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When Feeling Overwhelmed: Take Teeny Tiny Steps

May 25, 2011 By Dana White | 5 Comments

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When Feeling Overwhelmed Take Teeny Tiny Steps - A Slob Comes Clean

I’m feeling overwhelmed.

I can hear the end-of-the-school-year clock ticking, and there is just so much I want to get done.

Yesterday, my daughter and I spent the day at a last-time-we-can-do-this preschool play date.  A totally worthy use of our day.  I had no problem pushing my bathroom-cleaning off until today.

I would just get it done after we ran to the store.  

But running to the store took almost two-and-a-half hours.  TWO AND A HALF HOURS??????

By the time we got home and unloaded the world’s heaviest groceries, it was time for lunch.

And I was tired.  

I didn’t want to do anything.  At all.  It was so incredibly tempting to just leave the groceries in the floor of the kitchen, eat my lunch, and go take a nap.  I was overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start.

Even if I couldn’t get to the have-to-get-to-them-today-or-I-don’t-know-when-I’ll-clean-them bathrooms, I decided to at least put away the groceries.   For real.  Not just taking things out of the bags and putting them on the cabinet to be dealt with later (which many times seems strangely logical), but actually taking them to their homes.  The printer ink went to the . . . printer, the light bulbs to the . . . light bulb spot, and the bar soap to the . . . bathroom.

Shocking, I know.

Guess what?  Once I realized (again, because I have short-term-memory-loss issues on these types of things) how little time it had actually taken to make my kitchen floor walkable, I decided to go ahead with the bathroom cleaning.

And now, since my knees hurt and my arms are sore from scrubbing the bottom of the shower, I feel completely justified taking that nap.

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Filed Under: My great excuses | 5 Comments

Comments

  1. Suanna says

    May 25, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    Good Job! I know that I have often left groceries sit in the kitchen to be put away later and of course don't get put away for a while or they get used before I put them away. I have learned to put away the cold stuff immediately, though. I often have my kids help put stuff away or at least empty the grocery bags so I can see what needs to be put where.

    Reply
  2. Patty says

    May 25, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    While I do still like doing laundry all throughout the week, I am really digging the way you have a set day for other things like cleaning the bathrooms. Like you point out in this post it's a lot harder to just put off something when it's THE DAY for that thing. I'm going to work on a chart for this myself. I definitely need to find something that works for me. Thanks!!

    Reply
  3. Jennifer says

    May 26, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    I'm pregnant with my 4th and my old is only 4 so I want a nap all the time! When it comes to groceries I let my older kids empty all the bags for me and they know how to put away almost everything. Occasionally I find things in weird places, but they love to help. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Jackie Shier says

    July 6, 2015 at 9:39 pm

    My new thing is “Just do one thing”! I find if I can get myself started with that one thing, other things follow.

    Reply
  5. Sonja Carroll says

    May 2, 2023 at 7:01 pm

    I understand the feeling. I have a chronic illness and by the time we get groceries in there for, sometimes i just want to cry. It’s just one thing too much. I do get the cold stuff put away i crash. The rest of it has you be dealt with later sometimes.

    Reply

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