As I’ve said before, I don’t like to waste time. And yet I have problems with keeping my home in the right place on my priority list. These two things combine to create a problem.
This week has been a maintenance week. I cleaned like crazy last week, but this week has been crazy with things going on outside the house. This is normally when my house slides back into messiness. One of the things I’ve been learning is that I need to “just do it.” I know that this is cliche. But it’s what I don’t do.
I’m always looking for a better time. I just walked through the living room and thought to myself, “Hmmm, I’ll need to pick that pillow up off the floor when I do my five-minute pick-up.” WHAT? Yes, I actually took the time to think that. In the amount of time for that thought to occur, the pillow could have gone back onto the couch and the room would look great. I did catch myself and picked it up.
This has always been my problem in the kitchen. A napkin on the floor makes me think that I need to sweep. It should make me bend down and pick up that one napkin. A dirty dish makes me dread doing all of the dishes that will soon be piled on top of it. I’m learning that if I just wash the one dish, it hardly feels like work. And if I wash the one dish everytime it appears, the pile never happens. Hmmm. This really shouldn’t be a difficult concept, but somehow it is for me.
I’m learning by my pick-up habits for the last two weeks that if I go ahead and pick up the one thing when I see it, there’s really not much to pick up when I do the non-negotiable check. Is this how other people live? Is this how their homes always look fine, even when they haven’t “cleaned” it lately?
I have to replace the automatic question that pops in my head when I see something out of place or in the floor. I need to stop thinking, “When can I get that done?” Instead, I need to think “Let me take one second to pick that up.”
Here’s the mathematicalish equation: 60 items picked up individually at one second each takes 60 seconds of my week. 60 items left to be picked up at a “better” time takes at least an hour of my week. Hmmm.
Yep. This is my problem. I just walked across my perfectly clean living room and saw the bookshelf before I sat down. It has 2 cups and a granola wrapper. My thought was “boy, one of these days I’m going to need to clean that bookshelf.” …since it takes loads of effort to put two cups and a wrapper away???
that is soooo me! and i hae yet to figure out why either. i figured out… and wasnt too lazy to go do it. lol…. that i could get to your first post and read in order! so i started doing that. 🙂 personally, i’m about right here.
I love that equation. I think I’m going to put it up where I have to see it all the time.
I’ve been putting off spreading the Weed & Feed in the yard for two months. Every time the yard gets mowed or it rains, I think I REALLY should get that stuff out. I know this isn’t a “house” thing, but if the weeds have taken over the yard, guests will have a bad impression before they even get IN the house. So, today, the yard got mowed AND the skies are grey. I started down the same train of thought, especially since I worked hard in the house today & my back hurts, but stopped, got up & did it. It took 45 minutes. Now it’s sprinkling. Perfect!
WOW! That’s what I do! I see something and think I’ll do that later. Later turns out to be about 2-3 weeks. ugh! I frustrate myself.
Sometimes I find myself wondering if anyone else in the house will take care of it. It was their mess in the first place. But it never happens. And then I get upset with the other people in my house. I could have taken the 1-5 seconds to take care of the mess or take 2-3 weeks and fester. Why do I do this to myself? When am I going to just bend down and pick up the mess?
My problem is if I stop and do all those one second things, I never accomplish the thing is I was doing before I stopped to pick up a pillow, or take a dish to the kitchen. I found I have to stay on course and leave those other things to their designated time. “No, I won’t pick up those clothes in my room now, I will do it after I’m dressed and the kids are fed, when it’s time to pick up my room and make my bed.” It doesn’t always work, and I don’t always succeed, but it helps!
I know this was five years ago…
But I think it’s significant to note that she didn’t start doing this until her home was relatively picked up. We can say “oh why don’t I always do this?”, but the fact is that when everything’s a mess, there isn’t a good place to draw the line between grabbing a couple obvious things and cleaning the entire surface. I think the important thing is making an effort to change that habit as SOON as we get a surface clean, because now it *isn’t* an endless task. That’s why things don’t stay clean, because we’re not in the habit, because we can’t be.
Remember when the SHE sisters had a friend over and they asked her how she managed to keep her home tidy? And they were having tea in the kitchen, so she said (basically) “see the tea bag in my cup? When I’m done with it, I take it out – and put it in the trash”. Not on a saucer or the side of the sink. For the sisters, it was the big aha moment. Much like you with picking up as you go instead of “just” in the five minute tidy. I wish I could say I follow this flawless advice, but….it wouldn’t be true, at least for lots of areas of my home.
I so *feel* this blog post. This is exactly me. This is my mindset. And, I am having the same struggle changing it. Knowing that you probably beat it gives me hope that I’ll be able to beat it, too.