r/OneThingToday

Cleared off the laundry chair!

You know, the chair 🫠

I know it does not sound like a big deal, but I found two sauce containers from 2020!

Cleared out, scrubbed, and reorganized.

Next up freezer - maybe tomorrow.

Hemoglobin was just barely high enough but I made it!

Ive been dealing with severe iron deficiency (iron at a 6 instead of 100+) finalised discovered that was the cause of severely depleted energy (not being able to keep on top of things at home, falling asleep after work, losing my exercise routine). I've had an infusion now and energy levels are very slowly improving day by day.

But over the past few months while I have felt this way, I challenged myself to think differently about chores around the house. I noticed i might get a tiny random bit of energy and want to clean a window that has been bugging me, or sort through a junk drawer, but then id remind myself i SHOULD be doing a more urgent daily or weekly job, like tidy the kitchen, laundry, wash dishes, vacuum and mop, and then I'd do nothing instead.

So i started to let myself go in the direction of whatever the random chore i felt interested in doing was, and just let myself stand up and do that thing at whatever moment the urge arose. And by doing that.... a few things happened over weeks...

1. Stuff was getting done and starting to add up over time, and make my home overall feel more clean and organised wholly, the little obscure things became noticable when lots of them were done gradually. Even 1 thing a day is still 365 things (as we know here in this forum).

2. Starting on the one "interesting task" which had a "lower barrier to entry" would help me get started with no/or less friction, and often leave me motivated or already having momentum, and id do another more boring daily cleaning task (like folding laundry, vacuuming, packing dishwasher) after it. Thus, i started getting through that stuff too, bit by bit.

3. Cleaning started to become something i had an overall nicer feeling about, rather than an immediate aversion, because i was letting it be associated with doing a fun little side quest I had wanted to do for ages but told myself "theres more importan/urgent stuff you should be doung around this house. I was having small victories that made me feel overall more optimistic about facing the task of boring house chores.

Mostly just the cumulative impact of this has been awesome. Things are overall cleaner, easier, i have small victories daily doing satifying things i want to do, often tac-on another boring chire at the end and dont realise I've done it .. theres less guilt and inner dialogue about it and i just get on with getting some damn stuff done without tying myself to stupid, self imposed, rules about it, that used to make me give up. It's like the mind change side of it gave me the freedom from something that was really causing me to freeze on taking action on anything.

Highly recommend if youre struggling with similar and needing to just get *something* done.

I am about 40 km from two major fires, one to the north and one to the south.

Today, I ensured my car was filled with gas and fluids.

I packed a small bag with necessities to grab-and-go and important papers.

In the meantime, I bought groceries to last a couple of weeks and have already noticed the supply chain has been affected. My plan is to be prepared on a moment's notice, but also to be able to lock down my home for the next couple of weeks because of the smoke and emergency response activity.

I also picked up some books to read, candles, and prepared emergency items in case the power goes out. Such as freezing bottles of water in the freezer, organizing items so I can find them, etc.

I am by myself as my partner is up north. So I am planning to take some time out to declutter and clean my home. Spend some time reflecting on what is important. I am an introvert - so I don't mind being alone.

Man, it looks so much nicer now.

Feels like cheating, tbh. I've been meaning to do the dishes, so they don't pile up, but I kept procrastinating, and here we are.

Oh well. Not by hand like I planned, but at least I can see the bottom of the kitchen sink now.

I've been lax and am paying the price with tender gums. I need to incorporate this entirely. Finch has helped with other self care maintenance.