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Jan '23 | Ugh. Laaaundry. What are some things you do to make it bearable? (Patreon)

Published:
2023-02-09 19:01:51
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

You groaned when you saw laundry didn't you? 

It's ok, I groaned writing it. 🤣

Laundry is one of the common big bads people might struggle with when they have ADHD. 

So, we ask you Patreon community, what are some ways you've made laundry a little more bearable? What strategies, tips, or tricks do you use? 

Let us know in the comments below! 

Comments

Siena Costanzo

I have audiobooks/tv shows I only listen to when I do laundry. When I fold my laundry I spread it all out on my bed and separate them into piles before folding things. For washing laundry I have multiple laundry baskets (one for towels, one for sheets, one for delicates, etc.) so I don’t have to waste time sorting. Sometimes I’ll bodydouble with a friend who’ll tell me about their day while I fold. The hardest part for me is rembering I have laundry in the wash or dryer so I set timers jsut for that now (with ridcously songs as the alert noise)

Josh Neff

One of my good friends doesn't have ADHD but her husband does, and she'll tell me hacks she does to help him. He was upset about how bad he is at putting clean laundry away, and she said, "What if we didn't put it away? Keep the things that don't need to be folded in the dryer and just get dressed in the laundry room. Put your dirty things in the hamper there and when the dryer is empty and the hamper is full, you can do laundry."

Kevin Christy

One load at a time for me, which is usually when I start running short on socks or boxers so motivation is high. :D

Joe Gibson

I did say "Ugh" when I saw this. lol If something is done in the dryer, I'll pull only the things that need to be folded until I'm ready to pull the rest out. I still don't like it but I usually save a load of stuff that I don't have to fold until last so when I put it in the dryer, I'm done!

Joseph C Whitaker

I make it part of my trip to the kitchen. Laundry machines are in the next room and I'm heading there anyways. The one I usually have a big problem doing is cooking for myself if no one else is eating. It falls into my "why bother" area

Marietta Cook Larsen

I sort the clothes, usually spurred on my husband running out of clothes, and then my husband takes them down into the laundry room and magically we have clean clothes. However the folding of the laundry and putting it away is another matter. As a women, I have more clothes than my husband, obviously.

Robin Casey

I also lowered my expectations. Half-folded instead of military folded, socks have permission to be mismatched... having drawers of "comfy things" versus "pants and shirts" drawers. Making the containers something my brain can wrap around instead of trying to fit it into "normal" types of sorting. I also try to give myself permission to do it in shifts - so if I can only do washing/drying on one day, sorting the next, and putting away the next day, that's okay.

Faeya

I can't really use the dryer here due to the cost of electricity... so I have to HANG EVERYTHING!! Fortunately, there's a TV in the vicinity so I'll put on something interesting that I don't have to physically watch at all times. The nice thing is that all the work I put into hanging things makes the folding process easier, especially the socks (they're paired and hung following seams so I just stick em together and fold the tops over). It's the one thing that bugs me about using the dryer at my BFs: Searching for socks 😄

Gregg Cooke

My problem isn't so much the washing as it is the drying. I live in an apartment building with washers in the basement, and so by the time I take the clothes downstairs, put them in the machines, walk out to my fav cafe for a snack, and come back and eat it, just about enough time has elapsed for the wash to be done and ready to be dried. The real challenge now is remembering to fetch the dry clothes.

Cheryl M.

My husband does most of the laundry. When I do laundry I try to make sure I fold it as it comes out of the dryer. Also for a hamper we have one fo the ones that is 3 different bags so it is already sorted.

ADHD@64

My wife (also ADHD) usually starts laundry, I’m the one that usually transfers it to the dryer (after removing the previous load), typically just before bed, (when my wife yells down to ask me 🤣). It usually winds up on top of the washer/dryer, to be later moved to a large plastic bins. Folding is done when we run out of clothes, or bins, or if the mood strikes.

George Davidson

The hardest part for me is the folding and watch shows while I fold.

