I have 4-5 laundry baskets that we use for sorting and such during the whole process. Last week I was looking for one to take a load out of the dryer, and there were NONE. (Actually I rarely even do laundry and this was an exception– see my previous post “Never Do Laundry Again.”)
I asked my teenage son if he knew where they were, and of course, they were ALL in his room! He was living out of them, dressing out of them in the mornings. This prompted me to say, “Laundry baskets are for transport, not for STORAGE!” And then I went into another room and cracked up laughing at myself.
But it’s true! The idea is that you have a closet and drawers to contain your clean, ready-to-wear clothing, and you take just a few brief minutes to put those away. If you have trouble getting this done, my recommendation is to time yourself doing it. You will probably find that it takes about 3 minutes or less to put the laundry away! It also takes about that same amount of time to fold a load of clothing from the dryer. Timing yourself is a great way to squash the idea that it’s such a dreaded “CHORE” to do.
What is your most dreaded chore? Share in the comments!
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i LOATHE dishes!!!! we had to do them every night (well,maybe every other) when I was a kid, and my sis was 7 years younger, so she only had to dry, and I can’t STAND dishwater… I wear gloves now, and procrastinate doing them at all, and we dont have a dish washer and I have fibro, so its really hard to stand longer than 17 to 20 minutes…… and did I mention I HATE doing them… I would rather clean the bathroom!!! (and my hubby has only done 4 sinks of dishes in the last 3 years!!!) So DISHES is at the top of my list for things I need to overcome!!!
Dishes are a hard hurdle to overcome, Ann. It sounds like you and hubby could come to some agreement where you tackle a chore he hates and he at least shares dish duty. Is that a possibility?
Had to laugh when I read this, my 18 year old daughter does the same thing! I take the clothes out the next day and set them on her floor so that I can have the basket back…and there they stay till next week 🙂 She knows what to do, she just doesn’t like to do it. I figure someday she’ll grow up and realize that it’s worth the 3 minutes of effort in order to live in a pleasant, uncluttered room the rest of the week!
Well Kathie, it’s nice to know I’m not alone. If you figure out the cure for this, will you let me know? 😉
I have two that I dread about equally – steaming the kitchen floor, and cleaning showers. The showers are easier now that we have a handheld showerhead – very easy to spray down, but I still have a mental struggle to JUST GO DO THEM! Each shower probably takes me 10 min – NOT that long!
And steam-cleaning the kitchen floor – takes ms about 15 min, but trying to keep the family OUT of the kitchen while it dries (about an hour, with a fan), having to move the trash can out, the vacuum “lives” there, all the chairs – just makes the job momentous, even though I know it’s really not.
Hi Cindy- isn’t it funny how we build up chores to being bigger than they really are. Can you trade those chores off with someone in your family?
What size loads of laundry are you doing, Lorie? I have timed myself folding laundry, and it takes WAY longer than 3 minutes. I would say it takes at least 15 minutes a load. And then another 10 minutes to put each load away, since it contains 4 people’s stuff. But I prefer to do larger loads less often, because it uses less water, electricity, gas, etc.
You are right, Doublejen, it does depend on the size of the laundry load as well as the contents of the load. My boys are in their late teens, so part of the reason folding goes fast is that I’m not folding small onsies and t-shirts. It does usually take us about 3-5 minutes to fold a full load of laundry. As far as putting away, I was referring to each person putting away his/her own clothes. Thank you for reading and posting!
I visited my brother once, and he had two laundry baskets filled with unfolded towels. He pointed to one basket and told me they were clean, and to use those. The next day (by which point I had showered once and used a towel) he sheepishly said, “Uh, sis, I think I was wrong about which towels were clean.” Ewwwwwwwwwwwww.
I hate floors. Vacuuming, mopping, sweeping, any of it. I’d rather do just about anything else.
Ewww is right, Jasmine. Yet another great reminder that laundry baskets are for transport not storage. 😉