(FYI) The video is poor quality, sorry about that. Please just listen as if it was a podcast if it annoys you. 🙂
The theme for this month is keeping the house clean on a regular basis and how to do that.
The first thing we have to address is our warped perception of time. We think everything is going to take way too long, so we don’t even begin. Believe it or not most things take five minutes or less, or even ten seconds or less… For real!
How many times have you made yourself something to eat, you have it all out on the counter, you eat your lunch or whatever it is, and then you leave that mess there because you’re in a hurry and you have no time. You tell yourself, “I’ll do it later.”
This is something I’ve been doing for years and have taught others to do that works! It’s called counting Mississippis, or you can count elephants.
One elephant, two elephants, three elephants, four elephants, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi, as your doing something that you told yourself would take too long. The reason we count Mississippis is to give us a perspective of how long things actually take, because like I said, things don’t take that long.
So the next time you’re doing something and you think, “Oh, I can’t do that, it’s going to take too long! I’ll get to that later!” Stop yourself and say, “I’m going to just count Mississippis and do it now!”
“Do it Now!” is BIG; you have to incorporate that new habit into your life too. The Do it Now Habit!
Counting Mississippis will help you see that things don’t take as long as you think they do. So you make your sandwich, or whatever you made, and then you count Mississippis, one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four elephants, five elephants, six elephants as you’re cleaning up after yourself.
You’ll be amazed to find out that it only took about 10 seconds to clean up that mess. It took only 10 elephants or 10 Mississippis! Yes, just 10 seconds to place the top back on the mayonnaise jar, put it in the refrigerator, wipe off the surface, put away any cellophane and other things in front of you, and return the leftover food to the fridge. And you’re going to find that that’s the way it is with everything.
So that’s the first thing that we’re going to tackle in this little mini-series on Keeping the House Clean on a Regular Basis.
We’re going to count Mississippis, we’re going to be conscious of the warped perception of time that we have, and we’re going to incorporate the Do it Now Habit.
And when we say to ourselves, “Oh, I can’t do that. It’s going to take too long!” Remember what I said, and say to youreslf, “NO! I’m going to try this!” and start counting and doing.
This goes for everything you do. When you get undressed, be conscious of what you do with those clothes before you get into the shower and take them with you when you’re done. Pick up the towel, hang it on a hook, and put the clothes in the hamper or away if you’re going to wear them again.
When you use a cup, dish, or glass, rinse it and get it in the dishwasher or wash it and put it in the drain immediately. All of these little things add up to be where you have to take a whole vacation you’re entitled to from work and clean up the house instead. Doing it this way, in these little blocks of time as they happen, will make such a difference in the unconscious clutter that accumulates, you’ll be thrilled. All of the mess that you see now at home, if you’ve done this, just wouldn’t be there.
Believe me, I get it, I was a slob extraordinaire. I have been there and done that and I have helped hundreds of people. From hoarding situations to just really messy with busy lives, not having time for things and across the board, this has worked for.
We have to realize that we are who we are, right-brained and scattered by nature. If it’s not fun. We don’t want to do it.
For left-brained people, it doesn’t have to be fun. They don’t have to feel good. It just has to be done so they do it. We think we need a reason. I’m here to tell you that you don’t need the reason. The fact that it has to be done is reason enough.
If we want to have fun and that’s our motivation, then just put that in the back of your mind. “If I do this, I’m going to be able to have more fun. My life is going to go much easier.”
We need a reward for getting stuff done, and that reward could be an easier life, an easier time, a more enjoyable time, and more time on our hands to do things that matter the most to us.
We don’t have to be a slave to the mess in the house because it doesn’t have to be that way.
This was the first blog/video in this series look for another one, next week.
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Thanks a lot for being with me. See you next time!
With Love,
Kathy
The Tidy Tutor
