 Do you constantly struggle with the chore of tackling your laundry? Do you feel like you can never seem to get ahead? Clothes spill onto the floor of the laundry room. Hampers are overflowing, and laundry is taking over your dining room table. Dirty and clean unfolded laundry seems to be taking over your home.
I work with many moms who are overwhelmed by laundry. You can add more overwhelm and stress to this if you are disorganized. Here are 10 helpful tips to help reduce the overwhelming effect that laundry causes: Plan ahead. Take a look at your schedule on a Friday for the following week and see where there are any holes in your schedule that you can dedicate to tackling your laundry. You can also pick one day during the week and choose this as your laundry day. Pre-sort. If you get overwhelmed with sorting all of the clothes, keep sectioned laundry baskets in everybody’s rooms. Get everybody on board with the system and follow up with everybody on a regular basis to make sure the system is being followed. Separate by person. How many mismatched socks do you have? Eliminate the lost sock issue by keeping every family member’s laundry separate. Have a basket for each family member. Wash each family member’s clothes separately. You’ll never lose clothes again. Complete the task. Wash your laundry, take it out of the dryer and fold it right away. Break down this process. Don’t continue throwing washes in and neglect to fold them. This is how you end up with missing or mismatched socks. Do a wash, put another wash in and fold the load that just came out of the dryer. If you’re tackling a few loads, you can fold it all at once, but be sure it gets done by the time all of the laundry is done. It won’t take you as long as you think it will. You’ll spend more time stressing about it when you could’ve just tackled it and been done with it. Folding station. If you’re washing loads by person, fold in or near the room where everything is stored. If you have a washer/dryer in the basement, don’t bring the clothes up to the dining room or den to fold. Bring the laundry to the room that it belongs in and fold there and save time. Delegate. If your kids are old enough, enlist them to do their own laundry. If you don’t trust them with the washing machine; dry their clothes, put them in their designated basket and leave them on their bed for them to fold and put away. They will have to eventually do this at some point in their life. Why not start them early? It will make it even easier for them to put them away if they have an organized and systemized bedroom. Is it really dirty? Are the clothes you wore for a few hours really dirty? How many clothes are you washing that are actually clean? Your clothes will last longer if you don’t wash them as much. Re-use. How many times do you use the towel you shower with? Can you go a few days or so with that one towel? You are clean when you get out of the shower; think about getting a few more days out of that towel. Organize your laundry room. Nothing is worse than working in an inefficient space. Keep everything you need on hand in this room. Create systems just as you would in any other room in your home. Regardless of how little space you may have, you can create systems and function efficiently in this room. Make it easy. Create a simple system that will eliminate stress and overwhelm. Be sure everybody’s rooms are organized. Putting away laundry into an organized space is sometimes half the battle. If closets and drawers are organized, with a little maintenance, items will stay folded and hung nicely. While you’re getting laundry done, think of other things you can get done at the same time while your loads are in the wash. You could plan and prepare lunches for the week. You could plan outfits for the week or you can get other work done. Think of the buzzer on the dryer as a timer for managing your time and try to get tasks done between loads. Get into a routine with tackling your laundry. Plan ahead. Fold laundry right away. Follow some or all of the tips above and tweak them to work for you. Sit for a minute and map out how you want to function with your laundry routine and put a plan into motion.  Have you ever thought about how the clutter in your bedroom is affecting your mood? I’m not even talking about your closets; let’s just discuss your bedroom. Instead of putting you in the mood, does it put you in a totally disgusted mood?
I took a survey and asked people to describe how they felt about their bedrooms. I received all types of responses. Some stated it makes them tired, stressed, and overwhelmed. Others said it’s a big mess and it’s not very sexy. Then there are the people who are functioning well in their bedroom and are happy, and felt like they created a calm space. Some were hopeful that they would get it to where they needed it to be. If you have negative feelings about your bedroom, it’s time to give it a makeover! Declutter, create working organized systems, rearrange the furniture, give it a good cleaning and you can have a new room in a day! What’s holding you back? Take a minute, grab a pen and paper and stand in the doorway of your bedroom and take a look around. I’m asking you to do this because sometimes you get so used to what’s in this room that everything just starts to blend together. For some, it’s easier to continue functioning this way than to actually tackle this project. Use the following questions to help you create a plan to move forward. What’s on the floor? Is it anything that you use on a daily, weekly basis? Are you stepping over clothes when you enter the room? Do you know what’s clean and what isn’t? What else lands on the floor besides clothes? What’s hiding under the bed? You might find empty water bottles, Kleenex, trash, and other random items. Keep under the bed clean unless you are using it for contained storage. What’s happening on the tops of your bureaus? What’s on top of here that doesn’t need to be out in the open? Keep the tops of your bureaus fresh and clear of clutter. You’ll find that there may be some dust, because it’s difficult to clean when there is clutter in the way. What do you keep on your nightstand? The nightstand may be the first thing you see when you open your eyes in the morning. Are there magazines covered in dust? Are there random items that don’t need to be there? Evaluate what is here and how often it’s used. Is there paper clutter in this room? Unless you have a home office in the bedroom with working systems to contain your paper, keep paper out of your bedroom. It’s a distraction and will add to your mental clutter. Any paper piles hanging around will keep you wondering if there’s something important in there. What’s holding you back? If your bedroom is killing your mood, what’s holding you back from making the change? Create a vision of how you want to feel and function in this space. If you’re overwhelmed, don’t look at your bedroom as one big project. Break the room into small manageable projects. Every day you procrastinate on this project is another day you’re not experiencing what it’s like to have a room that’s pure bliss! You can achieve this goal and once you do, you’ll be asking yourself why you didn’t tackle this sooner! You’ll be amazed at how you’ll feel once it’s completed!  Your bedroom should be a place of serenity. Clutter shouldn’t be the first thing you see when you awake in the morning and it shouldn’t be the last thing you look at before you go to sleep. Create a peaceful, calming atmosphere in your bedroom.
Here are 10 tips to a peaceful, relaxing bedroom.
Your bedroom should not make you feel anxious or stressed. This is a room where we recharge, refresh and get revitalized. The bedroom should not be disorganized or cluttered. Make it a sanctuary and a retreat where you can go to find sanity and serenity. |