I am not a big fan of the New Year’s resolution. I think it sets me up early on for disappointment in myself because I tend to let my big plans (No more dessert! Save $1000 dollars! Cut down all the brush in the back yard!) fall by the wayside pretty quickly, and then I’m left with well, hell, that didn’t last but a day and a half.
So I generally pick something small and manageable that won’t really impact my life if I fail to follow through.
One year it was that if a pen didn’t write, I would not scratch it on the paper or shake it or heat it with a match to try to get five more sentences out of it, I would just merrily toss it in the trash instead of put it back in the pen cup. That ended up saving me a lot of time rummaging around, and I still do it.
Another year it was that I don’t go to co-ed showers. I just don’t. I’m single and I’m not going to drag some man along just so I’m not the only unattached person there. It’s miserable if I am unattached, so I just don’t go to them.
Then there was the year that I decided if there was valet parking, I was taking it. I am a person who is convinced her car is going to be towed.
I have been to the tow lot with other people who have had their cars towed, and it is an hours-long pain in the ass to get a car back. I would like to avoid it if at all possible. I will pay the $5 or $7 or however much it is to eat my dinner without the anxiety of knowing I’m going to making a visit to the tow lot, which I will know has been dropped by a crane into a space too small for it, after it has been ransacked by only the good Lord knows who.
Right after Christmas 2012, I read an article about decluttering the mind and the home. One suggestion was to run the dishwasher every night. That seemed a bit muchly at first, but my dishwasher has top rack only mode – a feature that was on my list when I was dishwasher shopping, because dirty dishes cooped up in a dishwasher are smelly by the time you run it if you’re the only one making dirty dishes.
Now. I hate unloading the dishwasher. And I hate to hear the dishwasher running. So every night before bed, I set the delay function (on my obviously very fancy dishwasher) and go to bed. When I get up in the morning, it takes about two minutes to unload what I washed the night before.
And what do you know? My kitchen is less cluttered because my countertops and sink are clean and clear, and my mind is a little less jangled
I save my big resolutions for my birthday, which is coming up. These are some that I have made in the past:
1. I no longer eat with people I don’t like.
2. I no longer sleep anywhere I’m not guaranteed at least a full-length sofa.
3. I can’t because I don’t want to.
4. I can get along with anybody, as long as I know what I can expect from them.
I don’t know what I’m adding this year. Maybe that I will no longer try to make sense to people who are unwilling to entertain the idea that more things are right than just the things they think.
Just like a Slattery 
I love running the dishwasher on delay. Tom got me in the habit. He loves to leave the dishwasher to accumulate, which gives the sniffy heebie-jeebies. I just run it every night on delay, and tell him “it’s worth my happiness.”
I like the rest of your resolutions.
My dishwasher is actually remarkably quiet, but I can hear a fly scratching his legs together from 20 feet away, so delay is perfect. If I’m already asleep, it won’t wake me.
I really think I’m being a dork about what a difference it has made running it every night and always having somewhere to put a dirty dish when I’m finished with it.
It’s a small thing that has a big impact. It’s not dorky; it’s liberating.
Susan, your Aunt Betty just uses her dishwasher to store her dirty dishes but never runs it. She just takes them back out and washes them in the sink. Of course she does not leave them in there
until they “stink”. That’s your Aunt Betty !!!!!! She is a mess but I love my sister much !!!!!
I bet I love her as much as you do. Aunt Betty is one of those people you can always count on to do what she says she’ll do when she says she’ll do it, and if Aunt Betty does something, it’s done right. She might be a mess, but she’s our mess.
Love the dishwasher idea and thinking of trying that myself. Also love #3 of your other resolutions, I think I may “steal” that one. 🙂
That dishwasher thing has been ridiculously freeing. I feel kind of silly talking about it, actually, but really, unloading 2 plates and four spoons and a coffee cup and a glass once a day instead of waiting until it’s full is so much more palatable.
The other thing might annoy the people around you, but they’ll get used to it. If they don’t, you’ll suddenly have a lot more free time to do what you really want to do.
I just realized I could interpret “I can’t, because I don’t want to.” in multiple ways.
I was thinking about empowerment to not go to crappy things, to give yourself permission to say “I can’t.” with an underlying reason of “I don’t want to.”
Then just realized it might be a different pep talk, away from using the overused phrase “I can’t” when the real reason is “I don’t want to.”
When you were making this resolution, what did you have in mind? I’m fascinated.
I mean that if somebody asks me to do something I don’t want to, I answer, “No, thank you.” If they press, I say, “I can’t.” If they ask me why, I say, “Because I don’t want to.”
Yep, me too. And I run the dishwasher daily and if there’s valet parking I’m all about that too. Life’s too short to worry about things that don’t merit space in my head.
That’s the interpretation I like best. Very empowering, really.
It’s really freeing to know that “because I don’t want to” is a good enough reason to not do something, as much as knowing that sleeping or watching TV or reading a book is “previous plans.”
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