Whatever is gumming up the laundry area
Find a new place for it
Everyone’s laundry set-up is different, so my admonishment (always posted down below in the “outro”) to “take what I say and apply it to your own circumstance” goes double, but schedule some time to ask yourself what the heck all that stuff is.
You should see your washer and dryer (and not even necessarily that), the detergents and sundry other treatments, laundry baskets, a drying rack, and whatever clothing, bedding, and towels are in process. There is a trash basket nearby.
Maybe you keep your clean clothes in there in dressers or bins if you have enough room and that’s your system. It’s possible that for one day there is a bag of things to donate.
But what are those other things? Why are they there all the time? Why are you reaching past/climbing over/shoving away whatever it is? Why are they part of the furnishings?
I don’t know what it all is. But it needs to find another place!
Step one: move it out of the area/room and tidy what should be there, wiping down and dusting as necessary.
Step two: turn to whatever it all is and sort it according to whether it needs to go elsewhere, actually be washed (is that why it was in there?), or thrown away.
Step three: enjoy your functional laundry area!
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My book on how to live with the Liturgical Year: The Little Oratory
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As with everything here at the SFH, the best thing is for you to take my ideas, coming from my experience of 45 years of marriage and raising seven children, and apply them to your situation with discernment, prudence, and confidence — and a sense of humor!
Such a timely post! "De-gumming" my laundry area is my month of February main declutter goal this year...it does not help that laundry/basement maintenence/extra storage all share a [large...but the clutter has gotten out of control] space 😂 Love all of your content and so thankful I stumbled upon your substack. Thank you!
Auntie Leila, this is my greatest dilemma and struggle: I know where I want to be headed. I can see the end goal. I even know the steps to get there. It's not a difficulty of not knowing what to do. It's not being able to do it. I want to already have a good system in place that carries me through the hard days, sick days etc. But I seem to never be able to make progress on getting the system in place to begin with become already drowning. I will think, just start somewhere, it's better than nothing! And make about a day or two progress. Then without fail some minor emergency or sickness or other happens and nearly completely derails everything. I get back on my feet,I make three more steps forward, then the next wave comes and knocks down my sand castle. Each morning I look at all the things and I see my battle plan but 1-where do I start (after dishes dinner laundry and my own shower) and 2-what are the children supposed to be doing while I'm spending several days going through the laundry room??! An hour or two, yes, but this is multiple weeklong projects and they need me to be doing school with them. If I could get the projects done and the organization systems in place I am SURE it would make the school days go much more smoothly! But how do I get there, how do I spend the time I need to spend on tackling the laundry room backlog?? When I'm needed elsewhere?? Because three homemade meals a day takes half or more of my time? And this is why I have the backlog. I always need to do Something Else, something More Urgent and thus - the laundry room gets more cluttered.
I'd love if you give your take on this dilemma in a future post!