FOLD!!! I have a slightly quirky way of dealing with chores or other various manifestations of "adulting" that are required in keeping up my image of being a reputable member of society.
Of the tasks I lament, laundry has to be the lamentyest (I hope Merriam-Webster gives me credit for that word). For the human doing the washing and folding, the act of cleaning clothing, linens, etc. has not changed my in the last half a century or so. In fact the last major revolution was probably the spin cycle.
The spin cycle probably saved numerous people from having their fingers skinned in the roller ring-out process. It also gave one's handier half something to do when the load becomes unbalanced and wet clothes need jostling, but I digress. My point is, you still have to lug your soiled sundries to the bowels of your house (or a hallway if you live in California or other places that don't typically have basements), load the washer, soap the washer, move wet clothes to dryer, take out of dryer and fold (eventually, in my case).
Recently, I have had some minor successes in getting the kids to partake in this most menial of arduous tasks and really I accept that the washing and drying are merely a minor inconvenience. It is the folding, however, that is fit to be one of the torments in Dante's hell (okay, probably more so purgatory). Indeed, clothes pile in baskets until a breaking point.
In my last weekend's disdain I did manage to have the passing thought of, "How long does it really take to fold a basket of clothes?" And thus a new sort of workout was invented: speed folding. The image in this blog is the time it took me to fold a basket (well, hamper really as I use them dual purposely) and put away the clothes. The lap time in the smaller print is when I transitioned from folding to putting away the clothes. I actually worked up a smidgen of a sweat as I folded as fast as my Jimmy Dean link fingers would let me. It was actually kind of tricky to fold quickly.
This was the last hamper I folded that got the timing. I may have to add to the absurd data collection when I fold clothes again in another couple weeks. I'm assuming towels will yield the best time while my daughters smaller clothes, which require more fine motor skills and a fair number of hangers will take the most time. I may have to take my kids to task and have a race with them as well.
In general I have 4 to 5 hampers to fold so that would take roughly 40 minutes to maybe an hour. If I could keep pace that might not be a bad little alternative workout. It's important to try to find a little joy in even the most menial tasks. Even if I really just dislike doing laundry to the point that I would hire someone to do it before hiring to clean my house or mow my lawn.
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