Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Don't Sit in the Comfy Chair

As I was driving home from karate practice last night, I was thinking of things that I needed to do when I got home. After karate is generally a good time to do things- I tend to feel more energetic after practice, so I try to knock off a household chore or three before I settle down with a book. Now there is always a long list of things that I want to do at home. And as I contemplated my mental list with some irritation, I asked myself a very simple question. What point is there in being annoyed at things not being done, when the reason they aren't done is I'm not doing them?

I want to be very clear- this isn't a spousal dispute. My delightful spouse does his share of the chores, and with better grace than I do. The kind of chores that are bugging me are ironing the pile of (my) clothes that have been sitting up in the sewing room for...um, a while. Mending the two or three items that have been waiting for attention even longer. Not being able to sew because the sewing room is full of crap. The piles of clutter that are sitting in the living room where I dumped them because it was less trouble than putting them away properly. Collecting tools left all around the house because I didn't put them away in the workshop downstairs when I was through with them. Not being able to find tools I need because I left them all around the house instead of putting them away in the workshop where they belonged. Having materials for multiple projects sitting around waiting for me to get a Round Tuit.

The solution to this is pretty simple, too. Don't sit down. Especially don't sit down somewhere comfortable. That's a surefire route to picking up a book or my knitting and spending the rest of the evening in an immobile lump, excepting only the flip of pages or the click of needles. Pure basic physics-- a body at rest tends to remain at rest. (Especially if it's my body.)

You'd think that by my age, I'd have figured out that pleasant diversions need to be balanced by some picking-up-and-putting-away, and that making a list of projects needs to be followed by some doing-of-projects or the list just gets overwhelmingly long.

Hopefully writing it down on the blog will help me to remember.

Last night, I made a start. I stayed on my feet. Picked up, cleaned up. Washed my raincoat and winter coat (something I've been telling myself to do for a while- they were disgusting). Cleared off the ironing board, ironed, and did the fifteen minutes of mending needed to get things out of the sewing room and back into the closet. Put tools in the basement. Paid a couple of bills.

It's never a surprise to me how much better I feel after having done this stuff. Now I just have to remember how to do it more regularly. Stay out of the comfy chair. At least until chores are done.

Comfy!
Biscuit's only chore is being a cat, which he does just as well in a comfy chair as anywhere else.

3 comments:

  1. I think Biscuit has the right idea!

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  2. I used to have a Round Tuit! Clever little potholder it was.

    And thanks for the gratuitous kitty-belly photo. That always makes me smile.

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  3. This is a familiar feeling! I'm trying to get better about spending some time out of my comfy chair before I get into my comfy chair (note: not being very good about it this morning - the laundry's in, but I've gotten hung up in blogland!) :)

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