We all have days when our motivation is shot. Days when it seems like the only things we want to do are watch Netflix and veg. Days like that can be good for our mental health, but sometimes I find that the day after a lazy day can send me into either panic mode trying to catch up or a perpetual state of laziness as I continue to put off getting back to the grind! (Therefore, undoing the wonderful mental health day I just took!)
Never fear! There is a way to keep from letting your motivation slip away completely on off days. Here are 6 things you can do every day to keep disaster at bay.
Make The Bed
The first thing you should always do when you get up in the morning is make the bed. The simple act of making the bed is one of the best ways to instantly give your room a face lift and put your intentions on the right path for the day. Making the bed has a strong correlation with productivity the rest of the day.
Load/Unload The Dishwasher
Sometimes I am just not in the mood to wash a load of dishes by hand. It’s during those times that I take full advantage of having a dishwasher. I load everything I can fit and turn that sucker on! Walking into a kitchen with a pile of dirty dishes always makes me feel like I’m failing at housekeeping. Having an empty sink in the kitchen can instantly make you feel accomplished!
Return Things To Their Place
Probably the easiest thing you can do to keep the house from descending into madness is put things back in their place before the day’s end. Better yet, return things to their place as soon as you are done with them! A popular rule of thumb is if it takes less than two minutes to do, don’t leave it to do later. Putting things away almost always takes less than two minutes.
Hang Up Your Clothes
I am so bad about this one. For some reason it seems to take enormous effort for me to just put my clothes away at the end of the day, probably because, as mentioned above, it’s something I think I can come back and do in no time later. The problem is the clothes just compound until one day I am stepping over piles just to get to the other side of the closet. When I hang up my clothes I save myself an entire day of closet rehab down the road by taking less than two minutes to do it.
Wash A Load Of Towels
I once heard it said “A load a day keeps the laundry at bay.” I brushed it off and told myself my life will not consist of laundry every single day. When I tried to consolidate laundry to one or two days a week, it totally backfired and I humbly began to accept this truth–especially living with a man who sweats and an infant who has a talent for blow outs. (And I can’t imagine having even more people’s laundry on top of this!! Bravo veteran moms!) If that sounds like you, you should consider the load a day principle. It has kept me sane. I find that, if nothing else, if I can just finish a load of towels and underwear from start to finish, I’ve accomplished something.
Straighten Up The Cushions
One last thing I find makes or breaks a tidy living room is the couch cushions. Somehow they always end up slouched, lumpy, or thrown in the floor. Making a habit of straightening up the couch pillows and cushions each time you walk by can help your living room look just a little more neat, even if there are toys scattered to kingdom come.
Now you can binge watch your show in peace knowing that, with minimal effort, at least you maintained the status quo.
Very good advice!! Even if the house hasn’t been vacuumed or dusted in a while, just doing those easy steps really does keep the chaos at bay and makes my day go soooo much better.
Totally – a made bed makes the rest of your room look like a ‘work in progress’ instead of a disaster area! When my kids were small, washing every day was a must do – I had a chucker, rather than the other end, so yeah, *I* would run out of clothes if I didn’t wash every day. Now they’re bigger (10 and 13) and I’m working full time, I start with the washing on Friday night and (hopefully) have it all done by Sunday night. Like you, I try to hang my clothes each night… but every couple of days isn’t too bad, is it?
I so admire your commitment to weekends of laundry!! My hampers never reach the bottom. I just try to keep them from getting full. 🙂