When I was on maternity leave, I had one big goal: organize my house. I didn’t have much energy to do it after we moved in because I was pregnant and the “nesting phase” is just non-existent when I’m knocked up. There were boxes everywhere. Thankfully, my mom came over and we attacked the house one room at a time. It took all 10 weeks but we did it! I found a home for all our stuff and I purged so much. I was feeling pretty good about going back to work and keeping my house in order.
Then life happened. Shortly after going back to work, I felt like I lost control of the house again. I try keeping up with it but I feel like it never ends.
It has taken me way too long to figure out that I work better with small goals instead of big ones. Instead of saying, “I’m going to be ON all the time and keep my house completely in order every single day,” I’m better off saying, “You know what? My goal is to make my bed every morning.”
Side note: I highly recommend doing this. For pretty much my entire life, I never saw the point in making a bed every day. Seriously, you’re not home to see it and I highly doubt the dog is sitting there judging you for not making it. Why make something when you’re just going to unmake it next time you see it?
Well, fast forward to where I am now, and I made it a small goal to make my bed in the morning. And you know what? It just feels good. It makes my room look a little less chaotic and I can’t lie, I like the feeling of crawling into a made bed. It’s almost as good as crawling into a bed with fresh sheets right after shaving your legs – which, let’s be honest, is the greatest fucking feeling in the world. Anyways, I digress.
Small goals. It takes 21 days to form a habit, so long as the habit is something small. So, as busy mommas, we should think of small goals that will actually help us out more, make our lives a little less stressful, or make us feel a little better about something. For me, making the bed every day makes me feel like I have a little more control in my life. Also, making my daughter’s lunch the night before helps relieve some of the stress that comes with the hectic mornings.
One of the biggest pains in my ass is the dreaded kitchen island clutter. Ugh. I dream of the day when I live in a beautiful home that has a mudroom and a catch-all cabinet. Right now, our island is our catch-all and it sucks. I declutter it and I swear, 5 minutes later, it looks like the junk drawer threw up all over it. Clearly, committing to having it picked up every night before I go to bed is too much for me to handle (which is kind of pathetic), so I’m going to try breaking it down even more. Step one: go through the mail every day. I’ll have to check back in 21 days to see if I was able to manage it. 😬
What are some other small goals us mommas can set for ourselves?
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