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Cleaning My Home Into Disorder |
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Here is the scenario. It is Saturday morning and I have all day long to do a few simple chores, run errands and spend time playing with Dante and Paul.
Flash forward to Saturday night. The errands are done. Dante, Paul and I have had fun together. My house however, looks like it threw up on itself. My few simple chores are only half done, if started at all, and there is "chore clutter" everywhere.
Two weeks ago, in tears, I sat down with Paul and asked him to help me figure out why this continues to happen. It didn't take us long to figure out that my problem is "multi-tasking". Multi-tasking can be a great tool when used for good. However, when used improperly, it is evil!
If one of my tasks was to clean the bathroom, I would pull all the shampoos and soaps out of the tub, placing them on the floor. After scrubbing the tub with Comet I'd refrain from rinsing it to allow the bleach to sink in. I would then move on to the next chore leaving the shampoos, etcetera on the floor.
Next, I would go through Dante's clothes to cull out the items he had outgrown. About halfway through this task, the timer on the dryer would go off and I would hurry away to fold the clothes while still hot: leaving Dante's clothes in piles all over his room.
I would continue this process throughout the day jumping from one project to the next. At 8pm, thoroughly exhausted, I would be distraught that my home was in worse shape than when I began.
Last weekend I made a conscious effort to start a project and finish it before moving on to the next. It was so much harder to do than I expected. I kept having the urge to start a new project halfway through. However, at 8pm I looked around the house and was so pleased to see that everything was in order. Even better, every project that I had planned for that day was completed.
As they say in AA: One Day at a Time. My new motto is: One Thing at a Time.
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