Do you procrastinate about some aspect of homemaking? I know I do at times.
I thought I would share with you a few things that have helped me to avoid procrastination over the years.
1. Many years ago I read an article which talked about the Orange Peel Principle. The basic story was that a woman had a guest drop by and as she sat conversing with her guest she noticed an orange peel on the floor. She couldn't concentrate on her guest because all she could think about was the orange peel (which her guest probably never noticed.) She sat there thinking she should have swept and mopped the floor when all she really needed to do was to pick up the orange peel. Often we make our tasks more complicated than they need to be. There is something to be said for having a basic cleaning schedule and certain standards of cleanliness, but when several people share a home it is going to look "lived in."
Is there an orange peel in your life? Sometimes housework can get overwhelming when we set a standard of perfection for ourselves. If there is some area of your home which really bothers you try to tackle it first. If you keep noticing that your blinds are dusty and it bothers you put that task at the top of your to do list. It will lift your spirits and you may find it takes much less time than you had thought it would.
2. Try to break big jobs down into smaller, more manageable sections. Not many of us can clean all our kitchen cabinets in one fell swoop, but we could clean one or two shelves a day. Most jobs can be broken down like this and often after you start a task that gives you incentive to carry on.
3. Just get started. Often big jobs can seem daunting, but when you get started and see some progress in your work it can actually start to be fun and you can do more than you had originally intended.
4. I once read a book by Marla Cilley, aka the Flylady, who has developed a system of cleaning and organizing your home. One piece of advice in her book I have found to be very liberating is: "Housework, even poorly done, blesses my home." Even when you can't clean as thoroughly or do everything you would like to be able to do, every effort you can put into cleaning, organizing, and straightening up your home will bless it.
How about you — can you share any tips for motivating us in our work?
Becka
Print this post
E-mail this post to a friend
Share this post on Facebook
If you enjoyed this post, get my RSS feed 
or get my posts by e-mail 
on Sep 14th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
It really helps me to remember the restfulness of the finished product instead of the amount of work it takes to get there. The work is easier when I remember that I’m doing it so I can enjoy my house instead of being enslaved to a list of should-have-done’s.
One thing that helped my youngsters was when we bagged up EVERYTHING in their rooms and gave them just one bag at a time to sort and put away. They had four baskets to use: IN (stuff to stay in the room), OUT (other rooms or giveaway), LAUNDRY (dirty), and TRASH. Pull one item out of the bag at a time and put it in the right bin. When a bag is empty, they put away the stuff one basket at a time. When everything in all the baskets is put away, it’s time for a new bag (unless they need a break–we all need one of those from time to time!).
They went into shock when all their things were put into the trash bags initially, but they quickly realized how helpful it was to have the thinking space to sort through the items methodically.
I also find it helpful to have a few baskets handy for a quick room blitz in the other rooms of the house; same four categories.
on Sep 28th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I do just one cleaning task a day–dust (gets scrapped more often that I’d like to admit) and laundry on Monday , vacuum on Tuesday, mop on Wednesday, laundry and groceries on Thursday and clean the bathrooms on Friday. It doesn’t hurt so much to do just one thing.
)