Just Ten Minutes

Several hours of the week there are 8 people living in this house, three meals a day, 2 snacks per day, very little time between meals to clean up after them makes for a lot of dishes.  Family of 5, one has a dirty job, one gets food and/or booger smears on her clothes, 3 young children who can't keep their clothes at all clean makes for a lot of laundrey.  6 kids in the house playing and have a grand ol' time makes for a wide scattering of toys.  1 busy mom/daycare provider who would never be able to spend quality time with any of the children in her life if she kept up with all the clutter/laundrey/dishes/messes at all times.  It all makes for a pretty big cleaning challenge, one that I have been able to stay on top of before but it had me staying up until 2:00 AM every night, which was effecting my health.

I've read a few different books about getting organized and housekeeping and between those books, sharing methods with friends, and various blogs, I've gotten a few ideas here and there that I can apply.  One of them was to spend only 10 minutes cleaning each room at the begining or end of the day.  You set a timer or keep a close eye on the clock, and when the 10 minutes is up you stop and move on to the next room.  So last night my goal was the bathroom, dining room, kitchen, and living room (these are the rooms that get the most traffic during the day).  I started in the bathroom and spent exactly 10 minutes in there, a few minutes after that I was ready to start the dining room, then the kitchen, and last the living room.  I was surprised at how much of a difference just 10 minutes in each room made!  Not only did it make a big difference but it didn't feel like it took a lot of time.  It also wasn't nearly as overwhelming at the end of the day as looking at a messy house and feeling like it would never get picked up.

You should give it a try sometime and see how much you can actually get done around the house when you work hard for just 10 minutes in each room!  I'm excited to give it another try tonight, just as soon as I finish this episode of House!