Most days, I don’t mind doing laundry. In fact, I almost enjoy it. It’s a great feeling to get everything washed and line everyone’s drawers with clean, fresh-smelling clothes. It’s gives a great sense of completion.
But there are those days where I think I’m going to revolt if I have to wash one more load of clothes. Usually that happens when it’s 9pm and I realize there is one more load to fold in the dryer. At 9pm, I want to wind down from my day – not continue to work.
So what do I do? What do I do to encourage myself to get moving and get the laundry job finished?
Well, it varies.
Most of the time I can just give myself a good pep talk when that happens: “It’s going to be bad tomorrow if everyone wakes up without clothes to wear, so you’d better get moving.” Or: “Make things easier on yourself – get the laundry done today because tomorrow is super busy and you don’t want to add one more thing to your plate.”
On the rare occasion, I let the laundry slide. And then I suffer the consequences. What are the consequences you ask? 7+ loads to catch up on which is not my idea of a fun day.
But when that does happen, it cements it more in my mind that I have to stay on top of our laundry or it will overtake us. In the early days of pre-children, I could get by easily with slacking on the laundry and letting it pile up. But now that we have four children, that’s just not an option.
So in this season of life, the pep talks continue for the days I’d just like to let the laundry slide. Thankfully, they work to get my rear in the laundry room.
What do you do to encourage yourself to wash clothes when you’d rather do a million other things?
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I just say to myself– “it’s only one load, just put it in and then you can go do the other things that you needed to get done while the laundry cleans”. I do one load a day, 365 days a year, including holidays. It seems to help and then I don’t get overwhelmed or behind. I have the boys sort, put their clothes in fold up hampers and bring it to the laundry room so all I have to do is shove the laundry in the front loader! Then they take the clean basket and put it by the coffee table so I can fold it easily and then they help me put it away in their rooms.
Well, one thing that encourages me to do laundry is that I get to actually SIT and fold. If I get it started early in the day before nap time, I will have a good amount to fold while the girls sleep. Then I can have an excuse to sit on my bed (no laundry room!) and watch tv and fold to my heart’s content!