To-do: Stop making to-do lists!

Short story: I failed at my attempt to stop making lists only one day into my attempt.

Longer story: (but don’t worry it isn’t all that long. Because I know that a story about making or not making lists is only bound to hold one’s attention span for….oooooh, look at that shiny thing over there!)

I grew up with a job chart. It was a list of chores that my siblings and I each had to do – one for every day of the week. It was posted on the refridgerator, lest we somehow forget about its existence.

Now, let me make this perfectly clear right from the start: I HATED that damn job chart. It made me angry. Like, turn green and rip off my shirt and tear my jeans so I’m just sporting jean shorts angry.

It wasn’t pretty.

I didn’t get paid. I couldn’t go or do anything until I did my daily job. Also? My job, no matter what it was or when I did it or if you did the same job the day before me, sucked way more than your job did.

And yet, here I am, a decade and a half past living with a job chart and I….made one for myself?!?!

But wait, let me back up to that whole “I’m not going to make lists anymore” thing.

I decided last week that I make too many lists and that being surrounded by them was starting to stress me out. The only thing stopping me was the fear that I’d forget something really important, but well…if it is that important and I forget, then it must not have been that important.

Besides, since I’m not working over the summer, I have very few scheduled commitments, so this was the perfect time to test out a listless life.

I tried. I failed.

How could I not fail? I had just bought the awesomest spiral bound triple list notepad!

Besides, I own a house now. I have responsibility. I can’t be trusted to remember what was cleaned when, can I?

So, after a few (too many) minutes of googling, I was directed to the only website where you would expect there to be approximately 17 bajillion different checklists for cleaning.

I’m talking, of course, about the website for The Craftiest and Most Organized Ex-Con EVER, Ms. Martha Stewart.

Here’s what I came up with in the end. What do you think? I have one for weekly, monthly, and seasonal things. I modified Ms. Stewarts’ lists because, well, she’s even more anal than I am. And because I live alone, don’t have kids, and am not really all that messy.

In other words, I see no need to mop the floors more often than once a month.

So, I amended my “no list” rule. I am going to try to cut down to a single list of what I want to do that day. And it has to be realistic. And has to include fun stuff.

Truth: the first day I tried this, I wrote “chill out” on the list.

I know. How sad that I have to write that on my list.

But I also wrote “make cute new sunglasses case” on my list yesterday and LO. I did that too. In a mere 20 minutes. Quite possibly the easiest and fastest little thing I have ever made.

Tutorial here.

Here’s hoping it protects my new $10 sunglasses from scratches. Which it will, provided I remember to use it.

Do you have a cleaning list? Did you have a job chart when you were a kid?