Triangle Man Hates Cheese Grater Man

The day-in, day-out tasks have gotten to me a bit lately. As everyone who knows me well is aware, I am generally a slob. I have grandiose organizational plans, but seldom follow them through over the long term. Instead, we follow a cleaning system that goes something like this:

house is messy - oh crap someone is coming over - mad dash around house to clean it up - promise we'll never let it get like this again - Yay! house is clean so we don't have to spend time cleaning it - house quickly gets messy - oh crap, house is a sty, how do we let it get like this.

This system hasn't really been working for me lately. I've noticed that my emotional and mental health suffer when the house is a mess. The condition of the house, and the enormity of the task facing me to clean it, weigh on my shoulders and bring me down.

So, I've decided to do something about it. A while ago, I started using the Sidetracked Home Executives system of index cards to plan my daily tasks. I never fully completed the process, so although the cards seemed to work well for me, I wasn't using them to their full potential, and wasn't able to get back on track after we went away on a trip.

I'm challenging myself to get back on the wagon, finish my cards and recommit to using them. In the meantime, I'm going to try to find the meditative zen in my mundane, everyday tasks. Doing the dishes today felt peaceful when I approached the chore with an attitude of:

This is doing the dishes - I do this joyfully every day to help keep the house clean and take care of my family,

instead of my regular attitude of:

I've got to do the dishes AGAIN?! Didn't I just DO the dishes? I HATE doing the dishes! Who INVENTED the cheese grater anyway? Argh!

Here's to daily household chores as meditation. Goodness know I could use some more of that anyway. Now, if only I didn't have to clean my bedroom to find my index cards. :)