WHY-Wednesday: Why I despise myself for hating my laundry so much.

Oh how I hate dealing with laundry.  No matter how hard I try to figure out a system that helps me make laundry more manageable, it always seems to have the upper hand on me.  I honestly feel like the system I have going on right now is the best I've ever had, but still... as I type this, there are two loads that are partly folded, partly waiting to be folded, and a load of diapers that is yet to be put away.

It's actually not that bad, a lot of it is folded (remember I said that my current system seems to be the best so far) except notice that it is still in the laundry room, NOT where clean laundry belongs.  Never mind that the diaper load was done three days ago.  It's still there.

I hate doing laundry.  Yet I'm being ridiculous. 

How dare I despise the privilege of washing my own clothes at home?

Let's evaluate my circumstances for a little-- 

Most middle-class American homes like ours don't even have a separate "laundry room."  We do.

Strike ONE.

If I were still leaving in Mexico, regardless of my social class, chances are I would NOT even own a dryer.

Strike TWO.

As a matter of fact, during the two years we lived in Mexico after getting married, we didn't even own a washer and dryer.  I would take my dirty laundry to a laundromat and spend an entire afternoon doing my entire week's worth of laundry outside my home.

Strike THREE.

 Most people around the world will at best get to wash their clothes by hand (yes, I like to insert this little guilt trip in my blog every once in a while :p).
Strike FOUR.

Yet, despite it all, I still have the audacity to complain about my laundry.  Oooohhh, how it piles up.  Oooohhh, how I never seem to get it finished.  Oooohhhh, how I hate folding it.  Ooooohhhh, how I hate putting it away.  Oooohhhh... (fill in the blank).

Really???? Shame. On. Me.

Thank you Jesus, that though laundry can seem like such an unbeatable "giant," I still get to do it at home.  In a washer.  And a dryer.  In my own laundry room.  Thank you.

So what have I done to make laundry more manageable in our home?

I feel like I've tried it all.  From having a "laundry day" where I tackle all of the week's laundry in one day (majorly disliked that method), to having two "laundry days" where I split the week's laundry in two days, to doing a load of laundry every day (yes, I was doing small loads every day except Sundays... also no fun).

But all three of those methods just about did me in.  Whether I was washing clothes once a week, or washing clothes every day, with dirty diapers thrown in there twice a week, I was thinking about laundry ALL THE TIME. 

About two months ago I decided to try something new.  New for me, at least.  It may be common sense for the majority.

I used to just have one dirty laundry basket for the entire house, which no matter how hard I worked on staying on-top of, was always overflowing with clothes.  So I decided to add three additional baskets to the laundry room to help tame the monster:

Nothing fancy.  Just some $7 Target hampers.  

About every two days, I empty the "main" dirty laundry basket located in our room and separate the clothes into three categories in our laundry room:  whites, colors, and larges (jeans, towels, jackets, sweaters, etc).  Whenever one is full, I just stick it into the washing machine, then dryer, then out of dryer.

I don't think about it.  Don't obsess about it.  Don't revolve my week around "laundry day" anymore.  It just gets done when it gets done (except on Sundays, that's my day off.  But that's another post entirely).

And when there are about two or three clean loads sitting in the laundry room, I finish folding, and put it away all in one day.  Not too bad.

How do you tackle your laundry?  Do you find yourself complaining about this first-world problem as much as I do?

(PS -- I've just started making my own laundry detergent.  I'm excited to see how well it works and how cost efficient it becomes).