It takes less than 10 minutes to empty a dishwasher, reload it and hand wish the big pots. So why do I put it off for HOURS? I can’t stand doing it! I’ve come up with two things that help me do it and help me do it now.
- Set a timer. Set it for 5 minutes and see how much you get done. Then leave the rest. If you’re at all competitive like me, you’ll try to beat the clock, move fast and find yourself all done. Five minutes. It feels like an eternity when you’re doing dishes but it’s over in a flash!
- Reward yourself. Yep, good ‘ol positive reinforcement. For the dishes, I keep two scrubs under the cabinet. One is a sea salt scrub from Arbonne and the other is a Coconut sugar scrub I got from TJMax. When I’m done, I get to scrub my hands, leaving them super silky and smelling good after such a downer of a job.
This post was linked up at Works for me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.com
I do pretty good with the dishes but I have a terrible time with laundry (especially folding it and putting it away). I think both these tips could work for that, too.
Amy, this is so comforting – I am the same way about dishes! I know it's the easiest thing in the world, but sometimes I'll go a whole day letting dishes pile up because I just don't want to unload the clean ones. Ridiculous! I love the idea of a timer though – thanks!!
Oh, I'm horrible at laundry too…Actually, I'm ok washing/drying and even folding but for some reason I can not get into the closets! So weird!
I think it's partly because we get no pay off for putting them away. When we put them in at least we know our dishes will be clean and we can have something to eat with. But it's just as easy to get it out of the dishwasher as it is the cabinet. Why put it up? I'm only forced when I have a pile of dirty dishes waiting to get clean…hence a reason to do something!
I think I could have written this post! I feel exactly the same way. Why does doing the dishes or folding laundry seem so overwhelming, when in fact it only takes a few minutes? I love your suggestions of setting the timer. I find that once I start the project, I'll happily go on to finish it.
I recently tackled my … wait for it … pajama drawer. I know it's silly, but it's true. All my PJs were thrown in there, and every night I was digging through the drawer like a dope. I took everything out, refolded, decided on a few things to give away, and put the rest back neatly in the drawer. The whole process took about 5 minutes. FIVE MINUTES! Why did I wait 6 months to do it?!
Argghhh….
Oh, I really need to clean some dresser drawers out…thanks for the reminder!
Great idea! I am all about timers and rewards! Brilliant!