Big Steps or Little Steps?

It was that time, time to clean out our closet. My husband had been talking about it since the holidays and had yet to tackle the job. It was a boring, rainy day, so I decided to give it a whirl.  Once I went through the entire closet, there were four large garbage bags of his clothes to donate to good will. I had only five pieces of clothing to give away. We both felt better once it was done, like a wight had been lifted. Someone else can be blessed by what we no longer use, and now we both feel better about the space. 

I realized that he and I tackle things from two different ends of the spectrum. I do things in little steps, slowly and as it comes. He prefers to do things in one big event, doing it all at once and just knuckling down to get the job done. Neither way is better than the other, just a different way of tackling things. My way bothers him because I am working all the time, slowly and in small pieces. He doesn’t see much progress, so waht is the point of all the effort? His way bothers me because there is no progress until the Big Bang event and whoosh it all gets done, we are exhausted, and huge change is completed. In the end, it gets done; it is the process of getting there that is different. 

I have a theory of closet management. If I buy something new, something old or that I no longer wear needs to find a new home. He buys things and finds them a place, not giving the older clothes or what he doesn’t wear any thought. Once again, neither one is a better theory, it is just a different way of managing space. I prefer things to be done in small,c insistent steps. My husband prefers for things to be done is large blocks so he can see great, grand results. 

So how do you tackle things? Big steps or little steps? Do you make small strides to get big jobs done, or do you make it a big event and see huge progress once it is completed? Knowing how you prefer to get things done makes it easier to handle when someone else does it differently. Your way may not work for everyone, but it works for you. So ho do oyu handle it when someone else does it differently and not in your timeframe? Think about that as you pull clothes out of your closet…big steps or little steps?