Keeping Up

I like things to be fairly tidy. My stress level goes down, my energy level goes up, I can think more clearly and be more productive when things are in place and there isn't too much visual clutter. It's just how I am.

This was a pretty easy thing to achieve when I was single, working full time, participating in an active social life and before chronic pain came along. Life's vicissitudes have brought me an amazing husband, chronic migraines, fibromyalgia and have taken away my career. Now keeping things neat and clean is a struggle. I can't even imagine trying to do any of it and work.

Truthfully, it's hard. As soon as you dust, the dust starts to build back up. As soon as you do the dishes, we eat and more dishes need doing. As soon as you do the laundry, more laundry is produced. All housework is like that. There is always more to do. BUT, I've found that by doing two, not so simple, things I can manage fairly well.

1. I pace myself, trying not to do too many things each day. "Too many things" is a fluid concept. Some days doing anything besides a couple loads of laundry is too much. Other days I can do 3 or 4 things. The idea is to just not overdo it and end up paying the price the next day. Sounds easy enough but I've found the practice is both challenging for my type A personality and an art that takes time.

2. I must try to be more flexible. I'm fortunately that my husband doesn't really care how things look at home (which is a double edged sword) so on days when not much gets done, or if things pile up he honestly doesn't care and likely won't even notice. The good news is that all the pressure I feel to make things nice comes 100% from me so I know that someday I'll actually be more flexible. I'm working on it - baby steps.

Like all things in life, I guess it's all about the journey.