Nudged: Ignore The Laundry

Well, crap. I knew this was coming — heck, I created these nudges! — and have been dreading the day I would pull it from the bowl. That day has come.

This is included because over the past two years I’ve noticed I’ve been been saying more frequently “Laundry is my life.” Sorting, washing, drying, line-drying, ironing, folding, putting away…. It’s meant to be a joke, but it’s not so funny any more.

There was a small part of me that thought just now  “I have until noon — I can do just a few things (aka cheat) to get ahead of this.” But that defeats the purpose of the nudge, so here I go, starting now, I commit to ignoring the laundry for one week.

To keep myself honest, here’s a photo of the basket of clean laundry sitting next to my bed.

If all goes well (haha), it will be right here seven days from now. Impossible to know if I’m doing myself a favor or creating a massive headache for myself for next Sunday.

What Happened: This has been one of the most physically uncomfortable nudges I’ve done. Not because I didn’t have clean clothes — we were fine — but that it nudged me so far out of my comfort zone. I was thrown totally off-balance. By nature and/or nurture, I am a multitasker, and throughout the week I would see a basket or pile or whatever and my brain would want to just take care of it. But I resisted the urges, and it was challenging! So much so, that I woke up early yesterday morning from a dream in which I was sorting laundry. That is just wrong.

Except for a shirt Thor pulled out of the Before basket (he’s supportive of my nudgings, but, heck, he didn’t sign up to do them himself!), that basket of clean items by the bed remained untouched. He helped by lugging the overflowing basket of items to be sorted and washed down to the basement for me. (Good man.)

We were fine, by the way. Had all the essentials and spares we needed. I did, however, run out of warm PJs. That sounds weird to most of you, I know, but remember I live in San Francisco where “summers” are cold and flannel is my friend. I remain grateful for our heavy blankets and comforter.

The Ah-Hahs: “We were fine.” That says it all, and I continue to be grateful for all that we have in our life. I mean, come on, I have a washer and dryer on site, and a closet and dresser full of clothes. So many people in our world have so much less.

But what I learned most from this week is It’s okay to let things go. I don’t have to multitask all the time. I don’t have to drive myself to exhaustion trying to finish every task on the to do list. I don’t have to be “perfect”. Aside from the nightmare, I felt pretty good through the week. Maybe even a little less stressed than usual. I also didn’t try to fill that “free” time with other tasks. This, to me, is a successfully completed nudge.