Haha, I once got into a rather frustrating discussion with my partner when discussing the optimal order and partitioning of laundry loads so that we spent the least amount of time babysitting the washer and dryer. After our third digression into understanding the concept of pipelining I decided that saving 30 minutes per week wasn't worth it :)
Laundry is the exact chore I was thinking of. Mine folds (e.g.) a few pairs of shorts, and then takes them to the dresser and puts them away. Then later, she folds more shorts, and puts them away again.
I fold everything, once, and then make one trip per handful-of-piles-of-items. Precious seconds saved! Seconds that I can use to have pointless arguments about saving precious seconds with my wife!
