1. Dishes & Laundry – The Never Ending Story
Every day I watched the waiters load stacks and stacks of dirty dishes onto huge trays, and ladies in lovely rubber boots bring back piles of sparkly clean ones. I also watched a man leave with a massive cart of dirty laundry only to return with another bin of beautiful folded, fluffy white towels.
Both dishes and laundry are a never-ending cycle. They are perpetually flowing from dirty to clean to put away to dirty again and on and on. You must have a system to keep up with this flow because they won’t care for themselves.
2. Meal Planning isn’t a bad thing.
Knowing what you are going to eat every night can be exciting. You look forward to dinner time. It also completely negates the “What’s for Dinner?” question. If you always have a plan, you might never hear it again. Planning makes it easy to determine what ingredients you need.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple is better. Monday – Chicken, Tuesday – Tacos, Wednesday – BBQ, Thursday – Beef, Friday – Chinese, Saturday – Left-Overs, Sunday – Freezer Meal. Then have a few go-to simple meals that you can make in less than 30 minutes when you don’t feel like following the plan.
3. You don’t need much stuff to be comfortable.
Having a baggage allowance can feel pretty limiting; Leo and I had a limit of one bag each. We have one luggage set, so he got the carry-on size, and I got the bigger one. Of course, we swapped when hauling them through the airport, but that’s a whole different story – I digress.
I always get stressed about packing. I needed to fit EVERYTHING I was going to need for the next two weeks into an Amazon box, and it had to weigh less than 50 lbs. I was sure I needed four pairs of shoes; I wore only two. I took 14 dresses. On the 12th day, I finally unpacked the last three to prove I hadn’t over-packed, just like Leo told me I had. I took books I didn’t even open. I took a lot of lotions and potions I thought were essential that I never even used. You don’t need as much as you think you do.
4. BE FLEXIBLE
There is no need to be busy. Busy is a filler word we use when people ask how we are, so we don’t have to say we are completely overwhelmed with life, but we don’t know how to slow down. We are scared about what we may find out about ourselves if we slow down long enough to listen to ourselves and our loved ones.
Why not go with the flow? Why try to fill every moment of every day? It’s so much easier to take what comes to you. Be in the moment. Listen to your body. Do what feels good. Stop trying to keep up with the Jones. They aren’t very much fun anyway (trust me, we met them).
5. If you maintain every day, you’ll never be overwhelmed.
We usually rent a condo, but as a treat this year, we stayed at an all-inclusive resort, I’m telling you – I love me some maid service. They are like little cleaning fairies spreading clean and joy. They make the bed, straighten the towels, fold the toilet paper into little triangles, straighten up and make all the surfaces clean and shiny – I love me some shiny! It got me thinking – a little every day keeps a space eternally clean.
ETERNALLY CLEAN, Y’ALL! We met some Texans, and I just loved them – again, I digress. We all strive for eternal cleanliness. It seems like an unachievable goal. The solution is so simple it’s laughable – do a little every day. Well duh!
6. BE KIND
Too often, when I visited the front desk, I found the person next to me was being rude and disrespectful to the poor person behind the desk. Why do people think yelling and carrying on will get them further than being kind and grateful? People in the service industry are there to earn a living. They are not there to be punching bags. That poor girl behind the desk didn’t purposely break your air conditioning, lose your room key, delay your flight, or misunderstand your order. It is their job to HELP you. If you treat people like garbage, they are less likely to care about you. Again, it comes down to a simple concept – treat others the way you would like to be treated.
7. I love clean sheets and a freshly made bed.
I read somewhere that Oprah has her sheets changed every day. There is almost nothing better than sliding into crisp, clean sheets at the end of a long day. Everyone deserves to have that feeling every night. It’s not so hard to give yourself that luxury. I’m not saying you need to change your sheets daily, but weekly isn’t too far of a stretch. It’s one extra load of laundry a week. If you have too much laundry already and this is too much, maybe it’s time to get rid of some clothes or teach your kids to do their own.
8. BE GRATEFUL
Brené Brown is right when she says, “There is no joy without gratitude.” The same goes for war and peace, love and hate, happy and sad. You can’t have one without the other. You cannot truly appreciate one thing without acknowledging that the other exists. Simplicity reigns again. Enjoy and appreciate the small stuff every day.
In no particular order, today I am grateful for my home; for VIPoo when sharing a bathroom with my partner in Mexico; that JP Wisers makes whiskey; for my family; for the neighbours I love and the ones I hate; for car washes and laundry machines and dishwashers. I am thankful my plants survived for two weeks without water and that I didn’t have to do the same. It’s pretty easy to be grateful if you practice. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Please don’t make it more than it needs to be. To experience joy, you must practice gratitude. Simple!
9. I am grossly out of shape.
In my regular 9-5 life, I spend most of my time at my desk. The most exertion I have in my day is walking to and from my car. During our vacation, we walked a lot! Just walking through the airport left me winded. Why was every gate I needed to get to the very furthest one? It wasn’t, but it sure felt that way.
I am a relatively young woman. I should not feel like this when I need to walk more than 50 yards. I also realize I am not getting any younger and will not get any healthier if I don’t put in the effort. I have to move my body every day. I have pushed myself hard to do home workouts in the past, and then when I started to feel the inevitable soreness in my muscles, I would take a rest day or two – or more accurately, a couple of rest months.
That behaviour has not served me well. I now realize I need to keep it simple (like everything else). I will start small and be consistent. I will build on my small victories. Most importantly, I will be kind to myself.
10. BE TO BECOME
Living in today’s world is hard enough without making things harder on yourself.
We are bombarded with information. We are constantly comparing our regular lives with other people’s highlights. Be kind to yourself. Keep things simple. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Busy is ridiculous. Let it be easy. Be grateful and enjoy the fleeting moments every day. It’s not hard to enjoy simple things, so do it!
