Why Fold?
Hearing Marie Kondo’s name almost immediately conjures up images of her notorious folding technique. Generally clients are either enthusiastic or put off by the suggestion of taking time to fold things a certain way. Although her method intrigued me, I also doubted it would be something I could fully embrace.
Often in my life I have dreaded doing laundry. I was resentful and overwhelmed by the daunting task of washing, sorting, folding, and putting away my own garments and those of my family members. Those times in my life, when I moved the same load of clean laundry from bed to basket and back again for days, were also the times that I felt most overwhelmed in all aspects of life. There is a connection between our attitude toward the work we must do and our quality of life. It is bigger than we realize.
It wasn’t until I completed my own “tidying marathon” — and learned what it meant to evaluate whether or not something “sparks joy” — that I could discern what was truly important. I embraced the task of carefully, artfully, folding each item, and I finally took the fear — yes fear! — out of it. I had been allowing things I didn’t even like or use to be cycled through the laundry. While folding, I didn’t have a consistent method to follow, and putting things away was annoyingly hard because I wasn’t confident about where or how I would be storing them and if there would even be room.
We don’t often take time to learn how to tidy and care for our possessions. The irony is that the more care we take in deciding where things go, the less energy we spend going forward. We all are faced with laundering our garments and choosing what to do with them next. If this is an inevitable task, why not use the time for good? Here are the ways I’ve shifted my thinking about the time I spend with laundry and the things I know to be true:
Tending to clothing and household linens in a loving way can be a meditative practice.
Using my energy to prepare items that sit closest to my loved ones helps me develop empathy for my family members and is an act of love. It can replace resentment with gratitude.
Allowing an opportunity to continually do inventory of what we own, what needs repairing or replacing, saves me time, money, and sanity.
Folding laundry truly can be an enjoyable experience, or at least not torturous!
