Good Habits: Learning to Overcome Lazy Bones

[Greg Freeman]

I finally moved into a place by myself, and although I got away from (sometimes) messy roommates, I'm learning how messy I am myself. It's a struggle just to do the basic things sometimes, like just keeping the kitchen clean after whipping up some dinner, and keeping the laundry manageable. Pain in the recovering leg doesn't help the situation either, but it's easier than it has been.

How do you folks get in those good habits? I think I picked up flossing about 80% of the time now, but sometimes it's so hard to overcome the lazy bones.

 

[wolram]

It is just a matter of not letting things pile up, leave pots and pans to soak while you have your meal, this makes sure you can not use the sink again until you have washed up, next wash pots, pans, change water and do the dishes etc, let them drain while you clean work surfaces and bin any junk, then dry plates, pots etc, 15 to 20 mins max.
Keep a small laundry basket, as soon as it is full is the time to do washing, no excuses.
In other words instead of having to constantly buy new socks because your big toe nail keeps putting holes in them, cut your toe nails.
Keep jobs small and you gain time in the long run.

 

[lisab]

I used to be in that same situation! There's nothing worse than being the kind of person who likes things neat, but doesn't like to clean.

But Woolie's right, you just have to get into the habit of keeping things clean - there's no trick, really. Or you can adjust to things being untidy.

 

[Greg Freeman]

I felt soo good today because after I cooked an awesome meal I managed to get myself to bleach the kitchen counters/stove and then did ironing.

I mean, I did some serious ironing. The mound was about 4 feet high and i got through it all in an hour and a half. I didn't hate it as much as I thought I would.

 

[Cyrus]

Sounds like you need a wife. -I mean.....HIGH FIVE. (Tap tap tap, Tap tap tap. Hello? This thing on? Tap tap, eeeeerrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuuu thump thump).

I can't stand messes. I organize my clothes by type, then color. My books are organized by course, all my school papers from undergrad are in a filing cabinet sorted in hanging folders by course, my shoes are sitting on a shoe rack sorted by type and color. My tools are sorted by metric and USA.

Its the the point where I hate getting magazines in the mail because I never have time to read them and they pile up. I HATE magazines ARGHHHH>


But when I want something, BING its right there. It must be the swiss genes in me from my grandfather.

I told a guy at work once he needed to lower the entropy and clean his office (its a freaking mess). He quickly replied "entropy, is the most natrual state of distorder". Damn, he got me good that time.

 

[oedipa maas]

I try to have all the dishes clean at the end of the day.

Generally I try to maintain my apartment in a state such that I wouldn't feel embarrassed if a friend suddenly decided to visit. eg Laundry in hamper, clothes in closet, bathroom sparkling and PRL's not roaming around on the floor beside my bed.

 

[wolram]

One habit i must get into is drying the lino in the bathroom after a bath, my arm hand and bum hurt now, all for a few minutes work.

 

[Moonbear]

Sounds like you need an OCD roommate, like Cyrus.

Wollie's suggestions are good ones. One thing that keeps my laundry from piling up is I finally live in a house with the laundry closet on the second floor (where the bedrooms are). I just use the washer as a clothes hamper (only once in a while I have something that needs to be separated out and can't be washed with whites that throws off this system, but then I just do all the towels, which aren't white so can be washed with darks that might bleed). When it's full, I add detergent and turn it on. Getting the laundry folded is a different story, I'm very lazy about that. I need to find a guy who is compulsive about needing to sort and fold or hang up clothes when the laundry is done.

The easiest way to get the cleaning done is to have something else you want to procrastinate doing MORE than the cleaning, so then you'll suddenly find all sorts of energy for cleaning while putting off doing the other chore.

 

[Moonbear]

I try to have all the dishes clean at the end of the day.

Generally I try to maintain my apartment in a state such that I wouldn't feel embarrassed if a friend suddenly decided to visit. eg Laundry in hamper, clothes in closet, bathroom sparkling and PRL's not roaming around on the floor beside my bed.

Yep, that's another approach...invite people over often enough that you have to keep up the cleaning so the place is presentable.

One habit i must get into is drying the lino in the bathroom after a bath, my arm hand and bum hurt now, all for a few minutes work.

Ouch, Wollie! Put a towel or bathmat down on the floor so the water drips onto that, not directly on the floor. All that moisture around the tub/shower will start to rot your floors over time. I don't know how guys manage to get so much water on the bathroom floors. Do you jump out of the shower sopping wet and do a wet dog shake or something? I just start toweling off while still standing in the tub/shower and just finish off my feet as I step out.

 

[wolram]

It is the ducks fault, splashing about as he does.

 

[NeoDevin]

I have a wife who cleans up and does my laundry for me.

Edit: I would be screwed without her.

 

[binzing]

Sounds like you need an OCD roommate, like Cyrus.

