Can you make laundry enjoyable?

I hated laundry. I know, most people do, but really, laundry was that never ending thing you can't get away from. You spend your weekend doing umpteen loads and finally when you're done, it's bedtime so you change into your pajamas and your reward...you have more laundry to do! There are countless memes about it, and they are all true, and good for a chuckle. But it doesn't solve the problem.

I really detested cleaning the kitchen, cooking and really any other form of housework. Up to the ripe old age of 36, I was able to mostly get away with getting out of doing said chores, either by paying someone to do them for me or not doing it until someone else would get frustrated and do it instead.

When my boyfriend, Larry, found out I was paying someone to do our laundry, he was less than amused. He says he would rather do it himself instead of letting me pay someone to do it. Being the stubborn, "good girlfriend", I started doing it again. But I still did my best to avoid doing the dishes and would only cook if forced by gunpoint.

I did feel bad, living in a roommate situation and doing as little as I possibly could to help with the dishes. I knew there had to be a way to not be so irritated by cleaning up after myself and others. One of the tips I had learned about time management in my home based business was to do 15 minutes of housekeeping every morning while the coffee is brewing. It seemed simple enough, and I believe I can handle anything for 15 minutes.

I soon discovered that when I worked on the dishes every day while the coffee was brewing, I would run out of dishes long before I ran out of time. Even in a house of 5 people and a portable dishwasher (in my new house, the dishwasher doesn’t move and I am so happy!), it would take no more than 5 minutes to finish the dishes.  What had I been so annoyed at before?  Oh, right, the mountain of dishes created by 5 people piling up over 2-3 days seemed like it took an eternity to do. But when I stayed on top of the dishes, two things happened: 1) the dishes only took a few minutes to do, and 2) my kitchen was clean and it made me so happy to have a beautiful, clean kitchen.

In February of this year, I went to a life coaching training event in Atlanta, Georgia. It was my second time attending this event and it’s truly been life-changing working on myself and getting rid of the limiting beliefs I’ve picked up throughout my life (did I mention I haven’t consistently written in over 9 years?  That is due to a limiting belief and fears I didn't know was there).

At the event, I had a few major shifts, most of which will probably be topics in future blogs but one of the shifts I had came from a statement Coach Sean made at some point during the event.  The statement didn’t hit me at the time, no lighting strike to my brain, I don't even think I wrote it down. It’s possible I only paid attention to it because Sean was talking about how much he hated doing dishes and I felt I had come up with a solution to that issue.  But so had Sean.

He told us about his wife’s love language being acts of service.  So when he does the dishes now, he doesn’t think of it as doing the dishes, he thinks of it as serving/loving his wife.  As I write that just now,I am thinking, “OMG so good!” But at the time it was more like “Huh, that's cool. I found a way that works for me, he found a way that works for him. Whatever works!”

I came back from the event and moved into my current home with Larry and my son Zander, ready to implement the profound shifts I had while I was away.  The shift my mind made was so subtle, I didn't pick up on it until very recently. Laundry was now fun. In fact, I found myself saying things like, “I like doing laundry now” and I actually felt sad when there was no more to do.

Wait, what? Yeah, you read that correctly. I have a moment of sadness when I no longer have enough laundry to start a load, dry a load or clean clothes to put away.  So what changed? What changed was how I was thinking about the laundry. I stopped holding on to it as this never ending cycle of a tedious task I have to do and I started thinking of it as serving and loving my family.

I have also recently started a full time job so more of my time is spent out of the home and I had to adjust my laundry schedule. My system I do now was born out of necessity, as I believe most things are. It is the mother of invention they say. But my job required I wear a uniform shirt and at first, I only had two.  In our house, we create approximately ¾ of a load a day and I can creatively make that a full load a day but at this rate, I do get a day off without laundry.

So every evening before bed, I throw a load into the wash, turn it on and go to bed. This is time management at its finest I think because my chores are getting done while I sleep. Like one of those robot vacuums. I still think we need a dryer that folds your laundry for you but if they exist, I don't have one yet. In the morning, I typically wake up an hour before I have to start getting ready for work. I wake up, start the coffee, feed the cats, transfer the load to the dryer and by then, the single serve coffee is done and I can start my “me” time.

By the time I am ready to get dressed, the dryer is done and my shirt is clean and ready to wear. After work I’ll have dinner (whatever the crockpot was cooking that day or leftovers from the crockpot.  ***Full disclaimer, I love systems and I am still working the kinks out of this one. The fact that I am cooking and enjoying it at all though is major progress), dishes go in the dishwasher and at some point before bed, I indulge in my favorite soap opera while I fold and put away the clothes.

My personal preference for folding the clothes is separating them into categories: my clothes, Larry’s clothes, Zander’s clothes and towels. This feels like more of an assembly line and I can get through it faster.  Because I am watching TV and my couch has the space for it, I will drape the clothes over the back of the couch to be hang up and fold the rest. I will add the hangers and put everything away. I usually have Larry put his folded clothes away because he has his own organization that I don't want to micromanage.  I have Zander put away his socks and underwear as well.

So this is a glimpse into my laundry life. I have found a system that works for me and I want to encourage you to find the one that works for you. The most important thing is how you view that task. Hating laundry doesn’t make it go away, it only creates more discontentment and the desire to avoid the task that never ends.

I hope you have found this useful.  Feel free to leave comments and questions if you have any or would like some clarification.  Happy folding!

Until next time,

Alysia
Mom Support Coach