Why I NEED a Laundry Day

Let me start by saying I LOVE home blogs -- ones about home organization, decorating, cleaning; you name it, I love it.  Mostly, I love to live vicariously through women who write much better than I do, and have homes that they decorate with a flair I cannot even imagine.  And their blogs are warm, and funny, and make me feel like I've made a new friend.

I get tips from them all the time.  Some work.  Some don't.

One of the tips that is pretty standard is the "do one load of laundry per day."  The bloggers maintain that if you do one load per day, you'll avoid some variation on Mount Launderest, and you're more likely to be successful.

Or maybe not, if you're me.

I tried this tip for YEARS!!!  And I failed for YEARS.  Seriously.  Years of my life spent desperately trying to make this concept work.  But it wouldn't.  Because I don't work that way.  I am a "project" person.  I need a project.  One with a definite beginning and ending.

And Laundry Day fits that need.  Without a defined day, laundry becomes this never-ending weight on my shoulders.  Instead of feeling like I've done something without really DOING something, I feel like I've done all this work without any noticeable difference.  The laundry is NEVER finished.  It never ends.  And the project becomes almost like that plant in Little Shop of Horrors that must be fed and maintained at all times.  And it depresses me, because laundry is high maintenance.

Laundry Day begins sometime Monday night, once the kids have on their pjs.  By Tuesday afternoon or evening, all of our clothing, towels, and underthings have been washed, dried, and put away.  And it ends.  The hampers are (for a few hours) empty.  And I feel like dancing.  I've done the same amount of work as before, but it ENDED, and I am done for the week.

Instead of trying to deny who I am, and trying to work against it, I work with it, and things are so much better.

How is this a loving thing?  To focus on myself and work my home chores around MY personality?  Isn't that selfish?

Maybe it is a bit selfish.  I have found, though, that if I work within my personality, I am a much more cheerful wife and mama.  I have more to give to my husband and children because I am not weighted by a daily fight against how I was created.  And I am far more likely to include my children in the chores, teaching them how to help if I am relaxed and working in my "strengths" so to speak.  And teaching them how to be adults is a large part of my job as mama.