<p>Notrichenough - I seem to be laboring under the delusion that I’ve bought sheets and towels once and I should never need to do it again. Same with our worn out, flat pillows.</p>
<p>I don’t have LLM - I have LCM. Low Cooking Motivation. I have zero interest in cooking now that it’s just me and H left at home. Well actually I had zero interest when the kids were here too, but I felt obligated to provide the balanced meals. I love to eat - I just don’t enjoy cooking. It does not interest me. I have a saying, “I don’t cook. I heat things up.” It’s just too much planning and thinking in advance and decision making at the grocery store to figure out a menu in advance and buy all the ingredients I’d need.</p>
<p>I am the “laundry husband” in the family. Here’s my feedback…</p>
<p>I agree with others that have said moving your laundry would help tremendously! Who wants to schlep clothes up and down stairs? How can you even hear the buzzer when the clothes need to come out of the machines? </p>
<p>Purchasing new machines might also help IF your washer is an older top loader type, but that won’t fix the root of the problem, which is the laundry machine location. When my wife turned over the laundry responsibility to me, I immediately bought new machines. That really helped get me energized however, in your case, I don’t believe that is your problem. </p>
<p>If you cannot relocate the laundry machines to a more fun zone of your house, what about bringing the fun zone to the basement? Maybe you can have the basement area, where the machines are located, REMODELED: Perhaps you can add new carpeting, a comfy chair, one of those hydro foot spas, a mini-bar, and one of those nice flat screen TVs, to go with that new hanging and folding area.</p>
<p>Well, I’d better go now. I’m starting to get stressed out because my cleaning crew is coming tomorrow and I haven’t cleaned my house yet. (Sad but true!)</p>
<p>The only way I can deal with LLM is to give myself as little time as possible to think about it. I get the load sorted and carted to the laundry room the night before. Next morning, first thing, I dump the laundry in and start it. And I do mean FIRST THING, before I have time to start procrastinating. After that, it’s not so hard to finish up.</p>
<p>When my kids were younger, I had a hired help to do our laundry. She loved doing this kind of worl. When my kids are older, they do their own. My husband helps out sometimes. But he takes the shirt out to be dried clean and ironed. The trick is I buy more clothes than I need so I don’t have to do laundry that often.</p>
<p>^ Article has to do with typesetting, not typing, that said most of us were trained in HS typing class to put two spaces after a sentence, say in a letter. But…that has changed it is now considered proper to only use one space. I still use two spaces and I don’t care.</p>
<p>I too am severely laundry challenged, I let it go so long it really is a burden. I agree that if my machines were upstairs it would be much easier. I did buy a a flip folder that does make folding t shirts fun and I do like to see everything stacked up all nice and even by using it. I solved the problem of the miss matched towels along time ago, all of my towels and sheets are white - it gives it a nice spa look.</p>
<p>I find the spaces before the periods extremely distracting. I don’t like it when authors think it’s cute to do without quotation marks either. </p>
<p>As for the laundry, I don’t mind all the other steps of doing it (though it’s coming out of the basement if I ever do the addition of a master bath over our kitchen. Not likely, but I can dream…</p>
<p>When I was a grad student, I rented a room from a woman who had a weekly maid who did the laundry, including mine. It was lovely, though she melted a lot of my buttons. </p>
<p>I have a cleaning woman and I run around for half an hour or so before she comes decluttering so she can clean. If I didn’t have her, the house would descend into chaos. It’s so worth it.</p>
<p>Matching towels? Until last year we had dh’s college towels, my college towels and an assortment of beach towels. Last year I asked for white hotel towels. I love them. Especially in my just remodeled mostly white bathroom. My Mom went the other route and ditched all her wedding towels in favor of a collection of fun beach towels. It makes it easy for every guest to remember which towel is theirs because they are all different. They do match in size and general style though.</p>
Yes, yes, yes … a million times YES! This is me exactly. I’d rather go without eating than have to plan something and, if you knew me you’d know it takes a lot for me not to eat. Additionally, we’re trying to lose weight and food is much less enjoyable than it use to be; as a matter of fact, I’m almost angry about it. DH hasn’t eaten red meat for approximately three years and I refuse to give it up … it’s my favorite! Just the thought of my teeth tearing through a piece of steak makes me salivate. </p>
<p>As for the laundry, DH and I share the chore. We try our best to get things out of the dryer immediately and, if we’re in a rush to go somewhere or do something else, we lay them out flat on the guest room bed to prevent wrinkles and hang and/or fold them later. If we’re ready to hang/fold immediately, we usually dump them on our bed and watch TV or just chat while completing the job. Unlike when I was younger, I find that I don’t really require my clothes to be ironed but DH likes almost everything he wears to be ironed … so he does it. He loves to use starch, too. The truth is, I’m pretty much tired of everything that has to do with maintaining a house. I still enjoy yard work, but it’s more about the satisfaction that comes from the way it looks afterward. </p>
<p>I wish I were Samantha Stephens!!! <em>twitch of the nose</em></p>
<p>LCM here too. I can live for days on granola bars, milk and coffee. Happydad needs “food-food” as he calls it, so there is a lot of take-out at our house.</p>
<p>LLM is not quite as much of an issue, but as a RAD (Recovering Apartment Dweller) I do still do all the laundry in one day even though I no longer have multiple washers and dryers to facilitate the process.</p>
