Frugal with time

The following is a paper my sister wrote. She is also taking online courses to get her degree. Enjoy!

I have been told by some very reliable sources: mom, sister, husband, children and friends, that I am a slob. I don't know though. It seems to me that I just have different priorities. I think for instance, if you want things picked up and put away directly when someone is finished using them than you should do it yourself. If you want me to pick up than I think that maybe you should have the courtesy to wait until I'm ready to deal with that pesky little detail. If you would like the bathroom cleaned, I'll be glad to do that, when I feel that it needs to be cleaned. You must realize however, that my need for clean is probably not the same as yours. For instance, I don't necessarily think that soap scum needs to be removed until I see that the entire bar of soap is lining my shower wall; you however, may think that to be a little bit late for cleaning.

I don't care that the dog has left hair on the carpet. I have much more important things to do. I choose to play with the kids, cook dinner, mow the lawn, tend the garden, talk to my neighbor, write English papers, and balance my checkbook. Well, I think actually I would probably choose to do most anything that would help me to avoid having to pick up and/or clean. I don't see the need. After all, why bother? When I turn around after putting away the toys, they have magically reappeared right where they were before I spent the time putting them away. Why not just put the toy boxes in the middle of the floor? That's where all the toys go and then I don't have to work so hard at putting them back into the box. If I mop the floors, somehow within 5 minutes of finishing, some gremlin has run over them with mud and dog hair. Why not just leave things the way they are and quit wasting time? I can find may more productive things to do with the time I save.

If more people would be reasonable about what clean is, I think that less people would be so uptight about dust bunnies under the bed minding their own business. The bunnies haven't done a thing to me so why should I uproot them from the only home they've known? Besides, sweeping them up just gives me a fit of sneezing, so I leave them be and they leave me alone so that I can do better things, like say reading my Prentice Hall Reader, much better for the mind and not nearly so dusty.

I say if it isn't broken and you can walk around it, be happy. There's no shame in a non-tidy house. Just tell that nosy neighbor that you had more important things to do today (remember you were reading that novel that you didn't get around to on your vacation). Tell her you're saving it all for donations and as soon as you have enough you'll sort through it and let her have first pick. Tell her that the baby has the colic, your oldest got suspended and you have a sinus infection that prevents you from bending over; but she's welcome over any time for a visit. Tell her that your family is used to the house the way it is and if you changed now they would end up at her house because they didn't recognize their own. Tell her that life's too short to worry about the small stuff and so you've decided not to pick up all that small stuff.

I think that sloppiness is in the eye of the beholder. What is chaos to you is just unorganized piles to me. What you see as hopeless is full of tomorrow's projects just waiting to be thought of by me. When you see a sink full of dirty dishes, I see a term paper typed, edited and ready for submission. When you see kids in dirty clothes, I see mud pies, sand castles, finger paintings and fun. I think it's just a matter of opinion whether someone is sloppy or neat. In my opinion, I'm just frugal with my time.