Resolution Time
Quite honestly, who doesn’t need some changes in their life? I could fill pages with a list of “Things I Need to Do Better”. Some are certainly more pressing than others, and some are especially widespread. For example, for some reason, I am not a very good housekeeper. I just…don’t care, really. There are just so many things I would rather be doing than cleaning. Or things I would rather do than picking things up. I would rather be working on a project, reading a book, or creating something…anything. When supper is done, it quite honestly doesn’t bother me to let the dishes sit on the counter until the next morning and beyond. When I get home from work or an errand, I’m not at all fazed by setting my stuff down and letting it sit there for a good long while. Quite frankly, it’s just not very important to me.
However, there are some downfalls to this lack of domestic discipline. First of all, on most days, there is stuff all around. I don’t mean piles of layered up stuff that would earn me a free pass to be on that “Hoarders” show, but rather sprinklings of stuff here and there. This random sediment of objects does make it more difficult to have people over, or even welcome drop in visitors, because it takes more effort to get everything picked up to a more presentable level.
Second of all, I fear that I am teaching my children that “not picked up” is okay. Whereas I know that “neat and tidy” is (for some, at least) a normal and desirable home state, I’m worried that my kids may not. It’s kind of like that billboard I saw in Prague many years ago that said “Not smoking is normal”, which must have been a novel concept to a nation where many, many people smoked.
A third reason that I probably need to work on this is because even though I can live with disorder for quite some time, I in turn absolutely hate not being able to find something that I need in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, those two things don’t go together. It’s kind of a domestic oxymoron, if you will.
To combat this laxity in my home habits, I’m going to adopt a saying that I saw from someone else on the web also talking about resolutions, and that is “Chores, first, then play.” I am sighing aloud even as I write that down because it just seems like no fun at all. However, somewhere in the back of my mind I’m pretty sure this is a good thing.
We shall see. I’ll let you know.
by Darwin Bell (Creative Commons License: Attribution, Non-Commercial)
Open on Flickr
I guess you and I saw this on the same place and I can't remember where now, because you are the second person I've seen with that thought/ idea and while I don't really have resolutions, I was already working toward that very thought in December of last year: "Do the hard things first." Not that any of it is really HARD -- like marathon or curing cancer hard -- but all that stuff automatically goes in my head as "I'll do it later" yet I never do. So as that thought goes through my head I tell myself: Do the hard things first, then play.
Hate being a grown-up.
Sarah, I actually saw it on your blog. Someone was responding to your post about resolutions, and I like how she phrased it. And yes, it does stink sometimes to be a grownup.
My daddy always said, Do what you need to do first -- and then you can read, which was always what I wanted to do, rather than homework, wash dishes, etc. Even today, I have to make a conscious effort to deliberately sit down and enjoy reading when there are things I should be doing. Now, getting sidetracked by picking up a book to read a chapter while I eat lunch and then not being able to put it down is something else altogether.