As a perfectionist I often overwhelm myself. My good intentions always lead to half finished chores and messes I walk away from because I overwhelm myself.
I have such high expectations, after all if a job is worth doing it’s worth doing right. That statement right there is my downfall.
A typical project will go something like this:
Today is a perfect day to clean the garage! I’ll go out in to the garage and start going through boxes and bags and shelves, bagging up stuff that can be donated, tossing things that are broken or missing pieces and then suddenly I will notice that the garage needs to be painted.
If I’m going to clean I might as well paint while I’m doing it. Now I have to pull everything away from the walls so I can paint.
While the walls are being painted the car is parked in the driveway. When the paint is dry I realize I need more shelving. Instead of just going to the store and buying new shelving like a normal person I have to measure everything so I know how many shelves I need and how much space I need between shelves and how far they can come out from the wall.
Maybe peg board would be better for some of these things, now I need new measurements. What about a work bench? More new measurements. Can the bikes be hung from the ceiling? Now I need hooks and to measure again. I keep this up until I am so overwhelmed that it is another three months before I can park the car in the garage.
Before you think this only happens on big projects I think you should know that sometimes my dishes sit for a few days because I really think I should reorganize my cabinets before I put away the clean dishes so until I do that I can’t wash the dirty dishes because there is no where to put them.
I’m slowly making myself crazy. I’m not sure what the cure is because I know if I could just get everything perfectly organized, once and for all, my house would practically clean itself and it’s hard to argue with logic like that. Even if it means I’m tripping over piles of stuff for months until I figure out the perfect place to put everything.