Habit changing

[athene]

lordaerith and I aren't the neatest people in the world. We're not the messiest by far, but we definitely don't keep a spotless house. However, with a baby, two cats, and both of us back at work full time in a month, I realized that we're going to need some new habits. Otherwise we are going to end up with piles of laundry and stacks of dirty dishes. So I am going to try to develop two new ways of doing things.

1. Followthrough - To me this means completing the action. You bring a dirty dish into the kitchen, if the dishwasher is dirty it goes in there and not onto the counter. Go shopping, put everything away when you get home. Have something that goes in the trash or the recycling, put it directly into the trash or the recycling. Going downstairs, take something that is upstairs and belongs downstairs and bring it downstairs (see point 1 if it's a dirty dish).

2. Do a chore before doing something for yourself - The idea is this, if I have some baby-free time for myself, do a chore (or half of a chore) before taking the time to do what I want to do. Just 5 minutes of doing dishes or folding some laundry before playing on the computer or reading or whatever should really help us keep on top of things.

Hopefully by developing these habits, Aerith and I can keep the house in a state where we are both happy with it.

Comments

[opheliasavalon.livejournal.com]

Good luck! We're also working on followthrough at our house.

[madmyndi.livejournal.com]

I find setting a timer really helps, since you mention 5 minutes of chores.