Lists and laundry
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cottage tales, Fun | 16 comments
Photo: Shirt
I’m not a list kind of woman. Lists horrify me as they have a tendency to go on and on. Some mornings Danny sits down at the kitchen table and makes a list. By the time dusk has fallen several things on his list have been crossed off. Impressive.
I decided to do the same once. Danny was very enthusiastic. I added a handful of jobs that I had already done. I didn’t wait until dusk just crossed them off at lunchtime. He was stunned until he twigged that I hadn’t shifted from my chair.
In the past I’ve bought diaries and notebooks in a vain attempt to organise my time. They have been enthusiastically welcomed, received one or two entries and then forgotten. Leather bound books make great firelighters.
I used to remember all future dates in my head until one disastrous evening about 20 years ago. I was happily making cheese on toast when the phone rang. Bring, bringg, bringgg.
“Hello?”
“We are just finishing off our cocktails and wondered if you’d forgotten our invitation…”
My mind whirled. Deep in the darkest shadows of memory the dinner party was lurking.
The problem was that this dinner party was in London and I was grilling supremo cheese on toast seventy miles away. I grovelled.
I was never invited again by this couple.
Forgetting the date was quite scary. My 20/20 mental diary and filing system had finally stalled.
Remembering the expensive diary firelighters, I didn’t rush out to buy another one. I now write very important dates on our calendar. Danny looks at this most days and has been known to mention pertinent events. My old brain sill remembers the invitations that D has agreed to in an exuberant wave of beer and bonhomie. These are carefully written on the calendar so need not be mentioned. Every few weeks there is a roar.
“We’re supposed to be dining with X at the weekend. Why? I don’t want to go. .I’m not sure that I like them. I’m too busy. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I told you last month and you wanted to go. It’s too late now to cancel unless you are ill. As they live 50 yards from here blowing them out means leaving your car in the drive for three consecutive days from today. No driving to the corner shop or even walking.”
D loves the ‘corner shop’ in the village. Gossip and Galaxy dairy milk chocolate.
After an endless pause.
“I think that I’m just fit enough to go, if you iron my shirt.”
Smiles all round.
Thank goodness I invested in a couple of non-iron classy Charles Tyrwhitt cotton shirts for Danny’s Christmas present last year. I don’t need a list to remind me to always have these laundered and hanging on the bedroom door, ready to go.
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Do you remember my suggestion of using a dry erase pen on the outside of your freezer to make a list of whats inside? Well, I take a dry ersae pen and write on my bathroom mirror! My lists, my appointments, my honey-dos, all are written on my mirror so I see them first thing in the morning. And when I’m done, I just erase the task. I have a horrible memory, and this is the only way I remember things. It also helps keep the mirror cleaner, since I perodically clean the whole mirror and rewrite my tasks.
I used to be like you, able to recall appointments without recourse to written reminders. Unfortunately my memory is getting worse with age and last year I even forgot my daughter’s birthday.
Google calendar to the rescue!
mmm lists, best thing is crossing off. I sometimes makes lists retrospectively just to enjoy the crossing off and warm glow of satisfaction this brings…some days list making is good, others it just reminds how much needs doing/has needed doing for, um, several years now/ will need doing…lists are a mixed blessing.
Ah yes – google calendar. I can’t live without it.
I am like you Fiona, don’t do well with lists. I lose them most often. Shopping lists though are indispensable. I bought a huge calendar and placed it right on the wall I face when I am online. My children and husband have the task of reminding me to look at it. I do well despite all of this but the people who use lists and organizers fill me with admiration.
I was lucky enough to realise in my teens that I have a poor memory for some things, so, I got organised!
When I worked, I had a diary which coped with tasks and appointments. At home, I have a calendar on the wall for all appointments & birthdays etc, and on the kitchen table, a food shopping list that gets added to every time something is thought of, used from the store cupboard or needs replacing from the fridge. I have a ‘master list’ that gets run through before the weekly shop, I plan what we are going to eat in the coming week, then we only buy what is on the list. We do not have any waste at all, and I am horrified by people who waste food, and complain about money at the same time.
There again, I do belong to the “thrifty over 50” age group!!!
I love lists, and I use my computer a lot for reminders which I can synch with a PDA if I need to. Blissfully though I don’t need to at the minute, as I am studying and gardening and that is about it. When I had kids I had a little box with all my household jobs organised and I used that all the time.
I love lists. And I see nothing wrong with including things you’ve just done – great therapy to tick a few off right away!
My blog is the first ‘diary’ I’ve kept going for more than a couple of weeks.
Celia
I do occasional lists on paper although I suspect I do many more mental lists. I use a combination of calendar and mobile phone to record appointments – depending on whether I am home or away when the appointment is made – the latter having the benefit of being able to set an alarm at an appropriate time before the appointment. Unfortunately I don’t always have the same information in both places. The exception being when I get the exam invigilation dates which get the works! Calendar, phone (without alarm) and their own separate multi-highlighted list – I missed one once as the day and date didn’t match on the typed list I was given and I didn’t notice. It was a shame as it was a 3 hour exam so a nice earner. As I am now finding my way back into work after a long time off I suspect I shall need to be more organised as it seems my full time work is going to be a variety of different bits and pieces which will all need to be closely monitored to make sure they fit in. Knitted Cupcake workshop anyone in the Carlisle area on 19th September?
I’m not usually a list person unless I’m so busy that I’m in danger of forgetting things. Then I put a list on the computer. I completely rely on my diary for appointments though – I often have dates in my diary for months ahead and can’t remember them all. I take my diary with me everywhere as you never know when you’ll be invited out!