Why can't the dishes wait until the morning? Is procrastination ever good?

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I had put dinner on the table.

Wasn’t that enough for one day?

To get up and then face the collection of plates, cups, pans, utensils, pots – not to mention the counters themselves.

Ugh.

Soaking seemed to be the best solution.

If the dishes wait, no harm is done.

Really, I was being a better housekeeper for putting it all off until the morning.

It would take me so much less time, I told myself, to wait until the morning. The dishes would have soaked. I would have coffee. I could knock it out in no time – in the morning.

For now, I’ll just go read and forget about this room. I’ve always been good at justifying my procrastination.

And so for quite some time I always spent the first part of my day cleaning up from the day before. I refused to feel bad about it. I had made it my deliberate choice and strategy. It wasn’t the worst choice I’ve made in my life, but it didn’t help me, despite my protestations that it did.

The idea that helped me break out of this procrastination rut was “clearing to neutral.”

If the dishes wait, procrastination wins. Here's one cleaning strategy to beat procrastination.
What’s the point?
I used to think like this:

“What is the point of making my bed? I’ll only sleep in it again.”
“What is the point of cleaning the island? I’ll only cook on it again.”
“What is the point of washing the dishes? We’ll only use them again.”
The dishes can wait because we don’t need them again this instant. Why do them now?

But the change started with the dishes. Then I realized it applied to the island. Finally, I even started making my bed due to the same reasoning.

We wash the dishes because we’ll use them again.

I need to clean the island so that it’s ready to cook on again.

Actually, the reason I need to make my bed is so that we can sleep in it again, welcomed to our rest like decent and orderly people rather than collapsing in a mess like slobs.

The story we tell ourselves matters.

Clearing to neutral is a concept to save us both from perfectionism on the one hand and sloppiness on the other.

Perfectionism thinks the point of a kitchen is to be a pristine showpiece. If it is anything other than perfect, it is not acceptable. This can make us either strive ceaselessly to make our kitchen look like no one lives in the house or, on the other hand, give up all attempts to make it look nice because we will never reach our too-high expectations.

Sloppiness thinks the point of a kitchen is merely to hold things and to perform certain tasks in. Its state does not matter.

Elisabeth Elliot once wrote:

The way you keep your house, the way you organize your time, the care you take in your personal appearance, the things you spend your money on, all speak loudly about what you believe. The beauty of Thy peace shines forth in an ordered life. A disordered life speaks loudly of disorder in the soul.

Our homes are tools to be used for the building up of people. Tools must be cared for, or they aren’t going to last long or be as effective. But the point is never to have a perfectly organized wall of tools that are never used. The use is the important part, but caring for them is essential to their being able to be used.