Angie

I have a family of 5, and I am SWIMMING in clothes that no longer fit and need to donate, clothes that are out of season, current season, and then hand-me-downs that don't yet fit. We do the ADHD wash-and-forget-it most of the time and end up with clean baskets of clothes everywhere -- but then we also have laundry backed up that needs to wash. If I have 5+ loads of laundry, I spend a little extra to go to a laundromat where I can get everything washed, dried, folded, and sorted all in around 3 hours instead of 12 hours at home. I have an app that connects to the laundromat's system so I can watch on my phone for when my loads are getting done, so I just wait in the car with a book/game/streaming entertainment. That gives me built in relax breaks AND I'm not at home where I can get distracted by other tasks.

Natasia Chan

I don't love laundry, but one of the things that has helped me is to accept that it's not something I'm going to do in one fell swoop. Starting laundry isn't too much of a problem. Needing clean clothes is an urgent thing. On the back of my bathroom door, I hang lingerie bags for underwear and bras, a bag for all of my other normal washables and a bag for woolens (I knit, so I only wear wool socks.) I don't sort regular laundry into colors because it really isn't as big of an issue unless I've got a new article of clothing that is likely to leak dye. BTW, the color catchers by Tide are fantastic. I had to "undye" some of my daughter's clothes after being washed with some orange jeans. The catcher came out dark brown and really grabbed a lot of dye. I haven't done this yet, but to help with our family's problem of forgetting our laundry is in the washer and needs to get to the next step, I am going to install a plastic flag system outside our laundry room. The flags are the kind you find in medical offices telling them the status of the room. Each one in the family has one flag that will point out when that person has laundry in the room. I'm hoping that it'll be a visual reminder when we walk by it. For clean laundry, I usually put it on the bed and put away categories throughout the day. (Helps that I have to pass it to go to the bathroom.) For instance, I'll usually hang up stuff right away, go do something else, maybe fold up a small category of big stuff like towels or jeans the next time I'm in the room, etc. Konmari folding t-shirts is usually my last thing because there's a full week of shirts, but so satisfying when they're done and put in their box.

Adam Zawisza

Move Laundry machines where clothes are or where you are the most at home, if at all possible. Removes barriers to entry.

Kira Lesser

This ended up a bit long…. What I’ve figured out works for me is based on doing laundry for just me and my husband, so I’m prepared for this to all be upended after our baby comes soon! 1) It works best for me to own the whole process, rather than sharing it, so I can do things how they work for my brain. My husband completely owns other things so they aren’t even on my brain at all. (He generally does more around here!) 2) I ignore “hand wash” instructions unless it’s something that will really fall apart. If something gets ruined that way, I probably shouldn’t own it. So everything that doesn’t go in the dryer, whether regular cold wash, delicate, or “hand wash” goes in the same “delicate” cycle. If it’s something that can easily get damaged (e.g. lace) or easily damage something else delicate (e.g. has a zipper) I put it in a mesh bag. 3) My husband and I are each responsible for pre-sorting our own clothes into “no dryer,” “cold + dryer,” and “warm” as well as emptying pockets. So while I don’t ignore it if I catch something that was sorted wrong, I don’t have to worry about messing up his clothes because it isn’t my responsibility. 4) I use small cube bins to sort laundry after it’s dry. That both makes it sort of a game and later helps to find things that aren’t folded yet. And it makes it less like this massive wall of awful to fold everything. I sort and then fold all “husband’s pants” and get a little dopamine boost from being “done.” I also use the same cubes to put folded laundry into, which makes it more likely that I’ll put things away because I can do less at a time and feel like I accomplished something. 5) I don’t fold everything! I don’t fold rags (because why?) or my underwear. I always have an eye out for what could just go in a drawer or container without folding. 6) I have a deadline my husband and I have agreed on to fold within 24 hours after washing a load. The structure really helps me. I know he’s aware so that helps enforce it even though he is great and does not nag me. 7) I watch a show or listen to a podcast or talk to a friend while I fold. I pick whatever my brain is most excited to do at that moment so that I’m barely thinking about folding. 8) I stopped doing it all on the same day, which makes it less overwhelming for me. There is a certain level of “full” for the laundry baskets to be ready to be run and I check each day. It’s a special treat if there’s a day that I don’t have to do any! In general, I’m constantly looking for ways to make it simpler and more pleasant (even fun?) for my brain. And I don’t any longer force myself to do what is technically the most “efficient” (e.g. #4 sorting first is not technically) because it is not overall more efficient if my brain procrastinates!

