the little things

It's the little things that are easy to do, but also the hardest.  The little things as in, the little chores that keep the house clean and neat so you don't have to have a trashed house that requires hours of cleaning.  I have noticed a cycle: the house get a little out of control from a day or two of not doing a few things, I get it back in control by cleaning for hours,  I vow I will maintain and I maintain for a few days, but then one evening I just don't feel like cleaning the entire kitchen (I just do the dishwasher items) or not folding the laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer so it sits for a week in a basket, the kids clothes don't get put in the dirty clothes basket, and the list goes on, but the little things don't get done and before I know the house looks like a mess.  I realized this week that the simple things don't take very long and don't require a lot of energy and I need to just do them because one load of laundry is a heck of a lot easier to fold and put away then 4 or 5.  I can't figure out why though I put off the little things, why I don't remember that little things compound into big things that take a lot of time.  So this week I am focusing on taking the five minutes and picking up/cleaning up/folding/whatever and hopefully this will keep the house neater.   I think that sometimes I don't do the little things because I get tired of being the only one doing anything so I think I may leave something for Jeff to do, but since he doesn't do the little things or the big things it is a very dumb counter-productive thing to do.  So this week I hope to get the little things done and I asked Jeff to do the same, hopefully he will be on board because it will only work with his help, it will keep me from being resentful and irritated.  So week 1 of focusing on the little things begins today.