Soon-To-Be Former Procrastinator

Since my last post, I've made some changes in my life. Nothing big, just little changes but as they say, little steps will take you a long way.

I had roped an old friend of almost 10 years to teach me tennis in exchange for dinner. After tennis, he came over to collect his dues. He is those rare sort of men that would actually insist on doing the cleaning up in exchange for preparing his dinner. So while he was washing up, perhaps tuckered out from a long day and tennis, I did my usual ranting on how hard it was being a mom and a home maker. Went on telling how hopelessly useless my hubs was when it came to helping me with the house chores.

Well, this dear friend of mine then said, he imagined it is a lot of work and my husband really should help me out. However you make it sound like it's impossible to accomplish when the fact is, it's not. Huh? WTF is this man rambling about? Told him he wouldn't last a week if he was in my shoes. he smirked and said maybe, but at least he'd be more organized and disciplined about tackling the problem. Seriously, I love this friend to death but at that moment, I had really wanted to give him a good kick at his derrier!

Then with an antagonizing know-it-all look then men have, he pointed out that my real problem wasn't my husband or the kids. It was actually me. My real problem was is that I am a procrastinator.

I've always known I was a procrastinator but being called a procrastinator to my face wasn't the most pleasant of experience. Hmph! I'll show him!

So the next morning, I woke up really early and after fixing the breakfast for the children, I started to tackle my overwhelming house chores problem. I started by reorganizing the DVDs, moved to arranging my photo albums and just went on and on. Ended with two huge bags of garbage and a seriously well organized home. I even discovered that I actually did have space. Lots and lots of empty spaces! I even had an extra bedroom now!

After getting rid of the trash, I confronted my laundry. 3 huge piles that needed pressing and folding and a large basket that needed ironing. After 10 hours of non-stop house work (not to mention of almost starving my kids to death as I had forgotten to prepare their lunch. They didn't dare to interrupt me as they saw how determined I was to get my job done, they just snacked on biscuits and fruits all day long to avoid facing my wrath. Poor babies! :P)

Now I am feeling quite blessed. I have no laundry woes. Ironed shirts and blouses hanging neatly in the wardrobes. Pile ups in the sink is practically none existence and my house now looks immaculate! (Well, almost...I do have 3 kids after that all! He he.)

I have made a vow to myself to procrastinate no more. If I see a used glass, I will make myself wash it immediately. If the kids makes a mess, I will quickly pick up after them or make them clean up that very instance. I will do the laundry every day and fold the clothes before it starts piling up. I will start barking at my husband and hover around him until he washes that single plate that he had just used. This whole no procrastination process does require more effort on my part, but in the long run it does make my life much easier in the long run.

So far its been 5 days since I last procrastinated and hope over time, it will become my usual habit. If my dear friend didn't point out my problem, I guess I would still be in denial that I had a problem (or could this turnaround be me in denial? Hmm..something to ponder on...). I really should thank this man for helping out...but then being a man, he'd probably be all smug about it. I know, I'll just fix him a nice dinner and then consider that we are even. Yup that's definitely what I'll do. At least, if I find myself relapsing...at least he'll never know. That's dignity for me! Ha ha!:P

Chores, chores and more chores.

House chores are the bane of my existence. In addition to it having zero fun factor, it is monotonous, exhausting, infuriating and has the tendency to pile up with a vengeance.

I admit that I am a natural born procrastinator. Procrastinators and house chores just doesn't go so well together. It's like mixing water and oil. My tendency to delay house chores constantly results in my house being a complete wreck. As much as I hate house chores, I can't tolerate mess either. Being around mess just brings out the worst in me. 

I've always had a maid to attend to the house chores when I was growing up. On top of that, I lived with 3 neat freaks at home. My dad was consistently redecorating and rearranging the house. My mom was quite zealous when it comes to dealing with mess and if I was born to be a natural procrastinator, my sister is a natural born Nazi when it came to tidying up and keeping things in its exact order. I was constantly berated for my lack of tidiness and the constant chaos I tend to leave behind.  However, since these three characters and the maid was always quick to clean up after me, who can blame me for being totally oblivious to mess? As far as I'm concern, I'm as tidy as tidy can be. :))

Then I married and even messier procrastinator. Guess there is truth to the saying, what goes around, comes around. Never have had to deal with mess, I am now overwhelmed by it. It wasn't so bad when it was just the two of us. Back then ADD was always flying so I had ample of time to clean after him. Even when he had days off, he was never around long enough to produce mess that I would consider unmanageable.

9 years later, we are now blessed with three little tikes whom have all inherited ADD's messy genes. (Yeah, blame the bad genes on the dad! Ha ha!) Seriously, if I had known how much mess children leaves behind, I would have definitely opted for a cat instead...err...maybe not, a fish!. A fish can do no wrong. Worst comes to worst,  I could always flush it down the toilet! :P

The mess at home is so overwhelming, I'm currently campaigning for us to just leave everything behind and move house so I won't have to deal with this house anymore. ADD's only contribution towards house chores  is to be the sole person responsible for taking out the garbage. Trying to convince him to take on more responsibility towards the house chores is a chore of its own. So now I'm determined to rope in my kids and make them help out. I've listed down the chores that they could help out with and am bribing them with stars for who does the most house chore. At the end of the week, if they manage to score at least 40 stars, I promised them a small surprise. It has been 2 weeks in and I'm yet to determine whether this strategy of mine works or not. So far, at the end of the week, the 2 older kids have scored an average of 19 stars each. I'll give this reward chart thing a couple more weeks and if it doesn't work and I'm still overwhelmed by house chores, I think I'll run away from home. I'll just use that huge mountain of unfolded clothes on the couch as decoy! ;)