Saturday, July 14, 2012

Someday is NOT a day of the week

I tend to channel my inner Scarlett O'Hara, particularly when I don't want to do something.  I say to myself, "I'll think about that another day".  However, with a large to-do list and a house load of chores to do, more often than not, I really need to channel my inner NIKE ad exec, and just do it.

That being said, there are some times you just need to get things done and you have to resort to alternative methods to get some help.  I'm not suggesting it's going to be easy, especially if you have teenagers, but here are a few ideas you may want to try out:

Procrastinate.  Do you ever feel as if you are the only person in your house who knows how to load the dishwasher, or do a load of laundry?  Well, stop doing it for several days and let everything pile up.  Eventually someone will take the hint and load it, right?  (Uh, well this is actually WRONG!  If you or your significant other don't do it, no one will, so just bite the bullet and do it yourself.)
Buy ice cream.  This is only effective on very small people, particularly those under 6 years old.  If you have tiny people living in your home, you can bribe them with ice cream to help or do small chores.

Fail miserably.  If you do something badly enough, enough times, you will find you will not be asked to do it again.  My teenage daughter is particularly good at this tactic, so I'm thinking of how to turn the tables on her!

Get sick.  Although this is a bit drastic, a house full of kids all managed to get themselves meals, and keep the house relatively clean when I had the mother-of-all summer colds.  Did I detect sympathy in their eyes?  Either way, stuff got done!

Win the lottery. Nothing makes better sense - win big and you can hire someone to do chores.  If it makes you feel better, you can call this strategy "outsourcing" or "delegating".

Well I hope that was helpful!  Unfortunately, it seems my garden isn't going to water itself, and the lawn furniture isn't going paint itself either.   So despite all of these extremely useful suggestions, I think I'll just double up on my B vitamins, have another cup of coffee, and get moving.

 

 

 

 

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