Life Hack

The laundry is done

My sister was at my house over the weekend, and watched me "do laundry," which means distribute the mound of clothes piled up on the clean-side of the laundry room. I tossed the clothes into one of four piles, mine, Kiki's, George's and towels. The towels I folded and propped in a leaning tower against the wall by the bathroom. Then I took the kids' clothes to their room and stuffed them into the drawers, and brought my clothes into my room, where they get picked from as needed, eventually piling up on the dirty-side of the laundry room.

This ten minutes worth of work blew my sister away. She asked, "You don't fold the clothes?"
"God no!" Then I explained to her that Kiki pulls clothes from her dresser, ten pieces at a time, flailing them over her shoulder looking for her favorite things, one being her "Hogs and Kisses" jammies decorated with flying pigs, size 24 months, that she stretches over her four and half year old body. George will only wear pants with an elastic waistband, and he burns through them in a couple days, so when I rummage through his drawers to find pants, they are usually on the clean-side of the laundry room.

I'm actually an expert folder. I worked in a t-shirt shop for a couple years, then I worked at a department store. I could go into a GAP at closing and transform it into its organized morning glory, without a folding board, thank-you-very-much. A friend of mine who works in fashion told me that most of the designers she works with dress in all black. Thats how I consider my aversion to folding personal clothes, I'm so folding enlightened, I don't need to practice the technique.

I usually browse Pinterest while I'm laying next to my daughter as she falls asleep. There are tons of people who dedicate their lives to organizing, and then depict it with great photos, demonstrating mommies with impressive OCD, and willingness to spend their evenings organizing. I look at these pictures in admiration and think of how nice my house would look if I threw 85% of our stuff away.

Becky called me a few days after her visit, grateful for learning this time saving laundry method.  She said, "Thank you! I've been wasting so much time folding tiny baby clothes!" I told her, "You're very welcome, and in return, you can take two garbage bags of hand me down clothes and toys!"