Come next Monday (27/05), at 4:00 PM, I will be enduring the
most despised and invasive intrusion known to all Renter-kind: THE PROPERTY
INSPECTION!!!!
Alright, so maybe it isn't QUITE that bad. Obviously, if you
haven’t been putting your fist, furniture or flatmates through the windows
and/or walls; haven’t dug up the carpet to see if you can see what’s happening
the floor below you; or tried your mural skills on the ceiling and doors, then
you really don’t have that much to
worry about. However, I won’t deny that it is kind of like the property
equivalent of looking into your rear-view mirror and finding that you have a
Police car tailing you: you know you aren't doing anything illegal, because
this is how you've always driven … but what if you've subconsciously picked up
bad habits that you are unaware of? However, this 500 isn't about subliminal
tortures, but motivations.
Anyone that knows me, or has chatted with me over the
previous months, knows that I have been in a constant state of intimidation:
I've been threatening to give my flat a decent going over and have a massive
Spring Clean (either 6 months too early, or six too late … more than likely the
latter!) But when I've had the opportunity to, I've simply lacked the
motivation, the will, or the desire to jump in and get it done. Whilst I do
only live in a one bedroom flat, by myself (no flatmates bouncing off or
through the walls for me, mores the pity … or not!), my usual excuse is that it
is filled with extraneous goods from my previous flat which was a two bedroom
flat, where the second bedroom was more a storage (read: junk) room. Despite
all this, it wasn't until I received a two week warning that I was to be
subjected to a legal home invasion by the real estate agency. Even then, I
still wasted the first week. Of course, last week, I had the full week to
myself, only working on the weekends. This week, I've got a full week of work,
so can only entomb myself within the task in the late afternoons and evenings.
Unfortunately, this has been a recurring theme for most of
my life. I either wait until the last minute before delving into a task (better
known as ‘cramming’, when I was at school), or it takes negative motivation to
get me moving: said property inspection being a prime case. Other examples
include bills and credit cards! Rather than save the money for the sake of
saving (and investing) which is such a vague and hazy goal, I'm generally much
better if I'm paying down a bill or working on a credit card. There is a
definite and ‘real’ end to the budgeting, something that you can fixate on, and
that is a tangible conclusion to the period, be it a few months or many years.
As I write this, several solutions have popped into my mind,
with the overall gist being: I need to clarify my vagues!
