It seems to me that if you have the time to snack on some Cheetos, you have the two seconds it takes to throw your empty bag of remnant crumbs in the freakin’ garbage can. I realize that we all have moments of laziness, but the littering on this campus is ridiculous. The labor required to perform some of the simple tasks that we avoid is so miniscule that we really have no excuse.
I am getting sick of seeing empty Coke cans scattered around campus, Wendy’s bags moving with the wind, used feminine products sitting atop toilet paper dispensers, and leftover Ramen noodles hanging in the drain of sinks.
I like procrastinating. But I love procrastinating when it comes to taking out the trash or recycling, washing dishes, making a trip to the market and doing laundry. I wait until the last possible moment, when there is no more room in the garbage bag, too much stench from dirty dishes drifting through the air, no more snacks in the room and no more undies to wear.
Unfortunately, a lot of us are like this. But in reality, if we take care of these tedious chores ahead of time, our overall stress will diminish. The little things build up and can really wear down on our lives and make us feel much more overwhelmed than we should.
Take care of the necessary tasks and obligations first. But if you happen to have a few minutes in your day to commit to small tasks, take advantage of this time. A couple minutes here, to throw your laundry in the wash while you begin studying for that exam tomorrow morning. Thirty minutes later, you can take a stretch break to switch your laundry to the dryer, and what do you know! You’re already two steps through doing laundry. Another hour later, all you need to worry about is folding your clothes and tucking them away in your dresser.
Or how about the extra 30 seconds it takes to walk around to the dumpster with your trash while on your way to meet up with friends for dinner or heading out to class?
Not only will performing these small tasks make our lives easier, but it will also help out those around us. I always feel so bad for the cleaning ladies when I see that someone has clogged up the sink because they were too lazy to dump their leftover food elsewhere. The janitors already have to clean up enough of our nasty college habits. We don’t need to intentionally add to their workload with our immature negligence and pure laziness.
It’s hard being college students, trying to balance everything and keep up with the boring, mundane chores. But if we learn to tackle these chores early on, then they really won’t stress us out in the long run and we will find our lives were made much easier from taking the initiative.
Olivia Harlow is a sophomore studying journalism and photojournalism and a columnist for The Post. Email her at 258409@ohiou.edu.
