How To: Prepare gym clothes in advace to save time.
When you look at personality types, I'm an INTJ also known as a "System Builder". Indeed, I do build systems, of many different types. It's not OCD since it's not obsessive, but I can make just about anything run smoother.
Since I no longer have an apartment with a gym provided, I'm having to go to a less conveniently located facility. Being an efficient type person I want to be able to get clothes there without having to dig everything up every day, doing that usually causes me to forget things.
When I was in school I was shown a neat trick on how to roll everything into a towel to move my gym clothes back and forth. Back then I wore the same set of clothes for a week and just took them home over the weekend, since I often forgot them I learned to bring a set before I took a set home - yes, I started building systems a long time ago. Back then I lived in the dessert, wearing the same pair for a little less than an hour a day for a week wasn't a problem, the arid environment dried them out and they were good for that long. Now I live in Houston. If I hung them on a clothes line already dry I could take them down damp on a sunny day. I need a new set for each day.
Let's get started.
First you need a towel, this is laid out flat, but that's for photo purposes, after you get used to this it may be easier to just hold it up. Besides, if you do this right people really will say "There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
Fold part of the towel down at one end, again, laid flat for photo purposes, you may actually want to hold the thing up. The amount isn't really important, between 9 and 15 inches does it for me, you don't want to overdo it, the end result will be to loose, under doing it can cause it to slip out. Your milage will vary on many factors, how much you stuff in, the size and thickness of your towel etc... Figure out this fold on your own.
Fold the left and right 1/4 of the width in. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you don't want it too crooked, you'll figure out why later.
An additional note - if you click on one of the images not only will it be bigger but it will take you to my album which has the intermediary steps I deemed unnecessary for the full description (there's one in-between shot between the previous image and this one).
Now it's time to start loading up the towel!
My hand towel for the actual workout
My shorts
My Other Shorts
I think you get the picture. Load it down with what you need. When I was a kid I would put my new stick of deoderant, whatever in there so I could keep it all together, use your own judgement. My next not exclusively pictured item was obviously a shirt.
Grab the side of the towel that isn't folded forward and start rolling. Roll it tight, it helps.
Another word of advice. Don't go buy a bunch of towels at Big Lots! for this like I did. I like Big Lots! but unless you want it to look like it's snowing every time you take one of your towels out I recommend something better. I'm hoping the next wash or two will finally put an end to that for me.
By now you have a nice rolled up towel full of your own clothing. This is where the trick comes in. Remember that initial forward fold in the towel? Grab it! Turn it inside out over the rest of towel, it should swallow itself.
There's the back end of my vehicle, notice I have about six rolls in circulation, good for more than a week. I use the less tightly rolled ones first so nothing comes apart. I also keep a case of bottled water, some V8, and a laundry basket to dump it all in. That basket comes in handy since I spend so many nights away from home anyways, just dump that laundry in there too. That bag is used daily, that's what I keep my soap, shoes, deodorant, headphones, access badge, etc in. I shove the roll in (it's a courier bag) before I go in, and I pull the clothes out as soon as I'm back to my vehicle to let them air a bit. No need to re-roll when leaving the gym.
Since I no longer have an apartment with a gym provided, I'm having to go to a less conveniently located facility. Being an efficient type person I want to be able to get clothes there without having to dig everything up every day, doing that usually causes me to forget things.
When I was in school I was shown a neat trick on how to roll everything into a towel to move my gym clothes back and forth. Back then I wore the same set of clothes for a week and just took them home over the weekend, since I often forgot them I learned to bring a set before I took a set home - yes, I started building systems a long time ago. Back then I lived in the dessert, wearing the same pair for a little less than an hour a day for a week wasn't a problem, the arid environment dried them out and they were good for that long. Now I live in Houston. If I hung them on a clothes line already dry I could take them down damp on a sunny day. I need a new set for each day.
Let's get started.
First you need a towel, this is laid out flat, but that's for photo purposes, after you get used to this it may be easier to just hold it up. Besides, if you do this right people really will say "There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
Fold part of the towel down at one end, again, laid flat for photo purposes, you may actually want to hold the thing up. The amount isn't really important, between 9 and 15 inches does it for me, you don't want to overdo it, the end result will be to loose, under doing it can cause it to slip out. Your milage will vary on many factors, how much you stuff in, the size and thickness of your towel etc... Figure out this fold on your own.
Fold the left and right 1/4 of the width in. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you don't want it too crooked, you'll figure out why later.
An additional note - if you click on one of the images not only will it be bigger but it will take you to my album which has the intermediary steps I deemed unnecessary for the full description (there's one in-between shot between the previous image and this one).
Now it's time to start loading up the towel!
My hand towel for the actual workout
My shorts
My Other Shorts
I think you get the picture. Load it down with what you need. When I was a kid I would put my new stick of deoderant, whatever in there so I could keep it all together, use your own judgement. My next not exclusively pictured item was obviously a shirt.
Grab the side of the towel that isn't folded forward and start rolling. Roll it tight, it helps.
Another word of advice. Don't go buy a bunch of towels at Big Lots! for this like I did. I like Big Lots! but unless you want it to look like it's snowing every time you take one of your towels out I recommend something better. I'm hoping the next wash or two will finally put an end to that for me.
By now you have a nice rolled up towel full of your own clothing. This is where the trick comes in. Remember that initial forward fold in the towel? Grab it! Turn it inside out over the rest of towel, it should swallow itself.
There's the back end of my vehicle, notice I have about six rolls in circulation, good for more than a week. I use the less tightly rolled ones first so nothing comes apart. I also keep a case of bottled water, some V8, and a laundry basket to dump it all in. That basket comes in handy since I spend so many nights away from home anyways, just dump that laundry in there too. That bag is used daily, that's what I keep my soap, shoes, deodorant, headphones, access badge, etc in. I shove the roll in (it's a courier bag) before I go in, and I pull the clothes out as soon as I'm back to my vehicle to let them air a bit. No need to re-roll when leaving the gym.