6 Tips to Conquer the Never-Ending Piles of Laundry!
The struggle is real… right?
Many of my clients experience the daily struggles of keeping up with the piles of laundry that seem to be never-ending. Laundry is often considered a multi-hour, multi-step chore requiring attention, memory and effort with very little reward and sense of completion. It’s the never-ending, always-beginning chore that those of us with ADHD dread daily!
How about that load left in the washer that never made it to the dryer? ugh…
Laundry requires attention, memory and effort, but because it doesn’t require or keep our full attention, it can often be started and not completed.
Here are some tips I share with my clients when the laundry just won’t stop piling up:
Declutter Your Closet! It’s time to organize your closet and drawers. Pack away any seasonal clothes to limit what’s taking up space. This will make it easier when you’re putting away clothes; everything will have a place. Create a giveaway and donate a pile to help declutter the items you have not worn in the last twelve months. This includes the mystery pieces you didn’t even know you had!
Do Laundry Throughout The Week. Grab a load and start as soon as the basket is full; doing loads throughout the week cuts down on doing weekend laundry for hours! Setting a calendar reminder is a good way to remind yourself to do a daily load throughout the week.
Use Different Baskets. Try having a laundry basket for your whites and darks. This way, it’s already sorted for you when you do quick loads throughout the week. Just grab and go! This works best when you have the baskets in a space that the whole family can use. You can train your family to sort darks from whites throughout the week.
Timers, Timers and More Timers! Some of my clients find it helpful to set a timer to alert them when the laundry needs to be changed over. Often we can get distracted or leave the house on other tasks and completely forget we have even started laundry. Our phones are a great way to set an alert to prompt us to switch that laundry over!
Keep Your Closet, Drawers, and Laundry Room Organized. When everything has a place and is in that place, it is easier to wash, dry, fold and put clothes away. When your laundry “station” is organized, you can do a load without the stress of cleaning and rearranging before you get started. When your laundry is sorted and in different baskets, you are taking away another donating
Have a Laundry Folding Zoom Party! Some of our ADHD tribe thrive when using “body doubling.” This technique creates accountability, motivation and a commitment to complete the task at hand! Why not get a few friends together on zoom to conquer the laundry? You will all be thankful you did.
Bonus TIP: Talk on the phone with a good friend while putting away laundry! It makes the time fly by, and you won’t even realize how much clothes you got put away. Multitasking while doing laundry is a great way to distract yourself from the boring task! Just ensure you keep yourself on track to complete the laundry; setting timers here might be helpful.
Leave a comment and let me know what works for you.