I've actually been thinking seriously about New Year's resolutions this year because I came up with a really good one--one that will mean the breaking of a really stupid habit that I should never have allowed to take over my life in the first place. And it's completely realistic and achievable.
Here's what it is: at some point, I got into the habit of taking my clean laundry out of the dryer, putting it into the clothes basket, and then stuffing all the clean clothes baskets (unfolded) into our bedroom closet, where they would remain, getting rummaged through on a daily basis for shirts and socks and the like, until the following weekend, when I would need the baskets for the new week's dirty laundry, which in the meantime had been piling up on the floor in a corner of the bedroom. Then, and only then, would I fold the previous week's clean clothes and sort the dirty laundry.
I know, I know. Didn't my mother teach me anything? She did. Then I disregarded it, apparently.
So, I thought it would make a great resolution to change this habit back to what it ought to be, namely, reincorporate the folding of laundry immediately upon removal from the dryer. This would also benefit me in the sense that I try to avoid ironing clothes--folding them right away would prevent some unnecessary ironing. Plus there would be clothes baskets available for the tidier storage of dirty laundry during the week, and I wouldn't have to bury my arms up to the shoulder in the basket of clean laundry looking for that one matching sock.
I started on this resolution yesterday, actually. Yay! My other resolution is that I will finally tidy up my office the way I've been meaning to for about the past year. I will have to do this anyway when my office changes rooms into the newly remodeled part of the house, so conditions are conducive to the fulfillment of this resolution as well.
I'm all about the realistic and achievable goals this year. Usually I'm the opposite--unrealistic aims that I don't necessarily even have control over. Let us call this year the Year of Sensible Goals.
7 comments:
Our flat is too small -- and we don't have a #($&&^@! basket, so that's not as much of an issue. Also: no dryer. I move the clothes rack to the washer, remove the clothes, and then fold them in the spare room. My resolution has to do with taking them OFF of the bed in the spare room and actually putting them away, so that if someday we actually have a GUEST, they'll be able to find the bed... but I just can't worry about it too much.
New Year's Day: the day of going "Meh." to everything you thought of the night before...
Don't be too hard on yourself, TadMack: the guests would have to climb over 4 bicycles & two suitcases to get into the guest room, so a few clothes on the bed shouldn't bother them so much.
How's this for a resolution: getting rid of the clothes that you don't wear except for when there's nothing else clean? Cutting down the overall volume of clothes?
Nah - that's too sensible as well.
Happy Resolving, dear.
Cutting down on the overall volume of clothes--and making a subsequent trip to Goodwill and/or turning holey items into studio rags--is definitely in there, but it's more of a mandatory must-do than a resolution!! However, getting the husband to help may be difficult. I hate to cull his clothes without permission...though I've done it before...
What you need is to add a really "old-clothes-hungry" hobby: rag-rug weaving or something. See, then you could force yourself not to buy rags, because that would be cheating.
With us, I break out the sewing machine, amputate the legs of the jeans & turn them into pillows. Then you're stuck with a bunch of odd pillows, and tons of shorts ... but they don't enter the laundry stream any more. And who can have too many pillows?
Ah, if I made new year resolutions anymore, that would be a good one for me. Instead, I will continue to dump freshly washed and dried clothing into our 7+ laundry baskets (at one point, we bought four new ones when it became apparent we weren't ever going to get into the habit of emptying the baskets) while letting the dirty clothes, sheets, and towels grow into small mountains all over our entire bedroom. It looks like the Cascades up there.
That's exactly what was happening to us! Small mountains of laundry, which I would trip over while crossing the room.
So far, so good, though, at least for this week...
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