The Lazy Genius Podcast - How to Take the Stress Out of Laundry

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Laundry is universal. Everyone wears clothes, generally every day. Those clothes get dirty and must be washed, sometimes every day. It’s just a constant part of life that will not stop. So since we can’t stop doing laundry, let’s figure out how to take the stress out of it. Let’s make it as simple and pleasant and compassionate and functional as possible so that we’ll still be able to do it without losing our minds. Helpful Companion LinksOrder my book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy.Episode #21: The Lazy Genius Does LaundryEpisode #113: The Lazy Genius Does Laundry Updated!Sign up for our every-other-week podcast recap emailSign up for my once-a-month newsletterSign up for my once-a-month book review email, The Book ListGrab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links)Download a transcript of this episode.Want to share your Lazy Genius of the Week idea with us? Or maybe you want to submit an early Office Hours question? Use this form to let us know.

Welcome to the lazy genius podcast where we all get to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Every Monday, you'll learn to compassionately manage your time, wisely solve problems, and kindly live in your season. I'm your host, Kendra Adachi, and I'm so glad you're here. Today is episode 490. How to take the stress out of laundry. Laundry is universal. Everyone wears clothes generally and generally every day. Those clothes get dirty. be washed, sometimes every day. It's just a constant part of life that will not stop until you die. And things that will not stop until we die, things that don't seem to have a break in them, they feel extra stressful. Like you can't really take a vacation from laundry, not without

mountains of laundry waiting at the end. So the constancy of laundry and the lack of having a break from it, it really can wear a person down. So since we can't stop doing laundry, Let's figure out how to take the stress out of it. Let's make it as simple and pleasant and compassionate and functional as possible. So that we'll still be able to do it without losing our minds. Now, before we get into the meat of the episode, I'm just going to kick things off real quick with my ride or die laundry tip. That will forever be my favorite, like always.

And that is to wash your clothes based on where they get put away. You think you're being efficient by washing your clothes, like with your daughter's clothes, like combining two hampers. but then you have to spend 10 minutes sorting them at the end. Or you do what I did for years where I combined my son's clothes in one hamper and one laundry load. And then I had to sort through like tiny underwear

and less tiny underwear each time. But they were so close. So I couldn't really tell. And I was checking the tag of every single pair of underwear. Are you kidding me? It's maddening. So keep dirty clothes separate from each other, like from different people's clothes

and wash small loads of clothes that all end up in the same place. like what a gift if that is possible for you what a gift to empty the dryer and that whole laundry basket those are all clothes that only belong in one room or in one set of drawers like there's there's nothing better there's nothing better than that okay so now that favorite tip is out of the way let's get to the heart of this before I tell you what we're going to do today I want to tell you what we're not going to do what we're not going to do is build a big laundry system I know that's what you want for all kinds of chores for dishes and dusting and bathrooms and floors. I think that rhyme.

That sounded like Dr. Seuss. We all want a cohesive system where all the pieces move in tandem to keep our house tidy and clean at all times. And chances are good. You have probably tried to build a few of those systems over the years. You know, you've made plans and chore charts to this effect. You have read cleaning blogs and books. You've downloaded PDFs that help you do all the chores you want to do, laundry included, in a way that, you know, gets it all done. But here's something I want you to keep with you forever. When it comes to household chores, systems are not built. They grow. Now you might be like, of course they're built, Kendra. Of course they're built. How else do you create a system? Mine just hasn't worked yet. And I would do that in your

general direction and give you my best big sister look to demonstrate. that you are not helping your argument at all because it hasn't worked yet. The reason your household systems for laundry and clutter and whatever else don't work right away or for very long is because you're trying to build a system from scratch. You're saying, I'm going to do all of these things on Thursday and then I'm going to do this part on Friday and then everyone will help do this part on Saturday. And then by that weekend, definitely the next one, none of it is even close to working and you're frustrated and you start again.

That's because systems are not built. they grow. They grow. And in order to make the system of laundry easier and take the stress out of it, you have to go in the right order as lazy geniuses do and you've got to let the thing grow. You got to let it grow. You got to start small with things that matter. Practice them over and over again.

