116 - Why Laundry Never Gets Put Away (And How to Fix That)

Summary

In this episode of Decluttering Untangled, Heather Tingle discusses the challenges of managing laundry, particularly for those with executive functioning difficulties. She emphasises that laundry is a multi-step process that can feel overwhelming, especially the final step of putting clothes away. Heather offers practical tips for simplifying laundry tasks, such as reducing the number of steps involved and designing your space to make laundry more efficient. She reassures listeners that struggling with laundry is normal and encourages them to be kind to themselves while finding solutions that work for their unique situations.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and Apology

00:51
The Never-Ending Cycle of Laundry

02:37
Understanding the Laundry Process

05:57
Removing Steps to Simplify Laundry

08:36
Designing Your Space for Laundry Efficiency

Transcript

Heather Tingle (00:01.176)
Hello, untanglers, and welcome back to another episode of Decluttering Untangled with me, your host, Heather Tingle. And I would like to start this episode with an apology to a lovely untangler who sent me some feedback. I'm not gonna mention their name. They asked me to stop saying the word H when it's actually H. And they are so right. And it is hilarious because...

my nickname among some of my family is actually H, not H. So I will try to say that that letter correctly, especially when talking about ADHD. I found it really amusing because I think I'm trying to put my podcast voice on rather than my everyday voice when I try and talk properly. And by trying to talk properly, I actually started talking improperly. So there we go. There's a little apology just to start.

Anyway, now you're gonna listen to every time I say ADHD, aren't you? You're gonna be listening now. Anyway, today I want to talk about something that is generally the bane of my untangler's lives and that is laundry. And I think I can almost hear you groan and sigh from here, in all honesty. Because laundry is one of those things that it never ends, does it? It's just a never-ending cycle. And I would say that for me in my house, I do finish it. I do get to the bottom of my laundry basket.

because I have a lot less stuff to wash down because I have a lot less clothes. But it is one of those things that it just starts again. Like it never ends. There's no sense of completion. There's no big tada, I've done it and I get a reprieve from it. And if laundry kind of feels like your nemesis, which it does to many people, I want you to know this straight away, right from the off, you're not lazy. You're not failing at adulthood and parenting and being a proper person. You're not the only one, most definitely not the only one.

because for most people I work with, washing part of the clothing cycle is not the issue. Now, yes, the washing machine goes on, that bit happens. Often, you might have to wash it more than once because you left it in the machine and forgot about it a bit. But if you've got a machine that beeps at you, that makes it a little bit easier to remember that it's there. Might take a bit of thinking about, but generally, the machine goes on, your clothes get washed.

Heather Tingle (02:20.334)
So that bit happens. And then you go onto the drying bit, which is a little bit more annoying because, know, if you live, especially in the UK, it's weather dependent. And, you know, if you haven't got a tumble dryer, then it can be difficult. Your radiators are full, there's air everywhere. But I think the real sticking point and the bit where it usually falls apart for most people is the putting it away part. That pile on the bed moves to the chair, goes back from the chair onto the floor, drove, stays on the sofa.

stays in bags, never actually makes it back into the wardrobe or the chest of drawers. And this is where I want to kind of explain to you a little bit about what is actually going on here and what you can do to change it. Because laundry isn't a one step process, it's actually a three step process. So it is the wash, the dry, the put away. They are three steps. Three separate tasks, often in different places, sometimes on different floors of your home. And if you've got any kind of executive functioning challenges,

ADHD, perimenopause, burnout, or you're just knackered, then that final step is actually asking quite a lot. Now, if you have a very full chest of drawers or very full laundry storage system, would say, so wardrobe, for example, putting it away is even harder. It makes it doubly hard because you've then not only got to remember where it goes, you got to try and squeeze it in. And often we've got far too many clothes and you have to like...

opening a drawer, it gets stuck or you put something in, you got to hold it down while you close the drawer. Like, it's not easy. So, it's not like putting away... putting laundry away is like one action. It's not. It's decisions, it's transitions, it's energy. It's making things fit, which is often really hard, on top of the actual doing part of it, which it often feels like an invisible wall that you just get to and you think, do know what? I've done two parts of the process.

I'm just gonna keep wearing the same clothes and rotating them, either taking them straight off the radiators or straight off the aeros or straight off the pile that's there and just keep wearing them from the pile. And that's generally what happens. So part of this friction in doing that is I did address in episode 25, I think it is, where I talked about floor droves and we looked at how putting clothing away to work with your brain is the best solution. So are you a hanger person, a drawer person or a dump it in a basket person? No, obviously I'm not going...

