Don’t you just love summertime? I do. I grab hold of the idea of relaxed  summer days and look forward to more time with family and friends. In my rose-colored expectation of lazy summer days, I tend to gloss over the reality that laundry must be washed (on the hour), food must be prepared (daily), and tasks need to be done (constantly). Some tasks I put off for a while, but eventually the Un-Done  hollers at me, “Get to this NOW or I will drive you crazy!”

How do I know this?

Simply by the fact that I am an experienced procrastinator, helped along by a busy family and schedule. My latest experience with the nagging task happened just yesterday.

You may remember  my good intentions  in my battle with my kitchen counter.

Kitchen Counter Clutter Strikes Again

Determined to be victorious, I fought the clutter, slicing through rebellious stacks of paper and many other odds and ends clutter is made up of. I shared many of my never-work strategies for this pesky little problem in this post: https://gingerharrington.com/?p=1031 (Just in case you missed it.)

I conquered.

Clean Corian Contentment

I blogged and posted my victory online.

For months, I attacked each small uprising of the clutter-bearing enemy whenever it tried to sneak back onto my hard-won territory of blessed clean Corian space.

And then came summer.

Home came College Boy.

No longer school-bound teenagers now freely roam the sanctity of my kitchen throughout the day AND NIGHT, leaving all manner of unmentionables.

In and out come friends–some to stay for a while, some just for the evening.

Out come the suitcases, ready to be packed and loaded for trips to the beach…

All the things I love about summer…family, friends, and fun times.

Distracted by all of these lovely things, I let down my guard. Somehow, each night when I go to bed, whatever was on my counter has now doubled. Before I know it…

“Quick clean up, guests will be arriving soon.” I look. I see….

THE PILE.

Teetering precariously next to my calendar is the stack of mail, appointments, notes, to-do lists that I have not been able to do because…it is summer.

Not time to go through it, so I do what every savy procrastinator does–I tuck it away safely out of sight.

You know the problem with this? Of course you do.

The next day a new pile begins to build.

In the summer, we tend to have friends over quite bit. So now I not only have one pile of procrastination waiting for me, but I have several. My piles nag me daily and the guilt builds. The phone rings and all of a sudden I need some classified information buried in one of my piles!

Ah the regret, the self-chastisement with a good, strong dose of frustration on the side.

“I can’t live like this anymore”–the battle cry of the desparate!

And once again, the battle for the kitchen counter is back on. With a vengence. Summer or not.

Guests or not.

Travels or not.

All life as we know it must stop.

Six hours, twelve stamps, 25 files, three graduation gifts, two birthday cards, a college-visit plan,  a trash can, a partridge and a pear tree  later…I dance my victory dance as all of my piles have been dealt with.

I have shredded, filed, sorted, organized, planned, wrapped, called, and followed through with…

 almost everything.

Feeling like a conqueror, I boldly head out to the mail box, the last pre-dinner task of the day. Holding my breath with the hopeful wish that it will be empty, I open the box.

Crammed full.

This is the stuff…

that a new pile is made of!