Line drying laundry while aiming for a zero waste lifestyle

Ask the average homemaker what his/her least favourite chore is, and the answer is usually somewhat predictable: dishes and laundry. I'm not an exception, when it comes to dishes especially. As for laundry, I don't mind it that much, as far as sorting/"washing"/hanging to dry/taking it off the clothesline (yes, those quotations are there on purpose, as it's the machine that does the washing for me). Folding and putting away, however, is a bit different. I don't know why, but for some reason I just have a hard time with that, and I just keep procrastinating until there's quite a big mountain of laundry waiting on the sofa. Things need to get done anyway, whether it's a small load a time or a very big time consuming one. Rationally thinking, it would be much more easy to put the laundry right away when it comes off the line, but unfortunately for some reason, it doesn't always work like that. It probably also has to do with the fact that it's usually dry by the end of the day, especially during the colder months, and that's when I'm just tired with a hurting back and not willing to do a lot of things around the house. That's probably a big "why" to my procrastinating. I still try to live by the rule "do what's most important first, and do what's most fun last". That mindset really helps a lot honestly, so it already has improved. 

Things get a bit complicated when you try to live zero waste/environmentally conscious and, as a consequence of that, have a lot of reusable items. If you're really struggling to keep up with putting away the laundry, why on earth would you be adding all those extras to that?! I honestly just can't use all those disposables anymore. I cringe by the thought of it alone. My no. 1 reason for the reusables is the environment obviously, although health and money play a big role too. It would be fun to calculate the costs I've saved already by using reusables instead of disposables, I've probably saved already thousands of euros by now (I've been doing this for nearly ten years). Knowing that I'm saving that much money, of course is a big motivation to keep doing this. I mean, as for the environment, you don't quite see a result, except if everyone is doing it, but when it comes to money, you do see results. Still, despite the overconsumption and overly plasticky world we live in, I still keep in doing this for environmental reasons, and perhaps convincing others to do the same. If I look at how the zero waste movement once was non existent and now has a lot of followers/enthusiasts... I think it CAN be possible as individuals to make a difference. 

Ok, back to the laundry now... The annoying thing is that there's different kinds of reusables, so I need to sort them, which can be a tedious task. I do have developed a kind of system to sort them before washing, but after line drying, everything gets piled up in the same basket. I do try a bit to colour coordinate different kind of wipes, to make sorting out easier. I also stopped folding most of the wipes - it's actually ridiculous when I think about how I folded all those wipes! Perhaps it's one of the reasons I actually developed an aversion to this. So now I just dump them into boxes/baskets that I use for storing all these reusable wipes (with the exception of the cloth pads, which are stored a bit more tidy). It probably doesn't look as neat, but it saves me a lot of work- and above all, procastinating. And as I mentioned before: I try to live by the rule to do first what's most necessary and to do the most fun parts last. This means I'll try to put away all the small things first. These things combined really helped me to stay on top of all my reusables somewhat. Yes, somewhat, as there's lot of room for improvement, but still it's better than before.  Fortunately I don't mind hanging all those tiny cloths... It would be an absolute nightmare if I'd have an aversion to having to do that! I've become a pro in hanging them as quickly as possible, but still takes a bit longer than the average load. Oh well, just free exercise! 

I'm the kind of person that wants to do it either perfect or doesn't do it at all. Zero waste living can defenitely be a bit more work, but if you plan and organize it makes a real difference. You just have to give up perfectionism. That can be a challenge in and of itself, but seeing the results can be so rewarding. You're both saving the environment and money AND you're seeing improvement from within yourself.