Tired of opening your bathroom cabinets only to find chaos staring back at you? You're not alone. In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi teams up with decluttering expert Tonya Kubo to tackle one of the most frustrating spaces in many homes: the bathroom sink...
#676 – Laundry Trauma Therapy: Overcome the Never-Ending Chore
#676 – Laundry Trauma Therapy: Overcome the Never-Ending Chore
Join Kathi Lipp and her clutter buddy, Tonya Kubo in a conversation focusing on practical steps to streamline laundry chaos for a clutter-free life. Listen in to the first of this two part series as Kathi dives into relatable laundry challenges and shares the systems that have transformed her household management. Whether you’re navigating mound-like heaps of clothing or finding yourself rewashing forgotten loads, this episode uncovers strategies to regain control over your laundry routine. Catch some tips for teaching kids to handle laundry, optimal sorting methods, and eco-friendly practices like drying clothes outdoors. A few handy laundry room accessories are highlighted, from shout color catchers to mesh bags, with essential tips like employing white vinegar to eliminate stale laundry odors. Tune in for a laugh, some encouragement, and solutions to make your laundry systems serve you, not the other way around.
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Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest
Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.
Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.
Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.
Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”
Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.
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Meet Our Co-Host
Tonya Kubo
Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.
Transcript
Kathi Lipp (00:10)
Hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And guys, we are working on systems throughout this year. And one of the systems that has brought me the most red in my life is let’s all say it together, laundry. And I am so grateful to have Tonya Kubo here. Hey Tonya.
Tonya Kubo (00:34)
Hey, Kathi.
Kathi Lipp (00:35)
Well, we are in very, because we’re in very different stages of the laundry life. ? You know, I, I’m in, I’m in delicate and you’re in heavy, you know, sleeping bag. Yes. Yes. And I remember those days well. And I think there are a couple of things that ? have given me laundry trauma in the past. ? A couple of things. One, it.
Tonya Kubo (00:41)
Yes.
Heavy duty.
Hmm.
Kathi Lipp (01:05)
It is such a stop and go kind of process. You wash, you dry, you fold, you put away, and it never ends. I’ll never forget, I know I’ve mentioned it on here before. One time, I think I was sick or something, and Roger took over laundry for like, I don’t know, like four or five days, and he was so excited that he got everything washed, folded, put away.
Tonya Kubo (01:23)
Mmm.
Kathi Lipp (01:32)
and then I took a shower and I put laundry in the hamper. He’s like, it’s not done anymore. I hate when people say welcome to my life, but if there was ever a time I was going to say it, that was going to be the day. Because yes, it’s thankless, it’s never ending. And ? you and I have talked about this before, the fact that my kids used to put folded clean laundry back into the dirty clothes.
Tonya Kubo (01:36)
Hmm. ?
Kathi Lipp (02:01)
made me understand why women go to jail. ? now you are not the main laundress in your house, correct?
Tonya Kubo (02:05)
Mm-hmm.
Correct, not at this time, right? We shift depending on work schedules and availability and all of that. But yeah, at this point in time, Brian is the main launderer of the home. ? He has very specific ideas of how clothes should be washed. ? Whereas I more have specific ideas of the whole process.
Kathi Lipp (02:35)
Yes. Yeah. So is he does he do smaller loads because all the the certain colors go together or something like that?
Tonya Kubo (02:44)
No, he doesn’t do smaller loads. ? It’s more about what outfits should be available on which days.
Kathi Lipp (02:52)
? interesting, okay.
Tonya Kubo (02:54)
Right?
So it’s like, you know, he knows what he wants to wear for work. And so he knows what day the work clothes need to get washed. He also has a better read on like when the towels need to get washed based on the certain people who take two showers a day, the people who take one shower every time they get forced to take a shower and everybody else who falls in between.
Kathi Lipp (03:16)
Yes. Okay. So according to you, not Brian, we’re leaving Brian out of this right now. But according to you, what is the most painful thing about laundry in your house?
Tonya Kubo (03:21)
Okay.
So the most painful thing about laundry in my house is that everybody aside from me likes to live out of baskets. And I get mixed up and I’ll own this, right? I can never tell the clean basket from the dirty basket. They all know the clean basket from the dirty basket, but I don’t. And so I end up putting dirty laundry on top of clean laundry. Now the rest of them will tell you dirty laundry belongs in a pile on the floor. Duh.
Kathi Lipp (03:45)
Right.
Mercy, have mercy.
Tonya Kubo (03:58)
Only clean
clothes belong in baskets.
Kathi Lipp (04:01)
Yes. And if this was a different podcast, what they’d say is, well, your dirty clothes go into a colored basket and your clean clothes go into a, but that’s not, that’s not the vibe here. Like I don’t want 75 different baskets for the different stages. We have, we have two baskets because we, well, and that’s not because we have two people. have the basket that the dirty clothes has gone down in and then
Tonya Kubo (04:14)
No!
