The approach of spring, which if you follow this blog, you would imagine fills me with joy and anticipation had the opposite effect on me this year. I laid on the couch recovering from food poisoning in a dirty house and looked out the window at a garden in such bad shape I just wanted to rip it out and sod the whole thing.
Have you been there?
And as a beekeeper spring means even more work and the clock is ticking and doesn't stop because I'm over all the things. While I was wasting time and procrastinating, because that's what we do when we don't have a plan, I found a bunch of cleaning videos on YouTube. I have to say watching someone else clean has an almost magical effect.
I thought, "I can at least clean the sink and wipe down my counters."
Three hours later I had deep cleaned my entire kitchen including cleaning the oven and the refrigerator.
If you are stuck I highly recommend any of the "clean with me" videos on YouTube that appeal to you. The attitude adjustment is almost instant.
A week later I had finished my setting the house in order and doing it reminded me of my mom, who believed spring cleaning was a team sport.
She'd pick a day and put on a stack of records or turn up the radio and set us to work taking apart our rooms or helping her in the kitchen or living room and clean the things that didn't get done in our regular daily or weekly chore list. This included things like moving furniture to sweep behind it and dusting pleated lampshades with a paint brush. No one ever wanted to do any of this but once we got started we began looking for things to clean and to see dirt that had been invisible to us only the day before.
She made it feel like an event with open windows and music. After a few hours of work she'd yell, "Break time!" We'd all sit down and eat some terrible corporate mid century junk food like Ruffles and French onion dip or rip open a bag of Chips Ahoy. Then it was back to work fueled by Coke and and chemicals. At the end of the day we were all exhausted but satisfied and the house sparkled. The air even felt cleaner.
My mother never read any books by admirals about making your bed or the power of atomic habits but she did understand the power of getting started and of making something that could have been drudgery into an event.
Maybe it's that same upbeat commraderie makes the Millenial mommies' YouTube videos fun and inspiring to watch.
What's your favorite way to motivate yourself when you don't feel like doing anything?
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