Overcoming Myself

I've had three fantastic days! Monday, I got two loads washed and dried, and I got one load folded. I put away the load I folded and the load that I already had folded but hadn't been put away for several days. So it was two loads washed and dried, one load folded, and two loads put away on Monday! Tuesday I got one load washed and dried, two loads folded AND put away! There was nothing in my washer or dryer, and nothing waiting to be put away!

Success! I'm supper happy about my progress this week. I think next week I might even add a second goal.

I've spent a lot of time in organizations that promote the power of positive thinking, and analyzing your feelings and thoughts to find the root cause of a behavior. There's two or three things I've changed in the last week that I think have made my recent success possible.

First, last week when I thought about doing laundry I would get so frustrated, putting it away seems pointless because Rhia always pulls all her clothes out of her drawers within a few hours of getting them put away. They end up all over the floor and it's a huge mess. I had looked up how to baby proof a sliding closet door, but couldn't find anything that worked for our doors. Well, I decided that if I was ever going to meet my goal I needed to eliminate the cause of that negativity and I finally found a Patio Door lock, and used some drywall/hollow door anchors for the screws, installed the lock, and viola! She can't open the closet anymore. (We even have locks on the drawers of her little clothes dresser, and she knows how to open them, so they only helped for the week before she figured it out!) The great thing is the lock is up above my head, so she CAN'T get to it! One negative associated with laundry and making it feel pointless down!

Second, I feel like I'm washing the same clothes over and over, because she's always pulling them out of her closet (which I've fixed now) and because there's a lot of her clothes that are too small, and I put them in a pile to give away, she gets into the pile, dad cleans up one day (so thankful he's so helpful around the house, I really got lucky with him!) and doesn't know they're too small, he throws them in the laundry room thinking they're dirty, and I end up washing clean clothes again and again. I would think about doing the laundry, and that would make me think of all the time it would take to go through Rhia's clothes and Rowan's clothes, and my clothes and Mike's and sort out what doesn't fit/is worn out. That would make me feel overwhelmed and as though my effort was never going to measure up. My solution? I bought a new laundry basket. I dedicated it to only one purpose. It sits next to the washer and dryer. When I'm folding laundry, if it's too small for either of my kidlets then I throw it in the basket. The beautiful thing is that Rhia doesn't play with the laundry in the basement because she doesn't like dirty clothes and she knows if it's downstairs that it's dirty....lol. So now the clothes we have outgrown have a designated home to gather in before being given away!

Third, I'm forgetful, and tired, and have a newborn, and though i start a load every day, some days I just can't get downstairs to get it dried, then I have to restart it t he next day cause it smells bad. More feelings of frustration and pointlessness. Well, i figured this one out, too. My washing machine has a button on it that says "8 hour delay". Beautiful button! I load up the laundry before I go to bed for the night, adjust the settings, add soap, turn on the eight hour delay, hit start and go to bed. In the morning I throw it in the dryer. Now, instead of having to remember-twice-to head downstairs, I only have to find time in the day to get down there once. Starting each load the night before has made it so much easier!

Last, I was folding laundry Monday, after putting up the locks over the weekend and getting the basket, and I was feeling like it was just so hard! And I thought "there's no reason to feel that way, you've analyzed the things that were making this hard on you, and resolved them. Now, how are you going to change the way you feel about laundry?" I remembered one of the key things about changing habits that I'd been taught in my professional life and church. When in a funk or bad place, say something positive! I started repeating over and over, while folding the clothes, "doing the laundry is easy!" I added the steps I want to take each day, and by the time I had the two loads folded I had a little positive affirmation chant.

It goes like this:
"Doing the laundry is easy,
I start a load each night!
I dry it in the morning,
then fold and put away that load-when it is dry!"

And that night and the next morning, and today? I did!