Heather Tingle (04:45.119)
into that now because you can go back and listen to that one. But there is a way to make it easier for your brain and laundry is the same. So first of all, having less. Secondly, having a system that then works. But thirdly, this is what I would like to talk with you today. So if your clothes are dried in one room, then carried somewhere else, like up or down the stairs and then sorted and tried to put away.

then what you've got there is multiple stopping points. So every stopping point is a chance for the task die. So stopping point would be putting it from the dryer or the radiator into a basket, then getting the basket up the stairs, then putting it from the basket into the room, then from the room to the end destination. Like that's a lot of stopping points. So one of the most effective shifts I've seen with clients, especially those with ADHD, is removing a step from the process.

Now I know I've mentioned this before, but it's a really great example. For me, the minute I changed my vacuum cleaner into a cordless, it removed a step from the process. It meant I was more likely to use my Hoover, my vacuum cleaner. If you can do the same with your laundry, then even better. Now I've already removed one step from most of my processes with laundry, and that is removing the ironing process. Because the ironing process to me is a total and utter waste of time. Now it was a total and utter waste of time,

for a totally different reason when I lived in clutter. And that was because if I ironed something, by the time I got to wear it again, it would have got creased because it would have been on floor for like a week or so. And therefore, it would have needed ironing again before wearing it. These days it's different. I realized I don't actually need to iron things because they either go in a tumble dryer and therefore they don't need ironing or I can strategically place them.

on my radiators and just give them a smooth out or they can be hung on a curtain in the shower to like steam the clothes out. And if I'm totally honest, I don't go that many places where we need to look that smart. And I don't really have, I don't like wear blouses and shirts very often that need ironing. So there we go. That's removing one step in the process. Another step in the process that you can do is by doing your laundry differently. And I mean that by changing where you do it.

Heather Tingle (07:09.719)
So that means things like drying the clothes as close as possible to where they actually live. So I have clients whose laundry room is also their wardrobe and I absolutely encourage this. So if you have got, and I want to say in the UK, like if you've got a box room, so if you've got a small room, turn it into a walking wardrobe and a laundry space. I have clients that have turned their utility room

into a child's uniform space because then it goes straight from the tumble dryer or the airer, straight into the drawers where their children's uniform is and they can go straight to it in the morning because it's easier because they get dressed downstairs because they're having their breakfast while watching TV and that makes perfect sense. Now it does seem quite radical, you know, it is.

But it works really well. So clothes come straight out of the dryer or off the area and go straight into drawers or into hangers. No baskets, no piles, no limbo stages. No, I'll take this upstairs when I get chance next. Now know what you might be thinking. That's a lovely idea, Heather, but I live in the UK in a tiny little house. My house is small. Or if you are somewhere else other than UK, maybe, you you don't have a laundry room. I promise you this is actually still doable. So I have seen...

pulley systems like these have in the Victorian era installed in bedrooms. So your clothes dry above the bed during the day. I have seen errors on landings with a dehumidifier. So clothes are drying on at least the same floor that they get put away. So you're removing one step. I've seen wardrobes that include a small rail just for drying. I have seen people dry clothing on curtain rails in the room that that's where they get dressed. So does it have to be Instagram perfect? No. Is it functional? Absolutely. And that's kind of the point. So when drying and putting away happen in the same place, your brain does not have to like restart the task later. It's not turning it into two different tasks because you're already there. You're already touching the clothes.

Heather Tingle (09:31.617)
You're collapsing like two phases into one. So if you've got a brain that struggles with task initiation or task completion or transitions like my brain does, then that can be the difference between constant laundry overwhelm and actually something that feels manageable, especially if you do it in tandem with decluttering your clothes and making them as minimal as possible. This will be so much easier.

Now, it's not about forcing yourself to be tidier. It's about designing a home around how your brain actually works and making it as easy as possible to win at that task. So, if your finishing style is drawers, where are those drawers? Is there somewhere that you can hang clothes to dry so they can be put in drawers? If it's hangers, can you dry them on hangers to make that a little bit easier? If you prefer like open dump bins,

That's really useful information to know. So can you dry them near those dumpings? Because laundry, I now realize, only felt hard because my house wasn't set up to work with me. It was working against me. So as I decluttered and removed a step, God, life's so much easier. So I hope that will give you something to think about. And if you are struggling with laundry as your hardest task,

see what you can remove from it. Remember that laundry is not actually easy. It is not difficult in how to do it, but executing it is, and that's the difference. There's nothing wrong with you if you struggle with it. In fact, in my world, you're totally normal. This is a normal thing. So try not to worry about that too much and see if there's something that you can remove from the entire process. If there's something that you can just move around to make life easier.

both practically and also consider decluttering your clothes too. So until next time, be kind to yourself, remember you're not alone and keep untangling.