So, yeah, there was a time when I advocated just the opposite and told you to get off your busy little feet and take a break. Good advice, if I do say so myself.
But some days, that good advice just doesn't apply. I've been busy lately. For the last five days I've either been running around (shopping, errands, moving my daughter, etc.), planning to run around (more errands and shopping, a couple of parties) or recovering from running around. My house is a wreck. Smells kind of funny, too, and I don't mean "funny ha-ha".
Usually I live by the lists I've made. These aren't hard and fast rules, but instead are tools I use to make sure things get done around here. If nothing else, they bring a task to mind and I'll give it some consideration before dismissing it as unnecessary. They also help me to do things in an order than makes sense (i.e., start laundry first, before dusting or cleaning the bathroom, because the laundry can be "working" in the background while I'm doing other things).
Every once in a while, though, my house will get so disorganized that even the lists don't do me much good. It's all so overwhelming. When that happens, I just get up and do something. Anything. Send order of operations to the wayside and just pick up those shoes, throw those bottles into the recycling bin, dust the top of the TV or boil those eggs for tomorrow's egg salad. It doesn't matter what gets done first, as long as something gets done.
Sooner than I expect, enough odd little things will have been done that I can begin to see a semblance of order returning to the house. THEN I can start working the lists again.
That's just one of my little tricks. The other? Clean the bathroom first. It's small, it cleans quickly, and it looks so much better that I just want move on to cleaning the other rooms in the house.
How about you? Do you have any tricks to motivate yourself to get off your butt and get things done? Please share.
6 comments:
I will invite someone for supper. When I "need" to do that, it is me, I am needing a little spruce up, or the house would not be such a disaster.
I try to get everyone to do a little something. At times, it might just be easier to do it myself than argue but with a little help it goes faster. But then I don't get help very often. Anna was my cleaner, when she got going, she was great. But getting her moving was another story. I guess I do it like you just one little bite at a time. If I have to let things go, I usually chose the daily sweeping and mopping, and cleaning the bathroom and just try and pick up before bed.
You will be back on track in no time. Summer's over so we can get into winter mode. I hate the cold but I have a lot less to do! Just don't talk about Christmas!
Funny that this is your post for today. I was just getting ready to head to basement and "work" on it. God there is soooo much to do down there, it's VERY overwhelming. I wonder if it will ever get done. But today I am determined to make some major progress. I ALWAYS start my mornings with a load of laundry in so it can "work in the background". Today I will also have supper in the crockpot "working in the background". I love it when stuff works in the background like on my computer! Just wish there were more things capable of that! lol
Most of the time I get my inspiration/motivation from your site and a couple others. Thanks for motivating me. ;)
Lol, I do the same as Melynda and invite someone over. That is all the motivation I need to get cleaning! Speaking of which I am throwing a party for 20 on Friday, I really need to get busy! :)
I do the bathroom first too, even a quick once over makes it look 100x better than before I started.
And (this is where I give away a secret that I hope my neighbours don't find out about) even when the rest of the house is a complete wreck and I've no time to sort it all out in one go, I make sure out front of the house is nice and tidy and the hallway too so passers by and random people who might call to the house will never know about the five loads of laundry lined up in front of the washing machine waiting their turn:)
That sounds like what I do. Just do a little something. Sometimes, depending on my illness, I feel accomplished enough doing just that.
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