Believe in the power of those small steps. And eventually you will find a groove with laundry that feels like a system because it is. But it's less stressful and definitely less annoying because you have grown it over time rather than try to build it real quick. So that's what we're going to do today. I'm not going to give you a big laundry system to copy. I'm going to give you the order to follow to grow your own. And if you're already in a groove with laundry, you could listen anyway so that you could use the same order for another annoying chore in the house. All right. Okay, let's get into it. So the first step in, and there's just three, there's just three. The first step in taking the

stress out of laundry is to befriend it. befriend your laundry. For real, you have to befriend the chore of laundry in order to have sustainability to do it forever. Because you will do it forever. You will. So you might as well, like, stop resenting that fact. If you are a person who gets so discouraged every time it's time to do laundry, you will always hate it.

Like, it will always be stressful. You cannot have a low-stress relationship with laundry if you resent it. So you got to start there. You got to start by noticing your feelings about laundry, befriending this chore that you're going to do forever. Now, what does that look like? Well, it might be a reframe like, you know what? I'm not just doing laundry. I am replenishing good, cozy clothes for myself. Or I'm not just doing laundry. I'm making my bed feel amazing to get into. Or I'm not just doing laundry. I'm making it so that my kids,

allergies don't act up because I'm washing the dust off of his clothes. Or I'm not just doing laundry. I'm giving my crazy toddler boys clean clothes to get dirty again because that is what being a kid is all about. That's what mine was. So if you constantly look at laundry like a drudgery rather than something that adds good things to your life, you will always resent doing it. It will take longer to do.

It will be stressful to do. It will like harden your thinking, maybe even your heart a little bit. and your relationships with the people that you live with who are maybe the source of that dirty laundry. So instead try a reframe. This is a replenishing good things. Another way to be friend your laundry is to simply be pragmatic about it. It's almost like an enemies to lovers romcom where like the rival copywriters, they have to work on a campaign together. And after weeks of like really stressful interactions, one of them is like, you know what, since we have to work together, like, let's at least try to get along.

Like, you might have to enemies to leverage your laundry. Like, just try to get along. Like, be pragmatic about it. If you have to do this your whole life, you might as well put your hackles down a little bit and just get used to each other. Do your future self a favor by working on your relationship with laundry now. Like, over time, it will stop being so tumultuous.

And then a final way that you could be friend your laundry is to think about the kind of home you want to have. Like, how you see and do laundry is directly, to how you exist in your home. If you want a warm, kind, reliable home, doing steady laundry with a decent attitude is part of that. It will be hard for you to contribute to a warm, kind, reliable home, much less enjoy it if you're annoyed and stressed out by laundry all the time. So think bigger picture here. You want a home that feels good to be in. Whether it's just you or a whole gaggle of people, you want everyone living in your home to ultimately feel at home,

to feel cared for and provided for, where daily things like clothes are reliably cleaned and done with a kind attitude. Imagine if your kid or partner or anyone else did your laundry, and then they dropped the basket of folded clothes like on your bed with a gruff attitude, and they're like, here's your laundry. like they had a personal vendetta against you or your underwear. Like that would not make you feel great, right? You would feel a little guilty for needing help or feel bad that the person is so unhappy doing this thing.

Y'all change roles, flip it back. We do that with laundry and all kinds of chores all the time. We let our stress about those chores seep into how we do them, how we talk about them, and our people feel it. So instead of contributing to a warm, kind, reliable home, we're making it cold and mean with laundry reluctantly done some of the time. And now everyone is scared about not having enough clean underwear.

It always comes back to underwear. So befriend your laundry. I promise you that if you start there and then you just end there, you will take the stress out of laundry. Like if you don't do anything else I say, truly, it's going to help you. The logistics of your laundry are far. less important than how you behave when you do it. You could have the most haphazard laundry system on the planet.

You couldn't even call it a system because it's never repeated. But if you do that with a kind attitude where you have befriended this chore that you will do forever, it's all going to be fine. Like truly. So if you're running short on time today and have to stop here, I'm just telling you you can. Like this is enough to take the stress out of laundry.

But since we still have more time and I have more things to say, we'll keep going. Kids, you have a lot of questions. Is it a crocodile a dinosaur? Why do people vote? How does your food turn into your pee? But why? A podcast for Curious Kids has answers. I'm Jane Lindholm.

Join me as we dig deep into everything from science to history, nature, emotions, and sometimes even the weird. Why are jellyfish is made of jelly? Or are they made of jelly? Fine, but why, wherever you get your podcast. All right. So after you prefer under chores, which you will do for the rest of your life, next you're going to get used to small steps. Okay. You're going to score some easy laundry wins over and over and over and over again until they start to become maybe a little rhythmic. Okay. There are two reasons for this. One is that small steps, they actually work. They do.

