It’s not all about clean clothes. Here are laundry’s lesser-known benefits:
1. To do laundry, you generally have to stand up. And all of the blood that has pooled in your behind as you’ve sat at your computer will disperse into general circulation. If you’re lucky, some of it will reach your brain.
2. Laundry is warm. And because your blood has pooled in your behind, you are likely cold. (You could try putting warm laundry on your brain, but I haven’t tested this method, so can’t personally recommend it. Maybe tomorrow.)
3. Laundry requires enough thought to distract your conscious mind, while leaving your subconscious to ruminate on how best to remove your main character from the squeezing garbage compactor in which you left him.
4. Usually, you fold laundry inside your house. So when inspiration strikes, you are not at the gym surrounded by behemoths who have long since lost their pencils and notebooks in the creases of their muscles.
5. Even if your book doesn’t progress, even if your problem is so big that a little distraction can’t solve it, even if your mom calls while you’re folding and you get nothing else written, you’ve still accomplished something with your day.
That’s as useful as I get this week. Fold and be merry.