Laundry Lady

Of all of the domestic duties of householding I think my favorite is folding laundry. I actually enjoy sitting down on the livingroom floor turning on Jeopardy and folding bit after bit of laundry. I actually prefer to do it by myself.

You see, in a previous life (ages 22-26) I worked in a laundry. Getting stains out of towels and sheets, sorting laundry of 100 or so people, hanging on a clothesline, folding it all and doing it all over again day after day. Let's be honest, sometimes it got old, but surely it made me anal about laundry.

You see, I think the trick to actually getting it put away (which is the harder final component) is sorting laundry as it is folded. Not just sorting by whose clothing or sorting by room but sorting by final destination.

In my clothing, here are the piles:

Trunk clothing- Sweaters, jeans, long sleeve casual t-shirts (these get mixed with S's trunk clothing because they have the same final destination.

Tank tops and pajama pants- same destination 1st large drawer left side
Underwear- all uppers, bottoms and matching socks go here.
Dress/work clothing- if it doesn't stay on a hanger it goes in the trunk, otherwise these go into a pile...again mixed with S's.

Here's the trick though....you make a bunch of piles and then you strategically place things into the laundry basket (in our family we use ikea bags because I hate carrying laundry baskets up and down stairs without being able to see my feet). Keep them in their piles in the laundry basket. I put the stuff that goes on hangers on the bottom because I hate hanging clothes up- so if I see it as the last thing to do at least then I am motivated to complete the task rather than staring at the bag of laundry not putting it away because I hate starting it.

I am sure you are all delighted to know about some of my laundry quirks...but heck now I am not thinking, "oh gee I should post something on my blog."

Perhaps I should start reflecting, as author Kathleen Norris has done, on the spirituality of laundry...