80-and-Go · The Founder's Guild

80-and-Go

🚿 The water heater hasn’t been getting the water very hot this week, so we’ve been taking those quick, bracing, “character‑building” showers. Thankfully, the issue is fixed now.

But the whole thing reminded me of something my grandmother used to say: “Now make sure and wash your 13 areas.”

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time on my grandparents’ farms; one in East Tennessee, one in West Tennessee.

At the end of long days running wild, my grandmother would send us in to shower one at a time before dinner. There were six of us grandkids, and there was always some kind of shenanigan happening somewhere on that farm. No one wanted to miss anything, so showers were… let’s just say, not our top priority.

Sometimes we’d go in the shower with dried dirt and come out with mud. Not because there wasn’t hot water, but because we were rushing to get back to whatever chaos we were sure was unfolding without us.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure her “13 areas” rule was her version of an 80‑and‑go strategy.

We didn’t have to be spotless. We just had to be reasonably clean.

And in our little kid brains, the challenge of finding thirteen different “areas” to wash slowed us down just enough to get the job done.

🥰 It makes me smile now; how her simple, practical wisdom worked better than any lecture ever could. A gentle nudge toward “good enough,” wrapped in a bit of mystery and a whole lot of love.

This got me thinking: What are the modern versions of “wash your 13 areas” that we use now.

You know, those small, clever ways we help ourselves (and each other) do what needs doing without making it harder than it has to be?

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