Do you ever struggle with time management? Am I the only one who has a tough time prioritizing tasks? Too many things to do, and too easily distracted, in my case. Washing and drying the household laundry, for example,has cost me hours upon hours for several years. Of course that was until our washing machine broke,and I’ll explain why I never knew doing laundry could be this awesome!
Throughout the day I’m being pulled in every direction, as I take care of my 18 month old baby, and home school my 5 year old and 9 year old. I’ve sort of diagnosed myself with ADD, but regardless of how true it may or may not be, it is an absolute must for me to reduce stimuli in order to accomplish anything.
Laundry was no exception, either. I would load the machine, let it run from start to finish and then forget to unload it. At that point, my husband would open our washing machine and find smelly clothes, and start the process over again. Several months ago, the washer started misbehaving during the spin cycle, and sometimes it wouldn’t spin at all. My husband advised me to call a company to come and repair it, and thought it would be best not to use the spin cycle until then. (I would like to mention, that I have pretty much mastered the art of procrastination, and did not call for a repair). I also decided to go ahead and use the spin cycle anyway, and one afternoon smoke was coming out of the machine, so I turned it off completely.
I’ll stop the blah blah blah right now, and make a long story short. Instead of getting the machine fixed, or getting a new one, we made a big change. Every Friday evening, we drop our kids off at my parents house to stay the night. At 5 a.m. on Saturday morning, my husband and I go together to the laundry mat and finish the entire household clothing/blankets in two hours. In order to make this a true success, we bought a few extra outfits for our kids, to ensure they have enough clothes to make it through the week, taking all of the spills into consideration. The benefits of doing it this way far exceed the cost of new clothes. Money can be replaced, but time and attention never will be.
By the way, I never wake up at 5 a.m. on any other morning of the week, but I look forward to doing so on Saturday. It’s something we can do together, team-building as a couple, and it gives us freedom from a task which used to seem never-ending.
