bed laundry baskets pillowsOh, laundry, you can be such a chore.

Putting the clothes into the washing machine is not the problem. Remembering to put them in the dryer, that can be tricky, so I set a timer now. And actually I love to fold laundry, so that's not a problem.

What I hate is putting away the folded laundry. I might rather stab a fork in my eye than put the folded laundry into all its separate drawers and hang up the clothes in the closets. Ugh!

So I had to trick myself.

How do I trick myself into doing a chore I hate so much?

Well, I fold the clothes on our bed (I used to use the top of my dresser). Our bed's a great height for me, there's plenty of room to separate all the stacks of shorts and t-shirts and jammies, etc., and I toss hanging clothes over my tall footboard. But because we sleep in our bed every night, I have to get it cleared off daily, right? (Although someone lately did tell me they haven't slept in their bed in several nights because there was laundry all over it).

This is not a perfect trick, mind you. I have slipped up by moving all the clothes to the top of my dresser, but after feeling like that balancing act took just as long as putting the clothes away and a week of not seeing my dresser once again, I vowed never to go back to that.

And there are many nights where I'm up folding kid clothes after the kids are asleep in their room. In this case, I stack all the folded laundry in a basket and sneak it on top of their dresser. Much more likely to get handled in the right room.

Let's not talk about the clothes hung over my footboard though. Can't trick myself into hanging those up in a timely manner yet.

Oh, laundry, I wish I could trick you. Trick you into doing yourself. In the meantime, I'll keep perfecting the way I trick myself.

What tricks do you use to force yourself to do chores you hate?

 

Image via .j.e.n.n.y.