6 STEPS TO BREEZE THROUGH YOUR LAUNDRY DAY AND NOT DREAD IT

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I really do not like doing laundry.  I even dread the thought of dedicating a huge chunk of my day (usually Sundays for me) to washing, drying, folding and putting away clothes. It is one of those tedious tasks that need to get done but are not very fun. Over the years I have found a few methods that make this daunting task a little bit easier to bear.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love the outcome of doing laundry. The smell of freshly washed and dried clothes is like heaven and seeing my clothes neatly put away in drawers and hung makes me smile but it’s the process that I dread. So, here are the 10 things that make this task bearable:

1 – sort your clothes

Before I bring any laundry into the laundry room I take about 10 minutes to sort through all of my clothes by placing them in 1 of 5 piles:

  • Underwear, pajamas and towels

  • Delicates

  • Dark colors (black, dark blue, dark grey)

  • Whites

  • Denim

2 –  wash your clothes

I then wash each pile of clothes one at a time as I do laundry at home I only have access to one washer -which is why it takes up half of not most of my day to do laundry. But if you go to a laundry mat you may be able to snatch a few washers at time and get a few loads running at the same time.

The way I wash my clothes has definitely been a learning process. But in order for you to understand why let’s go back to the beginning. See, my parents never really put much thought into how clothes are washed; they grab a pile through it in the wash and press start - other than sorting out the whites I was never exposed to sorting out laundry as a child.

Fast forward to my first job out of college (which was an office job) and the first time I began purchasing a little bit of higher quality clothes. You would think that I would read the labels before I washed – but no, I didn’t. I followed in my parents footsteps and simply threw random piles of clothes into the wash. This resulted in a lot of ruined items and hundreds of dollars down the drain. We live and we learn, right?

Now back to washing your clothes. I also use different detergents depending on what type of clothing I am washing:

3 – dry the clothes

The next step in my process is drying and this has also been a trial and error for me! I use different heat levels depending on which pile I am drying, for example:

  • The underwear, pajamas and towels and the denim piles are set on medium/high heat

  • The delicates pile is ALWAYS set on low heat

  • The whites and dark piles are set on medium heat

4 – fold the clothes

I can bear this part because I usually use this time to catch up on podcasts, some YouTube channels I am subscribed to and TV shows (on a side note I am currently binging on Nashville). During this step I also sort the clothes depending on where they are going to be ultimately placed. So for example, in my dresser I have designated drawers where I place the following groupings:

  • Drawer one: socks, underwear and bra’s

  • Drawer two: my casual t-shirts, long sleeves and tank tops

  • Drawer three: another pile of t-shirts that I only wear at home lol (yes, they are that old and that comfy that I refuse to get rid of them just yet!), pajamas and stockings/tights

Then in my closet I have special groupings for clothing:

  • Work pants

  • Jeans

  • Yoga/workout pants

  • Shorts and skirts

  • Work dresses

  • Casual dresses

  • Short sleeve tops (from sleeveless to short sleeve)

  • Long sleeve tops

  • Blazers and cardigans

So as I am pulling clothes out of the dryer I fold the items and place them in one of each of the piles listed above. I know it may seem like a lot at first but over time you won’t even have to think about it, you will know the groupings by heart.

5 – put the clothes away

So after a few hours of sorting, washing, drying and folding I have to put the clothes away. This should be the easiest part especially since I already sorted the clothes in order of which they will be placed. But no, no, no – the freshly washed and folded clothes can sit in my hamper for hours sometimes days before I actually get around to put them away. I know, horrible habit that I am working on!

6 – celebrate!

Once you finish this daunting task that is on a perpetual loop you can celebrate your accomplishment and know you won’t have to deal with it for a whole other week! 

Now your turn, do you love have a love/hate relationship with laundry days like I do? Have you come up with a system that works for you? Share any tips and tricks below! 

3 EASY WAYS TO WIND DOWN AND DE-STRESS AFTER A HECTIC WEEK

I think it is safe to say that we all have very busy lives with never ending to-do lists but some weeks feel much busier and hectic than others. I have had that feeling more often lately than usual and I have gravitated to the following ways to wind down, de-stress and clear my head. Doing these types of activities is great to do at least once a day (even if it’s only for 10 minutes) but I know that it is not always possible. Whenever that is the case then I highly recommend you do something to de-stress at the end of your workweek.

Now, I’ll go into a little tangent here on alcoholic beverages. I have family and friends whose idea of de-stressing is having a glass of wine or a stronger drink and that’s it. Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with that, BUT, that should not be the only way you allow your mind and body wind down and de-stress. We need to allow ourselves to wind down in a peaceful and regenerating. Now onto the 5 easy ways:

Go on a walk

Take a stroll around your neighborhood; go to a park or along the beach (if you live near one, lucky, lucky you!) Also, I know it is hard to let go of our phones but try to leave your phone behind from time to time and just enjoy your walk and be present.  I know I probably do not have to go into to a many reasons walking is good for you but as a quick refresher walking is great to help you lose weight, good your heart, is a good way to boost your vitamin D intake and last but not least it is a great mood booster.

