ironing, but I have a few stratagems to keep me mentally free. Usually on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, I wash a lot. Inbetween longer jobs, I fold and put away clothes, sometimes only for 5 minutes at a time (it's a very interruptable, flexible task). Usually Thursday or Friday, I do the little bit of ironing that has accumulated. Saturdays are for washing bedding only, no clothes. This way, I can usually manage to not have baskets of clean laundry clogging the corners the whole weekend.
I don't usually wash more than three loads in a day, and frequently only one or two. In general, I do about ten loads a week, including sheets and towels. On days when I'm worried about afternoon rain or have a morning commitment, I wash a load or two the night before and set it by the back door to hang up on the line first thing in the morning.
Since I line dry my laundry, I have to go by the weather, but as long as I'm making a little progress on the laundry daily, then I know I'm on track. I enjoy doing the laundry - feeling the fabric, smelling the fresh air outside and then the freshness of the fabric. . .so pleasing.
9 comments:
Laundry is one of those jobs that can pile up till it is impossible to deal with it - doing it often is the only way to keep it from getting out of control!
I love those little striped pants - too cute!
I love doing one big laundry day and then having three or four days free. We have tons of laundry lines, so space is not an issue ... only sun.
Love to smell the clothes that have dried outdoors. Daughter and I each do our own laundry, so as for me I only have 3 loads usually. I am an empty nester(almost), and I do remember the days of 10-15 loads a week though.
Laundry is something I hate... it builds up and then I avoid it because it is so big and then I have to wash more clothes and it turns into a monster pile of folding!!! GRR. I know I need to work on doing a roster for housework.... if you do one for everything then you MUST share.... I'm so begging for some help here and if you must know, I'm on my knees too. ;)
www.modelmumma.blogspot.com
Jacinta, my roster is in this post: http://thriftathome.blogspot.com/2010/06/skill-of-doing-quotidian-work.html
And now I linked to it in the current post too. I'm happy to help more, if need be. I didn't get my act together until after my second child was a almost a year old. This stay at home mothering + housekeeping takes time!
I agree, laundry is a very satisfying and enjoyable task. Since baby's birth I've found that I must do at least one load a day, except for Sundays, to stay caught up. My laundry week looks like this:
Monday -- 1 load of lights, 1 load of towels
Tuesday -- 1 load of darks
Wednesday -- 1 load, light or dark depending on need
Thursday -- 1 load of towels, sometimes 1 load of lights
Friday -- 1 to 2 loads of darks
Saturday -- bedding
Laundry is something that I used to resent, but I've since come to accept and (almost) enjoy. I like to challenge myself to see how many loads I can squeeze in between doing other, bigger tasks. Making it a game keeps me from hating it. The true challenge has become how to keep it folded neatly as my toddler leaps upon the piles.
Punk, as I take the laundry from the line, I sort it into baskets for each bedroom. Then later I fold it standing directly in front of the dresser - I figure I handle it less than folding it at the dining table and then carrying it in stacks to the bedrooms (like my mom taught me). Plus, it makes it easy to stop the folding if there's A Child Issue.
Love this! Great minds must think alike. I save folding for the moments I'm putting baby down for nap--she sits in the swing and smiles at me while I fold, and then she's OUT! I long for a clothesline. Once Annie is bigger we are so going that route! There is nothing as fresh as sunshine-dried laundry. I did once go through a 6-month period of having no dryer (was too cheap to buy one after ours went kaput) & line-dried everything on a drying rack on our deck. This was pre-child and that drying rack later went kaput. My husband finally convinced me to buy a dryer--but I insisted on Used. 5 years later it is still going strong!
I love the laundry.
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