Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to put things all the way away. Your
Speaker 1: stuff doesn't need a layover when it is getting from
Speaker 1: here to there. So I am fascinated by the ways
Speaker 1: that people manage and think about tidying up. One thing
Speaker 1: I have noticed is that a lot of people have
Speaker 1: waypoints where they deposit items that are out of place
Speaker 1: before they put them where they actually belong. Maybe you
Speaker 1: have a pile at the foot of the stairs for
Speaker 1: things that belong upstairs, and another pile at the top
Speaker 1: of the stairs for things that need to go downstairs.
Speaker 1: Maybe the kitchen counter by the door to the hallway
Speaker 1: collects items destined for the bedrooms and bathroom down the hall.
Speaker 1: When you unload groceries, you may park toiletries, cleanex boxes,
Speaker 1: and cleaning supplies near the back door until they find
Speaker 1: their way to the bathroom. Items intended for the attic
Speaker 1: might spend weeks on the table beside the attic door
Speaker 1: before they finally get put in the right box in
Speaker 1: the right corner. Things may end up languishing in this
Speaker 1: transition spot for hours. Days or even longer. It's all
Speaker 1: kind of silly because the effort it would take to
Speaker 1: get the tissue box out of the grocery bag and
Speaker 1: straight to the bathroom, or to put the extra pantry
Speaker 1: bin in the attic is not that much more than
Speaker 1: putting it in a waist station. And since you will
Speaker 1: have to stop at the wat station at some other
Speaker 1: point in order to finish the job, the sum total
Speaker 1: of energy is less if you just do the job
Speaker 1: completely at the beginning. Now, I do understand that sometimes
Speaker 1: it's wise to batch things. If you truly do have
Speaker 1: a lot of items going up upstairs or into the attic,
Speaker 1: like say, all your holiday decorations, it might make sense
Speaker 1: to collect them and do it all at once. I
Speaker 1: also suspect that many times the way station is actually
Speaker 1: an invitation for someone else to complete the job, perhaps
Speaker 1: because you feel like you have done enough. And I
Speaker 1: believe it that may be entirely true. But if that
Speaker 1: is the case, then you are better off just telling
Speaker 1: the person to deal with the item, because most likely
Speaker 1: it will sit there for a long long time until
Speaker 1: you do get around to finishing the job yourself. So
Speaker 1: instead of sharing the load, you have just increased your own. Now,
Speaker 1: I am personally not that much bothered by things being
Speaker 1: in the wrong place, but I know that some people
Speaker 1: do get bent out of shape by clutter and they
Speaker 1: find it hard to concentrate. If that is the case,
Speaker 1: then putting some thing all the way away is definitely
Speaker 1: going to cause fewer negative feelings than seeing the item
Speaker 1: for days. So finish the job and you won't have
Speaker 1: to think about it again. In the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.