Outsourcing drudgery...

Yeah, it's another laundry post. But with a twist.

If you've been here before, you know how much I hate dealing with my laundry. HATE it. I've written about this a few times.... like here ... and here ... and oh yeah... here too. It's the most tedious task of my week, and a giant time suck, since I live in an apartment and we have no laundry room on site. And installing small machines in my apartment is out of the question.

Several months ago, after I got my new job, a colleague suggested I send my laundry out. To be washed, dried, and folded by others. I balked at first, because the washing instructions on some of my clothes (mainly, my favorite stuff) are too complicated. No, it's not that my clothes are so nice they require special handling; these items are cheaply made (yet overpriced), so I fear they might disintegrate if handled improperly.

But last week, I finally decided to send out the stuff that didn't need special handling. Here it is, all sorted and ready to go. I chose a service that even came to pick up the stuff for me!

Laundry pick-up guy showed up right on time (before 7 a.m., even), took my laundry AND my dry cleaning away, and promised to return the next day at the same time with clean stuff.

Here it is, all clean and folded. (They even washed those laundry bags!)

Cool, no? I still had to do some laundry myself, but having a service take care of my other stuff saved me TONS of time and trouble. A process that typically takes 2 hours or so, from the time I start sorting to the time I am done folding and putting away shrunk to about 30 minutes, if that.

My only complaint is that they used fabric softener on the towels, and I had asked them not to, but that's not a big deal. It cost about 18 bucks, the stuff I sent out, plus a $5 delivery fee (which they waive if you send out larger loads)... but when you add it all up, including the double-load I did myself, my laundry last week cost about $15 more than usual, give or take.

I think my time and trouble is worth 15 bucks. But I'm going to check with the dry cleaner nearest to my home, to see how much it would cost to bring my laundry in myself. If it's signifcantly cheaper, I'll do that, and not indulge in the luxury of having someone pick up and drop off. Or maybe I'll switch off, every other week. I'll have to see how this works out over the long term.

Since I released myself from this chore, I had to make a deal. With myself. To use the time I freed up productively, and not to sit on my ass, watching TV. So I worked out two more days last week than I typically do.

And I finally got it into my head that I could bring my workout duds to work, and go for a long walk at the end of the day, BEFORE running errands. I tend to run errands on my way home, then get home and decide I'm too tired to walk after that. Excuses, excuses. I'm good at that. And it's so easy to reverse that process, now that I get to drive to work.

I even took a long walk on Friday, which I never, ever do. I'm always pooped on Fridays. But I was in such a good mood after that walk along the Embarcadero Friday evening! It was a great way to start the weekend, on a total endorphin high. The slow browsers at Trader Joe's didn't even bug me as much as they usually do.

This week is a little more challenging, as I have some social engagements planned (for instance, I'm meeting Jon tomorrow!), but I'm fully committed to taking better care of myself. No, really. REALLY.

I even bought more workout clothes last weekend, instead of more going-out or work clothes. Now THAT'S a commitment, in this Dork's book.