It’s the nightly tasks that seem to get me. And yet, I won’t be giving up on them, because I can say in truth, that they make a huge difference.
I used to be jealous of people who said that they couldn’t go to bed at night if there were dishes in the sink. I would laugh that I didn’t have that “problem” but secretly wish I did.
I’m starting to get it. When the dishes are done, the clothes are put out and the lunches are made before I go to bed, I start the next day running. I don’t have to catch up. I actually have time to empty the dishwasher and sweep the kitchen while the kids eat breakfast. Then when I get home from taking the boys to school, I’m already done in the kitchen and can get on to other things.
A simple concept that would make any naturally organized person say “duh.”
My husband gets it. He has, since before we were married, washed his coffee pot the night before, made coffee so it’s ready to turn on the minute he gets up, and checked to be sure he’d have clean socks in the morning. Why? Survival. This was his bachelor days common-sense, and yet somehow I’m just now getting it.
But still, I forget one or all of my nightly tasks fairly regularly.
Last night I forgot to: make lunches and put out clothes.
But the things I have done:
Today:
Made bed.
Cleaned kitchen (still off rhythm on the running dishwasher thing)
Swept kitchen.
Did a focused 10 minute pickup (had guests coming over so easily motivated)
Checked bathrooms for clutter.
Ran two loads of laundry. (waiting to be folded)
Last night I:
Got laundry ready to run this morning.
Wiped down bathrooms.
So I’m commenting on this post simply because it’s the point I’ve gotten to since starting from your first post back in January (and taking a break for February and some of March to have a baby), but it’s really much more of a general but emphatic Thank You for existing and writing this blog!
Yesterday we had our house appraised for a very necessary refinance and, thanks to the progress I’ve made since following you, it wasn’t such an impossible task to get everything straightened up and cleaned for it!
For 10 years I’ve been using the “strategy” of gathering piles of clutter into boxes or bags and stashing them in the guest room/office whenever visitors were coming. Unless they were actually staying long enough to use the guest room, in which case all of the bags and boxes would be transferred to another room (usually the master bedroom) since, of course, those boxes and bags were rarely unpacked and put away after the guests had left.
Well, I’m pleased to report that for the first time ever, there were virtually NO piles of boxes & bags lying about in ANY of the rooms! (Ahem, except for what fit reasonably and neatly into the closets. And please don’t ask about my car) 😉
But the bigger victory for me was that, as I was *legitimately* cleaning over the past week or so (when we knew the appraisal would be happening soon, but before the “he’s coming tomorrow, just get that junk out of here!” crunch) I was finding that so much of the stuff actually has a place now, and I know where that place is! That also made it easier to throw away a ton and fill another box for the Sally Army 🙂
So again, thank you for this blog!!