Something has happened to me during the last several months of pregnancy. I’ve gotten lazier. The piles of laundry are higher, the layers of dust thicker, and there are more piles of clutter in my house. My once task-oriented, productive personality has been replaced with someone who would rather lie on the couch, eat ice cream and watch TV. I still make the bed every morning (I haven’t gone THAT crazy), but my “neat freak” tendencies have been put on the back burner. Don’t get me wrong, it still makes me twitchy to see the light from the TV reflect off the table dust and my skin still crawls in the midst of a room full of clutter. It’s just that finding the energy to do anything about it is nearly impossible.
Honestly, I don’t tolerate lazy very well, in myself or in others. So, I’m starting to feel judgmental about my own. I know I’m eight months pregnant, but some women are still playing tennis and snow skiing at this point. A little housework doesn’t seem like too lofty a goal.
Yesterday, I decided to motivate myself back into a productive lifestyle… right after a short nap when I got home from work. I allowed myself 30-40 minutes to rest when I got home, then I got busy. One of the obstacles I’ve felt is being too overwhelmed with the amount of stuff there is to constantly do at home. I feel like it takes hours of my time to make any headway. So, I tried a new strategy. I threw some laundry in the washer, grabbed the egg timer from the kitchen, went to the bedroom and set it for 15 minutes. In that time, I made the bed (from my nap), picked up all the clutter, dusted the furniture, and vacuumed the floor and baseboards. The ticking of the egg timer kept me on task so I wouldn’t get side tracked (deciding it would be a good time to flip through that magazine beside the bed). In 15 minutes, the bedroom was clean!
Next, I tackled the bathroom. Let’s face it- if you’re going to spend extra time cleaning anywhere, it should be the bathroom. So, I gave myself 20 minutes there- that included cleaning the shower/tub. It was then time to cook dinner, so I moved to the kitchen. Since the laundry had finished in the washer, I loaded and started the dishwasher. Then, I started dinner. As dinner cooked, I cleaned the kitchen and accomplished both tasks at once. I decided that was enough productivity for one day, so we ate dinner off of paper plates (something we may be doing more often). Even though I didn’t clean the entire house, it felt good to have some rooms cleaned and I can do the others in the next couple of days. I’ll be using the egg timer again as a motivator. If you have some cleaning strategies that work for you, I’d love to know what they are. Who knows, I may find my inner “neat freak” again!
4 comments:
Great idea about the egg timer. Sometimes I can get so much done if I give myself a deadline!
umm, get used to clutter my friend.
I do the timer thing when I feel like I don't want to do something. When your baby can play in the tub on his/her? own, you can clean the bathroom while they play. Use baby shampoo to wash around the tub and stuff too. It's not bleach, but at some point soap is soap as Flylady says.
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