Week 5--Out of the Mouths of Babes

First of all, re: last week's post--rookie mistake: Capitalizing on momentum is a good thing in a given moment, but returning each room each day to the way the cleaner's left it? Uh, something good to aspire to, but anything that makes me say, "Not going to be easy" is not low-hanging fruit. However, I'm going to keep in mind momentum as a general operating principle--e.g. before ending a particular task or kind of activity, or leaving a room, think whether there is one additional thing I could do before ending.

Ditto on the "have the right food around to whip up a several-course meal without actual cooking on a moment's notice b/c your last minute guests are allergic to a key ingredient in the simple main dish you were going to serve your family".  But when shopping for Shabbat or a holiday, buying a few extra things to round out a meal just in case? Within reach.

Ok, so here's some real low-hanging fruit. I tend towards messy car. Actually, "messy" is on a good day; our family does an unfortunate amount of car eating, and the food detritus is not pretty. One of the sweet kids in our carpool said to me--yes, I'm taking decluttering advice from 10-year-olds; no, not humiliating at all, why do you ask?--"You know what my mom does? She hangs a plastic bag from the arms between the front seats." At the time, I was thinking, "Uh, thanks hon, having a bag for garbage, which I already do"--OK, not all the time--"is not exactly revolutionary advice...you must think I'm really impaired..."

But after Dr. Husband packed up a a bunch of plastic bags into one, I took it out to my minivan, put it in the trunk (the way way back), and hooked one on those seat arms. (In a car, I hasten to add, that had gotten cleaned--well, cleaned out, vacuumed and wiped; carpet cleaning is for the next round--for the school year, that was not a disaster!)

And you know what? It makes a difference. Because the trash bag is in easy reach of the driver's seat, not on the floor. It is conveniently located for the kids in the middle seat. It's even easy to reach for carpool kids in the back seat when they get out of the car--or, again, for those middle-seat kids to have trash handed up to them. Basically, it's kind of brilliant. And I've become, in short order, a fanatic about making sure all trash goes in that bag, and making sure everybody picks up trash (as well as anything else on the floor) when they get out of the car. (When it's full, it goes in with me to whatever is the next building I enter, unless it's at home in which case it goes right into the garbage can--when I get back into the car, I get another bag from the huge stash in the way way back.)

Damn, it's momentum again. The car was cleaned up, and I've found a way to keep it that way--b/c of a 10-year-old's suggestion and a bag of spontaneously-reproducing plastic shopping bags. Now that's low-hanging fruit.

Thanks, Rina.