I'm the queen of focus on your goals, hide yourself from the daily to do list like laundry because it'll be there when you finish anyway. Make your minutes in this life matter. Coffee with a friend because she needs an ear, cuddling with your baby, watching a movie with your spouse, and anything that directly affects your bank account are all more important than those dishes, dusting, laundry, etc.
It's no lie that I hate certain elements of laundry to the point the stacks and stacks of clothes find their usual home in a laundry basket. I don't have too much trouble actually getting clothes to the washer & starting it...the delay comes in getting them transferred to the dryer. Then, I must rewash them because they've sat in the washer too long & ohhh gawd the horrific smell of "you know." No lie, I've got an easy peasy resolve of that smell through a few drops of purification in with the laundry soap itself (that stuff makes poop smell like sweet lemonade with no exaggeration). Then once it's to the dryer, I do turn it on to complete the process, but it may be days before it gets taken out...or it gets placed into its' home until I absolutely can't stand it anymore. There's a wide range of time that goes by before the "I can't stand it anymore" ignites action of actually putting it away.
When I do get the action rolling on folding...that usually doesn't bother me too much & I'll get those all stacked up & put away. SHIRTS tho are my downfall because they have to go on a hanger & be hung up. There's something about that process (No, at this moment I don't know why) that I absolutely HATE! So while I'll get all the other clothes folded & put away...the shirts then join the family of shirts pile on our cedar chest in the bedroom again until I can't stand it anymore. There's something about misery loving company, and that chest then finds multiple things placed on it from receipts, new fall decor that I've bought, jewelry that I've taken off, opened mail packages, and the pile piles on up. Our cedar chest is the magnet for all things I don't want to deal with, you know like that treadmill, exercise bike, or the vacuum, but why the chest...it has no exertion requirement calling out to me that I need to face.
This morning I decided I was going to face this 2 weeks worth of clean laundry that needed to go where it belonged. In the midst of all this I've picked a book to listen to (Audible has became my new friend, and I'm questioning why it's taken me so long to discover it) called Finish: Give Yourself The Gift of Finish by Jon Acuff. I don't suggest many books, but this one that needs to be read by every single house. Why, you ask, because perfection has lied to us in a very subtle but aggressive way. One of the biggest takes I had gotten from this book was that...
"the word "until" is nothing more than perfection dressed up in a Halloween costume!"
Big eyes here, and mouth dropped to the floor...eye opener! Genius! So, when you talk listen for your "until". There's a whole bunch of revelations in the words of this book, so I won't give anymore spoiler alerts; GO GET THE BOOK!
Back to my morning, I decide to take one of his tips I'd got from the book to face my laundry situation. While I won't go into detail about the tip, I'll say I changed my goal to only hang up the shirts. You know what? Not only did I hang up the shirts, I put ALL the laundry away, swept the floor in my bedroom, dusted, threw away all the piles of trash on the cedar chest or placed everything where it belonged, and made my bed (typically don't because I'm gonna crawl right back in it tonight). I FINISHED the book, laundry, and all the above by noon today. Reward...the rest of the day to do what I want. I'm not looking at the other rooms (past experience says I do that) that need such details as defeat. Perfection would try to say I've failed because the entire house isn't that way. I'm calling BS on perfection today & nothing has felt so freeing. Thank you to Jon for the book...something tells me that my house will be cleaner overall, my guilt will have been crushed by revelations, and I'll walk in many more victories because I will FINISH. You are worthy of FINISH.
