I don’t make my bed. I never really have, either. Growing up, I lived in the basement or in a lofted bed. No one was looking st those spaces, so I never bothered. I don’t make my bed now because there are more important spaces to look after. Picking up the car bin from my 3 year old for the hundredth time is more pressing than the silly bit of rumpled blankets hnging off my bed. The dishes waiting in the sink are more valuable to spend time with, as my time has become extrememely scarce.
And yet, when I don’t pay any attention to the space where I lay my head, I miss a huge oppotunity to make my life just a bit better. By not laying those sheets flat daily, I let the other things go more easily too. I leave the trash by the bedside. I leave my shoes out on the floor. I don’t do anything with the pile of clothes I meant to get to yesterday.
It isn’t about not making the bed. Rather, it is about everything else it absolves me of. I don’t make he bed, so that I can choose to not care about the rest of the stuff cluttering up my space. And it works.
But, I don’t know that this is helping. In my bedroom or in my working life.
By not getting to those daily tasks that show a structure and a discipline for details, I can ignore the far bigger matters that I don’t want to face. By not working through any regular calendar management, I can choose not to schedule difficult meetings. By not triaging emails every day, I can leave the hardest ones unanswered for weeks.
It is the daily habit that allows for progress. Not because of the task itself, but rather because it makes the rest of the space that I inhabit feel like it should. I am going to try to make my bed more.
What is your “bed making” task that determines how healthy your space is?
