Family life and running a household has occasionally driven me to the brink, particularly when we had a small child. It still gets overwhelming at times when we are trying to balance work and other commitments.  

What I have found is that "the little things" can provide a steady drip-drip-drip irritation that sometimes seems as exasperating as larger troubles. In the past couple of years, I've made a conscious effort to "keep it simple." There's a principle in Philosophy called Occam's Razor, named after William Ockham, who was a brilliant philosopher but evidently did not know how to spell. Occam's Razor states basically that "the simplest explanation for something is probably the most accurate."  It's also stretched to include the idea that "keeping it simple" makes good sense.  Quoting from Wikipedia, "Originally a tenet of the reductionist philosophy of nominalism, it is more often taken today as a heuristic maxim (rule of thumb) that advises economy, parsimony, or simplicity, often or especially in scientific theories."

My take on Occam's Razor is twofold; In my world, my goal is to 1) eliminate as many trifling irritations as possible, and 2) when I must carry out some task, I keep it as simple as I can. This has really helped my stress level. Let me give a couple of examples.

One annoyance that used to drive me to the edge was locating the remote controls. They were always lost. Someone would walk off with it absentmindedly and leave it in another room. Or it would fall under the sofa cushions. Unlike the cordless phone, they do not have a "page" locator button that beeps. Hunting for remotes just whipped me into a frenzy. I preached daily about keeping it on the coffeetable in front of the sofa, but I was wasting my breath. Then I got a fabulous idea.

I bought a wooden cutting board that's approximately the size of a standard piece of paper, 8 ½ X 11. It is about ½ inch thick. I got some adhesive Velcro® from the hardware store and glued the remote to this large chunk of wood that wouldn't fall under the sofa cushions. The remote is now too big to carry to the next room or stuff into a drawer. With Velcro®, the remote can be detached to change the batteries, but otherwise the bond is secure. Problem solved!

Another needless irritation was trying to educate my husband and son about the difference between a dishrag and a hand towel. A dishrag is square, it's used for wiping counters and it's approximately 9" X 9".  A hand towel is rectangular and it's for drying hands. It's about 20" X 10" or so. Invariably, when the guys needed to wipe the counters, they would reach into the linen drawer and pull out the first cloth they saw which, half the time, was the bigger hand towel. Then they would wipe the counters and leave a huge, nasty, sopping wet towel in the sink. I was furious. Again, harping and carping got me nowhere. It was time to make an end run around them-I got rid of ALL the hand towels in the house.  Now when the guys reach into the linen drawer, they only find dishrags, and they don't know the difference. Make no mistake-I'm grateful they wipe up the counters.  But now I have eliminated the problem. What joy!

If I had to give some advice to young housekeepers just starting out, I would advise them to stop and think about ways in which they could make a bothersome situation completely avoidable.  I swear-nagging and frustration probably went down 20% when I started thinking this way. Bathroom light left on all the time?  Have a timed switch installed that shuts the light off after 15 minutes. Can't keep a pen next to the phone?  Make up a chain or shoelace tether that prevents it from growing legs. I am "a place for everything and everything in its place" person. But I live with two people who aren't.  Establishing just a few of these simple household systems have kept me from going crazy. 

Finally, I have learned that there are some things I just need to put under lock and key-items that will disappear if they aren't nailed down. The guys mean well. They love and respect me and intend to return my possessions.  But they get sidetracked...  So I have a drawer with a combination lock. Here I store my small kit of precision tools, my good scissors, tape, superglue, clippers, $20 emergency pizza delivery money, my small stash of chocolate (shhh!) and a several more items that I don't want to tear the house apart looking for. [Sigh and smile]. My morale went up and my blood pressure went down.

Take my advice. Don't lose another remote! Never search for a Phillips-head screwdriver again! And-whatever you do-never be without Occam's Razor.