You do a small step. It's great. If you do a bunch of small steps together, are you kidding me? That usually makes a big thing. It's kind of like getting four loads of laundry from hamper back to drawer. That's a big thing. It's very rare for any of us to be able to do that without some help. But if you break it down into small steps, it does eventually get done. So you've got to value those small steps because that is what gets the job done. It's good work. Small steps really work. But the second reason and more important reason, that we go from befriending laundry to taking super small steps toward getting the laundry done is for you and I to learn how powerful small steps are. I want us to get it into our marrow how powerful small steps are and that they're always worth

doing. They're never too small. Picking up the dirty socks off the floor and putting them into the laundry basket, it is practically helpful because it makes gathering the laundry easier later, but even more than that, picking up dirty socks off the floor, even though. you could walk right past them or you could walk right past them and resent the person who left them there or you're like, it doesn't really matter. Like doing that, it is practically a spiritual practice. Like, it is so integral to who you are becoming as a person with every dirty sock that you pick up. I know I

sound crazy, but I believe this. Do you hear how I'm talking? Do you hear how much I care about this? With every single dirty sock that you pick up, you're becoming a person who believes in the power of small things, of small steps. And the more you do that, the more you believe it matters. the more you're actually going to get done without feeling stressed about it. The other day I was doing laundry. I was doing my laundry and I was doing the bath towels and then what we call our hot load, which is like all the cloth napkins and washed claws and stuff. So I was like definitely in a lot,

definitely in a laundry cycle. Like I don't, I don't do three loads of laundry in today. So I washed my clothes last. So I was pulling my clothes out of the dryer last. And by the time I was pulling them out and I was. I was like laying the shirts flat so they wouldn't wrinkle and, you know, all the things. I was like, I was over it.

I was over laundry that day. Like, again, I don't typically do three loads in a day. And on, I used to, but it's been a long time. And on this particular day, I was already tapped out with like other stuff on my list and on my mind. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I was not in a very befriending mood. And I also knew as I was pulling those clothes out of the dryer that I did not have time in that moment to fold and put them away.

and there was this moment where I knew that was true that my inability to finish was okay and that I could take one small step to get closer to laundry being done and then I could stop. And so I walked the basket to my bedroom instead of leaving it in front of the dryer like I almost chose to do. That's it. Now it would have been fine if I left the basket in front of the dryer. Like I live in a 2,000 square foot ranch. Like getting to my room is not a not a treacherous journey. But it was such a little gift to walk the basket to my room.

First, because the basket would be where I needed it to be when I had time to finish putting away the laundry. But secondly, and more importantly, it gave me a chance to believe in and do a small step. Your small step muscle, it needs to be worked every day. But when you strengthen it for real and it becomes a source of so many of your decisions, life is like a genuine kind of low stress delight. Like stress just goes down. It doesn't go away.

But golly day, does it go down? Laundry has so many steps to it. So the opportunity to take small ones and believe that they are good, even though the laundry is not finished yet, it is like the best practice at being a lazy genius who believes in the power of small steps. Like laundry is going to teach you so much. So whatever practical small thing you want to do to help your laundry along, do it. Like all of it counts.

All of it is good. Today's lazy genius of the week is about as small as it gets as it involves laundry and it's brilliant. And one of my favorite submissions we've had. Do things like take the basket to the next room. Grab the socks off the floor. Gather up the towels even though you can't wash them yet. Put the detergent on top of the washer instead of in the cabinet above it so that

your teenager with ADHD has a visual cue to actually put. but soap in the load. Fold one towel. Hang one pair of pants. Teach one kid how to fold a shirt. Like, it all counts. And it doesn't matter if you finish the load yet. You're going to be new and laundry forever. Forever. So just enjoy the small steps, man. Then, after that, you can start to see your system grow a little bit. That's the third part. Things grow from small starts, right? Like from small seeds. you have been doing those already. You've probably been doing a lot of small steps for years, but you don't realize the goal you have in doing them

or you've been resenting the process instead of befriending it. All of those small steps are creating amazingly fertile soil to grow a system that sticks. Not one that you build on a frustrated Sunday night that's going to crumble. So stop building and let the thing grow. One of the most amazing things that you can do to help your laundry grow, because there are lots of ways, but today I'm just going to talk about one.

