One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to literally keep the kitchen sink clean. Too often we say, “oh, I’ll do the dishes after this or that or tomorrow…” And you know what happens? Our dishwasher-less kitchen gets overrun with dirty dishes. Pots and pans pile up, we use all our forks in one day and the cabinets are emptied of glasses and plates. I decided I’d had enough.

My goal is to simply not go to bed with a sink full of dirty dishes. Thirty days later, I’ve managed to stick to this with few exceptions. I found that I wake up feeling less burdened and I love the fresh start to the day. We spend a lot of time in our kitchen – cooking, eating, chatting, working, etc. so this was really a great step in keeping it a happy place.

My kitchen sink on a very clean day.

This also got me thinking about other aspects of my life. Doing the dishes was such a simple task, what else could I do that would positively impact my life? To further explore, I considered why I wouldn’t have done the dishes before. For me, it came down to time. Like, I don’t have the time to do this right now so I’ll push it to later or tomorrow but the reality was, it would only take 5 minutes today and if I let it pile up, it could take 20 minutes tomorrow. I wasn’t gaining any time by pushing it off.

Then I realized I do this all the time. I’ll call it mild procrastination. I’ll wait until I have no choice but to do something. The sink is full, we’re out of toilet paper, the meeting is tomorrow, etc., etc. But I’m the planner, I’m always prepared. What happened!?

Life happened. And it will continue to do so. It’s time to adjust. With this resolution, I found that I need to make time for the important and positive by letting go of the unimportant and negative. I will make time to do the dishes, to practice yoga, to visit friends, to finish that work project before 5pm, as well as other tasks that will improve my life and wellbeing.

My new outlook is old advice:

do not put off until tomorrow what can be done today

What’s your New Year resolution and are you sticking to it?