Why a landing spot for the pile of in-between clothes is vital to every bedroom
Many people call it the laundry chair. But it’s not always a chair that serves as a repository for the heap of clothes in laundry limbo. It might be a futon, an ottoman, the top of a dresser, or an exercise bike being put to a different kind of workout. If it has a surface area fit for plopping, it will do. Anecdotal evidence indicates that most of us have some kind of clothes chair. The specifics of the pile — its size, the stage of cleanliness — vary, but we need some kind of in-between space, and that’s what the laundry chair gives us. It’s time to embrace it.
The stack on the chair isn’t only an indicator that you have other priorities — you'll come to find it helpful. The not-dirty-enough-for-the-laundry pile is full of favorites ready for their next wear. You can see what's there. And when the pile gets a bit too unruly, it tells you something else:
“That’s when I know it’s laundry day.”
Therein lies the genius of the laundry chair (or, the bench in your bedroom, “clothes mountain”). No matter how many marital spats it may cause, it’s not a signal of chaos — it’s a way of creating order within the chaos. Psychologists and decor experts agree, pointing to the natural need for an intermediary place to put things that you haven’t quite categorized yet or to use as a staging ground for what you might need soon. The pile can save you from overwashing items that don’t yet require laundering. Plus, there’s a comforting predictability to the cycle: As soon as you clear the heap, you’ve freed up space for the next collection of clothes to begin gathering.
A professor of psychology who studies clutter and procrastination, the
“action”
part is key. He, too, acknowledges that a laundry chair can serve as a way to organize your life. But he’s wary of a heap that sits too long. That is maybe more of the bigger issue. If you have the pile there, is it something you’re going to get to? If the answer is yes, more power to you.
Even folks who make a living beautifying homes espouse the virtues of the laundry chair. An interior designer calls the laundry chair
“unavoidable … It’s just this convenient spot for you to put something while you’re debating in your head what you’re gonna do with it.”
When creating spaces for clients, he tries to help them minimize clutter by incorporating hampers or valets into the designs. But he’s skeptical that those pieces truly change habits:
“Even if there is a convenient option there, our default tends to override it.” In the end, that’s just fine. After all, he keeps his in-between pile.
He thinks of his mound as a visual to-do list, since it often includes clothes that probably need to go to the dry cleaner and items he’s considering donating. He says the idea that he’ll do those tasks in a timely fashion is
“delusional thinking. Completely. But in the grand scheme of delusional thinking, it’s pretty harmless.”
Somewhat surprisingly, laundry expert celebrates the concept of a laundry chair. He routinely advises people that overwashing clothes can damage them, and this is a piece of furniture that can prevent precisely that.
“If anybody’s doing anything so that they re-wear something, he's supportive, be it a chair, be it a laundry table.
While an admirer of the concept, at first, — perhaps the only person on the planet who genuinely loves to hang up clothes — didn’t think he had his version. But, as we talked, he revealed the existence of a bench in his bedroom where he lays his jeans each night. I had to break it to him: Even a skimpy laundry chair counts. An interior designer, says clients rarely request a piece of furniture specifically for holding laundry. Still, she’s under no illusion that the benches and chairs she adds to bedrooms don’t wind up serving that purpose.
“It’s kind of like a Q-tip. Everybody knows what you use a Q-tip for, but it’s never advertised on the box.
She also has her laundry chair, — a fact she has no qualms about admitting.
“Sometimes I’m like, okay, I have gotten everything clean except for three pairs of pants that are folded on my laundry chai. That’s okay. They’re going to sit there. That’s because those pants belong there, at least for now.
And really, don’t we embrace the gray area — the happy medium, the middle ground — in other aspects of life? That’s how a geopolitical analyst feels about the laundry chair, a feature of the home he considers
“vital.”
He’s had one since he was a kid (much to his mother’s dismay), and after all this time, he’s developed a theory about its purpose:
“The way that people talk about coffee shops being the third place between home and the office, he thinks of the laundry chair as being the third place between a drawer and the hamper.”
Adapted from: TWP
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