One of the best things that you can do to grow your laundry system naturally that fits in your season of life and with your family makeup and all the things is to use what I call later zones. I use these all the time. I've talked about them many times here before. My dirty dishes zone, that's a later zone. It's just a place where you put a chore that's mid-process and you'll come back to it later, like on purpose. dishes, the dirty dishes zone is a later zone. The napkin bucket in my kitchen that I've talked about before where all the cloth napkins and the kitchen racks and the dirty socks go.

Like that's a later zone for laundry. It's essentially a hamper where dirty clothes wait mid process until I'm ready for them. Until then they are exactly where they're supposed to be. My mail drawer where I keep my mail that I go through once a month, that is a later zone. That big art basket I talked about on the podcast many times before where I would put all of my kids art projects and like school, all the art things until it was full and then I would go through it. That's a later zone. A later zone is so simple. It's just an intentional place where chores that are mid-process contentedly wait until later,

until you're ready to keep the process going. Laundry's such a big chore. There are so many steps. So it is a prime time for later zones. In fact, you already use some of them and you just don't know it. Like a close hamper, it's a natural later zone. It's where. your dirty clothes wait until later, until it's time to wash them. Now, some parts of the laundry cycle you could see as later zones, but they probably shouldn't be, the biggest one being like your actual washer. Your washer is not a great later zone, not when the clothes are wet and still sitting there. If they're dry, now that's great. If you like keep your washer as a later zone for the next load you're doing, you don't run it, but the dirty clothes just wait there. That's great. But you probably don't want to

use your washer as a later zone, but that is often where most of your laundry problems like live and die and have to be washed again. So rethink what a later zone that's helpful will actually look like, right? The same might be true of your dryer, depending on how wrinkly your clothes can get. You know, it could be a helpful later zone or not helpful later zone. So a later zone is not just like where things are at any point in a chore process. It is intentional. It's an intentional, specific place where your chore can easily wait until you're ready to keep it going. Until then, you can kindly be done for now.

Because very few people can get laundry done all at once all the time. It's just like too big. It's too big and too constant. to it is a chore that like does not typically reach like full completion all the time. Like it's always in process. And there's so many steps to the diagonal process. You like got to keep dirty clothes in a place. You got to sort them.

Sometimes you got to treat them if they're like stained or whatever, wash dry, maybe air dry. And then remember like, oh yeah, all of these things draped over chairs and random places. Fold things, hang up, hang up things, put away things. and then you do it all again. It's a lot of pieces. So that's why intentional, thoughtful later zones are magical with laundry because there are just so many stops along the laundry journey. And rather than building a big old system of how you're going to do things, if you just create a later zone or two in a really helpful place, it's going to make laundry easier. It's going to take the stress out of laundry. So if you want to take the stress out of laundry,

Just create helpful later zones. Start with one. You might get a couple. We've had a couple of lazy geniuses of the week with ideas about this. Like I remember one in the last couple months where someone put mesh bags on a couple of doorknobs in places where dirty laundry would often accumulate at home that wasn't like a bedroom or bathroom. That keeps the chore of laundry flowing without any extra work from you.

Just let the laundry wait until later exactly where it's supposed to be. like do you understand the freedom in that? Do you understand how great that is? That you are giving yourself permission, mature. And like that is exactly where those clothes are meant to stay until I'm ready to come back to them. That's a game changer mentally. Game a changer.

I remember someone else who put stacks of clean folded laundry like the foot of her stairs or something so that her family could grab what was theirs on their way up. That's a later zone. That's exactly where the clean folded laundry, laundry is supposed to be while it waits for the next step in the process, which is being fully put away. Now, I will sometimes get, like, resistance complaints about later zones, any kind of them. And they're usually from people who have not tried one yet. That person can't possibly believe

that just, like, choosing a spot to put dirty clothes or clean clothes or clothes waiting to be treated for stains or whatever will make that much of a difference. And to that person, if that person is you, I say to you go back a step. Like go back to the part of the episode about believing in the power of small steps because it doesn't seem like you do yet. If you come at me with, you know, yeah, but about something you haven't tried yet, I think mostly because you think it's like not going to work for your very complicated life, it's too small to help you.

Like I just don't think that you've tried small things for long enough to believe in them because they work. They always work. Maybe you haven't even befriended the chore enough to feel soft enough to learn that. So you might need to go back, two steps. Now listen, that happens to all of us. You don't need to feel badly about it.

