Have you ever gone to bed at night, only to wake up to a sink full of dishes? You tell yourself, “Why didn’t I wash those dishes last night?” Then you spend all day washing dishes that little and big people spent all day dirtying. Only to repeat the cycle the next night. Eventually those negative thoughts creep up; “You are a horrible mom, wife, house keeper!” “You can’t go to bed with a dirty kitchen.” “What would your mother think?” “Were you raised in a barn?” “What have you done all day to where you can’t do those last bit of dishes?” Or some other form of self judgement.
STOP NOW!
If it’s not dirty dishes, you may have some other chore. Something that you put off out of the pure disdain for the task. No? Oh, please share your secrets. However, if you are like me, welcome welcome, share below in the comments. I have always disliked doing dishes. It’s no wonder this carried over into adulthood. I think back to my teenage years of dish duty. I would run a nice hot sink full of soapy water. You know because the dishes needed to soak for a while. I would return, later on, to one of two scenarios. Scenarios that seemed to reoccur. First scenario; return to cold, dirty water. No way I could wash them in there. Oh, I know! Run hot soapy water again and let soak. Second scenario; return hours later to clean dishes and empty sink. Usually, the second scenario occurred after the first scenario. Thanks mom, I don’t know if she knew my pattern or just got tired of seeing a sink full of dirty dishes.
Now fast forward 20 year or so and some things have changed and others not. I tried the soak and magically washed dishes with my husband early on in the marriage. It didn’t last long. He got tired of washing my dishes and began only washing his. How dare he, right? I also realized running water to later drain and repeat was not environmentally friendly and pretty wasteful. After the twins came dishes seemed to be a never-ending cycle throughout the day. So, I have made it a point to be done with house work when the kids go to bed, subconsciously of course. What is not done now will not get done until the morning. No, the house won’t fall apart in 8-12 hours, at least I hope not. Yes, it may seem like more work for the next day but not really if you repeat the cycle.
Is this really good advice?
Well, that depends on how you look at it. Will your work pile up? Maybe! Will you still be tired in the morning? Definitely! Did you spend the quiet time doing something you wanted to? I hope so! Are you practicing self-care? Please say yes! Are you spending time on a business, hobby, or personal development? You better be! In the end the task will continue, but what you do with your “free” time makes all the difference in how you approach the tasks of tomorrow.
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