Emily Kugler

During the height of the pandemic, I did not want be in the shared laundry room for my building, so I splurged and had a service handle it. I am working on saving money now so am back on laundry but that break when it was even more overwhelming than normal really helped.

Disko Wreckard

I don't have my laundry under control by any means. Sometimes I buy more clothes if it is faster than washing them so I have wayyy too much clothes.... But... I don't hate laundry. At 41, I still do my laundry at my parents house because then I feel like I'm doing two things at once, the other one being spending time with my parents, siblings & nieces. Oh and I'm usually getting fed & bringing home leftovers. I also have a LOT of dirty clothes hampers(8?) & bags (40?) for transporting. I do this so I can sort everything (to some extent) as it becomes dirty / is removed from my body & before washing it and then it is easier to prioritize washing what I am running out of. It also makes it easier to put away since at least some of it is never unsorted. I don't really fold so I can kind of just dump the clean bag right into the drawer...or pull the first pair of pants out of the pants bag & go.

Suzanne Strickland

I produce little enough laundry that I do it only once a week and that helps. Also, tide pods. No measurements, no mess, easy. And I remind myself that I work in public spaces (vendor, I spend a lot of time in grocery stores) and I don't want to have dirty clothes on while handling people's food

Linda John

I have my laundry under control because of the following life choices: 1) My husband takes full equal responsibility for the laundry. This started when he was working full time and I was at home; if he came home and found laundry on our bed not yet folded, he would just Fold It. At first I felt guilty ... it took him a long time but he finally convinced me that it was his responsibility as much as mine and he had no condemnation for me not getting it all folded. Now that he is retired, we both do laundry as needed. 2) We have separate dirty clothes baskets for each kind of laundry (darks, lights, cold water wash). When a basket gets full, time to do that load. So simple and made my life so much easier. 3) Folded Index cards ... I have a folded index card for anything I might start and then forget about. In this case the card on one side says 'Laundry in Washer' and on the other side 'Laundry in Dryer'. I put it out when I start any laundry in the place I will see it most easily which in my case is on the dining table by my placemat. 4) Clean clothes gets put on our bed ... and then anything that might wrinkle gets hung up immediately. The rest I can walk away from and do it later knowing that the things that are urgent are done.

veroism

A few things that have helped: *The washer and dryer are in the kitchen. This is fairly normal in the Netherlands, but maybe it can work in the US too. When I have laundry in the washer, I put the laundry basket in front of it to indicate that something is not normal. *This won't work for everyone, but we all (2 adults 2 primary school aged kids, all ADHD/Autistic) put clothes directly in the washing machine after taking them off. Then I turn it on when it's full. This ends up being like twice a week. *I only use the dryer for towels and things that take forever to air dry. Otherwise I use a clothes horse in the house. This gives me until the next wash to fold the clothes (or not since some clothes get put into open bins). And I listen to awesome music or an audiobook while hanging the clothes so that my brain stays busy while my hands are autopiloting. *For the things that I *do* fold, I try to find interesting ways to fold them. Rolling tshirts was engaging enough that I did it for about 6 months before getting bored. I still roll my leggings.

Denise Lim

I play basketball with my laundry, seeing if I can make it in after putting the hamper in the middle of the room. When the laundry is done, yesterday I was microwaving food and it took 5 min, and I challenged myself to race outside and see if I could hang out my things before the microwave was done (I WON HAHAHA!!!)

Stephanie Gill

The only time I've successfully "kept my room clean" was when I was bringing my laundry to a wash-and-fold service at a laundromat... 13/10 would recommend. 😇

Lenora Lundquist

Every day: 1. Stick everything in laundry baskets (2). Once a week: 2. Dump everything then sort by whites or colors into each basket. 3. Take baskets to laundromat. 4. Further sort if needed and place in washers. Bum around. 5. Put everything in dryers. Bum around until first dryer is done. 6. Fold laundry from first dryer, adding quarters to any dryer that stops so nothing gets wrinkled. 7. Put laundry in basket (folded usually fits in one) and baskets (fit inside each other) into truck. 8. Unload baskets from truck then put laundry away. The whole process takes about three hours if taken care of weekly and costs less than having a washer and dryer. Oh! Forgot one last thing. My dear husband is in charge of the laundry! 😄 (He has his own executive function issues, too. It's taken us years to get the routine down. Sometimes we'd go two weeks! It took forever. I help with reminders.)

