A Losing Battle

Ever feel like you're fighting a losing battle? I do... when it comes to cleaning. Our little 860-square-foot apartment gets so dirty, and I often find myself despairing at the end of the week. I'm so tired by the time I get home from work every night (I know, I have an easy desk job... but an 8+ hour day is exhausting, no matter what you do!) that by the time I clean up from dinner (Wes usually cooks, praise God!) and tame the general clutter, it's 9:30 p.m. and I'm ready for bed (I know, I know -- I'm old!). I put off everything to the weekend -- and then I dread the weekend! Clearly, this is not a good system.

(Of course that's not our apartment... but I had to give a visual!)

Here's an idea that I would do good to follow: just do one thing.

(Note: I've never actually seen this calendar in real life, but it looks cool!)

One thing! That's not hard. Just do one thing each night that you really want to put off--things like cloroxing the sinks (a prime place for bacteria to grow, especially the kitchen sink! so important to keep clean), cleaning the mirrors, dusting (ugh--one of my least favorite things)--anything, really. If it's a bigger task, like dusting, just tackle one or two rooms. By the time you get to the weekend, you'll have more accomplished than you realized!

I would do well to follow my own advice. Tonight I resolved to work harder toward that end. I came home and immediately wanted to stretch out on the couch -- but I knew if I did, I would never get up and get anything done. So as soon as I got home, I put away my things, washed out my tupperware (oh, the joys of PB&J for lunch every day!), and got to work. I decided that my "one" room would be our bedroom. I vacuumed the floor (I hate vacuuming -- thankfully, our room is the only one in the apartment with carpet!), cleaned all of the mirrors, and dusted. Go ahead and pat me on the back -- I even attached the vacuum hoses and swept under the dressers (it can get really dusty under there!).

So that was my one thing: cleaning our bedroom. But since I had a little extra energy, I managed to do a few other things... like gathering the trash (it's Wesley's job to take it out!) and even polishing a little bit of the wood floors in the living room. The polishing is a big job, however, and I only got a small section done. I began to get tired, so I stopped. Maybe that will be my one thing tomorrow!

We had a nice dinner (burgers -- yum! Joseph, I thought of you!), I did the dishes, and now I am finally relaxing. And my mind is at ease knowing that the little bit of work I did will go a long way.