Yes.
Kathi Lipp (04:29)
that next basket goes in there. One is always on a different floor. But they’re transporting clean and dirty clothes. Yeah, for me, is, ? I think historically, and I feel like I’m doing better with this now, but it’s taken more work than I feel like it deserved, is putting things away. Like,
Tonya Kubo (04:35)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (04:56)
I don’t like to put things away because if my drawers are too full, I feel like I have conquered that for the most part, okay, we never bag on Brian around here because we love Brian. Brian is one of our favorite people. Brian is up there in the Cannon Halls.
Tonya Kubo (05:03)
Mm-hmm.
No, we love Brian. He does so much.
Kathi Lipp (05:16)
of good husbands like Roger. But I’m going to give you a pass today and tell me why his laundry system is insane. Now, first of all, he gets to have his own laundry system because he does the laundry. And you and I agree on that. The person who does the chore gets to do it. But I also believe in a minimum standard of care. And maybe you guys disagree on what the minimum standard of care is. So.
Tonya Kubo (05:28)
Mm-hmm. Yup.
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (05:43)
If you could boss Brian around, how would you tell him to do laundry?
Tonya Kubo (05:47)
Well, I would tell him not to put a load in the wash if he doesn’t have the time or the energy to see it all the way through to putting it away.
Kathi Lipp (05:57)
? okay. Does it sometimes get stuck in the wash and start to smell and have to be redone? Not that that’s ever happened at my house. I don’t even know. I’ve just heard tell tales.
Tonya Kubo (06:03)
frequently.
Right, well, we have like, it’s a twofold problem. It’s not just the forgetful part. It’s the fact that our washer and dryer is in the garage and we live in the central Valley of California, which gets hotter than Hades in the summer. So it’s like, if you in our warmer months, if you don’t switch over that laundry by the end of the day, it will have already soured because it’s just baking in the washer.
Kathi Lipp (06:16)
Mmm, hot, yes.
Tonya, I happen to know that in the winter, I can leave things in the washing machine for up to 26 hours and it’s gonna be fine. In the summer, I have about 12 hours and then it has to be done again. Like I know this down to a science, I understand this. But yeah, and I hate when we have to re-wash things because it’s a waste of water, it’s a waste of soap, it’s a waste of time, it’s a waste of energy, blah, blah, blah.
Tonya Kubo (06:45)
Yeah
Yeah. Right.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so for me, it’s, mean, things get stuck in the wash. They get stuck in, they get left in the dryer, right? If there’s not a load behind it, oftentimes that last load gets stuck in the dryer. But more than anything, it’s just that the clothes get carried into the house and just left. And I would rather say, you know what, we’re only washing one load of laundry today, but that laundry is gonna make it from the washer to the dryer and from the dryer to being put in drawers or in the closet.
Kathi Lipp (07:00)
It makes me crazy.
Yeah, I agree. And I know that can’t happen every day for every household. But I think it takes if we all take a moment and say, OK, what is the part of this that’s driving us nuts? I think that that is really helpful to get us to some solution. Hopefully we’ll have ? we’ll have some ideas. Now, I also I am I like to laundry dangerously. ? I I.
Tonya Kubo (07:53)
Hmm.
Kathi Lipp (07:55)
I don’t sort it into a ton of different loads. Like I wash nice shirts in one loads, whites in another, and then it’s pretty much just survival of the fittest for everything else. And I know people that would make them crazy. ? And so if you’re doing a lot of little loads, that can be exhausting too. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick commercial break and we’re gonna come back.
Tonya Kubo (08:07)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (08:21)
and we’re gonna come up with some ideas that might be able to help you actually get through your laundry. So stay with us.
Okay, friends, I want to talk about maybe a little bit of a mind shift when it comes to laundry. And this has been really, this has been helpful to me that we can look at laundry as a chore. Or what I’ve said is this is part of managing my life. Like if I want to have the clothes available that I want to have, then I need to this is part of my system. And one thing that has helped me
Now I have the luxury of working from home. Not everybody does. want so you have to find your own timing on this. But one thing I have started to do is I go downstairs at about nine thirty every day and I’m like, what do we need to push forward? So that may be starting ? a load of laundry. That may be throwing some dishes in the dishwasher. That may be pulling something out to defrost for dinner.
Like that has been so helpful to me. And then if I get the laundry started, either I’m starting the laundry first thing in the morning or at that nine, nine 30 timing, then at lunchtime I can throw things into the dryer and I’m downstairs. I can grab the shirts out that I don’t want to be wrinkled, that kind of thing. How often are you guys doing laundry time?
Tonya Kubo (09:56)
like two, three days a week.
