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When my first child was born and I found myself spending way more time than I ever thought I would in my laundry room, my mother passed on wisdom from her mother: “Call laundry a hobby and it won’t seem like a chore.” Laundry, a hobby? Was she insane? A hobby is something you do because it is a passion and a pleasure. Laundry is something I do because I can’t afford a disposable wardrobe for my family of five.
I’m no neat freak – just ask my mother. She can’t even stand to be in my house for long periods of time (you know, more than 5 minutes) because we have so much stuff… EVERYWHERE! Maybe this is precisely why I feel a need to have control over my laundry. At least I can depend on something in my house to run by a system.
It all started out innocently enough. In order for all the clothes to fit properly in the drawers, they need to be folded a certain way: T-shirts first go in thirds length wise and then in half, jeans are folded in half at the seam, back pockets to the inside and then in thirds and yes, even socks and underwear must follow protocol. I prefer to have my socks perfectly matched and then folded over to lock together. My husband is sure the lock together stretches out the elastic so his must simply be folded together in pairs. As for my underwear – well, that’s more of a visual logistics approach. You see they need to be turned right side out, folded in thirds and then in half with the front side ending up on top. Why is this so critical? Because until I have my contacts in, I border on legally blind. Knowing how they are situated in the drawer, assures I will put them on correctly each and every time without having to see a thing.
As our family grew from 2 to 3 to 4 to 5, the laundry grew right along with it. My folding neurosis expanded to encompass certain wash days, times of day, folding locations and who is in charge of what. I came up with a new and improved family system. First, and most important, wash is done on Wednesdays and weekends! All my family needs to remember is “W” gets the laundry done. If they can’t get it to the laundry room on the appropriate days, they need to do it themselves or wait for the next wash rotation. Next, I prefer to get one load done early on Wednesday morning before I leave the house – this is typically my laundry because no one else has theirs ready to go. Beyond that, I like to do laundry in the evenings. This way I can get other work done around the house and use folding time as an excuse to stop everything else and fold laundry while I watch a little TV. Yes, almost all folding is done in the TV room and family members know folded clothes take priority over folded legs on the couch! As far as I am concerned, my job stops here. Each family member is responsible for getting their clothes to their rooms and PUT AWAY.
As the kids got older, it was the “put away” part that taught me a lot about delegating responsibilities to spread the “load.” I started by realizing my kids could care less about how or even if clothes were folded in their drawers so the new rule for my son became, “Just make sure the drawers close without anything sticking out.” When I cold no longer tell my daughters clothes apart and got complaints about mixing up their stuff, I quit folding theirs completely. A pile of girl’s clothes was placed in the hall for them to deal with. When my younger daughter got sick and tired of being the only one going through that pile, she began to do her own laundry, and develop her own set of neurosis which means I no longer am allowed to do her laundry (oh darn). As for my older daughter, she lives firmly by the motto, “I don’t have time to waste folding and putting away clothes I will just wear again.” And so, her clean laundry sits in piles in her room while her dirty laundry overflows her basket until she gets desperate enough to wash it or has a boy coming to the house who might just