Lenora Lundquist

And do have to admit there have been occasional times where he had to put away laundry from one of the baskets from the previous week before he could go do laundry.

Matthew Lewis

I have winnowed my clothes down to only three loads only two of which have to be done every week. I only have a handle full of shirts that need to be hung up and honestly that is sometimes the back of a chair or my head board. That's as good as it gets right now.

Kira Masnica

I don't start a (1) load of laundry unless I know I can finish it, meaning no meetings, no visitors, no leaving the house until it is done. I have a table by the dryer and a hanging rack right next to it. When the dryer stops, I hang stuff, folder stuff, put it in piles according to where it needs to go and put everything away when done. Nothing is left in the dryer, nothing is left in a basket waiting to be folder. All done, gold star, 1 success for the day.

Lisa Gaudron

I got my husband to do it by simply owning more underwear than he did. Now we have kids and there's sooo much more, he still generally washes and dries it, but I make the kids sort all the clean stuff into colour coded tubs for each person and put it away. The colour coded tubs are handy for colour sorting the dirty stuff too (when there's 5 people there's usually a blue/green and a red/yellow load as well as whites and darks). Good when the kids and I need to step up when he's away / busy. And if we're doing wash & dry: timers to remind us to go back and get it out of the machine

mark brownlie

I don’t mind laundry, but I do have a tendency to leave things too long after they’re finished their cycle. I found bending over to change them over was hard on my back. (I’m 52, and just got my official diagnosis yesterday) I discovered that my BBQ tongs were long enough to spare my back from bending over and reaching the stuff at the back (I have front loading machines) I don’t need the tongs because I never got around to buying a BBQ. I do have all the accessories though. Lol.

Ellie Winters

I have a laundry basket with a flip down lid in order to have fewer steps to "put laundry in basket" and also close it to make it tidier (bags don't work for me because I have to do too many things to open them). I own double the amount of essentials (underwear, socks, and really basic shirts) so that if I do forget to do laundry I don't suffer. My husband helps remind me to do it at the weekend if I haven't already, and the weekend is when I normally do it to keep consistent. Our washing machine is in the kitchen (standard for the UK though) which means we both walk near it frequently and can tell when it's stopped and let the other know (Husband doesn't have ADHD, but it's quiet so he won't notice before I do sometimes). Because we don't have a dryer (also normal for the UK) I hang my stuff up on an airer, and I have a podcast I only listen to when I'm doing that as a treat. My airer is right next to my wardrobe so that removes a step, but often I will only put clothes away when I'm doing the next load of laundry because the extra clothes allow me to do that, as well as the airer being a "shelf" of sorts.

Heather Ballard

We live in a apartment building so we have to walk outside and down the stairs to the laundry room in order for me to do laundry on my own.

Heather Ballard

So I ended up following advice I heard from Jessica howto adhd podcast on things you can get delivered and now use a laundry service that all I have to do is schedule with and then they pick up that day and drop off same or next day. Such a lifesaver. Also try to get my laundry done or picked up on Fridays when I am off or Saturdays and have him drop it off on sunday/Monday the latest so I have clothes at the start of the beginning of the week.

Stephen Shaw

It is still a bit bumpy, but the best thing EVER was putting a washer and dryer in my closet (we built a house which allowed us to make that change). We have (sometimes ;) ) 2 baskets across from the washer and dryer and when they are full, we run it through the machines. The washer is really nice because it has this detergent reserve system. I think it is something like 18 loads of laundry before we have to refill it.

Heather Ballard

Doing laundry today. So I can relate. I don't bother with separating .only separating I do is separating my clothes and husband clothes so each get our own stack to put away.

