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Take N+1 on managing housework
May. 30th, 2012 12:16 amIf you're following me on Twitter, I think it's becoming increasingly clear that I have some problems with 'executive function'-like things, such as managing to do the housework! I've been coming up with new schemes and plans to make sure the washing up gets done for as long as I've had a sink of my own, and yet I'm still failing to manage to keep to them for more than a couple of days!
As such I'm now giving up on the idea of washing up every day! In fact I'm giving up on ever managing to do the washing up any more frequently than what I've been consistently managing regardless of what I actually intend - about once a week. What I'm now trying to do is develop good habits that stop the kitchen from becoming a depressing health hazard in the times between washing up sessions!
My last attempt at this was attempting to develop a habit (ie, do it every day for a month), but the habit failed because it was far too ambitious for me to do on days like this when I've worked almost 10 hours with only two hours of not very restful noisy sociable lunch break and 30 minutes of non-work, non-social time! On days like this it's an achievement when I manage to eat a meal (at 10pm, whoops!), washing up as well is never going to happen!
The new super simple habits I'm aiming to develop are to once a day:
I think (hope!) that even I can manage those!
Doing that should make doing the dishes far less daunting and disgusting when I actually do have the time and energy to do them properly (all in one go, usually on Sunday).
Rinsing is a big portion of the work in doing the washing up for real, so this should give me a head start and may naturally lead to me doing small amounts of washing up mid-week. I'll also have a considerably more empty sink and should never have to deal with the job of tipping away a bowl full of pond water and rinsing the stinky residue off of all of the dishes (yes, yes, I have a problem).
...although by blogging about it, I have now probably doomed it to failure! :)
As such I'm now giving up on the idea of washing up every day! In fact I'm giving up on ever managing to do the washing up any more frequently than what I've been consistently managing regardless of what I actually intend - about once a week. What I'm now trying to do is develop good habits that stop the kitchen from becoming a depressing health hazard in the times between washing up sessions!
My last attempt at this was attempting to develop a habit (ie, do it every day for a month), but the habit failed because it was far too ambitious for me to do on days like this when I've worked almost 10 hours with only two hours of not very restful noisy sociable lunch break and 30 minutes of non-work, non-social time! On days like this it's an achievement when I manage to eat a meal (at 10pm, whoops!), washing up as well is never going to happen!
The new super simple habits I'm aiming to develop are to once a day:
- Rinse all the dishes from that day and pile them neatly
- Throw away any piles of rubbish (like tea bags) that have developed because I don't like to touch the bin (I REALLY need a different type of bin)
- Pour away any water used for soaking things that wouldn't rinse
I think (hope!) that even I can manage those!
Doing that should make doing the dishes far less daunting and disgusting when I actually do have the time and energy to do them properly (all in one go, usually on Sunday).
Rinsing is a big portion of the work in doing the washing up for real, so this should give me a head start and may naturally lead to me doing small amounts of washing up mid-week. I'll also have a considerably more empty sink and should never have to deal with the job of tipping away a bowl full of pond water and rinsing the stinky residue off of all of the dishes (yes, yes, I have a problem).
...although by blogging about it, I have now probably doomed it to failure! :)
