Managing laundry

IMAGE: From the video game Untitled Goose Game, the goose is throwing a bar of soap into a manmade pond full of somebody's laundry and stuff. A man is watching is bewilderment.

I really hated doing laundry, especially as a little kid.  Just because it needs be done, doesn't mean it needs to be a complicated procedure.  This is how I've found peace with my laundry and other chores.

Gratitude
While I don't do the KonMari method with my belongings (drawn out procedure with too many steps for my preference), I think she has an excellent point about taking a pause break for appreciation.  With laundry, sometimes it is just nice to explore the qualities of the warm and fresh cleanliness of laundry.  It's easier for me to want to rescind gratitude in favour of functioning on autopilot and blow over a set of tasks, but I do find value in prioritizing gratitude more these days.

Breaking down the activity to smaller tasks.
Without getting to specific, I lean more toward breaking down an activity to sustainable tasks so I can more readily identify where I want to change my habits.  So far, here's what I've come up with for managing laundry:

• Storing dirty stuff
  • ​Keep a hamper for dirty clothes in closet - The max capacity of the hamper is a small load of laundry.
  • Keep a hamper for dirty towels, rags, and wash clothes on top of dryer - Same idea as above. Most laundry hampers are about this size. Just find the style that fits the location where you wish to keep it.
  • Clean hamper? Nope.  There's no reason you couldn't, I just don't need it. So keep that in mind for yourself.
  • I use a reminder app for anything I can't visually track based on capacity, e.g. bed spreads, etc.
• Storing products
  • All of my products for cleaning are above my dry/washing unit.  Some units also have a space between or to the side for a roll out cart. I don't have the space, so I tend to leave things on the dryer top or on a shelf.  I don't mind reaching for products, but you might.
• Time to clean
  • either the hamper is full or I'm down to my last towel or socks. While I don't mix bathroom stuff with clothing, I don't distinguish between white, colour, dark.  I intentionally don't own whites, and mixing with darks has never been an issue.
  • I run the water and put detergent in first. Then I just have to dump the hamper.  Again, this is dependent on my mobility because the loads feel relatively light and manageable. The only "large" load I do are bedding.
  • I manually pre-soak for a bit, so I do note that I have to come back to close the machine.  Some machines have built-in pre-soak features.
• Drying
  • Move stuff over. Consider if you have any complications here.
• Storing clean stuff
  • I'm a big "NOPE" on the KonMari method because folding is far more time-consuming.
  • Instead, I turn on music to get into a sense of flow and enjoyment. Then, I sort laundry by where I store it.
  • I hang almost absolutely everything, and the things I can't hang, I don't fold, e.g. undergarments and socks. That's it. So, I don't actually own a dresser of any sort.  I have a plastic Sterilite bin which was $15.  If I can't see my shirts and pants, I forget I own it, honestly.
• Bonus: sorting
  • If I like something, I buy 4-5 of it.  That includes a type of shirt, because I know what I like, and I'm not making it a mission to be in a store several times a month for fun. That's just me, and my time allowance.
  • Because I own the same thing of a lot of items, I separate my hanging clothes by functionality and again by type and again by colour. 
    • left to right tops: athletic wear (tanks, shirts, long sleeves); short sleeve casual wear (graphic tees, cuter shirts); mid and long sleeve casual wear (3 quarter sleeve, long sleeves, henleys, plaids); business casual tops (short sleeves, short collared, long sleeves, long collared, a vest, a blazer)
    • left to right bottoms: joggers, sweats, jeans, business casual
    • left to right misc: costumes, martial arts gi, scrubs, dresses
    • hanging shoe shelves
  • Because I have a "system," I have a habituated memory for exactly where items go and where items are found.

Energy Conservation
Energy conservation is the idea that we prioritize and plan to do things throughout the day when we are in less pain or have less fatigue. 

This is where I own the fact that sometimes the laundry sits in the dryer a bit longer.  Does my clothes have wrinkles? No; nothing I own gets wrinkled or requires ironing.  I spend more attention and detail on assuring that I buy products that I don't feel like require extra work than what I do and hanging clothes takes out wrinkles and creases for me. 

Additionally, when I pull my stuff, I do kinda dump it on a surface where I will sort everything according to where it goes in the closet.  I might be inclined to leave the sorting part-way through if I need to.  End of the world? Nope.  

Overall, I'm happy with my system. I was expected to start doing my own laundry since I was seven, but I will note that having much younger children might require a different system, maybe even responsibility sharing if they're ready, but that's my system.  Now copy paste the principles to other "chores." Keep it simple.