Life Lessons from a Laundromat in Casa Grande, Arizona
Have you ever had a moment where you expect something to be complicated, only to find out it’s astonishingly simple? Like, so simple that you're almost disappointed by how easily it all worked out? Well, friends, let me introduce you to the modern marvel that is the Casa Grande, Arizona laundromat.
I rolled up, a proud life coach armed with a blog idea about how laundry can teach us about life. I thought, “Perfect! I’ll have time to sit, write, sip my lukewarm coffee, and contemplate life’s deeper meanings while the clothes tumble around.” Spoiler alert: the tumble was quicker than my contemplation.
The Arizona Laundromat Experience
Here’s how it went down:
Phase One: The Wash
In Casa Grande, you pop your laundry into the machine, and boom, 20 minutes later it’s done. I barely had time to check my phone, let alone start writing. I thought about my time in Germany, where a wash could take 45 minutes… or two hours, if the washer was feeling particularly "efficient" that day. They call them efficiency washers, but I think that’s German for “we like to make you reflect deeply on the nature of time.”
So here I am, still warming up to the idea of writing my post, when the machine finishes. “Already?” I ask the blinking ‘end cycle’ light. “I haven’t even gotten into the flow yet!” But hey, that’s efficiency for you.
Phase Two: The Dryer
Dryer time. A swift 30 minutes. In Germany, dryers are more like a 50/50 gamble. Sometimes your clothes come out warm, other times they're still slightly damp, as if they’ve been hit with a wave of indecision about their readiness. Here in Arizona? These dryers mean business. Thirty minutes, clothes dry, no existential crisis.
Now, you might be thinking, “Wow, that sounds easy.” And you’d be right. A little too easy.
The (Missed) Opportunity to Write
So here I am, with a grand total of 50 minutes to wash and dry my clothes. I thought I had plenty of time to type out a blog post, maybe even get a little deep. But, and here’s the kicker, by the time I’d wrapped my head around starting my blog, it was time to move the clothes from washer to dryer. And by the time I realized I should start writing in the second phase, well… I was too tired to even scroll the internet.
I had expected the process to take longer, to involve more downtime, to give me the space to craft this post. Instead, the laundromat performed its duties with such ruthless efficiency that I was left spinning with the dryers. By the time it was all done, I had laundry but no blog.
Life Lesson from the Laundromat
And then it hit me: We make things complicated when they don’t need to be.
Here’s the thing — I spent so much time expecting the process to take longer, bracing myself for inefficiency, that I didn’t even notice the simple instructions right in front of me. It’s easy, just wash, dry, done. But I complicated it in my head. I was so caught up in thinking about how to extract some deep metaphor from the laundry process that I skipped over the very simplicity of it.
How often do we do this in life? We overthink things, expecting complications, when all we really need to do is… follow the instructions. Relax. Slow down. Breathe into the present moment, and realize that life isn’t as difficult as we often make it. Sometimes, we’re so busy looking at the big picture (like, say, planning an entire blog post) that we miss the simple, present task at hand (like, I don’t know, switching the laundry).
The Big Picture Is Great, But Don't Miss the Present
It’s important to have goals, dreams, and that big picture in mind, but not at the expense of the current moment. Sometimes, if we just take things one step at a time, things are a lot simpler than we expect them to be. We stress ourselves out when, really, life might just be asking us to follow the instructions and let the dryer do its thing.
So, here’s my life coaching advice for you today, from the heart of a laundromat in Casa Grande, Arizona: Don’t make things more difficult than they need to be. Whether it’s laundry, relationships, or your career, sometimes the instructions are right in front of you. You don’t need to solve everything all at once. Just take a deep breath, follow the steps, and everything will work out.
Oh, and maybe take some time to just sit and enjoy the efficiency of your local laundromat. If nothing else, it’s a great place to learn a lesson or two about simplicity.
P.S. I’ll get to writing my next blog post… once my clothes are folded.
Summary of Lessons from the Laundromat:
Life can be simple — if you let it be.
Stop overcomplicating things — the instructions are usually right in front of you.
The big picture is great — but don’t miss what’s happening in the moment.
Efficiency is underrated — and you’ll never find it more in-your-face than at an Arizona laundromat.
Laundry is life — especially when you need to write a blog post about it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some very fresh, warm clothes to fold. 😊
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