The L-Word

I avoid the L-word.  My closest friends know that this has been the bane of my existence. No matter how much I try, "L" always gets the best of me.

I'm talking about LAUNDRY, of course. Ugh.

So what does laundry have to do with weight loss, you ask? A lot! I am a total package made up of interlocking pieces...like organization, procrastination, motivation, dread, habits, fears, successes, and a cluttered mind. And that last one is probably the biggest hurdle I have to continuously strategize to overcome.

When my mind is cluttered, my environment is cluttered. When my environment is cluttered, my mind is cluttered. There is no chicken or egg here. It works in both directions. And it doesn't matter what causes it...what matters is that in order to make plans, keep plans, move forward and have success in ANY area of my life (fitness, work, parenting, even hobbies), I have to continuously devise methods, tricks and tips to overcome the clutter that is Carly's World.Seeing things organized frees me to focus and do better at EVERYTHING else!

Henceforth, I shall focus on ....the dreaded.... laundry.

All my life, my laundry has existed in one of three states: (1) In the dirty pile, (2) in the clean pile (overflowing hampers or piled on the unused side of my king size bed), or (3) on my body. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE clean clothes, washing and drying (or hanging) laundry. I really do. It's the details that bog me down, like having to sort, then hang, fold, organize and put away. Ugh.

So here are some things that have helped me get MUCH better with laundry.

Shout Colorguard. With this product, you do not need to sort. You can just throw everything into one tub on cold, and call it a day. This morning I threw a brand new ORANGE t-shirt (that I knew was going to run) in with a pale yellow blouse, black shirt, white socks and a mint green shirt. I really did. And I also tossed in a few of the colorguard sheets. As you can see in the pic, nothing ran, but the sheets are completely orange! It's like magic.

Matching Hangers. At Bed, Bath and Beyond I got the "Real Simple" slimline hangers and threw out the hodgepodge of fat plastic store hangers I had. These are visually uniform which helps my brain. They are slim which helps with my tiny closet. They are cloth which makes even slippery camisoles stay put. And they have slacks racks, clips, skirt hangers,etc. for consistency. This isn't a luxury item. This is a sanity item.

Re-purposed dresser.  I have a lovely mission style pine dresser that, for years, has either sat empty or shoved full of unknown objects (because I didn't look in there for anything.) I am a visual person. I need to SEE something to know it exists. It's just how my brain works. So I now use my dresser for towels for my master bathroom, a nice cubby for all my hair products, brushes, etc. and the other drawers are for makeup, bras, underwear and workout clothes. There are no pants, shorts, shirts, sweaters, etc. at all. I wasn't keeping up with it anyway so why set myself up for failure?

Closetmaid Organizers.  

I bought a few 3-tier Closetmaid stackable organizers. The shelves are adjustable. I have a cloth bin for socks, one for nylons/tights/knee highs, one for my bathing suits.  I use one of these in my laundry room, too, to organize laundry supplies. A place for everything, everything in its place, and I can SEE what I have!

Since my son operates in much the same way as I do, I completely ditched his dresser and replaced it with stackable 6-cube and 9-cube organizers. Because he can SEE what t-shirts he has, he actually wears more of them (instead of just grabbing the top one in a drawer!) It also makes it easier for him to put things away. He has bins for socks, boxers, bathing suits, t-shirts, shorts, etc. and he uses the extra ones for video games, spare skateboard and scooter wheels, etc. Doing this one thing has made him feel MUCH better about his room and he keeps up with it much better (although he IS a 14 year old boy, so don't expect TOO much right?)

I am going to spend more blog posts talking about organization. It is critical to my success at everything I do - my job, being a mom, fitness and weight loss goals - all of it!

And in case this seems like a lot to do all at once, please believe me when I say this has been a process over time, one small incremental change at a time. But if we just start and do SOMETHING, we will all get there!

Carly

p.s. I have missed blogging. I struggle with consistency (if you have followed me, you know that's true!), and I am working on strategies for that, too!  Please don't give up on me or the blog.  :-)