A Lightbulb Moment

I spent 5 hours this weekend cleaning house. Correction: I spent 5 hours picking up, sweeping and washing - nevermind, folding – clothes, and right about hour 4, as my annoyance level was rising (in part because I was watching everyone else “working” outside in the yard), I had an ah-ha moment. If we only picked up after ourselves on a daily basis, I could avoid spending hours of our short spring season trapped indoors.

Now, please don’t let images of us drowning in piles of both clean and dirty laundry dance through your head. Neither should you picture my kitchen counter spilling over with dishes of all sorts and my dining room table barely visible under a pile of receipts and school papers. It had gotten out of hand, but in our defense it had been an abnormally busy end of the week. Thursday afternoon we’d been at a baseball game; Friday night found us at our local high school’s annual musical (Hairspray! And it was worth it!); and Saturday evening we relaxed around the bonfire with friends, blowing bubbles and lighting sparklers. Still, the end result was that what I had worked so hard to keep up with earlier in the week, ate me alive by Sunday!

Although I have a defense for last week, I must still confess that even on normal weeks, I come home tired and allow small things to slip. So this week, we are trying something new:

1. Throw dirty clothes in the hamper and rehang clean ones the moment you shed them.

2. Sort through school papers, receipts, and mail daily. Toss the trash and file the keepers in their proper place.

3. Unload the dishwasher when the dishes are clean and load dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher rather than tossing them into the sink.

4. Do a quick pass in each room and return migratory items to their proper home before settling down for the night.

Now, if only we can make these changes a habit, I might be able to see the light of the weekend.