Feeling overwhelmed? Try my favorite trick!

It was 11 pm on Sunday night and I was making my way through the living room to the kitchen. I was stepping over toys in the dark and finally made it to the light switch. The more I was able to see, the more I was frustrated. Spent. Overwhelmed. We all get there, right? When our home becomes such a disaster that we don’t know where to start. So, we spend the night flipping through pointless shows like Honey Boo Boo or Say Yes to the Dress while drinking chocolate milk… *anything* that puts off the inevitable.

You do that too, right?

Well, maybe not the Honey Boo Boo part- but I can’t help it! The show grosses me out so much that it actually makes me feel better about not cleaning my house and drinking chocolate milk instead. Awful, I know. And totally counter productive.

After frying my brain for incredibly too long, I turned off the tv and made my way to the kitchen only to find an entire weekend’s worth of dishes waiting to be washed. Groceries still needing to be put away. Craft projects strewn all over the kitchen table. Ugh, the cleaning fairy skipped my house again!

I took a deep breath and told myself “1 counter. Just clean 1 counter, then you can go to bed.”

I chose my counter and slowly began putting the dishes in the sink, threw the trash away, and put the groceries in their proper spot, and wiped it down. Once I stepped back and the counter was clean, I suddenly felt a lot more energized.

I moved on to another counter.

The stove.

Then the kitchen island.

The the high chair.

Then I took out the trash.

Before I knew it, 1 little counter turned into a lot more order. As I worked, I began racking my brain of everything that had gone on that weekend. I completed a craft project for a friend of mine, taken my daughter to the park, spent the entire morning engaged with my church family. I had talked on the phone with both of my sisters and my mom. I had spent quality time with my husband. 

I packed my weekend full of opportunities to build relationships with people I love. It didn’t excuse my choice to waste time on pointless activities when I could have been working on my blog or house. However, it gave me the grace I needed to forgive myself for being lazy. It gave me the peace of mind to go to sleep and start over again on Monday.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed today- can I challenge you to do something? Choose one thing that’s been nagging at you: one counter, one small stack of mail, one load of dishes. Go do it right now and don’t put it off any longer. If you’re feeling ambitious, think ahead to tomorrow: what one thing will you tackle then? Make sure you do it and get it out of the way. Even if you don’t accomplish anything else, you’ll be relieved you completed the tasks you did, and that might just give you the grace you need to try again tomorrow.

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