signals to myself

I said earlier that I'd offer tips for homemakers as I come across them. Here are a few unusual ones.

I'm the kind of person who'll forget why I came into a room, leave the room, remember what it was I needed to do, and forget by the time I'm back in the room. The kind of guy who goes to the market to pick up a can of chicken noodle soup, spends $100 on groceries, and forgets to buy the soup.

Over the past 25 years, I've purchased handheld cassette recorders, microcassette recorders, digital voice note recorders, Palm Pilots and PocketPCs -- and now I have a microphone attachment for my iPod to record memos straight to MP3. But I never use any of these "solutions" for more than a month or so.

But for certain daily chores, I've developed nonverbal signals to myself:

1. If the coffee maker is pulled out onto the counter, it means I've either not yet cleaned it, or not yet prepared the thing for tomorrow morning's coffee.
2. If the trash can under the sink is full but I can't take out the garbage immediately, I put the trash bags under foot so I can't forget.
3. I leave the least perishable ingredients out on the counter to remind myself to prepare certain meals.
4. If I'm still wearing my pajamas, it means I haven't yet made the bed. I make the bed and put on my day clothes at the same time to maintain this signal. Not only does it serve as a reminder that the bed remains unmade, but also as motivation to make the bed sooner, since I don't want to stay in my PJs all morning.
5. I go barefoot in the apartment. This helps me remember to clean the floors and carpets.
6. If I'm wearing my sandals indoors, it means I was headed for the dirty catbox. There are two territories where I don't worry about the floors: my wife's pile territory and our cats' lavatory area. The missus can pile stuff around her desk and I won't touch any of it. I don't dare. Cat litter spills out to the surrounding floor by their WC. I do vacuum that area, but I'd have to do so three times a day to keep from stepping into grit tracked out of the catbox. So I wear sandals to clean the litter. Last night I stood up from my computer and realized I wasn't barefoot. Why am I in sandals? Then I realized I had been headed for the litterbox and had gotten distracted by email.

I'd write notes on my skin, like the guy in Memento, but I never remember to carry a pen.