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5 Stress Reducing Lessons from Laundry

Ever catch yourself wishing there were 25 (or 52) hours in the day? Ever sleep too little and feel behind too much?

Rest assured, you’re not alone. However, there are simple ways to save time, increase productivity, and live a more tranquil (or at least slightly less hectic) life. Of course, here at Crest Cleaners, we think of these stress reducing tips in terms of laundry.  

Without further ado, our 5 ways that doing the laundry right can teach us about reducing everyday stress:

1. Avoid wrinkles.  

Laundry: Ironing clothes that should not have become wrinkled at all is a huge time waster.  Avoid this by taking clothes out of the dryer immediately, or hanging up a garment instead of throwing it in a pile if you’re planning on wearing it again.

Life:  You can do little things to prevent wrinkles from forming in your life. Take your car for scheduled maintenance to prevent a breakdown later. Keep a running list of groceries to avoid last minute omissions. Little inconveniences now save life-ironing time later.

2. Pretreat invisible stains.

Laundry: In our last post, we explained that even if a spill looks like it dries away, sometimes it’s just waiting to reappear under the heat of the laundering process.  These sneaky spots are known as invisible stains. Avoid them by dealing with the stain as soon as it happens, or marking it for pretreatment.

Life: Take care of the little spills in your life immediately to prevent permanent problems down the road. For example, if you make a mistake at work, it’s tempting to dishonestly cover it up, just like blotting out a stain with a napkin and forgetting about it. But that mistake, like the stain, will come back later to haunt you. Owning up to a spill now saves a stain later.

3. Just say no.

Laundry: If you do the shopping in your family, you may be familiar with the following scenario. You find a shirt you love, but then you check the care tag, and it’s hand wash only. If, in your household, hand wash translates into dirty because you don’t have time to deal with the delicates, just say no. Don’t buy the shirt if it’s going to be imprisoned in the dirty pile.

Life: Be realistic about your lifestyle. Don’t make promises to others or to yourself that experience shows you won’t keep, such as “I’ll do the hand washing more often.” If you don’t have time to volunteer for a charity or dog sit for a neighbor, just say no. It’s much harder to turn down an opportunity or disappoint a friend than it is to leave that shirt in the store and walk away. But if you can harness the power of saying no, both your laundry pile and your stress level will shrink.

4. Separate systematically.

Laundry: It’s impossible to keep the occasional white sock from becoming pink, but everyone (except for maybe college freshmen) knows that it’s essential to separate laundry into whites and colors. Pay attention to when mistakes happen, and set up a system to take the socks out from inside the pant leg before those socks become pink.

Life: Just like a red shirt can ruin a white sock, tension from work can damage your personal life, and vice versa. Overlaps are inevitable, but the right systems and policies can help. Set a work email curfew for when you’re home, or a Facebook browsing limit for when you’re at work. If you work with friends or family members, establish policies for when it’s appropriate to talk in certain tones or about certain subjects. Systematic separation between work and home keeps life clean.  

5. Set yourself up for success.

Laundry: Don’t try to machine wash a dry clean or hand wash only garment, because you’ll either ruin it or decrease its lifespan significantly. The small investment of taking the garment to the dry cleaner (or hanging it on the porch for pickup) saves you time and money in the long run.

Life: Use the right tools for the task at hand. The time and money invested in an education, a reliable car, or simply a replacement for that leaky sink pays dividends in the long run. Don’t skimp when it counts.

We’d love to hear your time saving tricks, whether they’re for laundry or for life. Join the conversation in the comments below!.