Kathi Lipp (10:01)
Okay. that’s I find that very impressive that that’s all you’re doing. Because I feel like we’re doing so I I feel like there’s always something going on here at the house. And maybe that’s just because we’re Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (10:13)
Yeah.
I mean, for us, it’s, you we have to do towels. We don’t have enough towels, right, to only do towels once a week. So towels have to be washed twice a week. ? Lily does her own laundry, but all of her clothes are one load. That’s it. And so she does that once a week. And then, you know, for me, Brian and Abby, Brian likes to do three loads on a Saturday. Like that’s his ideal. That’s not my ideal.
Kathi Lipp (10:19)
Okay. ?
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah. Okay. I see. So you’re doing multiple loads in a day necessary, you know, so to necessitate all that.
Tonya Kubo (10:49)
Yeah, we’re three loads. Like, Brian likes to knock out three loads in one day on the weekend for the next week. And then it’s usually two loads midweek.
Kathi Lipp (10:59)
Okay, okay. Yeah, okay. That seems reasonable. ? And you’re out in the garage. So you’ve got all your laundry stuff out there. Are you sorting before it goes to the garage? Are you sorting in the garage?
Tonya Kubo (11:13)
I would sort before it goes to the garage. Like I sort in the basket, right, that I carry out. But when the next person just dumps the basket out into a pile on the floor, they like to just pick from the pile and decide what they’re gonna make into each load. Except for Lily, because again, Lily does her own stuff, so it’s all in one basket.
Kathi Lipp (11:15)
You
Mm-hmm.
I have-
Yeah, I have to admit I’m a pile picker. am. Now here’s the thing though, right next to our laundry room is a bathroom that doesn’t have to be used. So I can just, I’ve got all this space. So that actually works for us. ? Does each member of your family have its own laundry basket?
Tonya Kubo (11:43)
Mm-hmm.
No, Lily has her own because she does her own laundry, but because all the other laundry gets done communally, we all just, well, and I have all white baskets.
Kathi Lipp (12:00)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Yeah. So guys, I wanted to give you just a couple of ideas of things that worked for me when I had kids at home and some of the things I still do. So one thing that has been very helpful to us is we have all white towels. Like all the towels in the house are white no matter what room they go into. And so that’s been very useful so that we’re not having to do smaller loads of different colored towels, that kind of thing.
Another thing that has been very, very helpful is if you have, especially new items of clothing, instead of like separating those out and doing things, there are things called shout color catchers and I’ll put a link to those. love, do you use those Tonya? Okay. I love them. Okay. Especially like if you’ve got new jeans or something like that or anything red, a new t-shirt.
Tonya Kubo (12:46)
Mmm, yeah.
I’ve heard of them, but I have yet to try them.
Kathi Lipp (13:03)
Anything that can bleed and Yeah, here’s also a tip if you use a color catcher and No, dye goes on to that color catcher. I’ve been known to use that color catcher multiple times So just a little tip from my household to you yours now. This is the other thing that I will say ? In the spirit of Lily and all of my kids teach your kids young how to do laundry
Tonya Kubo (13:04)
Like bleed?
Huh?
Kathi Lipp (13:32)
? What we did was we had one day assigned to each kid that they could do laundry on that day. So they would have to get up before school, get it started. But I didn’t touch anything on that day. And so we had three kids living at home at the same time. So say like Justin had Monday, Jeremy had Wednesday, and Kimberly had Thursday. That gave me Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to do the rest of the household.
Tonya Kubo (13:37)
Mm.
Kathi Lipp (14:02)
But they had to be done with it. They had to be done. And if they weren’t, ? I will admit to one time putting wet clothes on Justin’s bed because this maybe was the fifth time it had happened. ? I’m a nicer mom than that now, but yes. But here’s what I want to say about that is when Kimberly, and I’m sure I’ve told this story too, when Kimberly went to college, ?
Tonya Kubo (14:04)
Mm-hmm.
Kathi Lipp (14:28)
Nobody on her floor knew how to do laundry. I was shocked and people paid her to teach them her how to do laundry. That was her side hustle her freshman year of college. I just love it. It was it’s hilarious. So it the sooner you can make your kids responsible for laundry, the better it’s going to pay off. At what point do you think Abby will start to take over her laundry?
Tonya Kubo (14:31)
Mm-hmm.
I don’t know because Lily was the one who came to us wanting to know, right? It was, yeah, she was 10 and ? she was just like, ? so now she asked to know how to wash and dry her work and I showed her and she was like, so could I just wash my own clothes? And I said, well, you don’t have to like mom can do that. And she was like, but could I? And she loved the control. And so she’s been washing her clothes ever since she was 10. When Abby turned 10, we tried that.
Kathi Lipp (14:58)
That’s right!