Does that mean Cyrus is OCD or he has had an OCD roommate.

 

[binzing]

It is the ducks fault, splashing about as he does.

Do you have a pet duck? I've had a few, but outside. I have a friend who has one though, and it comes inside.

 

[Moonbear]

Does that mean Cyrus is OCD or he has had an OCD roommate.

Read Cyrus' post #5 and decide for yourself.

 

[Cyrus]

Read Cyrus' post #5 and decide for yourself.

The funny thing is, I too am lazy. So when things get messy then I can't take it any more and organize everything. I found that there IS a trick to staying organized though!

Everything has a place, and there's a place for everything!

I went to the container store and bought organizers. When things have a place, its almost effortless to just 'put them away'. When you have to go though things and place them here and there and sort this and that every time, no one wants that kind of hassle.


People from the middle east/asia don't walk with shoes in the house. So they go in the jacket closet downstairs. They would end up going all over the place and marking up the walls. So I got one of these for around 10 bucks.

Instantly solved. There organized, it takes no effort, and the walls never get marked. Now try to organize your shoes w/o this thing. You have to pick them up, place them in a row. Make sure when you put them in their space in the row they don't fall over the ones next to them. With this little shelf I can just 'throw' them in their space and it won't spill over other shoes.

 

[Moonbear]

The funny thing is, I too am lazy. So when things get messy then I can't take it any more and organize everything. I found that there IS a trick to staying organized though!

Everything has a place, and there's a place for everything!

I went to the container store and bought organizers. When things have a place, its almost effortless to just 'put them away'. When you have to go though things and place them here and there and sort this and that every time, no one wants that kind of hassle.People from the middle east/asia don't walk with shoes in the house. So they go in the jacket closet downstairs. They would end up going all over the place and marking up the walls. So I got one of these for around 10 bucks.

Nice pumps there Cyrus.

Instantly solved. There organized, it takes no effort, and the walls never get marked. Now try to organize your shoes w/o this thing. You have to pick them up, place them in a row. Make sure when you put them in their space in the row they don't fall over the ones next to them. With this little shelf I can just 'throw' them in their space and it won't spill over other shoes.

Yes, space to put stuff makes it a lot easier to stay organized. This is a bit more difficult when one lives in a small apartment with limited space for storage. Even when you're tidy, if you don't have a lot of closet space, things look cluttered quickly. On the flip side, one of the biggest reasons people have trouble keeping up with clutter is they just have too much junk they don't need. It's amazing how quickly we can accumulate stuff.

For some reason, I've always found it easier to keep things tidy when I have to share space. The people who work in my lab with me all think I'm OCD because I'm constantly tidying up and putting things back in their places and I have specific places for everything. But I think it has to be that way in a shared space, partly so everyone who needs stuff can find it since everyone puts it in the same place, and partly because it takes very little time before everything looks like a complete disaster the more people you have each leaving just one or two things out and not put away.

Same thing when I've had roommates, I've been very particular about making sure everything was always put away and tidy. Part of it is just courtesy...my messes affect people besides myself in those cases.

Living alone, it's a lot easier to let things go longer without keeping up with the cleaning, but then I reach that point where I can't stand it anymore and go on a cleaning spree. A couple weekends ago, I did that with my home office. Completely reorganized, even got rid of an old desk that was taking up space and I wasn't using for anything other than hiding old crap I was avoiding organizing, so pulled all that stuff out of the drawers, threw away most of it since it was just piling up unused, and moved the desk to the garage...we have a recent graduate joining our lab as a technician and moving down here soon (a former intern) who doesn't have a lot of money, so I'm going to see if she needs a desk since it's a small size for small apartments, and if not, it's going to the trash (or free for the taking for whoever comes around the night before trash collection). Anyway, yeah, when I finally get around to a cleaning spree like that, I'm kind of the same way where everything will be stacked in size order or color order or whatever...it just looks so nice when I'm done and I keep it organized longer before entropy sets in again. But, the nice thing is it never takes me long to clean when it's time to clean (except my office which has a mind of its own) because yeah, I do have places for everything when I get around to putting them there, so it doesn't take a lot of thinking about where to put them. The real chore is when I do things like dump out all the drawers and pull everything out of the closets because I'm running out of room and decide it's time to toss things I never use anymore or that have gotten too worn out. That usually gets done twice a year coinciding with transitioning from cool weather to warm weather clothes and vice versa. When I pull the summer clothes out, it's time to go through the ones from storage and the winter clothes going into storage and toss out whatever is hopeless out of style, doesn't fit anymore, worn out, or that I've just realized I don't like enough to wear often...if it has sat in the closet the entire season without being worn once, and is something other than a suit that really does only get worn rarely, then it's time to toss it. It makes more space for everything else so that keeps the clutter down again.