Correcting Bad Habits - Week Review

I have been jotting this down throughout the week.. and here is what I came up with.

Day 1 - Correcting My Bad Habit
Something I have been wanting to correct for quite some time is how clean I can keep my room. For most, this probably seems like an easy task - for me.. not so much. I start day 1 of this process by doing about 3 loads of laundry (to empty my hamper and subsequently rid my floor of countless articles of dirty clothing). After this is done, I vacuum the floor and make the bed. I look around and notice a lot of papers and junk on my headboard and quickly organize/throw away the papers I don't need. Now it seems as though my room is clean, but for how long? That's the tricky part..

Day 2 - Correcting My Bad Habit
I come home and quickly hurl my backpack across the floor as though I am trying out for discus throwing in the summer Olympics. (And I always wonder why my papers get crumbled up).. I crack open a bottle of water and sprawl across my bed to listen to how much of a racist Don Imus really is.. but quickly as I check my email I notice this document on my laptop. Expletives enter my head and I quickly pick up my backpack and make sure my water bottle finds its home in the fridge (hey recycling is a good habit to pick up too!).. after one day, my room is still clean. Score one for the home team.

Day 3 - Correcting My Bad Habit
Well today, after sleeping in.. I begin to get lax about the whole room thing again. My bed is now a total disaster (I swear I don't remember moving at all when I'm asleep but apparently I somehow am able to do an entire 360 on my sheets, lifting them every which way possible..) - reluctantly I make it, because it's my goal to actually maintain a clean bedroom for the week.

The evening comes and goes.. and the room is still semi-clean, but my hamper is beginning to fill up with dirty clothes. And my gym bag is residing in front of the entertainment center. Am I losing it? I can't allow it... oooooh hockey is on! Until tomorrow..

Day 4 - Correcting My Bad Habit
It has now been 4 days of clean and happy bedroom living. I'm not sure where this ranks on the all-time length I have maintained such a clean state (and for the record I'm not a slob, but I'm not a clean freak either.. and while I cannot really accurately depict the state of my room in words.. just imagine what a clean freak goes through for every day of their life.. and that is the mind set I have so desperately tried to hammer into my head for this week.)

I worked all day today and tonight I am going out to dinner and drinks to celebrate last weeks birthday (woo!) .. my room will not be touched tonight, and the clean streak lives on!

Day 5 - Correcting My Bad Habit
Saturday has approached and I have checked with the Elias Bureau of Statistics to get a read onto what unchartered territory I am entering. As per the site (known for statistics on everything that can be tracked) I have broken a record for having my room smell being lemony fresh (actually it's more of a vanilla scent.. I am a sucker for those scented candles). I am skimming through the previous 4 days and picturing my two readers thinking my room is typically a disaster. So that alone makes me chuckle. Nonetheless, while some friends and most immediate family would say it rivals the look of a tornado through a trailer park.. this week we're not slipping! Time for laundry since the hamper is getting into the danger zone (I think a couple socks and a shirt went rogue late last night and pounced out of their respected laundry nets).

Day 6 - Correcting My Bad Habit
I almost lost it tonight. But like Michael Jordan in the playoffs, I somehow averted disaster. Tonight was Entourage night at the casa, so I had to celebrate with food and beverage in the room. Usually that means some plate or silverware is going to live in my room for a couple days (in hindsight yes I'm aware that's not the most sanitary thing in the world).. but again the motivating factor of having this word document on my desktop that I see everyday since I'm addicated to the "internets" has me cleaning my room up like a french maid with OCD.

And for the record, Entourage was very good tonight. Thanks for wondering.

Day 7 - Correcting My Bad Habit
And the finale of this grand presentation, I am happy to say.. I did it. I went an entire week without my room becoming one step shy of getting federal aid for being a disaster (Although with the whole poor college kid thing, I could use some Red Cross relief here and there).

So in conclusion, I was able to do it. I think the running diary kind of helped me because in a weird way it was motivation. Motivation is a powerful tool if you can constantly remind yourself about your ultimate goal and the title of my word document "Clean your room slob-o!" seemed to hammer home my weekly goal.

So as celebration, I will probably go back to the messy room thing.. because that's just me.