Habits

So, I know I get the same thing happening every season, and especially whenever I get busy. My personal-belonging-life falls apart. Even my not-so-personal-belonging-life falls apart, as much as it depends on me to keep them clean and organized. And I am really concerned that I am using incorrect punctuation, but I can't decide whether there is one too many dashes. Dash it! Oh well :)

Ok, so my conclusion after a lot of thought is that my today-self is making my tomorrow-self hate myself. I'm not doing myself a favor by not doing the dishes after each meal, or by putting off any kind of small, easily performed cleaning till tomorrow. I'm going to have change habits. Right now I feel so behind because my own laundry from LAST week is not put away yet and the kitchen is a mess from last night's flurry of cooking and eating. So. Where to start?

There are two domains that I think need to be dealt with, mostly, because they have to do with every day routine occurrences. One is the kitchen (food) and the other is the bedroom (clothes). The living room and toys don't really bother me so much -- the toys can wait, spilled food CANNOT. I'm pretty good about this in the living room because we have a carpet and I just can't let things sit. But on the kitchen floor? Eh. (I'm talking about little spills here, though, understand. They just build up if not dealt with).

So two habits to begin immediately, well, three.

1. all dishes get rinsed off when finished using them and stacked neatly on the counter next to the sink
2. all clothes get sorted immediately as to whether they can be worn again and put away or in the laundry, even if I'm planning on putting it on later again
3. I'm including this third, even though it should be a no-brainer; all recyclables and trash immediately go to their designated receptacles. It's easy for me to stash tissues by the couch, for instance, because I don't want to get up and put them in the trash. But this is, well, disgusting. Likewise, that can that held salmon is still in the sink and it's going to be disgusting if it hasn't been really well-rinsed and out, and I should have put it in the recycle yesterday

I have tried things like "All dishes must be done at night" but sometimes it's just too overwhelming or I actually don't have the time to do them. This way I can keep the kitchen at least more attractive during its dirty phases.