But if you feel yourself arguing with me a little bit about how, like, if you put stacks of laundry around the stairs, no one's going to do it. Like, it's fine for you to feel that. You can argue with me. You can think I'm wrong. That if you haven't tried it yet, you know, your argument falls a little flat.

or maybe it's just that that is not the later zone that your laundry process needs. You know, maybe there's another bump in the process that could use a space for an intentional break. Not every later zone is necessary for every home. Not every person does laundry the same way. But the way to take the stress out of it is to allow yourself to stop midway through. Like truly, you're not being lazy or undisciplined by doing that. You quite literally have a location for this laundry at this point.

in the process, and it is allowed to live there until it is time to move on. That is like a wildly impactful small step that will help you find a laundry groove where a system can actually grow and work for you. One quick note about later zones. When your later zone is full, that's your cue to tend to the chore. Like when your hamper is overflowing, it's time to bump laundry to urgent and just have cereal for dinner, right? be a genius about the things that matter.

Right now it's laundry. And be lazy about the things that don't. Cereal is fine in order for everyone to have clean underwear tomorrow. So let your later zone be a visual cue for when it's time to do the chore. Now, if you feel like your later zone is queuing you too often and you just can't keep up with it, try a bigger zone. Like leave more space for it. Get a bigger basket. Like truly.

Create a bigger zone. Or if you would like that visual cue more often, make the zone smaller. adjust the size of the zone to the frequency that suits your life the best. If you try the clean clothes on the stairs thing and then you like just keep stacking clean clothes on the stairs to where they're like toppling, especially if this is new. First be patient with your people like because they're getting used to this expectation of noticing laundry on the stairs, right? But if you notice that like, oh man, we can't get up the stairs anymore because of all the

laundry, like whistle or whatever and bring your crew to the stairs and say like, hey, my loves, the laundry is eating the stairs. So I think it's time that we all attack the snail. So if everybody could get some and take it to your room or whatever. You could also add like, and you know, I know we're learning to notice the laundry on the stairs. And I see that didn't happen this time around. So I'm just reminding everyone again. Like when you walk up, if you see something that's yours or that's on the way to your room or whatever, just grab it. Like, you don't have to put it fully away. You can even just put it on your dresser for now or on the bathroom counter or whatever. Let's start practicing moving things

up the stairs more often so that this doesn't happen. Okay. Like, all right, everybody, like, grab your stack of clothes. And you say all this, like the joyful Mary Poppins you are, because you have been practicing befriending laundry and you recognize that patience matters more than perfection. We talked about that a couple weeks ago, right? You're going to be patient. Not everything's going to work right away. So take your time. It's fine. When you release the pressure to build a laundry system, a system will more easily grow. You'll focus on befriending this chore that lasts forever.

You'll believe in the small steps that help you get there. Nothing will be too small. And you'll learn that from practice. And then you'll start using helpful later zones that work for you and your people that keep the laundry moving without you feeling like you're at its beck and call all the time. You will not take the stress out of laundry by building a bigger and better system, but by changing your thinking, trusting small steps, and tinkering with easier solutions like later zones until they work pretty well

for your particular family and season. I know it's not flashy, but the flashy stuff rarely sticks. Befriend your laundry, start small and be kind as you find what works. And that's how to take the stress out of laundry. All right, after the break, I'll answer a very meaty office hours question about how to not overplan a busy season. And then we will celebrate the lazy genius of the week that I mentioned before with a great laundry tip that I know that many of you will borrow. We'll be right back. All right, this week's office hours question comes from Katie from New York.

Katie asks, my family is wrapping up a very stressful summer. My husband and I have four kids, ages 8 to 12, and this was my first summer, to full-time work. My goal was trying to find the right balance of scheduling the kids with camps and letting them have time to enjoy long, boring days at home. But I didn't think about all of those other activities around the days. I ended up saying yes to way too many things I would put in the pleasure category. We had house guests, so many friends and family that I loved seeing, a two-week family vacation with guests coming and going, always room for more at our table, local friends texting that they wanted to come by and hang out at our house. Of course,

we had invitations for backyard s'mores and barbecues. The kids planned a wedding for our dog and wanted a full wedding cake. Well, I love to bake. In my mind, all of this would make for a fun summer, but now I'm drained, stress, and trying to figure out how I can do it differently next season. I'm a people person, and I love my home being the spot where people congregate, but I simply need to figure out a better system for deciding how much fun spontaneity I can manage in each week and day. Thank you. All right. Buckle up, everybody. I got a lot of words about this one. All right. Let's dissect some language here first. So Katie, Katie says from, here's what she says about the end of the summer. My family is wrapping up a very stressful summer. Okay. And then later,

