Wednesday, February 27, 2008

laundry day

What kind of place do you think this is?... a product review blog??? Enough already;
Let's get back to my usual and rambling and complaining about my oh so interesting life here...

And what's more interesting than laundry??
Today's laundry day around here. I instated a specific laundry day this past fall in an effort to be more organized with my time management. And I have to say, I love it. The funny thing is, lately I've been reading and talking to more and more people who really don't like "laundry days" (not that I love laundry days per say, I still don't like laundry, just the all in one day part). I find it interesting that I like doing it all in one day and some people like not doing it all in one day. Like Nicole for example, just the other day was commenting on how she is so much happier spreading her laundry out, doing a little bit every day instead of letting it build up to be done all at once. It makes me chuckle, because here I've sat for the last few months thinking on how much I love only doing it on one day.

See for me, feeling like I constantly had laundry to do was overwhelming and discouraging to me. I either felt like I was doing laundry all. the. freaking. time. or I'd put it off until we had no clean clothes left and I had to do it for any of us to have clothes to wear. And then I felt like I was doing a zillion loads and it even though it felt good to get it all done, after I'd done those zillion loads I'd hate that the very next hour, we already had dirty clothes again and it just never ends....

So now I just do it every Wednesday. We're usually home most of the day, we play and do other things in between loads, the kids help me fold some or I fold it all on my bed watching Days of Our Lives during naptime. I usually have four loads to wash each week, maybe five if I'm doing all the beds too. And then it's all done and I don't have to give it another thought the rest of the week. It's often enough that we aren't running low on clothes by Tuesday, and spread out enough that I don't feel like I do laundry much at all. It's nice to know that all our laundry is clean and to not feel burnt out from doing like 10 loads in one day. If there's something I need clean, or if I know it's been an especially heavy laundry week, then I might throw in a load on another day, but for the most part I just don't even think about laundry if it isn't laundry day. It's so nice to just not think about laundry, to not worry about is there laundry to do or feel guilty that I should be doing it... I feel so much more at peace with my laundry, HAHA!

So what do you do? Do you like to spread it out and do a little all throughout the week, or do you have a specific day you do it all? Do you not mind laundry, like it's just something that has to be done and you do it, or do you despise it like I used to, dreading the sheer amount and the frequency?

And speaking of laundry, I have got to snap a picture of Savannah and her outfit today. I'm sure it will amuse you. Actually, it scares me.

12 comments:

Amy said...

i actually do about 1-2 loads a day, but for the most part they are small loads.

you have given me a new perspective regarding laundry now. i might have to try it your way to see what works better for me.

Michelle Leigh said...

Well, we've always done laundry on Saturdays and I hate it! But recently, since Annika has been potty training, I have literally been doing a small load every day, just to have clean clothes, and not soiled items sitting around all week. I have to say, I really like it. It seems much less overwhelming than a giant 5 load pile in one day. I hate spending an entire day doing laundry. Now I just throw a load in, dry it and fold it. It seems so easy. It's easier to put those clothes away for me. So for me, I've done it both ways and I like the every day/every other day thing.

jessica said...

As a rule, I do laundry on Mondays, but that sometimes stretches into Tuesday...Wednesday...Thursday. It is a big job in our house, and I usually have 7 or eight loads, so I need to be able to really keep on top of it for a whole day.

Ethan throws everything that touches his skin into the laundry (and it usually needs it), and he'll sometimes change clothes a time or two in the day. It is a source of great frustration for me. Grace puts almost nothing in the laundry, which makes me wonder, until I look at the floor of her room. That's where it all is. And she gets almost nothing dirty. Just a delicate little flower. I feel like half the time I wear the same clothes all week, or the same two or three things all week. I don't like the idea so much, but I'm usually just around the house, so that's what I end up doing.

Even though I sometimes stretch the job into a few days, I really don't think of it again until the Monday after I finish. Our laundry is in the old basement, so I don't like going down there and definitely wouldn't want to do it a little every day. I usually do all the folding, but the kids (the big ones) put their own away, and John often puts his own away too.

Zoe said...

i would love to be able to knock it all out in one day but that would not be possible unless i went to the laundry matt. i do a minimum of 2 loads a day. with 6 of us it is the only way to keep up!

Anonymous said...

Do you have a large capacity washer or something? Because I'm doing like 9 or 10 loads of laundry a week! Of course, Jack Henry gets 2 of his own, at least.

heather said...

I do try to minimize loads...
instead of each of us having our own dirty clothes hamper, I have three bins in my walk in closet and that's where everyone's dirty clothes go together: darks, lights, and whites. I don't sort any further than that and I usually just wash everything in cold water so I can combine clothes easier. So that's often the weekly loads I have (and they usually are quite large loads); one from each category... sometimes two of darks or an extra one of just jeans or something. And a load of towels or towels/sheets. Making an average of 4 or 5 loads in a normal week.
I don't just throw everything in the dirty clothes either, I'm trying to teach Savannah to really look at her clothes (and smell them) to see if they are actually dirty before she throws them in. Jeans are usually good for quite a few wearings, and that's what Sawyer (and I) lives in so I don't think I have an absurd amount of clothes going into the laundry each week... the majority of it is shirts, socks, underwear towels and washcloths. Granted, I don't have a baby in the house at the moment, so that helps! I used to do the baby/kids laundry separate from ours and now that it's all combined it's much easier.

Christy said...

I do laundry frequently-- however I love to!! I don't like to spread it out- i like to make sure as soon as the cycle is done the next one is in. I usually do it 2x a week (one big shift and and one smaller shift mid week- smaller/fewer loads). I don't like to spread my cleaning out either- I want to see the progress i made.
ck

Heather S. said...

I used to do laundry twice a week and I would do 4-5 loads of laundry - reds/pinks, whites/lights, darks, towels, and Norah's sheets (she's highly allergic to dust mites so I wash her sheets every 4-5 days in hot water). I did not like doing laundry on certain days - I felt like I couldn't do anything else on those day since the laundry took most of the day.
Now I do laundry about every other day 1-2 loads. It seems much more manageable this way.

LeeAnn | {froggyleggs} said...

We get really frustrated with laundry at our house. We usually just do it when it builds up to where we do about 4 loads. Which usually is every 1 1/2 weeks. I think I may bring up the idea of doing a laundry day and then it might not seem like such a burden to do laundry. Do youalso have set days that you clean certain rooms of your house, or do you just clean when it needs it?

my3buckaroos said...

You're supposed to sort clothes before you wash them? That's crazy! :) I would love to have a laundry day, but I would have to be glued to the washer and dryer all day. We average about 10 loads a week. With three messy boys and two parents that work out a lot, that adds up to lots of clothes. Hmmm, maybe I should wear my running clothes more than once before I wash them... ewww!

lina said...

I average about 1 load a day, helps me to stay on top w/ 5 people. My 14 yr old gets her 'own special load of laundry', her clothes get washed seperately. She is old enough to help & makes a fuss about it, so everything is washed in 1 big load & thrown in a basket just the way she dumps it into her drawer (why waste the time to fold it?)
Now my dishwasher, that is a different story... That thing gets the frequent user miles!

Nicole said...

I don't really have a laundry schedule, so I guess I'd say I do a few loads a week whenever I get a chance. Sometimes a basket of clean clothes will sit in the living room for a few days before someone decides to fold it. I just throw laundry in and swap it over whenever I think about it.

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