How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing with Your House's Dirty Little Secrets

by Dana K. White

Ten minutes is a really long time when you’re doing jumping jacks and a really short time when you need a nap. Basically, it’s a long time for something I don’t want to do and a short time for something I do want to do. If I find myself consistently putting something off, I’ll time myself doing it. I hate doing this thing, so it feels endless. Sometimes, realizing how un-endless it is helps me decide I don’t hate it as much as I thought I did. My best example is emptying the dishwasher. Oh, how I hate emptying the dishwasher. But as I got my dishwashing routine down, I realized the importance of this irritating step. Emptying the dishwasher is as important as running it. If I empty it first thing in the morning, I can refill it all day as dishes get dirty. I never even put them in the sink. This keeps my kitchen from getting out of control. But even after I understood the impact, I put off emptying the dishwasher. I hated doing it, and my hatred caused me to imagine I didn’t have time. I estimated the task took fifteen minutes. Some mornings I legitimately do not have fifteen minutes to spare. If I’m making lunches and finding shoes and putting hair in ponytails, a fifteen-minute, life-doesn’t-technically-depend-on-it task may have to wait. And then something my mother once said came back to me. She told me to time myself doing things I hate doing, just to get a realistic idea of how long those things actually take. So I timed myself emptying the dishwasher. It took four m...