Katie, you say, in my mind, this would make for a fun summer all these things, but now I'm drained, stressed and trying to figure out how I can do it differently next season. Okay. My guess, Katie, is that you wrote this in that weird time of moving from summer and fall, you know, a month or two ago, already seemingly a stressful transition. Like when we're coming out of anybody, when we're coming out of a full season and moving into a new one, that has anticipatory fullness like the fall usually does, it's easy to feel like we didn't get a break, you know, that there wasn't real rest. So I do, I get that.

I think that's a really normal feeling. It's like the reflective stress is heightened somehow. I also want to point out, Katie, that this was the first summer that you were working full-time. It sounds like you had hopes for a specific kind of summer for your kids. You mentioned long, boring days. And I don't know, maybe there weren't as many as you expected, or they looked different than you expected. But either way, remember, this is a new season. Like working during the summer when you haven't in a while or ever, it's going to create some like squirrely manufacturing energy.

And you will definitely be analytical on the back end because it sounds like that's a natural posture for you to like anticipate needs and cast a vision and reflect on what work. So you can handle the next season differently, all really lovely qualities. I'm also really curious because the things that you listed that likely added to the busyness of the season are all those spontaneous things. The neighborhood drop-ins, the dog wedding with a homemade wedding cake, all those unplanned things. and it sounds like your desire is to be a welcoming home that matters to you. And you said you're a people person. But somehow looking back, you feel like it was too much. And that has made you stressed out.

Like you said, you're drained. And so I'm curious if you're drained from the actual energetic output of all of those things as they were happening. Or if you're drained from the other side of it, like in the reflection, from looking back and not having as many empty days as you anticipated. Like it didn't go to plan, and that's disappointing. Like there was an expectation in your head that there would be all these long, lazy, boring days.

And then you had dog wedding cakes in there, which maybe like still kept the days long, but like they're not lazy and boring anymore. Like a lot of fun got added into that. I'm going to try to make this make sense because it's a little jumbling in my head. So hang it with me. I think that sometimes we can skew our. experience of a season by when we reflect on it. If we look back at the summer right at the end, like when you have all this analytical energy, you're likely tired from you specifically,

Katie, from like this new season of working full time, your vision is going to be sort of clouded by what you see on the calendar and this long list of spontaneous activities you're listing to me from memory. Like you listed all these things out to us here, and it is a lot. But also, can you actually say yes to too many things in the pleasure category? Like, did those things push out responsibilities, and that's why they were stressful? It doesn't sound like that. It sounds like it was all really fun when they were happening.

But now, upon reflection, you are drained from all that happened. So I'm curious, were you drained then? did you notice any shifts in your energy throughout the summer and you were like, man, we have said yes to a lot of social things this week. I think we need a break tonight. Or is all of this stress accumulating in the reflection? Again, reflection that's happening at the end of a busy new season and before another busy new season. I don't know if I'm making sense here. And I certainly don't want to dismiss your concerns, Katie, or anyone else who feels similarly about busy seasons. But it sounds to me like Katie, you had a really fun summer and you thought it was fun the whole time.

Like you enjoyed it. Now is when you're tired from it. Now if you're only getting those drained, stressed signals now rather than throughout the summer, I think the stress is like a perceived stress. It's analytical caffeinated squirrel stress. It's I didn't meet my goal of a lazy, boring summer stress. But it sounds like it was a great summer. And again, it was a weird one because you hadn't worked full time before. So rather than, this is what you said, this is what you asked for, rather than figuring out a better system for deciding how much fun spontaneity I could manage each week and day, because that's what you asked for. I think instead you just need to start small with where you are. Like energy cannot be systemized. Fun usually can't be either. So instead of

analyzing your fun summer and making decisions about the next one during a time of transition, which can be really tricky. I would just write down how you felt about all those things, like in the moment as best as you can remember. Like note if you felt stressed during or right after or if it's all accumulated right now. Give yourself permission, even in your reflection, to not mechanize or repeat or systemize a summer that's going to look different next year anyway. You know? Like you might not go on a two-week vacation next year.

