Defeating the Laundry Monster

I have lived for years in a house that I half expected to disappear under piles of wrinkled, clean laundry.  For the past month, I have been plugging along with my little routines, but could not get out from under the laundry.  My husband would be home during the day and wash and dry five loads of laundry...but fold one or less.  It crept out of the laundry room and quickly took over the living room, master bedroom and walk in closet. We had baskets and piles of clean, wrinkled clothes everywhere!   I finally hit my breaking point!  I felt like my house was such a mess, looking back, I realize that the laundry everywhere made everything seem unkempt.  Including us, when we went to wear these rumpled articles of clothing!  So embarrassing. 

I decided to have a chat with my husband about this habit of his.  He thought he was helping, while I would have preferred he do one load from start to finish - washed, dried, folded and put away.  I decided that we would try something new, and miraculously, he agreed without argument.  One load of laundry per day, start to finish.  I am amazed, but two weeks later, the laundry was under control and we are not surrounded by clothes!  I thought it would take a lot longer.  This is not to say that I don't still have 4 closets to go through and thin out, but at least we aren't drowning in our current clothing.  I did realize two things - I need to buy more hangers, and we probably have too many clothes.  This sounds backwards, but we are still, bit by bit, moving into the new walk in closet in our bedroom, and so I am hanging more things that got shoved in drawers in the past.  I will also be working to gradually pull out and donate the clothes we don't wear and throw away the holy socks, before they ever get to live in the nice, new closet. 

It's been about two months since I started doing a load of laundry a day, and I'm actually to the point where I have the time, energy and space to wash some things that periodically need it.  Like the rubber backed bath mats. Now it is easy.  Never thought I would say that! 

I am converted.  It's so much more manageable this way!!  It is mentally easier to throw in a load now...I've given myself permission to change which step is first, so for my first load, I folded what was in the dryer.  That was step one.  Step two was wash more laundry, and third and final step for day one was running them through the dryer.  Day two, load two started with folding.  You get where I am going with this.  Since I do laundry in the evening after work, this way I am not miserably folding clothes at midnight and lugging them around trying to quietly put them away.

I felt so defeated by the laundry, having it under control makes me feel like I can accomplish so much more to reclaim my house from the addition construction and our rampaging toddler!