My wife has a mostly typical work schedule and is usually only busy during the week. Like most people, the weekends are for everything that doesn't fit the normal routine. I at times have a minor project or two, she often attempts more intentional cooking or baking, and we always try to fit in adventures outside somewhere. The weekend then results in our house regularly getting messy, the kitchen specifically out of sorts. On Mondays, therefore, I like to get everything back to a clean slate. I think of this as my 'weekly reset.'
This term, as least as I know it, comes from video games. A reset clears progress on certain outstanding items and makes you start over fresh. Examples for me are Halo and Destiny. Halo: Reach included daily and weekly challenges for more experience. These were frequently interesting or irritating extra little things to accomplish (like winning X games or getting X headshots) after logging on. The Master Chief Collection, now including Reach, finally reincorporated these recently. In Destiny (I've only played D2) there are missions, bounties and other goals tied to a timeline, though outside of seasons (months long narratives) the biggest updates come after the Tuesday reset. Other games utilize something similar. For better or for worse this is how I think about our house in some respects.
What does this actually mean? Well, everything needs to be addressed. If there's anything of mine lying around the kitchen or elsewhere, it needs to find a home. I'm kind of crazy about organization and this is seen here. Regular chores are completed too. Dishes will be done, whether this means unloading and/or loading the dishwasher and hand-washing items floating around. Any big loads of laundry will be washed, dried, and folded. The main level at least will be vacuumed to minimize the dog hair and whatever else. Now while any of these tasks may happen any weekday, the difference on Monday is I try to do them all.
Accomplishing this was always pretty easy before the arrival of our son. I could do it during lulls at work and even have time to relax in the afternoon. Today things are a little more frantic as the work either gets done during our sons slowly decreasing nap time or while he's awake. And awake toddlers require a great deal of entertaining or supervision. On top of that I usually try to get a blog post out on Mondays! Yes, I'm aware my life problems are hilariously minuscule. Still, I feel pressure to meet these self-imposed deadlines and when I get hyper-focused I occasionally also get somewhat manic. It's a weird feeling and a whole mood, after which I need to cool off a bit and calm down. So while I take advantage of those episodes of super productivity, it's a bit of a mixed bag.
At one point or another I told my wife about the reset. I don't think she always appreciates it but it's not a shot at her, it's just how my brain works. I'm certainly thankful that ever since she's been very intentional about not leaving huge messes through the weekend. As I've stated before, and this is obvious if you know me personally, I'm obsessive about having things just so. Mondays are when I'm able to get the house to a state of comfort for myself.
In case you wanted to know, together we do a much smaller daily reset too. I know many people don't clean up their kids toys every night, but we do. We like our main living room space clean and orderly and don't mind taking the few minutes to accomplish this, for now at least. More kids and the increased chaos of life may not allow it in the future.
That'll be enough for today. I basically just exposed a bunch of my neuroses for the world to see and hopefully ya'll will still love me. Anyway... bye.
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