You'll be in a groove with working. Your kids will be interested in different things and have different camp opportunities. Your neighbors might shift. There might be fewer barbecues or more. I don't know. The dog is already married. Like there are so many things that were unique to this summer

that cannot be like logistically frozen in amber and transferred to next season. I think you like being social. but reflecting on how social you were suddenly makes it feel like it was too much. So next summer, or even the next few months, during a very likely, like similar holiday season with, you know, different kinds of trips and socializing and family. And it's, I feel like it's going to be a little bit more of the same just in a different season. I would just check in more often with yourself.

Like, practice that instead of finding a system. When someone wants to do something or come over, ask yourself, is this a good day for that? Do I have the energy for this today? Will I be okay that I made this decision tomorrow? Well, my family. You don't have to systemize how to limit the pleasurable things in life. Just be where you are. Make decisions based on the energy available to you right now.

And it's okay if you can't look back on the season as something where all the boxes were checked off. Like, don't create so many boxes. Just be thoughtful about what you add as fun opportunities come into view. and be good with it not being part of a plan. Thanks for your question, Katie, and I hope this answer helped.

All right, guys, time for a lazy genius of the week. This week we have Anna. Anna writes, I'm notorious for accidentally leaving wet clothes in the washer overnight. One day, I decided I'd leave the laundry room light on to remind me to switch the clothes over before going to bed. The laundry room is bright by my room, and I'm the one who puts the house to sleep in my family.

I love that phrase, puts the house to sleep. Now I know if the light is on, the laundry needs to be switched. It works like a charm, and it has saved me so many times. It can also serve as a house rule if multiple people are doing laundry. I think not having to rewash clothes has more than paid for the light being on. That's all. I absolutely love the sign off of that's all. So great.

Anna, this is magical. Guys, small things are the best things. The small things are the best things. Anna did not beat herself up for forgetting about the laundry because everybody does that. She didn't get a new washing machine that would ding. She's not resenting her family for not helping more. She'd quite literally turn the line on. Like this is so good.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is exactly what I'm talking about. So thank you for sharing Anna. This is a perfect example. And congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. If you would like to submit your own idea for the lazy genius of the week, or if you have something you'd like to ask for office hours, please send it in.

Now that we're doing office hours questions like every week on the podcast, we're still going to do the big episodes with multiple. We'll still do office hours episodes. But we definitely need plenty of questions because we're answering more questions. So email hello at the lazy genius collective.com and Kara, our community experience manager, she will be so happy to hear from you. In the next podcast recap email, I am going to share a picture of my laundry room because I want I'll just see how royally unglamorous it is.

There's nothing room with having a big laundry room or a really beautiful one, obviously. It's great. Honestly, I would love to have an actual laundry room that's beautiful. I do not. I do not. Now, I am very grateful. I have a washer and dryer at home. But I think there's often like a misperception that everyone but you has like a fancy,

awesome laundry area. Let me just burst that bubble right now and reassure you that everyone does not. I definitely do not. So I will give you like a little sneak peek into my home in the next. recap email. So if you'd like to get that, along with actual recaps of this episode and last weeks, you can sign up at the lazy geniuscollective.com slash recap. That goes out every other Thursday. Also, in case you missed last week's bonus episode, last Thursday was the plan's second birthday. The plan is my third book. It's all about compassionate time management. The first half especially

is where to really sink your teeth in because it's where you'll learn the plan pyramid. which is planning for everyone, not just the organized folks. It made all four bestseller lists, and three of those lists are solely based on your specific support. The New York Times list is editorial. You can't really control the factors all that much. But the other three, publishers weekly, USA Today, and Indybound are all based on book sales in various ways.

And guess who buys books? You guys do. You guys bought that book. So thank you for buying it then. Thank you for buying it now. for being here, for celebrating compassionate time management with me. And I'm just genuinely so grateful to all of you who still read and share my books. If this episode was helpful to you, share it with someone you know or you can leave a review

on Apple Podcasts. Both are small ways to support the show, but they are hugely helpful to us. So thank you for your support. This podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the Office Ladies Network. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, produced by Leah Jarvis, and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Thanks y'all for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things

that don't. I'm Kendra. I'll see you next week. Do you ever wish you could ask nosy questions about people's money? I have $729.71 in my bank account. We bought a $1.3 million house on a $350,000 income. On the podcast, What We Spend. We ask those questions.

It's a show about money and all the feelings that come with spending it. I want to be the kind of person who can just take care of the people in my life. Listen to what we spend, an Odyssey Original available now wherever you get your podcasts.