Viscous Cycle : C.R.U.D (Completely Ridiculous Useless Debris) by Susan Borax and Heather Knittel
We recently visited a client who was extremely relieved to have dealt with her own personal Mt. Washmore (her term for describing the mountain of laundry that had previously lodged itself in the center of her living room). In a previous CRUD blog we excoriated the sheer volume of laundry related products amassed by clients in pursuit of wardrobe maintenance. But piles of unwashed laundry or laundry waiting for folding contribute to the disarray. People, who have a lot of clothes and not enough time to wash, fold and put them away, find their space compromised by the presence of multiple overflowing baskets stationed anywhere there is an empty surface, including every seat in the house.
There are many good reasons why laundry does not get done in a timely manner. Laundry is one of those household tasks that you can perform ostensibly while you are doing something else like reading, cooking or watching Ellen. It’s not like you have to watch your soapy clothes sloshing around through the circular window. But, you could get distracted and be unpleasantly surprised by mildewed clothes that accidently stayed overnight in the washer. If you care about your wearing apparel you know it is prudent not to mix your delicate garments with heavily stained denim in the same load. Thus, the simple task of doing laundry gets broken up into multiple segments that encompass sorting loads, treating stains, deciding what can go into the dryer and what needs to be hung to dry and worst of all, separating what needs to ironed. If you are fortunate enough to have your machines on the main floor of your home, you may be able to manage all this complexity without too much difficulty. But, if your washer and dryer reside in the basement or if you have to leave to use communal laundry facilities or a laundromat, your motivation may be diminish. Postponement only leads to even worse consequences. Rather than run out of underwear you may have to resort to emergency tidy whitey purchases or at the very least a trip to Walmart to pick up even more unsightly laundry baskets.
CRUD Challenge
When laundry gets to the point when it threatens to overwhelm we suggest that our clients drop off their unwashed loads at a local establishment to at least get them back to square one. While this one- time solution may be pricey, it is worth it for the sense of relief that accompanies dealing with the problem in one fell swoop. If nothing else, it allows the individual to address the clutter that the laundry piles have the habit of camouflaging.
From our viewpoint, most systems break down at the folding stage. Once the items are removed from the dryer they either remain in heaps atop the machine or get transferred to baskets. In either case, the clothing looks so rumpled they look like you slept in them for week. Remember, you cannot throw stuff in the dryer and dash out to a double-feature and hope for the best. Instead you’ll have to haul out the ironing board and remove the wrinkles from what was supposed to be permanent press.
As you can probably gather, doing laundry requires employing management skills or it can easily gain the upper hand. You could reduce your wardrobe as a means of shrinking (no pun intended) your laundry woes. Calling your mother won’t help.
This Blog is provided by Good Riddance Professional Organizing Solutions.
To know more about Susan Borax and Heather Knittel:
Website: http://www.goodriddance.ca
Susan Borax and Heather Knittel
Tel: 604-421-5952
Email: goodriddance@shaw.ca