Dear Friends,

All of us have to do laundry, some only a couple of loads a week, while others have a dozen. It affects us all the same way, we put it off till it gets to be such a big job that we are paralyzed by the thought of it. You know exactly what I am talking about.

This month our new habit is the Laundry! One load a day to keep the CHAOS away.

Piles of dirty laundry in your bedroom floor, that just keep growing. Do you want to know why they continue to multiply? You have too many clothes, because you have compensated for not doing laundry by buying more clothes to cover this problem. Then you struggle for two days to finish it all, but it never really gets put away, because your drawers are too full to put anything away. So then you live out of a clothes basket, the piles on top of the dresser, the piles dumped on your bed or in a chair. After a while you can’t tell the dirty from the clean ones. So everything gets tossed back into the dirty clothes pile.

I want to teach you to stop doing this to yourself!

Let me tell you how I quit doing this to myself.

1. I cleaned out one drawer for myself and one for each family member.

2. Then I labeled the drawers, so I would know where to put the clothes.

3. At one time, when I lived alone, I would have every thing I owned dirty, before I would go to the laundry-mat and do them. (I did not have a washer or dryer)! I mean two huge garbage bags of dirty clothes. Did I tell you I had too many clothes? LOL Then I would go to the laundry-mat and spend half a day getting them done. At least they were done, but I would start the vicious cycle all over again. It was so draining. I could go several weeks without doing the laundry.

4. My remedy, was to cut out some of the steps that would trip me up and keep me from taking the first step to doing the laundry. Sorting!! As I took off my dirty clothes, I would sort them into a dark basket and a light basket. Yes I actually have a dark colored and a light colored basket to remind me to sort. Robert does it too. In fact, I think he taught me this. He also taught me to take my socks off, right side out. LOL Push them down over your heels and then pull the toes.. Poof your socks are right side out. No more having to turn socks after they are washed. LOL I love this part.

5. So now as a basket gets almost full, I can do a small load and it actually takes less time to do a small load as a huge one. It is no longer overwhelming to me. It gets put away much faster too. The socks are easier to mate as well. LOL I hated that part, but not anymore.

6. Now you have to have a simple routine to accomplish this. I have it included in my morning routine. As I leave my bedroom in the morning, I grab one of the baskets that looks almost full and take it to the basement. Turn on the washer, then come upstairs and set my timer for 40 minutes. This is how long it take for my washer to do a load. Do not leave the washer running while you are going to away from home. Just stop the washer and let them soak. Do not leave appliances running when no one is home. Also have a smoke alarm in the area of washer and dryer. Many home fires are started because of this.

7. After the washer has stopped. We need washers with buzzers (men must design these appliances or maybe born organized people) Grab some hangers and head for the dryer. Put the clothes in the dryer. When the buzzer goes off, you will already have the hangers at the dryer. Here is the rule! You have to go to the dryer when you hear the first buzzer. No excuses. Hang up the good clothes first and put the rest in the basket and go to the room where they belong. I have a secret, I do not fold underwear. I just put it in the drawer. Then I mate the socks and fold everything else in the small basket. I have timed me and I can do this in 2 minutes. I’ll wager you can too.

I don’t have to do a load every day, but I check my baskets to see if I do, every single day. It is so much easier to do, when you just get a routine for it.

I hope this will Help you to FLY Through your Laundry struggles,

FlyLady