Beating the Laziness

Since you did not specify laziness about what, I can only give you the general rule. If its a goal you want to acheive, ask those who have achieved the goal and ask them how they did it.

Few people can motivate you like ones who have already succeeded. Plus, as a rule, they love to help others reach the same goal.

Unless you’re talking about housekeeping. In that case, you’re already an overachiever (most people are) so my advise is give in to the laziness and go do something fun!

Fast, beaty music always gets me in the mood…. Why don’t you set aside a goal of things you have to do and after its done treat yourself to s/t nice?

Do I know my customers, or what?

Trust your inner voice. YOU ALREADY DO MORE THAN NECESSARY.

Use this as a barometer: Total up the time spent doing dishes, laundry, meals prep, ect. for a 4 day period (not including Shabbos related things)

Then, compare that against the time you spent on YOURSELF in the same time slot(and talking on the phone while you iron, does not count)

If you did not carve out a quarter of that for yourself (2 hours self time to 8 hours housework) you need to do less

If you did not take at least

Just out of curiosity, what is THE laziness? 🙂

The Wolf

SMS –

The credo we live by is really one that was said about pesach cleaning, but it holds true to some extent for the whole year:

1) dust is not chometz

2) your spouse is not a shmatteh

3) your kids are not korbanos

That said, (even though I’m the male half of the BPT partnership) I know a thing or two about housekeeping, and cooking.

No, it is not acceptable to serve cereal and milk for supper, and no, changing the linen when the seasons change is too late.

But you do NOT need to make a “sheva brachos” supper each day of the week, and there is nothing wrong with asking the person who occupies the bed to at the very least strip and re-dress their own bed (unless its a toddler or invalid)

Besides, you (like all overworked housewives) need some time to recharge, and if you happen to work out of the house as well, I would change the ratio to 50/50 (housework time vs. personal time).

Running a house is hard work (I should know.. I’ve been solo since the start of the summer) and it deserves time off.

I would get a friend to partner with, and set specific goals – i.e. clean the kitchen daily, – and check in with each other at the end of the day. It’s amazing what this healthy peer pressure can do!

SMS-

Its alot easier to keep up with the mess instead of letting it pile up. Thats what I do. For example- I try to do dishes from one meal before i pile up more from the next meal because if you see a few dishes in the sink its no big deal to spend 5 minutes washing them but if there is a huge towering pile of dishes I would definitely be too lazy to do it.

Also, I set aside certain days for certain chores so that I dont feel like Im constantly doing them.

And SMS, just to confuse you, I do the exact opposite of Whatru! :o) I prefer not to spend even 5 minutes after every meal in the kitchen washing up, but rather go thru the whole kitchen (both sinks, counter tops, etc…) once a day. We also do laundry once a week (washing, that is – folding takes a bit longer!), and I iron everything at once, usually at night, often outdoors!

One thing that gets me moving for “bigger” jobs – like getting rid of clutter, washing windows, etc… is inviting company! House must look good for the company, right? (of course, that only helps the downstairs!)

Probably my most disdained household job is cleaning out the fridge. A friend shared her tip – which I haven’t incorporated yet, but maybe it will motivate you more than it did me: She always cleans out her fridge just before her weekly big shopping. That way she knows what she really needs, and her fresh food goes into a clean fridge (and it doesn’t take too long, cuz it is done weekly!)

Every once in awhile, a bowl of corn flakes with milk and a banana cut over it, makes a very nice dinner. This is particularly true on a day that I may have ‘done lunch” with a friend and eaten more than I usually do at noon. It works for me.