You guys. This is possibly the most life-changing change to my family’s routines I’ve ever made. You’re maybe going to judge me because it’s really simple and obvious. But I don’t even care because it is that amazing. And yes, it’s likely a temporary fix. But I’ll take any kind of fix I can get when it comes to the laundry situation.
Yes, I’m here to talk about the laundry situation. I don’t know about you (although I suspect that most of you are in the same boat as me) but laundry is just completely overwhelming a vast majority of the time. Equally annoying is the daily battle for my kids to get dressed. That’s a lie, the dressing battle is nowhere near as annoying as the laundry pile, but still a pain!
Enter the COVID outfit. It occurred to me recently that since we are going nowhere and seeing nobody it really doesn’t matter if we are wearing the same thing every day.
So here’s what I’ve been doing:
Step 1: At bedtime everyone’s clothes go into a laundry basket. (Oh, you already do this? Congratulations on having kids who have learned not to throw their clothes everywhere. This is sincere, I’m in awe of you and need you to come to teach my kids a thing or two.)
Step 2: I change into pajamas and my clothes go in to.
Step 3: Any dishtowels, facecloths, etc from the day also get thrown in.
Step 4: It all goes in the wash immediately, no matter if it’s a smaller load than I might usually do.
Step 5: Before I go to bed I switch it over.
The next morning, while my kids are blearily watching tv and refusing to get dressed (your kids actually get dressed and/or don’t watch tv first thing? Again, all the congratulations, I want to be you.) I toss the laundry basket in front of them and they put on yesterday’s (now clean) outfit. I change from my pj’s to yesterday’s now clean outfit (which, let’s be real, is the only thing I really want to wear because it’s my favorite leggings, tank, and sweatshirt). In the basket is now about three dishtowels/washcloths (I send the eager-to-help-three year old to put those away). Maybe a towel, and a spare pair of underwear or two (and I’m not folding those anyway). There is little enough of that stuff that the kids can easily be runners to put it all where it belongs.
You guys. There is no more folding or putting clothes away in my life.
Should I repeat that?
THERE IS NO MORE FOLDING OR PUTTING CLOTHES AWAY.
Obviously this may need to be amended slightly for everyone’s personal circumstances. Have a clotheshorse who will be horrified at the idea of wearing the same outfit every day? Give him/her yesterday’s outfit to bring upstairs and put away and they can pick out today’s clothes. Weather changes and excess dirty clothes will lead to a few extra clothes to put away. But for real, so far, this has been a game-changer and has been the only thing yet in life that has successfully gotten me into a one-load of laundry everyday habit.
Give it a try, if it’s even one tiny bit of stress off your COVID-life plate (or your summer break-life plate, or your vacation-life plate, or even your weekend-life plate), it will be worth it.
