Why you should do laundry mindfully

I do laundry about twice a week. I’ve never timed myself but I conservatively estimate that it takes me about one to two hours per week in total.

Two hours per week isn’t really a lot of time but the problem is that we usually spend that time either just wanting to get the task done, or wishing we were anywhere else instead. We rarely feel that these habitual domestic tasks like laundry, washing dishes, and sweeping the floor, warrant any meaningful attention from us. After all, it doesn’t really bring us any joy or meaning, right? But actually, doing these things mindfully, can bring its own joy.

Now you might say, It’s just laundry. It doesn’t matter how I do it. But if you calculate the total amount of time that you spend doing laundry in a year, or even in a lifetime you might feel differently about it. If laundry takes you two hours per week, it will take you 104 hours per year, and 5200 hours over the span of fifty years. That’s a lot of time to be spending wishing you were somewhere different. And that’s only laundry.