Put it all the way away

The case for just finishing the job

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to put things all the way away. Your
stuff doesn't need a layover when it is getting from

(00:24):
here to there. So I am fascinated by the ways
that people manage and think about tidying up. One thing
I have noticed is that a lot of people have
waypoints where they deposit items that are out of place
before they put them where they actually belong. Maybe you

(00:45):
have a pile at the foot of the stairs for
things that belong upstairs, and another pile at the top
of the stairs for things that need to go downstairs.
Maybe the kitchen counter by the door to the hallway
collects items destined for the bedrooms and bathroom down the hall.
When you unload groceries, you may park toiletries, cleanex boxes,

(01:05):
and cleaning supplies near the back door until they find
their way to the bathroom. Items intended for the attic
might spend weeks on the table beside the attic door
before they finally get put in the right box in
the right corner. Things may end up languishing in this
transition spot for hours. Days or even longer. It's all

(01:27):
kind of silly because the effort it would take to
get the tissue box out of the grocery bag and
straight to the bathroom, or to put the extra pantry
bin in the attic is not that much more than
putting it in a waist station. And since you will
have to stop at the wat station at some other
point in order to finish the job, the sum total
of energy is less if you just do the job

(01:50):
completely at the beginning. Now, I do understand that sometimes
it's wise to batch things. If you truly do have
a lot of items going up upstairs or into the attic,
like say, all your holiday decorations, it might make sense
to collect them and do it all at once. I
also suspect that many times the way station is actually

(02:13):
an invitation for someone else to complete the job, perhaps
because you feel like you have done enough. And I
believe it that may be entirely true. But if that
is the case, then you are better off just telling
the person to deal with the item, because most likely

(02:33):
it will sit there for a long long time until
you do get around to finishing the job yourself. So
instead of sharing the load, you have just increased your own. Now,
I am personally not that much bothered by things being
in the wrong place, but I know that some people
do get bent out of shape by clutter and they

(02:55):
find it hard to concentrate. If that is the case,
then putting some thing all the way away is definitely
going to cause fewer negative feelings than seeing the item
for days. So finish the job and you won't have
to think about it again. In the meantime. This is Laura.

(03:17):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

(03:45):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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your favorite shows.