Life Laundry: Will it ever end?

Do you ever feel weighed down by the demands of life’s laundry? Does it feel never-ending? Indeed, some will be ongoing and so the best you can do is to be super-efficient about dealing with what can be done now while you find ways to manage those long-term demands.

So, what is life laundry?

Back in 2002, the BBC ran a series of programmes called The Life Laundry. It aimed to highlight how the UK is a nation of hoarders and to help families get rid of their hoards. The series helped them to clear out their clutter, let go of loads of stuff along with some of the emotions attached to them.

However, Life Laundry goes beyond the ‘things’ that clutter our homes - to the ‘clutter of life’. Here are some of them.

Physical items at home

Let’s start with that clutter at home. What are they?

• old cassettes
• wobbly furniture
• second-hand books
• unwanted gifts
• unused stationery
• bric a brac
• the children’s old toys
• clothes you haven’t worn for 10 years

How about writing your own list right now?

Tips to get rid of physical clutter

1. The first step is to identify what you want to be rid of.
2. The second is to decide (a) what to sell, (b) give to someone you know who would benefit from it, (c) give to charity.
3. The third is to do it!

This may mean letting go of the emotional attachment you have to things or the feeling that you might need it again someday. If there are decisions you simply cannot make now, put those items into a dilemma box, or in the corner of a room if they’re too large for the box, and come back to them. Make a date to do that. Don’t let indecision get in the way of what you can do now to create a calm, clutter-free environment.

Administrative and organisational clutter/laundry

Things to do: You may have lots to do, long to do lists, especially if you have a busy work role. There are also the tasks of daily living, such as calling the doctor to make an appointment or comparing costs and finding new providers for services. Some are quick, others time consuming.

Things to delete or shred: There are so many forms of this type of clutter, the post, notes and the lists we make, all the digital clutter - emails, social media, WhatsApp messages, texts and more. Which do you want to keep, which do you want to delete? What must you action?

You may do some quickly, most likely the easiest, some may get delayed and delayed, even never reached! You may feel bored by the repetitive nature of the task.

Tips to manage administrative and organisational clutter/laundry

Things to do: Create a to do list of all your administrative and organisational tasks. Include appointments you want to make such as with the dentist, central heating service, people to call, email or message, things to buy (though not things to further clutter the place!). If you have a busy career, there will be many professional tasks to do.

At the end of each day make a list of tasks for the next day, and how long you estimate each task will take, so the plan is realistic. Once you’ve completed each task, delete it from your long list. Repeat this each day.

Things to delete or shred: Delete the digital items that accumulate so fast, ideally send unwanted mails to the bin right away. If you have a mountain of mails received over time, set aside 5 to 15 minutes a day to go through everything you have, and either bin, action or save them. Check your junk box daily, in case something important has landed there, and delete the rest of the garbage.

Shred hard copies of the papers and notes you no longer need, old files, though you will need to keep financial and legal paper for seven years. To quicken the process, you can arrange with a company like Paper Mountains to safely and securely collect your papers and shred them with industrial machines to save you a great deal of effort.

Emotional and social clutter

Are there relationships that play on your mind? These may create a clutter of noise in your head. Someone you had a tiff with, and you’d like to sort it out. Someone you’ve been meaning to thank, is there something that’s awkward at work such as a difference with a colleague or tension with your boss. Perhaps there’s someone you’ve been meaning to get in touch with for ages, a friendship you’d like to restore, a family member you’d like to see, and the time has just flown away. Alternatively, you could feel there are too many social and family demands on your time.

Tips to manage emotional and social clutter

It would be quite a demand on you to try to deal with everything at once. One way is to prioritise what you want to do, who you want to speak or write to, in order of importance to you. Another is to deal with the immediate first, such as seasonal invitations, and then move down the list. If something is truly bothering you, it may be best to deal with that first.

Laundry: Then there really is the laundry to do, and the shopping, and cooking and those daily tasks for shelter, nutrition and generally looking after ourselves. Ideally slot these in at routine times of day so they become part of the pattern of your day and week.

A helping hand

Rather than practical support, life coaching can help you create plans and the steps to achieve them and deal with your life laundry assertively.

If you feel it would be helpful to achieve positive change by dealing with your life laundry with the support of coaching, consider contacting a coach. 

The end of one year and the start of a new year is a good time to start. With all good wishes for the holiday season and the year ahead.