Game changer! This broke a lifelong bad habit

“Little things make big things happen.” —John Wooden

For years, OK, make that decades, I let my clothes fall where they may in the bedroom.
 
If you thought that sounded sexy, you’d be terribly wrong. So not sexy. More like the dressing rooms at Old Navy on the Saturday before school starts … lots of poor choices, empty hangers and inside-out jeans. We’re talking clothes clutter.
 
When I’d finally get around to tackling this fabric of my life, it was a serious time suck. That changed when I started playing a morning edition of “The 10-Pick-Up Game.”
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How it works 
Each morning before I leave the house, I pick up 10 items in the bedroom—clothes or otherwise—and put them where they should be. I don’t overthink it. Every flip-flop, dirty sock and coffee cup counts. It takes just a minute or two, and then I get on with my day. I am also not a morning person, so believe me, I am not always chipper about it. I just do it.
 
I’ve been playing this a.m. game for a few months, and it’s like I am a real grown-up. I don’t have to ground myself every weekend until I clean my room. Not to be overly dramatic, but how does life-changing sound?!?
 
And a funny thing has happened. Now that the room tends to stay clean, I am more likely to hang my clothes up at the end of the day. Who is this person? She’s someone who’s happier. Sometimes it truly is the little things. 

Finding little ways to make chores more fun. This post is the first in the RYC’s Pebbles category—small steps that can pave the way to success.