Doing the laundry is another one of those chores that we need to do. Same as cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, making beds etc. Unless we learn to love some of these mundane chores we have to do, we’re always going to hate doing them and it becomes more of a burden. Here are 7 ways to learn to love doing the laundry.
Be grateful and love the laundry
I can’t stress this enough. Focusing on being grateful for what we do have in our lives has been scientifically proven to have a positive effect on our lives.
Be grateful that you do have clothes to wear and wash.
Be grateful that you have running water to wash your clothes.
Be grateful that you have electricity to run your washing machine.
Be grateful that you have a washing machine. Many women before us had to wash clothes by hand and no running water.
Be grateful that you have children whose clothes need washing. Sometimes being able to fall pregnant and give birth to a child is a privilege denied to many.
Be grateful that you have natural resources like sunshine and wind to naturally dry your laundry.
So many more examples but this is just an idea. (We practice daily gratitude in the Domestic Goddesses in Training Facebook group by being grateful for at least one thing everyday. Are you a member? Join here.)
Once you look at doing the laundry (and other chores for that matter) with gratitude for what you do have, you’ll soon see it’s not that much of a chore after all.
Are you doing too much laundry?
When I was a child back in the 1960s and 1970s, we wore one set of clothes after school for the whole week. (Unless it was covered in mud which happened a fair bit.)
Other than our school uniforms, my mother didn’t have a lot of clothes to wash. She was fastidious with her laundry and always seemed to be washing but she never grumbled. She never had an automatic washing machine either.
My mother swore by the twin tub washing machine and had one up until she passed away in 2012. My grandmother swore by the old wringer style washing machine up until she passed away in her 90s back in 1999.
Save time on doing the laundry by doing less. Wear your clothes more than once. Get the children out of their school clothes straight after school so they’re still clean to wear another day and get them into the routine of wearing one set of play clothes after school.
Take pride in your clothes and linen
We’ve become such a throw away society. As soon as something wears or breaks, we are quick to throw it away and get a new one.
Washing your clothes less actually keeps them in better condition. Mend and repair any holes, frayed hems or lost buttons etc.
Wash woolens in special wool only detergent and lay flat to dry.
Hand wash any delicate items or wash on a delicate cycle.
Hang clothes on clothes hangers to dry to reduce ironing. I hang all of the adult tshirts, dresses, jumpers etc on hangers so they get packed away into the closet straight away after being dried. Same applies to the school uniforms. No ironing either.
Treat stains as soon as they appear. Remember the better you clean your laundry, the longer it will last. Having a sense of pride in your clothes and linen might encourage you to love doing it more.
Love the smell of clean laundry
I don’t know about you but I just love the smell of clean laundry. Not the strong smell of chemically enhanced laundry powders and liquids but the smell of sun dried washing. (I use a homebrand laundry powder that doesn’t have any smell.)
When it smells nice you look forward to folding it and packing it away and wearing it, nice and clean.
It doesn’t really take long
When you think about it, laundry doesn’t take that long.
What I love about it is that you put the washing machine on and walk away. A typical cycle on my washing machine takes 56 minutes. I can do so much in that time.
I can relax, do other chores, work in my business, watch TV or go out. I can even put it on at night and hang it out first thing in the morning.
How long does it take you to hang it out? Me? Realistically about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the load. That’s not too much time out of your day. Even quicker if you use the clothes dryer.
Folding and packing away is part of the process
I like to look at doing the laundry from the moment it goes into the washing machine until the moment it’s folded and packed away.
That’s why I try and do the laundry on just one day. I know that’s different for people with big families (and babies or toddlers who have more dirty clothes) but I look at devoting just one day out of my week for the whole process.
I don’t plan too much else on my laundry days because I know I want it folded and packed away on the same day.
It can be hard to look at that big basket of laundry to be folded but again, realistically how long does it take to fold and pack away? For me, again 10 to 15 minutes.
My teenagers are getting better at doing their own. I put their things in a basket to fold and pack away on their own or sometimes I just get stuck in and do it.
Learn to love doing the laundry
Often the time we think it’s going to take us to do mundane chores like the laundry is longer than it actually does take to do it.
Don’t look at laundry with disdain. Look at it as just another important part of living and looking after yourself and your family. Clean clothes worn with pride makes you feel great as does having fresh sheets on the bed and clean, fluffy towels ready to dry yourself out of the shower.
Give yourself credit for a job well done!
