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Doing Laundry: How do you get into a routine, so you aren't waiting until you are out of undies?
I am a student, living on my own in a student house. I've got a washing machine that I can use freely (there is no issues sharing it with the four other people living here) but I can't seem to get into a routine or a productive way of taking care of my laundry. Let me elaborate: I generally leave the laundry baskets overflowing until I run out of clothes or underwear. I know that's pathetic, but I just can't seem to get into a cycle of doing my laundry regularly. The issue is that the machine fits 3kgs of laundry which is almost nothing, meaning that it fits about half of a laundry basket if even that.(standard size.. think Ikea's Antonius laundry basket)
Ideally, I'd put things in the wash as soon as I have a machineful, but it rarely happens. Do any of you have any tips on how I could get into a better routine or perhaps motivate myself to put things in the wash as soon as I have a machineful, instead of neglecting it until I have a clothes crisis and then need to do near 6 loads in one go...
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Want to answer more questions in the Domesticity category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Cleaning?
Make 2 days of the week your set laundry day. Say maybe Wednesday and Saturday. Make yourself get off your can and do laundry on those days.
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Your problem has three parts to it. Part 1: You have a time management problem. Part two: Like most of us you are a bit lazy when it comes to laundry. Part Three: You may be living on your own for the first time which relates back to part one.
I can help with part one. Part one is simply a matter of putting a schedule down on paper an then working the schedule. You have a schedule of classes so this is the place to start.
Take a sheet of paper and mark it off into seven days across the top in landscape style. Down the side mark of the hours from 7am to midnight. Now fill in your weekly class schedule.
Now that you have your class schedule filled in you can see where in your day you have gaps when you can return home to study. You may have been doing doing you between class studying on campus. If you live on campus and do not need to be in a study hall or library you can return home to study. Should one of your roommates not be using the laundry machines you can put a load in. You will need about an hour an a half for each load.
Mark on your schedule the days you were able to use the laundry. Once you see which days are free you can chose two or three days to do laundry. You probably won't need to do six loads if you do your laundry on a regular schedule.
Now fill in the rest of you time management schedule with the rest of your study time plus time you may need for any job you have and of course free time for entertainment.Add to your schedule anything else I may have left out that is needed to be done each week or on a monthly basis.
This is not a totally rigid schedule as things change. You may need more study time around exam week or in the event of a special project. You adjust your schedule as needed but you keep the schedule in writing.
To do this now time management will be come second nature something you will find very important when you go out into the adult working world. This is also something if learn to master you can put on your resume when applying for a job as this is a skill employers look for in candidates.
I hope I have helped you.
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I hate hate hate doing laundry, but it bugs me to see my clothes pile up.
Best thing I can suggest would be to just split it up and do it bit by bit instead of waiting for a huge pile up that will take forever to do!
For example, on Wednesdays I will do my towels and bed sheets. then on Saturday or sundays (based on how busy my weekends are) I'll do my clothes.
It also helps to have baskets to automatically seperate your clothing as soon as you take it off. One for whites, colors or however you want to sort. This cuts out the sorting time!
I live with my boyfriend so I end up doing all of the laundry in the house to save water so we aren't having loads constantly going, so splitting it up makes it easier than having to spend an entire weekend doing it to catch up.
See what will fit your schedule. Once you start for a few weeks it'll click into a routine!
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