Tip Tuesday--Little Jobs

Have you ever been stumped on whether or not to empty the silverware basket on the dishwasher, or wipe off the kitchen counter, or change the empty toilet paper roll, put the next bag into the trash can.  Well I have.  



A while back I read in a book that if you are stuck trying to decide if you should do a task now, or wait, the deciding factor should be if it would take less than one minute to complete the task then you should do it now.

If these are the sorts of things you are thinking about, you might need more to do.  Wait, I think about these things and I don't feel like I need anymore to do.  Maybe if you are thinking about these things you have too much to do.  Yes, that MUST be the case.  

These ideas are an attempt to make you feel more in control of how things look and feel in your house.  For me these help reduce the feeling of chaos.  I'm a visual person and like things to be cleared off and empty, but not everyone in my house feels that way so flat surfaces tend to attract all manner of 'stuff'.  

I should have taken a picture of my dining room table, but I just finished cleaning it off this morning after a full week of clutter.  

So here are some ideas to get you started in the do it now category:

• change the toilet paper roll (you could multitask here)
• wipe down the kitchen counter (totally guilty here this week, or perhaps I just didn't have one minute)
• remove one thing from the kitchen table that doesn't belong
• return one item to the room where it belongs 
• water a plant
• refill the hummingbird feeder (though getting the yellow jackets off sometimes extends the time beyond one minute)
• replace the trash bag in the trashcan (one could insist that the person taking out the trash is not complete with the job until the replacement bag is in the can)
• keep a few replacement bags in the bottom of the trash can if the can is more than one step away from where extra bags are kept to make the above job easier
• empty the silverware basket
• load the silverware basket
• load one set of plates
• hang up your work clothes as soon as you take them off
• pick up/sort through your half-dirty pile (those are clothes that have been worn, aren't dirty enough to be washed yet, but aren't clean enough to be folded and put away)
• check your calendar for what is happening today/tomorrow and the next two days
• decide what to have for dinner
• take something out of the freezer for dinner tomorrow night
• write down a needed grocery item while you still remember that you need it (for the over 40 reader)
• write down that you no longer need mustard on your grocery list (again for the over 40 reader)
• you ideas????