What Would a Grown Up Do?

I think I'm going to have some bracelets made.  Remember those WWJD plastic wrist bands that were so popular a few years back?  Like that, except instead of Jesus, mine are going to serve the purpose of *hopefully* reminding me that I am a grown up and while there are many, many grown up things I don't want to do, I gotta do 'em.  Sigh.

Like, dealing with the piles masses mountains of laundry that have built up over the past few weeks.   And when I say dealing, letting the same load dry over and over again because I am too lazy to fold the clothes inside simply does not count.  A grown up would just fold the damn sweaters and socks after the first dryer cycle.  A grown up would also put everything away, instead of stacking t-shirts and underwear on the dresser and letting them sit there for days and days until they get mixed up with the dirty stuff and have to be washed all over again.  Nope, a grown up would never let that happen.

With a new year, I always feel compelled to try to make some kind of resolution.  I would bet that eight of the last ten years my resolutions have all had something to do with being neater or more organized or less messy.  And I would bet that (well, actually, I know) that I have failed miserably by January 5th every year, dirty dishes piling up in the sink, opened mail left out on the kitchen table, winter coat strewn across the back of the couch.

And this year has been no different.  It's gotten to the point where I don't vocalize these "resolutions" because I don't want my poor husband to get his hopes up.  But secretly, in my mind, the last week of December I'm thinking about how awesome it's going to be when I'm the type of person who always hangs her coat in the closet as soon as she takes it off, puts her keys in the same place every single time so she doesn't have to spend nine minutes searching for them anytime she wants to go somewhere, and takes the recycling out to the bin so it doesn't sit on the counter for a week.

I can feel myself slipping.  It's January 4th, and even though we cleaned our bedroom two days ago, just this morning I dropped a dirty sock on the floor and did not pick it up.  That's how it starts.  With one little sock, or a dryer sheet that doesn't make it to the garbage can, or a wet towel that can't find its way to the hook on the back of the door.  And then, without warning, it's an all-out explosion of dirty clothes, and magazines, and baby toys and I'm right back where I started.

That is why I need the bracelet.  A constant reminder, something I can look down at 87 times a day telling me to do the right thing.  To pick up that sock and put it in the hamper.  To hang my towel up after I'm done drying off.  To fold the freakin' laundry when the dryer buzzes.  The first time.

Speaking of...I hear a familiar sound coming from my laundry room, which means this girl is going to look down at her imaginary bracelet, grab a basket, and get to work, in hopes of stretching this resolution out just a teensy bit further.