All it takes is one popular plate to get things started... your house can be spic-and-span until you are suddenly rushed after eating and must leave that one plate in the sink. Before you know it, that one plate has invited a few other friends to play in the sink, and then word gets out and the whole kitchen joins in the fun of making a mess. The same thing happens in other rooms.. that one skirt that you didn't hang up so you draped it over the chair has turned into a mound of clothes... Or the laundry that you did, but couldn't put away... Or the bag that needs to be unpacked... the stack of mail or the trash that needs to be taken out... The problem is that in your regular routine you can only manage one task at a time. So once it gets started when you are holding dish number two- you think to yourself, "I only have time for one and since there are two now, I will have to wait and do both of them later..." This scenario continues because next time that two is three, and then three is four and so fourth. It becomes so overwhelming that all of those two and three minute tasks have added up to take hours when you finally get around to it. Sadly I think this is how people handle other areas of life too. For instance when I am trying to stick to a diet, after I fall to a moment of weakness and indulge in one cookie-rather than stop there, I think "Oh today is lost now, I'll start again tomorrow or next week..." and I end up eating them all. For others this happens with sins or spending or gossip or whatever it may be. We have goals of keeping things clean, sticking to our diet or staying within a budget, etc.- and after the first slip, It's so hard to go back to a clean slate! So I blame it on that first plate, don't let that one slide or when you are standing there with number two- don't stack it on, just wash them both!