Bring out your inner child

Grab yourself an adult coloring book and color your heart out. There is something to simple yet magical about zoning out and coloring. Another hidden benefit of this activity is that it will help you increase your levels of concentration and we know we can all use some of that! I have had my coloring book for about 6 months and have pulled it out about a dozen times and when I do I cannot stop – I literally have to be pulled away from it.

Pull out a good book

This is an oldie but a goodie – reading is good for the soul at any time. You can read a book, a magazine, a newspaper. The only caveat here is for it not read from a screen  (unless you are using a kindle or e-reader) – reason for this is since the majority of us are in front of screens for work almost every day we really should give our eye a break and do some old fashioned reading I’ve mentioned before that I try to read every night before bed, sometimes I get into a good kick and stay with it for a few weeks at a time and other times I get sucked into the YouTube rabbit hole! But I will say that I read a lot more nowadays than I did a few years ago and I have also learned so much from the books I have read.

How do you allow yourself to unwind and de-stress after a busy week? Do share below!

About Linen and Why It Is Our Fabric Of Choice

There are many different fabric types out there some natural, some synthetic and some a blend of different fabrics. If you do not really know what the differences between natural and synthetic fabrics are we suggest you check out a couple of previous posts - Natural vs. Synthetic Fabrics and A Simple Guide to Natural and Synthetic Fabrics. Fabrics in all of their different forms may not see like they are but they are a big deal – as I mentioned before in a past post - the textile industry is the second largest in the world (after the oil industry)! I mean think about that for a sec, it is bigger than consumer goods, bigger than the health care industry and even bigger than the telecommunications industry. Who would have thought?!

Because there are so many different types of fabrics I will be doing a series of posts where I will share tips and facts about the different types of the most commonly used fabrics in our homes and in our closets. A few weeks ago I started this series with cotton and shared a post on Buying High Quality Fabric and 3 Easy Tips to Care for Cotton – go check it out!

Linen Facts

  • Linen is incredibly old - over 8,000 years old. Yes, you read that right – it is believed that linen is likely the oldest natural fabric.
  • The ancient Egyptians used very high quality linen, so high quality that even to this day it has not been able to be replicated.
  • The production of linen requires 25% less water than cotton.
  • Linen is biodegradable and recyclable.
  • The more you wash linen the softer and nicer it becomes.
  • US dollars are made up of 25% linen! The other 75% is cotton.

How to Care for Linen

If linen is properly cared for it can last a lifetime, it is such a durable fabric and it only gets better with time. However, caring for linen can be a little tricky. Here I’ll share a few things I’ve learned along the way around how to treat linen. These are tips that are very much applicable to linen, however, it is always a good idea to read the care instruction label for all of your garments.

Washing Linen | Linen can be either dry cleaned or hand washed. I definitely prefer the latter, however, I do not have the patience to hand wash so what I do is that I put my linen fabrics in the delicate cycle in the washer machine and so far have never had any issues with that method.

Drying | I always recommend to air dry linen. If you must put it in the dryer put it on “fluff air” or “low heat”. Those are the settings on my washing machine but you get the drift.

Ironing | If you have ever tried to iron linen you know that it is tiresome! One thing I have found incredibly useful is to iron linen while it is still damp. This will cut down the amount of time you need to spend ironing and still get great results.

Why We Chose Linen

After hours upon hours doing extensive research on the different types of fabrics we could have used for Ninel Studio products and after my many pros and cons lists everything seemed to point to linen as the best all-around choice. Even though everything pointed to linen as the best choice I was still hesitant to go with it at first. My one hesitation with Linen was the price when compared to cotton and cotton blends – but again - after all of the research we had done I really gained a good understanding of the laborious process it is to go from the flax seed to the final state of linen. Understanding and appreciating that concept allowed me to come to terms with the higher price point. Another very important aspect of my research was resistance certain fabrics had to dyes.  I had to keep in mind that I was not just going to use the textiles as they were to create the pillows I was going to hand dye the fabric in very small batches and then use the dyed fabrics to create the pillows. I tested dyes on cotton, cotton-polyester blends, cotton-linen blend and 100% linen and pure linen was by far the best to work with. 

The Launch!

I am really happy to report that after almost 2 years in the making I am only a week away from finally launching the first Ninel Studio collection – The Salisbury! Stay tuned for more info coming soon!

What has your experience with linen been? Ever had a mishap? I have!