Wax On, Wax Off...

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’ve always got a long list of things to do, and never quite finish any one project. This happens whether I’m at work, or at home, and it just leaves me with this unsatisfied feeling, no matter how busy I am, I never seem to get anything fully accomplished, beginning to end.

THIS is why I love doing dishes. Strange as this may sound, hear me out.

I’m well aware that most people hate doing dishes, and that for most people the dishwasher is one of the world’s greatest inventions. I too was a subscriber to the “dishwashers rule” philosophy. That is until my dishwasher crapped out. I could get it fixed, or even replaced, but the truth is, I have a long list of more important items, which take financial priority, and a dishwasher just doesn’t rank that high. I live alone, and am fully capable of washing my own dishes by hand. For the most part, I don’t necessarily look forward to this task, and yes, there are days when I just let the dishes sit and accumulate before I pull up my shirtsleeves and dig in.

But here’s the thing I realized the other day as I began putting away my last load of dishes from the dish rack, and began washing the new set of dishes in the sink. Here’s something I can do, beginning to end, in a span of 10 minutes tops. I put away the dry dishes, wash the dirty ones, and set them out to dry. And suddenly the sink is clean, and shiny, and WOW, what a sense of accomplishment.

Other household chores, not so much! With laundry, I start a load, have to wait an hour for that to be done, and into the dryer before I can start another one, and eventually, I forget all about it, and wind up with smelly wet clothes in the washer for a day or two before I have to wash them all over again. Housecleaning? That’s an all day project, and being a creature of habit, I always start in the kitchen and run out of energy by either the bedroom, or definitely by the office, which is always the last room to clean, and therefore, always end up with a messy office. And as much as it feels great to have a nice clean house, it just takes too damn long to reach that end, and there’s always something else to do, so it’s never a “DONE” deal.

At work? Well, the thought of completing any one project at my job is laughable. Not only am I constantly interrupted with stupid questions from my coworkers or telephone calls, or new projects that are being thrown at me, but every little thing I do requires some sort of response from somebody else. Some projects can take days, others weeks, months, years! No immediate sense of accomplishment there.
So, this leaves me with dishwashing. Instantaneous completion. So, the next time you are grumbling over having to wash the dishes, just think about this, how many other opportunities do you have to complete a “project” in less than 10 minutes? See, it’s not so bad now, is it?