<p>I also suffer from LPM (Low Paperwork Motivation). I do manage to get the bills paid on time without fail, and everything else gets done by the deadline, but it’s always a crisis. I’m right now looking at piles of FAFSA, open enrollment, bank statements, filing. None of it will get addressed until the appropriate crunch time. Ugh.</p>
<p>Well, it is obvious there are many like myself . When our kids were young we always had an au pair to deal with the kid’s laundry so it seemed like there was a lot less laundry as my H’s shirts were all done at the cleaners. Now with the advent of truly no-iron shirts , I do them at home. We already remodeled the basement -I just don’t like to hand out below ground . There are at least 8 half windows, so its not dark . Today is the first day I woke up early -5:30 AM and didn’t feel the need to go back to sleep . Until now,I have awakened everyday around 9. (Since I had surgery .)</p>
<p>Add me to the LCM club. I actually don’t mind the cooking part. It’s just that after 25 years I am OVER meal planning. Every few days I wander around the grocery store in a daze trying to find something to pick up for dinner. I would be completely happy having a bowl of cereal. </p>
<p>We still have a teen at home and she and my husband are athletes - my husband cycles 75 to 100 miles per week and my daughter swims 12 to 14 hours per week. They may be insane but I do feel obligated to water and feed them. So they sit at the table and eat like frat boys and my peri menopausal self picks at small portions of whatever I cook for them.</p>
<p>Lafalum, can I join your LCM support group? I’ll take laundry folding over cooking. I hate menu planning and shopping, even though we have an awesome Wegman’s nearby. I break into a cold sweat whenever one of the kids comes back home with a significant other in tow. I feel very pressured to put out a very nice spread. </p>
<p>As for the laundry…our very tiny laundry room is on the first floor. I have no desire for a 2nd floor laundry room. I never go back upstairs during the day. If I had the laundry room upstairs, I’d find the numerous trips up/down the stairs to be a pain. Or…I’d just forget I had laundry going up there until the end of the day or when I needed it. At least with the 1st floor laundry room, I can hear when the washer goes off and stuff needs to go in the dryer. When the dryer ends, I just empty it, fold the clothes on the couch or kitchen table, and bring the laundry up at the end of the day.</p>
<p>faux…your solution is obvious. You need less clothing. Give away 90% of it and voila…no piles! </p>
<p>Or you can just have a few pair of underwear and voila…motivaton!</p>
<p>hahaha…hate,hate,hate it all. I get everything done between 7 and 8:45 a.m. If its not done then it doesn’t happen. This includes last nights dinner dishes.</p>
<p>paperwork…piles and piles.</p>
<p>Spouse is actually trying to figure out if we can heat our house using junk mail…</p>
<p>ha ha ha :D. One look in my laundry room would answer this question for you. My excuse is that my folding counter is full of “stuff” from other people in this house and until they clean it off, I can’t do laundry…</p>
<p>I don’t even have the excuse of hauling stuff up and down the stairs as I can see the door to my laundry room from my computer desk.</p>
<p>Well…Faux, maybe the reason you don’t like laundry is that for years you didn’t have to do it…between the nanny and sending the shirts out.</p>
<p>Everyone in this family does their own wash. If something happened to me, someone would have to toss ONE load in per week in addition to their own…not a big deal.</p>
<p>I cannot believe that there are so many other people out there who HATE folding laundry! I really thought that I was alone in this.</p>
<p>I can’t tell you how happy I am to have opened this thread. I have no problem doing the laundry, it’s folding it and putting it away that I can’t stand. I can fold laundry if I have someone to talk to while I do it.</p>
<p>Similarly, these days I find it difficult to force myself to vacuum and dust. I used to do the whole house every two or three days. Now I mop and dust only while talking on the phone. Ironing…I used to iron clothes for work constantly, as well as napkins, tablecloths, etc. My standards have really declined. </p>
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<p>When we were first married, my husband had the temerity to criticize the way I ironed his shirts. (Those heavy Brooks Brothers button downs that are a nightmare to iron.) I haven’t ironed a shirt of his except by special request since. He has to plead. Needless to say, he went to Brooks no-irons a long time ago. (Although they really do need touching up. By him.)</p>
<p>I think I need to get an ipod for audio books to get me through these tasks…</p>
<p>I won’t even get into my LPM. That is truly out of control.</p>
<p>I am packing up 20 years and throwing away tons. I will only bring back what they say will equal 10 washing machines. So it is do or die and what motivational wonder that is. Now I have been working on this for awhile BUT all my paperwork is organized, taxes for two countries for 10 years, significant papers. My photos and research paperwork is left. But halfway done. I don’t fold clothes right now. Each trash bag that goes out and each item sold, I feel a tad lighter. I have decided I don’t want things. I have decided to sell everything if I can get takers and start fresh on the other side of the sea. I do dishes as I go and cook very little. One week to go! And the movers will come and look around…</p>
I have no problem doing the laundry, it’s folding it and putting it away that I can’t stand. I can fold laundry if I have someone to talk to while I do it.</p>
Needless to say, he went to Brooks no-irons a long time ago. (Although they really do need touching up. By him.)</p>
Each trash bag that goes out and each item sold, I feel a tad lighter. I have decided I don’t want things. I have decided to sell everything if I can get takers and start fresh on the other side of the sea. I do dishes as I go and cook very little. One week to go! And the movers will come and look around…</p>