Do Laundry to Improve Stress & Self-confidence

Hi Improvers! Hear me out on this one. When you can’t find the shirt you wanted to wear because it is still dirty, it’s a minor inconvenience. When a pile of clean, to-be-folded clothes occupies the chair, you can sit in a different chair. When you need something from The Pile you can dig around for the black shirt. It didn’t take *that* long to determine the decoy shirts versus the intended shirt. If The Pile ages a while longer, maybe you take a moment to “re-fluff” the shirt in the dryer, OR WORSE, iron.

These are all minor inconveniences—dare I say wrinkles—to your routine, but each instance adds stressors and a sense of physical and mental disorganization.

Technically I know this and yet I too often have piles of “in process” laundry. I have the items still hanging by the machine instead of in the closet. I have the stack of folded clothes that has been so tussled from picking between from the pile—and the effects of gravity—re-folds are required. I have the down-to-the-last-work-shirt-even-though-this-could-have-been-avoided moments. I don’t pretend to be a domestic goddess by any stretch.

Fast forward to today: I took a load directly from the dryer, folded it, and put it away.

While I didn’t time it formally, it took maybe 5 minutes from start to finish. And at the end of it I felt accomplished? Yes, with a question mark. Why did I feel proud at such a small feat? This wasn’t physically or mentally hard. This wasn’t difficult or enduring. This was laundry on a Sunday. And yet, I did feel a boost in my confidence. I was a Person Who Puts Away Clothes today. I was someone with a clutter-free bed/chair/basket and The Pile wasn’t lurking.

This got me thinking: Why, on other days, do I move piles and stacks of laundry from place to place instead of straight to their correct home?

Well that’s easy! It’s the path of least resistance. So often the “lazy” option becomes the default.

But what if I told you (and myself) that completing the laundry in one fluid motion is *actually* the easiest. There is no re-washing the forgotten wet clothes. No re-fluffing or unnecessary ironing/steaming. No confusion of where the item is hiding or hanging. No refolding the now wilted stack of “folded” clothes.

Also, what if I highlight the sense of satisfaction of seeing a clean, pile-free bed that wasn’t harboring a chore. Not only was my space neat and free of clutter, my mind echoed this sentiment. As a Person Who Puts Away Clothes, I felt more capable and more self-confident in that moment.

With this I ask: What other 5 minutes chores do we avoid “because it’s easier” but really causes a deferred stress? Which small tasks can we complete now instead of eventually to make the future easier? Comment below to tell me the tasks you can think of or to let me know that you also make laundry piles and I’m not alone on this.