The Cut-Off Load

Laundry.

The mere word probably made you shudder. (Unless, of course, you're my sister, who's husband does the laundry - in which case the word made you feel feelings of affection...)

I have two laundry days: Monday & Thursday. Each day has about 6 loads of wash.Unless it's the day I wash the bathroom rugs and/or bedsheets - then it's about 9 loads.

Most weeks, my two laundry days end up leaking into the other days, so that I have piles of sorted laundry in the hallway for days at a time. Then the family comes home, changes clothes, and the hamper keeps filling up before I can even get it empty.

Introducing...the CUT-OFF LOAD.

Let me explain. If I keep grabbing clothes out of the hamper as quickly as they are piling into the hamper, the laundry never ends, right? Well, I've decided that when I sort the laundry at the beginning of the day - THAT'S IT! I won't add clothes to the day's laundry if anyone comes home to change. The final load I sort is THE. CUT-OFF. LOAD. Clothes that are added after this load will simply have to wait till the next laundry day.

It's really not as easy as it sounds. I've had to fight some neurotic tendencies to accept the cut-off load. Sometimes I cant be comfortable knowing that the hamper has clothes while I'm doing laundry. It just seems wrong. But if you're the same kind of neurotic about this - trust me, if your mind knows that there's an organized cut-off load method at work here, it's easier to accept. Its when you start grabbing an additional shirt here, or a dishrag there that you feel like you gotta do it all or nothing! Don't do it. Just embrace the cut-off load!

And now, please excuse me while I go put yesterday's cut-off load to wash.