Even though the winter holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chanukah are the ones that most come to mind when we think of busy, hectic and sometimes overwhelming seasons, I have recently realized that the longer sunnier days of spring and summer have caused me a new kind of overwhelm caused by too much daylight. I can now clearly see all of the dust bunnies, window streaks, dull wood finish, hand prints on the wall and the “oh, my GOD have I been really letting other people use this bathroom!?!” stuff that I was blessedly unaware of under the cloak of darkness.

Without the blessing of coming home in the dark to artificial light that casts comforting shadows across things I do not want to see, I have become overwhelmed by the amount of housework it takes in order for the place to look like trolls are not living here. I became so overwhelmed the other day that I took to the couch and did not one single thing. I thought it might be easier to just sell the place but then I realized that my trusty Realtor friends, Mairead O’Sullivan, Eleanor Rice and Rosemary Camus, would insist on my cleaning it before it they showed it. And forget about all the outside stuff – weeds? really?

So I have had to come up with another way. I thought, what would I tell my beloved readers to do in this situation. Well, of course, normally I would say hire a housecleaning service because while it is important for the house to be clean, it is not important that I be the one cleaning it.  However, since I blew my budget on a wonderful out of town vacation, the housecleaning service has to stay on the wish list for now. So Plan B is to not look at the whole thing at once. Pick a corner – not even a whole room – just one corner or area of a room.  I actually started with my stairs – which in my house is just another form of shelving. Amazing the difference in the feeling when just that one thing was accomplished. It sparked me to do another small space after that.

Mini-tasking rules! Apply the same principle to all your other tasks as well – just clean out one drawer or part of a pile of paper, or attack one aspect of a big project. Even if you promise yourself to do only one thing, it can unlock the procrastination that goes hand in hand with Overwhelm.

I am not getting delusional though – it will take me a gazillion little corners to get this place up to par. But by the time I finish I will be rewarded with several months of early darkness during which I can forget about it all again.