Laundry Theory 101

I used to like laundry. You know, back in the day when I was only washing my stuff. And why wouldn't I like it? It took me all of 3 hours to complete and since I usually did it while watching TV it barely even registered as a chore, per se.


But now...

Now, I do laundry for 5 people. Three of them are world-class mess makers and all three of them like to spread the mess around to other people's clothes. Like mine. I can't tell you how many times I've had someone use me as a human napkin. It's so gross, I don't want to think about it.

Anyhoo, it struck me this week that I have been doing a better job with laundry lately. And by "better job" I mean the laundry actually gets finished in the same week it is dumped by the washer. I have slightly altered my laundry routine and I think that's what made the difference between the light at the end of the tunnel and the never-ending story.

What I did was simply devote Monday to sheets. That's all I wash on Monday. I strip beds and wash the sheets and make the beds on that day and I don't do anything else laundry related. And I don't even do all the sheets: I alternate kids' sheets one week, our sheets the next, although I'm going to have to change that this summer when the kids are sweatier and dirtier than they are in the winter.

So, I start Tuesday with a clean slate, laundrywise, and that's when I sort and start all the other loads. And I do those loads in triage order: most important stuff first, least important last. I start with jeans and end with towels. I ususally have about 8-9 loads and it will take me 2-3 days to get it all done, mainly because of the driving I do and because I can't do any loads while the baby it sleeping for fear of waking her up. I mean, I want to get the laundry done, but I'm not stupid.

The other thing I do is I pile all the folded clothes on my bed. This makes it so I have to deal with the piles before I sleep. On that night. The same night. Okay, sometimes I just move the piles to the floor, but I dealt with them. Not well, but I dealt with them. And in this manner, I get through the laundry by Friday at the latest. Usually. Once I finished on a Wednesday and felt sort of dizzy -- what would I do with myself, in the absence of laundry?

I took a nap, of course.

It's bizarre, how a minor success with a trivial, mundane task can make you feel like a Nobel Scientist.