MAKING ONE SMALL CHANGE CURED MY MESSY WAYS AND MADE ME TIDY

I am a messy person. I always have been. 

As a teenager, my room was so untidy that my mum would put a Post-It note on my bedroom door, warning people against entering for their own wellbeing. 

I like to think that in the 15 years since then, I’ve graduated slightly. And I have – my floordrobe is now a chairdrobe. Progress. 

I’ve always defended my way of living – I am clean when I need to be. When things become slightly too cluttered (items start falling off the chair/there are too many mugs next to the dishwasher/I’m on my last pair of clean pants), I will act decisively, dedicating a half day to sort all of these problems and more – chucking in a hoover and dust of the flat for good measure. 

But now in my 30s, I think it might be time to take the next step; to become a tidy person. 

And so, for the past fortnight I have put a new method to the test to help me in my goal: the OHIO method

OHIO stands for ‘only handle it once’, and it is a time-management tool that was designed to help stay on top of office workloads. Essentially, it’s about acting immediately on a task, so you don’t end up having to do the same thing more than once. 

For example, you come into work on Monday and see 50 emails. The OHIO method would see you look through those emails, evaluate which ones need to be prioritised, then act immediately on the most urgent before organising the rest so you can find them more easily in the future. 

Funnily enough, I’ve long operated this system at work. I have folders in my inbox like ‘emails to reply to’, with an ‘urgent’ subcategory; I have an ‘important’ folder for longer term projects or information I might need to come back to. 

Realising how much the OHIO method had helped me in my job, I thought it was about time I tried the same thing at home. 

And that meant confronting bad habits that I’d spent a lifetime building up. 

The first was that when washing my hands in the kitchen, I’d use a tea towel and then plop it down on the counter instead of hanging it back up on the hook. On OHIO day one, I rolled my eyes at my past behaviour, realising it took just as much energy to put it in its correct place. 

This small action was enough to help me realise how easy making these changes could be. 

It was more about altering my perception of how much work it takes to put things in the right place and realising that the answer was ‘not a lot’. 

Instead of kicking off my shoes when I got home and leaving them by the sofa, then getting up and having to locate wherever I left my slippers, I could take literally two steps to put my shoes on the rack, which (after following the OHIO method) was where my slippers also were. 

Rather than cooking dinner, sitting down to eat it, and then having to clear up all the equipment I’d used to make it when full, I could put chopping boards, cutlery and bowls in the dishwasher as I went along to save my future self the trouble. 

Even better, I could prep and measure out all the ingredients I needed in advance so I could clean up before I got going, taking the stress out of multitasking and giving myself a clear countertop. 

When getting ready for bed, I could put away the clothes I wore that day, rather than flinging them on the chair. Even if I was tired, I knew 60 seconds of work would be for the greater (read: my) good. 

For those already initiated into the tidy people club – like my husband – these kinds of habits seem obvious. Ultimately, by doing chores as you go along, you are making life easier for yourself in the future. Why wouldn’t you just do it?

And, now having tried this method, I do see their point. I’ve also read that for those with ADHD, this method can be incredibly helpful for reducing the mental load that comes with a long list of tasks, and for avoiding decision fatigue by helping someone know which goal to focus on. 

However, as someone who has previously had depression, I know that for others the OHIO method might feel impossible. 

While I largely found that I used the same or less energy to complete household tasks, there were times I had to work more in the moment. 

For example, I was brushing my teeth when my electric toothbrush signalled it was close to running out of battery. That meant taking it into another room with a plug socket, locating the charger, and plugging it in – taking a couple more minutes out of my day and disrupting the flow of getting ready to leave the house. It made sense, yes, but it was an inconvenience. 

When I had depression, I know that I would have just let my toothbrush die and over the coming days continued to use it manually until the moment – who knew when – when I had enough energy to charge it. 

The mental and physical energy that it takes to complete chores any time – let alone in the spur of the moment – can be an insurmountable hurdle for someone with a mental illness or disability. 

And that is one thing I will say is a downside of this method. If you are physically and mentally able, it is very easy to get into the swing of it, but it is easily derailed because it can feel so demanding and inflexible. 

During the fortnight of trying the OHIO method, I had minor surgery, which left me in bed, mentally fatigued, and unable to summon momentum to complete menial tasks. I didn’t expect myself to be able to tidy – or do anything – during this period, but mess accumulated. 

On the first day I felt able to cook dinner, I tidied up as I went along and that excessive movement sent my recovery backwards as I strained something around the entry wound. It’s my own fault as I should have listened to my body, but I was so determined not to break a good habit. 

And even before my surgery I had noticed that there are some flaws in the system – mainly that life gets in the way. 

During the week, I get up earlier than my husband for work and so I get dressed in the living room, laying my clothes out the night before, leaving a trail of things I can’t put away – like PJs, makeup, glasses I’ve swapped for contact lenses – behind me. I have no choice but to HIT (handle it twice). 

Given, I am more inspired to deal with that mess as soon as I get home than I was before, but it’s still adding to my list of things to do. 

All that aside, I have found this method seeping into more areas of my life for the better. I’m prioritising my to-do list more efficiently, I’m using my free time to dust and hoover (who is she???); in my personal inbox, I’m unsubscribing from junk emails when I get them. 

I like to think I’m more responsive to WhatsApps, and even at work, where I thought I had my system perfected, I’ve noticed improvement. 

I’ve realised that I usually formulate a response in my head when reading an email so it makes no sense to move the message into ‘to reply to’ folder if I’ve already got the drafted response in mind. 

The OHIO method has really helped me feel like my to-do list is more achievable with the attitude of ‘why postpone something you can do now’. I no longer lament how much I have to do, or feel like I have to put a whole day aside for getting on top of my cleaning jobs. My mental load is definitely lighter, with me, in turn, feeling happier from being so productive. 

And my husband has noticed the difference too, confessing the other day that he hasn’t done as many household chores as usual (he did most of them before) because he’s noticed how on top of them I’ve been. 

For me, the main challenge will be maintaining momentum and building this as a habit so my first instinct is to hang up that tea towel rather than having to tell myself to.

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2025-01-26T15:58:43Z