John Yearwood

I'm a guy. I bought a front loading washer because it's bigger. I have a laundry basket the size of a full load. When it gets full, I stick it all in the washer and set a timer on my watch to remind me go get it out. Sort? Oh hell no. Are you kidding? That's like folding fitted sheets. Own one sheet, you never need to fold it. Own different colors? bah. If the colors run, get new clothes that don't run. When the watch goes off, I know it's important to get the clothes out of the washer before they mildew, so I go transfer them to the dryer. As there are more people in my house than me, I eventually am hounded into removing them from the dryer. Otherwise, I'd just pull clean clothes out of the dryer to wear. Simplify! Simplify! as Thoreau said.

Ryan Anderson

For hanging shirts, I heard of this genius idea to stack all shirts on the bed and then take all the hangers and put them in the holes of the shirts while they're all stacked on the bed. Reduces the number of steps from 3x the number of shirts (get shirt, put hanger in shirt, hang shirt) to only 3 steps overall (stack shirts, put hangers in shirts, hang the stack). It's way harder to get distracted because you're no longer repeating a *set* of tasks and instead you're grouping the similar tasks, making it way easier to remember what you're doing instead of getting lost between the steps you need to take for each shirt.

Ryan Anderson

For clothes I want to re-use before I wash them, I recommend using a blanket rack or door with hooks. Hangers and folding are a bane to me, so reducing my nighttime steps to "throw on hook" or "throw in laundry" is really helpful for making the room feel less cluttered, because without those hooks or a rack, those not-yet-dirty clothes are going in a pile on the floor!

Kalkail

Laundry hyperfixation person here: Honestly the biggest thing that improved my laundry was upgrading my W/D setup. I went from 7-12 loads a week (7 people, all manual laborers plus farm laundry) to 3 (whites, lights, brights, darks, farm, and linens not every category is washed weekly). Sorting is so important! I never realized just how much crossfiber contamination was dulling my brights and tinting my whites. We are slowly excising synthetics from our apparel which also helps on multiple levels — sensory, durability, environmentally, etc. Lastly, learning to blue my laundry (to brighten my well water yellowed whites), resuming line drying, learning how to grass dry (for free oxygen brightening) have improved my laundry too.

Matt Longmire

I actually LOVE doing laundry. The sorting, the cleaning, it's all amazing, but where I completely fail is in folding and putting away, and I end up with a mountain of clean clothes on one or more surfaces just getting wrinkled and I absolutely hate it, feeling discouraged. Then, when I do fold, and no one puts their clothes away, it's worse. So yeah, very much a love/hate relationship with laundry.

Joseph C Whitaker

I wanted to come back as I just did a load of laundry. This is usually my wife's OCD job however she's working 12-hour shifts this weekend. I have added one rule to my doing laundry on account of previous mishaps: if I don't know for sure, it gets hung up. This was added when I got married because all of my laundry is dryer-safe but some of my wife's stuff needs to be hung up. Since dryer stuff can be hung up BUT hanging stuff cannot go into the dryer, I default to hanging anything that isn't a t-shirt, jeans, scrubs, or sweats.

BrimstoneJaq

I tend to wait till it's a have to do 😅 but then I'll call someone or have someone with me in person for company, or listen to YouTube informational stuff while I'm working.

How to ADHD

It's been super cool to see so many different ways of handling laundry! Some I hadn't even considered before. 😊 Did you see a tip you liked from someone else? If so, do you plan to give it a try?

Hannah Sloan

I keep a clean hamper and a dirty hamper. Folding works... sometimes. Having a clean or dirty pile that aren't actually on the floor helps way better

Em Ellis

Let me husband do it 😂

Maria James-Thiaw

Shhhh. Don’t make a sound…laundry is blind… if you don’t move, it can’t see you.

chasemax808

Laundry is meh but, I absolutely loathe doing dishes! And, I have no dishwasher.

James Chalmers

I live in a small apartment so there isn't much room to dry stuff so instead I use the local laundrette. It takes about two hours to wash and dry, meanwhile I read a book or sometimes leave it and pick it up next day.

Daphnée Vézina

I live alone so I must deal with it. My policy is wait until you have no more underwear :-) Seriously, I take pride in dealing with it once a week, at night when nobody is around in the building’s laundry room. This way I do not have to « fake socialize » (I hate small talk). Then I take 2 machines and do my whites and others.