I Want the Win Without the Work
Keeping our home neat and tidy is a must for me. Having visual clutter around makes my brain shut down.
But I'm not one to set aside a lot of time to work on that goal. Yes, I'll go through the declutter mania a couple of times per year, but then it all goes back to a back burner of brain-space.
Through the years, I've had to evolve a lot of tiny habits to keep things picked up...without actually stopping to focus on it.
Sound Advice: Just Begin
There are two things I do that keep things picked up. I realize they both have to do with keeping household items in motion. The minute something becomes still, it becomes a little bit invisible.
I believe it was Alexandra Stoddard who suggested this one: Imagine you're leaving a room walking backward. Whoever said it, this has been the most genius thing for me.
As my post about carrying stuff around showed, I rarely walk from one room to another without taking stuff with me. When I'm going from one place to another, I scan the room I'm leaving as if I'm walking out of it backward.
I think how it will look to me when I come back. This causes me to take the crumpled Kleenex on the coffee table to the trash, fluff the pillows on the couch, pick up a glass to take to the kitchen, or return a book to my nightstand.
Baby Steps
The habit has evolved to mean that I 'send things in the right direction,' too. Maybe I don't want to actually take the time to sort laundry and start a load of wash...but I'll take the basket to the laundry room. Sometimes just that beginning will get me to sort the wash and start a load. Other times it just gets the basket sitting in the middle of the laundry room. But then the next time I walk through, I might do the next step.
It's now evolved to all kinds of chores. I'll do the tiniest first step to get me to work on something I'm putting off. I'll put the paperwork I have to file with the insurance on my desk, or open a tab and pull up my bank's website might get me to double-check my balance and payments.
On My Mind
Just wondering: If making a house a home is the goal, how come we call it housework. And how come homework is nothing to do with the cleaning and beautification of the home?
Daily Hits of Happy
-Days when no amount of reminders and teasers get you to get things done....but there are no terrible consequences, so it's okay.
-Learning your own limits.
-Accepting those limits.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for dropping by my blog!
Please share your Daily Hits of Happy. After all... shared happiness is doubled.