Letting Go of Laundry
After 6 months of preparing to downsize and move...we are finally settled in our temporary home.
In January John and I crunched the numbers and realized we were done with renting...well, almost. We decided to end our lease and move into a cheaper rental for a year to save up money for a down payment. Finding a rental property that would allow us to save money was a true challenge. But somehow we found the perfect place which is saving us $400/month on rent...the only compromises? No Laundry. No Parking. Two things we've never lived without. I know, I know...how can you live without laundry when you have 2 kids?
Well let me tell you friends...it's an amazing thing...it's called A LAUNDRY SERVICE.
Just down the street we found an eco friendly cleaner who does Wash 'n Fold services for $1/lb. They also pick up and deliver FOR FREE (as long as the order is close to 20 lbs). Knowing this was going to become our new way of doing laundry we started to practice something radical...re-wearing clothes more than once, washing sheets every 4 weeks and reusing the same towel for a week.
We weren't sure how this change would feel...but after one month of living without laundry...I can officially say...I'M IN LOVE!!!
Giving someone else my laundry has been a major game changer.
I had no idea how much of a burden my laundry was until I Let it Go. Cue the Frozen soundtrack...
Clearly I have some control issues to work on because for some reason I was worried about letting go of this task for many silly reasons:
-what if they fold my towels the wrong way? (umm....who cares?)
-If someone else does my laundry, when will I watch tv? (for some reason I've only allowed myself to watch tv shows when I'm folding laundry or working on etsy projects...Who came up with these stupid rules?)
-They might wash and fold...but I'm still going to have to sort and that's the worst and should be done while folding otherwise its a waste of time. (Um...people who fold laundry also sort laundry...because it makes nicer piles...)
After our first trial run from the service came back delivered to our door (completely sorted with towels folded to absolute perfection). All in all it cost us $19 for 10 days worth of laundry. And since we had budgeted $80/month it looks like we'll be spending $20 less than we thought! And yes, you could argue that we're spending far more than we would if we did it ourselves...but time is also money. And the countless hours I've spent trying to pair mounds of socks are hours I will never get back. And to be fair we are also saving money on detergents and fabric softners and if we owned we'd be saving on water and energy costs as well.
Honestly I wish I'd done it sooner. When I was in college I wrote two essays (TWO!!!) about how I think the world would be a better place if we didn't have to worry about doing laundry...so why did it take me 12 years to let go and give it away to a laundry service?
If you have a little bit of money to spare, and some time you'd like to get back...I highly recommend doing the same.
Now the big question...what to do with the extra time....more on that to come.
In January John and I crunched the numbers and realized we were done with renting...well, almost. We decided to end our lease and move into a cheaper rental for a year to save up money for a down payment. Finding a rental property that would allow us to save money was a true challenge. But somehow we found the perfect place which is saving us $400/month on rent...the only compromises? No Laundry. No Parking. Two things we've never lived without. I know, I know...how can you live without laundry when you have 2 kids?
Well let me tell you friends...it's an amazing thing...it's called A LAUNDRY SERVICE.
Just down the street we found an eco friendly cleaner who does Wash 'n Fold services for $1/lb. They also pick up and deliver FOR FREE (as long as the order is close to 20 lbs). Knowing this was going to become our new way of doing laundry we started to practice something radical...re-wearing clothes more than once, washing sheets every 4 weeks and reusing the same towel for a week.
We weren't sure how this change would feel...but after one month of living without laundry...I can officially say...I'M IN LOVE!!!
Giving someone else my laundry has been a major game changer.
I had no idea how much of a burden my laundry was until I Let it Go. Cue the Frozen soundtrack...
Clearly I have some control issues to work on because for some reason I was worried about letting go of this task for many silly reasons:
-what if they fold my towels the wrong way? (umm....who cares?)
-If someone else does my laundry, when will I watch tv? (for some reason I've only allowed myself to watch tv shows when I'm folding laundry or working on etsy projects...Who came up with these stupid rules?)
-They might wash and fold...but I'm still going to have to sort and that's the worst and should be done while folding otherwise its a waste of time. (Um...people who fold laundry also sort laundry...because it makes nicer piles...)
After our first trial run from the service came back delivered to our door (completely sorted with towels folded to absolute perfection). All in all it cost us $19 for 10 days worth of laundry. And since we had budgeted $80/month it looks like we'll be spending $20 less than we thought! And yes, you could argue that we're spending far more than we would if we did it ourselves...but time is also money. And the countless hours I've spent trying to pair mounds of socks are hours I will never get back. And to be fair we are also saving money on detergents and fabric softners and if we owned we'd be saving on water and energy costs as well.
Honestly I wish I'd done it sooner. When I was in college I wrote two essays (TWO!!!) about how I think the world would be a better place if we didn't have to worry about doing laundry...so why did it take me 12 years to let go and give it away to a laundry service?
If you have a little bit of money to spare, and some time you'd like to get back...I highly recommend doing the same.
Now the big question...what to do with the extra time....more on that to come.
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