I hate piles. They are a sign of things unfinished: unread mail piles, unfolded clothes piles, unfiled paper piles, unorganized junk piles, unwashed clothes piles, things-to-be-taken-upstairs piles, unwashed dishes piles, things-to-give-away piles. They make life cluttered and create stress!
In 2011, I'm going to try to eliminate piles. Well, within reason! Obiously I will not run a load of laundry until I have accumulated a enough of a pile to make it worthwhile, but that takes all of 5 minutes so it won't be an obstacle. Why is this a worthwhile goal? Because I want to develop a new habit of dealing with things now rather than later--the physical piles, electronic piles, and other "unseeable" piles. I tend to set things aside to deal with later, usually because I tell myself "I don't have time for this right now". In truth, that is rarely the case. I DO have time to unload the dishwasher. What does it take? 5 minutes? I DO have time to throw in a load of laundry first thing in the morning. I DO have 2 seconds to pick up a pair of shoes. I DO have 2 minutes to return an email, write a thank-you card, or make a phone call. I have this awful, lazy habit of ignoring things, but these things don't go away, and I will have to deal with them eventually, so why not now?
4 comments:
I've been trying to deal with each thing I touch, the first time I touch it. This is not always practical, but most of the time it really helps!
Examples:
-putting something back in the right place after using it
-sorting papers and mail as soon as I pick it up the first time
In the past I've been a stacker/piler, and then those piles end up in boxes right before company comes over, along with evertyhing else that was in the area with the pile. NOT GOOD!
welcome back.
The hubby and I are pilers too. I plan on getting some of my current piles taken care of. Now, any suggestions on how to get the hubby to deal with the piles that doesn't include nagging?
I have found that I accidentally got out of the (hereditary?) piling habit in my effort to just be more active and more intentional about what I do. Something goes upstairs, Mom used to say put it on the stairs for the next time you go up. Now I take it up right away, and when I come back down and immediately run across something else that needs to go upstairs, up it goes.
Post a Comment