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (15:25)
Abby respectfully declined.
Kathi Lipp (15:27)
Yes.
You know what? And kids to have different capabilities. Absolutely. so, yeah, it took my boys longer to figure it out than Kimberly, who I think was, I think she was probably around 12 when she started. But I also had the rule growing up that ? if you were sick enough to stay home, but you were well enough to watch TV, you could fold clothes. And so.
Tonya Kubo (15:39)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
?
Kathi Lipp (15:58)
That’s how they earned, it was mostly price is, right? And cartoons at that point. Yeah, so that, I felt like that that was, my goodness, right? It’s the best thing ever. Okay, so a couple of other things, ? a couple of items that I wanna talk about that we’re going to use. But I think the most important thing, and we’re gonna talk a little bit about this in the next episode too, is ? why do we all fall down when it comes to putting clothes away?
Tonya Kubo (16:04)
I used to love the price is right when I was sick.
you
Kathi Lipp (16:28)
And
I think it’s just we have too many clothes for the drawers and the closets that we have. So we’re gonna talk a little bit about that too. When we come back, I’m gonna mention a couple of things that I love that helped me do laundry. These are things that have earned a place in my clutter free home. So give us a second, we’ll be right back.
Okay, guys, we are back and I just want to talk about a couple of items that I love for doing laundry. We again, live out in the country and our PG &E, which is our energy company, our bill is insane. I don’t know why we have been trying to figure this out for a really long time. And so one of the things I do, especially in the summer months is everything gets dried outside. And so I have…
a folding drying rack that it looks like butterfly wings to assert, or maybe fly wings is more like it. But it opens up, you can hang things from it. I’ll add a picture to our notes, but that has been incredibly helpful to us to be able to cut down on drying, especially in the summer. I don’t mind so much in the winter just because we like the heat in the house.
Tonya Kubo (17:47)
Right.
Kathi Lipp (17:49)
That has been incredibly helpful to me. Also, ? teach your kids young to use lingerie bags. So if they have sweaters, if their socks keep getting lost ? for delicate things like bras or sports bras, those kind of things, we love a good ? sweater bag or lingerie bag. I like a sweater bag because it’s really big and you can throw a bunch of things in it.
and Tonya, I’m gonna ask you in a second. Is there anything that you use that has been really really helpful when it comes to laundry? I’m gonna mention my third thing which is a Clorox bleach pit ? This has been really helpful for ? Just like random spots on towels and things like that. I just dab it on there I let it set for a little bit and then Throw it in with my whites and it takes care of every single stain
anything that you use that you really love.
Tonya Kubo (18:48)
I love, so I’m just gonna second the mesh bag. ? I have two. I also have one for clothes that do not go into the dryer.
Kathi Lipp (18:51)
Yes.
? okay.
Tonya Kubo (18:59)
So that’s my pro tip
because I’m not the person who does all the laundry all the time.
Kathi Lipp (19:03)
Okay, so what you’re doing is you’re putting whatever you don’t want to go into a dryer into a different colored lingerie bag. And so that’s Brian’s indication. Do not put this in the dryer. Okay, I just have to know what color is it?
Tonya Kubo (19:16)
Yes.
it’s like pink. mean, it was I got it at the dollar store, right? So our regular one is. Yeah, so we’ve got a pink one, we got a white one. ? I think before I had the pink one, I had a blue one. But the main thing is just do not dry this respectfully, of course. So that’s a big one for me. White vinegar. I know it sounds basic.
Kathi Lipp (19:21)
Yeah, I know, but I just think it’s fun to picture it.
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (19:41)
But if you have a historical problem of leaving laundry in a little longer than it should be, know, once it gets mixed in with everything else, like your whole closet smells sour. So just, you know, going like a cup of vinegar in the wash, that just kind of solves all of it for us.
Kathi Lipp (19:51)
It’s so bad.
So wait, wait,
wait, hold on, hold on. ? This is a new tip for me. So you’ve left some clothes in there a little too long. And instead of re-washing them with soap, ? whatever your soap is, you’re just throwing vinegar in there and rinsing them and.
Tonya Kubo (20:07)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So I do vinegar with the soap, what they say is, what I’ve heard, I do not know if this is true, but they say a lot of times if you rewash it with soap, the soap, like whatever residual stuff from the soap will lock in that smell.
Kathi Lipp (20:22)
Got it, okay.
? interesting.
Tonya Kubo (20:36)
So we do the vinegar and the vinegar seems to pull it out.
Kathi Lipp (20:38)
?
okay, that’s really good to know. Okay guys learning new things here every single day at clutter free Academy Okay, come back next week because we’re gonna cover folding storing and Maintaining a laundry system that works you’ve been listening to clutter free Academy I’m Kathi Lipp now go create the clutter free life. You’ve always wanted to live
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