I Do Laundry Every Day Now
And I think it's less work? Plus sticker stories, a very good suitcase, and the end of the FAT TALK book tour!
Friday Thread: What’s Your Domestic Labor Hack?
After a few rounds of solo weekends, my therapist asked me what I was doing with all this newfound alone time and my answer was, depressingly, “Mostly laundry.”
We are a household that requires six to eight loads of laundry per week. (Yes, I know it could be less. You try telling my six-year-old she could rewear her pajamas.) And yet, we’ve always been weekend laundry people. Dan would throw the loads in, and I would sort and fold it all. We sort of had everyone putting their own stuff away, which mostly meant that I put everything away. It wasn’t ideal, but with another adult hauling the baskets up and down the stairs (#basementlaundrystruggles), it wasn’t all on me. Until it was.
But when I told my therapist that I had spent the previous weekend trying to relax but actually just continually getting up to wash, dry, fold and put away every item of clothing in the house (plus all our towels and rags), she staged an intervention: “What if you did just one load every day?”
Friends, I am not a lifestyle influencer. I am not here to say this is the one and only way to laundry or the best way to laundry. But for me, right now, a smaller daily laundry chore somehow feels like SO MUCH LESS WORK than running a weekend laundromat. I throw the day’s load sometime in between getting up and sitting down at my desk—hours that are already dominated by domestic tasks like making breakfast and checking backpacks, so one more quick chore folds right in. Then I move the load to the dryer at lunch (yes this is major work from home privilege). And pull it out to fold and put away either on that same lunch break, or while my kids are doing their homework in the afternoon. Worst case, it happens when I watch TV later that night, but this usually takes up less than half a sitcom.
I also asked my kids which day of the week they could each commit to putting their laundry away by themselves and now that’s the day their clothes get washed (and they don’t get screen time unless they do it). Then I cycle through my darks, my lights, our towels, and the random assortment of kitchen rags, socks and whatever else ends up in the downstairs hamper over the rest of the week. (Our sheets get washed every few weeks by our cleaning person and yes, I recognize the enormous privilege of that.)
I know the laundry will, nevertheless, never be done. I know my commitment to doing it anyway is at least partially perfectionism and diet culture. I still aspire to break up with folding laundry like KC Davis one day. And I still run one load each weekend day. So no, I don’t quite know what happens this weekend when I’m headed out of town.
But I think it means everyone just waits a few more days for their clean clothes? Because I’m not going back to multiple loads.
So I’d love to know: What’s saving you the most time or effort on household chores right now?
I’d especially love to hear from single parents on this one—or anyone who is the sole adult taking care of a house—because being the only person who is truly going to get shit done is… an adjustment. But all strategies and thoughts are welcome! Even if it’s just a list of domestic standards you’ve lowered or rejected, and it actually doesn’t matter at all.
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Friday Links & Recs
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In the time I spent not doing laundry last weekend, my kids and I got super into Sticker Stories. (That “Feed Yourself” sticker is for
’s new book, which I’m midway through and loving!)I got to be ’s first Style Story interview and it was so much fun.
Why we can’t “get” kids to eat.
Super excited for
’s new podcast.Height and weight discrimination is now ILLEGAL in New York City!!
One gift idea that didn’t make it into Tuesday’s guide: Whatever book series your kid has read even one of, just buy them all and make it the big gift. My 6-year-old received a full set of Phoebe and Her Unicorn books for her birthday in October and both she and her 10-year-old sister read them daily—I think they rival only Magnatiles for our most used birthday gift ever? Breaking Cat News Adventures is now on deck for Christmas.
After writing about kid fitness culture, I was delighted to discover the University of Minnesota’s Move & Thrive Project.
A helpful primer on affiliate links (if you have a question about how we’re now using them here, drop it in the comments!)
This Seattle trip will be the official last stop for the Fat Talk book tour, and my last trip of 2023 (which was a bonkers-heavy travel year, for all the reasons). And I know it’s an annoying Instagram brand, but I have to say: This suitcase has seen me through it.
Book Report
AS MENTIONED, I will be in Seattle on Sunday night, recording a LIVE episode of Burnt Toast with the brilliant and wonderful
!We’re going to talk about our books, we’re going to talk about bodies in big life transitions, we’re going to wear comfortable shoes. You should be there.
Oh and FAT TALK made Book Riot’s Best of 2023 List!
Cult Report
Over onCult of Perfectwe’ve been discussing the shitty things people say when you’re pregnant.
Last week’s Cult episode was a powerful unpacking of The Fat Mother Narrative.
And I love this piece on shame, which
wrote in conversation with our first episode on perfectionism.