Domesticity: laundry thoughts

I take a strange pleasure in systems-thinking with domestic tasks, since I have to do all my domestic stuff myself. Here's some thoughts/tips I'm putting down now so I have them in one place - to show others the scale of my persnicketyness, but also in case anyone else finds something useful in how I do it.

• My "laundry basket" is actually my granny cart. Incidentally, I actually don't push the granny cart to the laundromat, mostly because getting it down the stairs is obnoxious.
  
• Instead, inside the cart, I keep three open bags: one open mesh, one black rip-stop nylon with a drawstring, and one blue rip-stop nylon with a drawstring and a long carrying handle. The mesh and black nylon were from a local dollar store, and the blue one is from Rite-Aid.
  
• Anything that should technically be handwashed (mostly underwire bras) and socks go in the open mesh bag. Anything I'm sending out for dry clean (including button-down shirts) go in the black bag. Everything else goes in the blue bag. I sort at time of taking the clothes off (or, to be honest, at time of taking the clothes off the floor, which is not necessarily as soon as they come off) and don't bother sorting by color, since my stuff is pretty colorfast and I wash/dry everything on the coldest settings I can get away with anyway.
  
• I also have a small clutch - originally a gift with purchase Clinique makeup bag, from like 20 years ago - with three tiny mason jars in it. The mason jars are from Win Restaurant Supply, because I love them, but Michael's has pretty similar ones. One is filled with white vinegar, the second is filled with powder laundry detergent (currently Tide with Febreeze, but I'm honestly not picky), the third is filled with quarters. The bag generally lives on the shelf next to the granny cart. Whenever I dump change out of my wallet, the quarters go in the mason jar, separate from the non-quarter change (which goes into a vase in the living room, but that's not relevant to this discussion.)
  
• Laundry nights, when I'm doing my own laundry, are generally Tuesdays, since I often have social obligations Mondays and/or Thursdays (Bi Request, Poly Cocktails, professional happy hours tend to be on these days for some reason as well), yoga and date night is Wednesday, therapy is Friday, and trying to go to a small coin op laundromat on the weekend is miserable. There is a separate process for right before vacation, which I'll also discuss. If I'm only bothering with clothes, I can go about 2-3 weeks between laundry processes. If I'm also washing sheets - which I really should do weekly, because allergies and eczema, but is hard, because autism - I have to cut it down to a faster interval, close to weekly, because that's what fits in the blue bag and thus in the cheaper washing machine. (Also, I have to carry it all up and down stairs, and a full blue bag is just about right for what I can handle in one trip.)
  
• When it's laundry night, I toss the mesh bag into the blue bag, grab the clutch along with my keys and phone, and walk the half block to the laundromat, bag slung across my shoulders/back. I load everything, including the closed mesh bag, into the laundry machine, feed it quarters, detergent, and vinegar (in place of fabric softener), and set it on cold wash/cold rinse. I set a timer on my phone to half an hour, and walk back to my apartment, now-empty mesh bag hanging off my belt or around my neck, holding the clutch.
  
• Now I grab the other bag with the dry cleaning, sling *it* over my shoulder, and walk back to the laundromat with it, still holding the clutch. I drop off the dry cleaning, put the payment slip in the clutch. I wait around until the timer is up, then switch everything to the dryer, putting in 6 quarters = 48 minutes, on low. I set another timer for about 45 minutes, and walk out.
  
• At this point, I can go back to the apartment (in which case I'll drop off the clutch and the black bag, and maybe have dinner), or maybe do a quick shopping run. Rite Aid's across the street from the laundromat, as is Staples and a small grocery store; a ten minute ish walk down is a better grocery store, the pizzeria (if I don't have leftovers at home somehow), and two dollar stores. Whatever I do, I use the timer to make sure I'm back at the laundromat or almost there by the time it goes off, with the blue bag.
  
• I grab one of the baskets the laundromat provides, drop the blue bag into it, then unload the dryer into that basket. I put on whatever album on Spotify I've been digging or a good podcast, shove the phone into a pocket of my pants or shirt, and pick out a free table for "folding", tucking the basket semi-under the table at my side.
  
• The tables at my laundromat have an upper shelf, where I put down anything else I came in with, including my jacket if I'm wearing one. Piece by piece, I grab stuff to process. The mesh bag means I haven't lost socks, but they all get taken out from the mesh bag, while the underwire bras remain. I roll anything that doesn't count as underwear, and fold socks and underwear. Finished bottoms go to the left of the table, finished tops go to the right, finished underwear/socks goes to the top shelf. Sports bras go into the mesh bag with the now-dry underwire bras as I find them. If I've brought sheets, they're folded, then get placed under the stack of rolled bottoms (or, if possible, on another table if no one else is using it.) When I've only got the bag left in the basket, I'm done.
  
• The bag gets loaded - sheets, then bottoms, then tops, then underwear, then socks, then the mesh bra bag. I grab whatever I took with me, put on the jacket if I've got it, then take the filled bag back to the apartment, and then the unloading: socks, underwear, and bras each have a basket in my closet, pants/skirts (mostly for work, though also my denim) get put on hangars with clips, the rolled t-shirts and casual shorts go in a drawer under my bed, yoga pants and long john style layers go into a different under-bed drawer, sheets go on the upper closet shelf. The empty blue bag and mesh bag go back into the granny cart for another cycle. If it hasn't already, the clutch goes back to the bookshelf, and the dry clean slip gets put on my fridge.
  
• My vacation process has me drop off the blue bag (without the mesh delicates) to the laundromat for wash and fold right before I leave, along with the black dry clean bag. I pick these up a day or two after I come back. (Nothing more luxurious than not having to worry about laundry right before you go on vacation, and it's a nice extra indulgence!)