hah!
    I was washing whites the other day(my socks and husbands undershirts mainly) and was thinking of how eventually my little boy(6mo.) could help. I imagine dumping all the socks on the floor in front of him and letting him match them up. Or dumping it all out and asking him to pull socks out. Kinda learning, kinda helping mama. Maybe you and Levi can play in the socks, sock fight!

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  30. I don't have a washing machine in my apartment so I do it all in the same day and I can wash as many loads as I want all at the same time. The bad thing is the machines are really old and only take quarters. I fold everything in front of the TV right away so I don't have to iron. The hard part for me is putting the piles away! My husband wears scrubs everyday so his clothes are pretty easy. I separate his clothes from mine and wash everything in cold.

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  31. I also can't stand laundry. I don't have a wee one yet (3 months to go!) but I do have to do a lot of laundry because I just don't have that many maternity clothes. I do laundry once a week in small loads (more manageable) and fold them in front of the tv. Not exciting, but it works for me.

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  32. I have a hanging rack and a 4 compartment cubby system next to my dryer. When I take stuff like sock and undies out I put each persons things in their own cubby. I also hang stuff up in groups by person. This makes it easier for me to put stuff away...I think 1 person down, 3 to go. It's a mind game really but it works for me! :)

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  33. I do all of that, except powder. Powder isn't septic system friendly so we use the liquids.

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  34. Laundry makes me want to scream and pull my hair out. I have a stack of stuff to put away right now. And inlaws on the way. Ahhh! I better go clear them a spot on the couch! ;)

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  35. There are five of us in our household... and our laundry is washed and put away daily.

    I do two loads a day everyday and three loads every other day. I do not seperate any clothes and always wash on cold. The only things that get washed seperately are sheets and towels... Towels get washed every other day... and sheets once a week.

    For me, cleaning my laminate floors is a pain!! But I love doing laundry.

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  36. My goal is to do laundry on Sunday and put it all away on Monday. That was I start off the week with fresh clothes and stocked closets.

    But, life usually gets in the way and I end up doing loads when I can.

    And then there are the diapers... I'm always washing diapers.

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  37. We have Laundry Monday & Pajama Monday all rolled into 1 at our house. I take one day to get it knocked out. It helps to fold while watching Ellen! Now, even my 3 year old asks if it is Pajama Day. Yep, just as long as you help me sort the socks! :)

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  38. I have one of those laundry hampers in my closet that has three compartments, so my laundry is already sorted before I ever wheel it to the washer. Then I have a separate canvas tote that I put all our towels from the bathroom in. It really helps. I am a weird one about folding. I MUST fold my laundry straight out of the dryer. If I am not home when the dryer finishes, I turn it back on for a quick fluff before opening it up and folding. I can't stand to fold wrinkled clothes that have been sitting in a dryer or laundry basket. My problem with laundry is the putting away part. Clothes will sit on top my dryer for days before I venture to take them upstairs to the kids rooms.

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  39. I must admit that laundry is my favorite chore (if I had to pick a favorite, of course). I don't know why. Maybe because you throw it in and walk away...? I do it once a week, separate by colors, fold on our big bed, and the we put it away before we go to bed. (Folding it up on the bed makes us HAVE to put it away that same day...otherwise, we'd be sleeping with towels and socks! Ha!)

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  40. There are 2 days a week where I have laundry on my chore list. I stick in the load, and walk away to do something else. Then switch. I fold the dried clothes as they come up and immediately put them away. I'm not alwasy perfect, but remind myself of how nicely our room looks with no clothes on the floor.

    I iron at night where I get to watch my favorite shows I've saved up on DVR. It definitely passes the time.

    With set days, you're not wasting water washing one shirt and some socks. Unless there's some important event where you just need something specific to wear that's dirty, it'll get done on laundry days- Monday and Thursdays for me.

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  41. My goal is always to get laundry done in one day. Right now we live upstairs and our washer/dryer is downstairs. My baby loves to try to throw herself down the stairs, which would seriously injure her, so that makes coming up and down on a daily basis really hard. I choose to only be stressed like that one day a week. I like doing laundry except for putting it away! I despise putting it away. However, noone else can put everything away in the right place. There are just too many drawers! I do a load of darks, lights, towels/sheets, and then I do an entire load of things that I don't dry. This has made a huge difference in all of our clothes. All of our shirts that are nicer, button downs, things I don't want to shrink, polos, etc. I let them toss in the dryer for about 10 minutes and then hang them all to dry. I don't ever have to iron anymore! And things stay bright so much longer!

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  42. Ok...I have 5 kids, and believe me, laundry multiplies like rabbits around here! The oldest childe does his own laundry now, and I am teaching the next two to do theirs, but I usually do it. We live in the country and have a septic system, and the septic companie guy told me that it is bad for septic systems to do more than two loads at any given time. (Great news!) So I try to do a load of lights and a load of darks every day. Towels twice a week (later in the day to give the septic system a rest). I take them from the dryer and dump them on the couch and fold them immediately or it doesn't get done. I have to schedule it into my day like any other important thing (like showering!). Good luck!

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  43. Love this post because it sounds so familiar - I hate doing laundry! I have a bad habit of forgetting about it and getting upset that I have wrinkled clothes in the dryer or doing it too late at night after work and having to wait up to put it away....so I've been trying to do it on Saturday or Sunday but it still is definitely my least favorite chore!

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  44. i do one load every day because my husband is in the Army and needs certain clothes to be washed every day. I take forever to actually do it (like let it sit in the washer for 2 hours and then in the dryer for another 3) but as soon as I take it out I put it away. I'm sure when we have kids I will be doing more. :)

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  45. You have one of the cutest blogs I have ever seen. The design is so fun! I need a serious update to mine but have no idea how to do any of it. Any advice?

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  46. um, can I just confess that I have 6 hampers of CLEAN laundry in my room right now. There may or may not also be a load of clean laundry in my daughters pack n' play. I have every intention to start washing the laundry by who it belongs to... but first I need to get my hampers emptied. Need a good ol' folding laundry party. Ahhh, confession is good. Thanks. :)

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  47. I do a few loads each day. We have four baskets in the laundry room. Mom and Dads, mine, Megans, and Michael's. I fold them immediately out of the dryer. So much easier. Than everyone puts their own basket away. When I put my clothes up I lay them out in piles on my bed according to what they are ( t- shirts, jeans, etc.). Pretty simple!

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  48. Hello, found you from Megan Wood's FB. :)

    We have one hamper in our house of 4 kids and hubby and I. In one day, it gets full to overflowing which forces me to keep up. We do about 2 loads a day.

    By late afternoon, I dump the clean laundry on the couch and separate into piles - each person gets their own pile. (the kids help me sort and sometimes fold) For some reason, as I conquer folding that one person's little pile I feel spectacular and it keeps me going. It's the little sense of accomplishment, I guess. Then each person's pile goes to a step on the stairs. The kids each take their laundry up and put it away.

    That's what works for me - but somedays we just don't get around to it - oh well.

    It sounds like everyone's just got to find a way that works for them.

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  49. Laundry day for me is the lamest day of the week. I hate it but I should do it. Thanks for all the stuff you posted.
    plastic laundry hampers

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