Day 37

I wasn't kidding around (I now know) when I said it just takes time. I spent TWO HOURS putting away laundry and unpacking from the weekend--and I'm not even done yet!

Hello--how do other people do this?! Do I just wash more clothes than the average human being? Is it easier when you have a washing machine in your home, so you do more loads more frequently, and therefore have less to put away at once? I don't get it.

Maybe I should adopt a uniform. I don't know how that would help with the laundry, I guess it wouldn't, but maybe I'd feel like I had less clothing. I'd have fewer options, and maybe even just have seven outfits, one for every day of the week, and wash them all once a week. That's so not going to happen. I'm the kind of person who buys underwear when I don't have time to do laundry. I start wearing things from the "only wear around the house" pile, in public. I convince myself that my Land's End grandma/elastic waistband/airplane-only pants are legitimate professional-wear.

I will tell you this though--I LOVED having time carved out in my calendar specifically for cleaning. It was like I had a job, and that's all I was supposed to focus on during that time, and I had permission to just clean. I didn't check emails or do work or really think about much else. I took one quick break to reserve a spot in a baby music class, but that was the most efficient phone call I made all day, and then I jumped right back into cleaning!

So...there's something to this. And, I imagine, the secret is to do this consistently on a much smaller scale for all of the other things that need to get done regularly. Include time in your schedule to put away clothes, tidy up the desk, make the bed. I think I resist planning like that because I don't want to see that I really don't have time to do everything on my list. But, shockingly, it turns out that even if I don't write it down or plan it out I still don't have time to get it all done, and then I get stressed out, frustrated and disappointed when I have things left undone at the end of the day.

Won't it be nice when I winnow down my activities to things I truly love doing, that truly serve me and create a peaceful, beautiful, joyous home (and life!) for me and my family?

My desk and daily clothes are still humming along, being attended to daily. And I think setting aside bigger chunks of time much more frequently are going to be key to making the bigger changes I'm looking for. I also want to be sure I balance them each day with time with the baby, my husband, myself, and anyone or anything else that is important to me. Life is happening now, not when my house is "finally organized"--as if there is even such an endpoint. Live it every day.