Messy Desk

Do you ever wake up one morning after a particularly difficult, busy week and suddenly notice what a mess your house has become? Well I try not to have those days too often. I am so busy with school and my kids that I've trained myself NOT to see the the stray Cheerio nesting under the dishwasher, the sock in a damp crumpled ball by the front door. How do I live in such filth? How can I gloat over the poor souls on the "Clean Sweep" show when I obviously have a touch of the slob in myself? Because I am an organizing freek.
Now wait, there's no contradiction here, stay with me.
You see, I used to be a cleaning queen, everything had to be shiny and dust free; there had to be visable vacuum tracks in the carpet at all times. I can still get stoned when walking through the Organization aisles at Target. But then the kids got older and I went back to school and I just haven't been the same since.
I make myself ignore the slop around me because I know if I get started doing just one thing, my whole day will be lost in a cleaning frenzy. A typical cleaning jag could go something like this: While making a trip to the basement to do a load of laundry, the over-flowing wrapping paper boxes will catch my eye. After an hour at that, I might head back to the kitchen to wash my hands and notice that the sink really needs a good scrubbing, and when I open the cabinet to get out the Soft Scrub, it will be clear that before I take another step, I'll have to clean out the detergent cabinet too. This could go on and on, from room to room, and who, I ask you, has that kind of time?
Thus, the mantra I live by is this: don't start what you can't possibly finish in the next ten minutes.
My timer just went off.