I spent all summer dreading a 39-minute chore. (clutter mess shame photos included below)
Our laundry room caught everything this summer, especially between trips. Camping supplies dumped. Beach bags, mystery socks, stuff that belonged to literally every room in the house.
In my head, cleaning it out was at least a 10-hour nightmare project, so I kept shoving it to "later."
Back-to-school was my ok-but-seriously-deadline, so I finally attacked it (the day before, haha.... i'm an adullttttt).
I decided to time this ten-hour project. It was, in fact, thirty-nine minutes.
THIRTY-NINE. MINUTES. One podcast episode.
And in the process, I discovered a new habit hack…
Habit Hack: The Matching Game Sprint
Here's the mindset shift: a mountain of clutter feels overwhelming until you realize it's really only a few categories. Once you see categories, it stops being a project and becomes a matching game.
Step 1: Haul everything to one workstation. I chose our kitchen island.
Step 2: Designate a spot for each category. Use a Post-it for each pile if that helps your brain. (Once you have a Post-it that says "Nora," you just match item to stack as fast as possible.)
Your categories:
* Trash
* Dirty laundry
* Clean laundry
* Donate
* Other room (one pile per person/space) NOTE: Don't go to those rooms each time. You'll get distracted. Save the returns for the end.
Then match, match, match. Set a timer. I bet you beat your dread estimate by hours.
Step 3: Everyone takes their pile. Return each “other room” pile to that room. Trash goes to dumpster. Laundry gets started. Clean laundry gets a folding party.
The Science: Our brains are terrible at estimating unpleasant tasks. We predict effort based on how much we're dreading something, not how long it actually takes. Psychologists call the gap between anticipated and actual difficulty "affective forecasting error," and it's why the anticipation of a chore is almost always worse than the chore itself. Sorting into categories also works because it offloads decisions: instead of 200 unique "where does this go?" choices, you make 5-10 category decisions once, then just pattern-match.
Mindset Script:
Say It With Me: "I don't have a 10-hour problem. I have a 39-minute matching game."
Challenge: What's one task you've been avoiding because it feels enormous? Estimate the time you think it'll take, then time yourself actually doing it. Report back!
xoxo,
Katie Day, your habit hype girl
(write back soon)
P.S. Next week, I'll tell you what I learned from overhauling our very creative (read: messy) middle daughter's closet. It was a bad setup which created a bad system. Now the system is running on autopilot. STAY TUNED. Hacks galore! (Do you like decluttering as a topic? Hit reply and say MORE DECLUTTERING!)
Shoutout to HotHandyman.com (jk that's my husband. please don't click that link.)
Lots of time the past few weeks in dressing rooms with my four kiddos. I do love seeing them start to develop style preferences. Especially when each of them has said "i kinda like the more simple, classic designs" OH MY MINIMALIST HEART. Is it nature? Is it nurture? Who knows, but I'm taking the win.
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"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."
Mark Twain (ughhh...I know, I KNOW, MARK. I just forget literally every day.)
After hitting rock bottom, I've embarked on a radical journey. For one year, I'm taking a break from all cynicsm and trying out some crazy self-improvement experiments (so you don't have to.)