Baby Steps?
One of my "signature" problems is my inability to keep my apartment tidy. On the weekends I'm optimistic and can do marathon cleaning/organizing sessions but by the next Friday things are all over my room. I can't seem to maintain on a daily basis-not because the thought of throwing away a candy bar wrapper or putting my socks in the dirty clothes is a scary one, but because I often don't have the thought at all! It just doesn't occur to me until things are stacked up in piles. And then I clean and breathe a sigh of relief and realize how much better I like a tidy house. Today I was deep in thought as I opened up a wrapper for some tooth whitening strips. I was thinking how sad it was that a lot of the clutter on my sink was just trash that could easily be thrown away. I decided to throw away my trash from this evening....and accidently put my unused strips in the garbage while thinking so hard about cleaning up.
Does anyone have any tips/tricks/input that's helped you? An iPhone app, a post-it note, a weird method you use to make yourself do small tasks, anything?
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clearing up
Oh how I know that problem! The only thing that used to prompt me to keep the house vaguely tidy was that my disabled husband couldn't walk or wheel around the house if the floor wasn't clear. My own study was a total tip. After he passed away last year the house just got worse and worse, and I'm only just starting to sort it out.
One of my most effective tricks is when I'm getting dressed in the morning, for every item I put on, I have to put one away or in the laundry basket (or 2 if the pile is particularly bad). I've now got the dishwasher, washing machine, and putting the rubbish out as fixed items on my weekend checklist, then I give myself permission not to do anything about them during the week unless I run out of cups! I'm now trying to vaccuum clean one room a week, but that is still a major area of procrastination.
best wishes in tackling this
H.