Folding Laundry and Other Organizational Tips for VAs

Have you ever heard the expression, how you do one thing is how you do everything?

Many years ago a business coach I knew used to say that. She probably still says it. And it’s true!

Everyone has a style in which they organize things.

No one’s system or style is right or wrong – the only thing that matters is that your system or style works for you.

I often get asked for tips to manage time better, to increase productivity, to be more efficient.

I don’t think I’m an expert on time management, but I do certain things and I talk about it a lot so I guess that makes others ask me for tips.

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.“
~ Benjamin Franklin

I wholeheartedly believe that we can buy time back by working more efficiently and so, one of the things I seek to find in any task is the most efficient way to do it.

As Virtual Assistants, time is money, so the longer you take to do things, the more it costs your clients – or you, if it’s your own business tasks.

Putting checklists, systems and processes in place can help you shave valuable time off of any project so that you can do more – and make more money.

Remember, I also teach you to bill by task – NOT by time. So the more tasks you do, the more money you can make.

I also look for ways to explain things that is simple and clear so that if someone wants to adopt a new way of doing things, they can do so.

Here’s an example of something I do all the time – and I’m betting you do too – that I have developed a more efficient system for…. folding laundry.

Yep, my family goes through a lot of laundry. My husband and son are both chefs, and we do their laundry at home. Chef jackets, pants, shirts, socks and underwear for both of them every day – in addition to the clothes they change into when they get home – adds up quickly if not attended to daily.

The washing and drying is never the problem – like most households. No real process needed for that. Sort into piles, wash, move to dryer.

It’s the folding process that seems to slow everyone down – or paralyze them altogether! In fact, if I put a clean load of laundry in a bedroom, it never gets folded – they just pick through the basket to find what they need.

So I fold it. And I think I do it faster than anyone! The other day I folded 7 baskets of laundry (that my family washed and dried and brought upstairs to leave in the living room) in just 15 minutes.

How do you fold laundry? Do you take each item out of the basket and fold it and then put it into a neat pile to be put away?

I used to do it that way until I realized that sorting it first made things much more efficient.

I would sit down on the couch, put a show on TV and then pick the items out one by one. Fold, pile, and then put away. It would take me all afternoon as I waited for each load to wash and dry … and if I did 5 loads of laundry, I had to do the folding task 5 times.

I believe most people hate folding laundry because it’s so tedious.

So I changed things up.

I started letting the baskets pile up – 3 or 4 loads. Now I sort all 4 baskets at once into piles on my couches (which keeps me standing up to fold). Then I just quickly fold each pile.

What does that do? It helps me fold ‘like’ items all at once, which goes very quickly. It also helps me form my piles much faster. And I take it all into each bedroom and it’s easy to put away.

That’s how I could fold 7 baskets in 15 minutes. If I had done each basket as it was washed that day, it would have probably taken 10 or 15 minutes each time. So I batched my work and got it done more efficiently.

I know it sounds silly to tell you how I fold laundry – but let’s get back to the statement – how you do one thing is how you do everything.

I look at all tasks that have multiple steps, or that are repeatable tasks -with this same viewpoint.

How can I do this so that it’s more efficient, so that it takes less time?

What process can I put in place that will make this go faster, or more smoothly? So that I don’t put it off forever but just get it done?

One of the things I have done in my business recently is put more of my ongoing tasks into lists and checklists in Trello. I have been using Trello for my podcast (there are soooo many steps to doing a podcast!), and when I realized that I was checking my Trello boards every day, I decided it made sense to put a lot more things I do in there.

Trello is really easy to use – and it is keeping me very organized.

I figured out how to organize my boards that it made sense, and love to move my tasks from list to list. This helps me see progress.

I can also check in at any time and pick up where I left off last time – without having to think about it. I use the Trello app on my phone too. Did you know that if you use your phone with other organizational tools you can improve your time management by 38%?

And I have created checklists for the multiple steps within each task, which helps me tremendously to make sure I don’t miss anything. Again, without even having to think about it. Save that brain space!

Of course I still keep my master list in my Bullet Journal – but when something needs to get done I move the details over to Trello and it’s helping me be so much more productive.

I don’t have a laundry checklist, but it works in the same way – batching work, doing ‘like’ tasks at the same time, assigning yourself a bucket of time to get a task done … these are the tactics I teach you all the time. Check out some of my other productivity blog posts and podcast episodes here.

What are you using to keep your self organized? Where are you struggling? I’d love to help!

What You Should Do Next:

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