The big picture

The big reason that being around my parents will stress me out if I let it--in other words, the reason I have to actively make a point of not letting myself get stressed out--is that their lifestyle not only bewilders me but reminds me of my childhood. My parents--mom is egregious, but dad not only enables her but is also inefficient in his own right--just do things in suboptimal ways. And my whole lifestyle depends on optimization and efficiency. I'm not the only one to feel this way about one's parents.

Life-hacking, I think, is how the kids these days describe it: simple tricks and habits that make things easier or just make things work. Like throwing things away as soon as you're done with them, rather than placing them elsewhere in the house and giving your hoarder-spouse an opportunity to debate whether or not they actually need to be tossed (or recycled). And by things, I mean everything from mesh bags that held lemons to things that are broken or long expired to things that pertain to bigger things that no longer work.

Life-hacking: refrigerating vegetables, so that you're not surprised every time that they eventually go bad. And that one's all dad, and his mind is f*ing intact. And yet, every time, I tell him to put things in the fridge, and he's all 'nah' and then two days later is all, "huh, that went bad."

Life-hacking: getting your $hit together so you can leave the house in minutes, not hours (we were supposed to be at the beach by now). God knows what my parents are looking for. And here we come back to the clutter: it's not just annoying, it's an obstacle. When you have so much $hit lying around, it makes it harder to find the $hit you actually need, when you need it.

Life-hacking: paying your f*ing bills online. All of them.

Life-hacking: never being in the position to say something like, "I can find the left shoe for so many shoes, but no right shoe."