Before I start, I’ll let you know that I just called my best friend to get her permission to tell this story. Thankfully, she’s one of the three “real life” people (other than my husband) who know about my blog.
When we were in college, she took a home-ec class. In it, she had an assignment to estimate the time it would take for each step of a certain kitchen project. It doesn’t matter what the project was because her first answer was so hysterical.
Step one: Turn on the light and put on your apron.
She put . . .
Ten Minutes
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It‘s more than 15 years later and this still makes me belly-laugh. And while were laughing hysterically on the phone just now, she tried to explain that she was taking into account that you would have to FIND your apron, and probably wouldn’t remember where it was, etc. etc. etc.
I laughed even louder.
I thought of this story after I timed myself cleaning up the house today. I have been busy this week and in a cranky mood for most of it. (Laughing about that story has helped me soooo much.) I haven’t done well on my daily tasks, and so the house was looking pretty bad. (Not like pre-blog bad, but normal-person bad.) Since my parents are coming down this afternoon to take us out for MY BIRTHDAY, I was motivated to get the house into better shape.
I was given the advice by my mother several years ago to time myself doing different tasks. She said she did this, and it helped her mentally to know how short many jobs really are. For example, my friend just reminded me on the phone that she’d heard that it only takes 4 minutes to empty your dishwasher. She’s timed it, and says they’re right. Four minutes!
So here’s my morning, cleaning up a mostly-neglected-for-a-week house.
9:34 – Started cleaning the kitchen, which looked like this:
I think I believed that I had cleaned the kitchen every day. But somehow my selective-mental-blindness had allowed me to block out the fact that I’d neglected to do the big stuff like the pot in which I cooked spaghetti and the big skillet I used to make chicken fried rice. Add to that NOT cleaning it up last night, and you have a big mess.
At 10:04 it looked like this:
I would normally call this good enough. The dishes were washed, and left out to dry. But then I decided to do something crazy. I DRIED them and actually . . . . are you ready . . . . put them AWAY!At 10:08 it looked like this:
Much better.And then I spent from 10:09 to 10:24 mopping. That’s the entire mopping process, from getting the mop out of the laundry room to being completely done . . . in 15 minutes.
So why do I think of mopping as an all-morning endeavor?
At 10:25 my dining room looked like this:
At 10:34 it looked like this:
That’s with stopping to take the “after” picture and realizing that the Christmas wreath was STILL up.At 10:36 the living room looked like this:
At 10:50, 14 minutes later, it looked like this:
It took this long because most of the clutter in it needed to be moved to other rooms in the house. Also, I listened to some awesome new choir music which at times made me move faster, but at other times required moments of standing still to belt out the song in full voice.
And at 10:51 the office looked like this:
At 11:13 it looked like this:
Not perfect, but I’m good with it, and it was lunchtime. This one took a while because it also required moving things to their proper rooms and hanging up coats. LOTS of coats. I really need to get some screws so I can put up those coat hooks.
And here’s the thing that didn’t get done:
That’s my tap floor behind it, which I’m okay with. But clearing off that surface overwhelmed me too much to think I could get it done. Lame excuse, I know.
I learned from this experiment. I learned that mopping only takes 15 minutes from start to finish. I learned that any one of these jobs, which at times I let overwhelm me, could easily be completed even on the busiest day.
I’d like to do this again on a week when I’ve done well at my daily tasks, and then compare.
I *love* your living room!! Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday! I guess this post means that I need to get off the internet and time how long it takes me to:
1. Clean off the kitchen table
2. Clean out the refrigerator
3. Make lunch for tomorrow
4. Sweep and mop the kitchen floor
I have found out one thing this month – it's much easier and less mentally tiring to just wash the dishes rather than thinking that I should wash the dishes!
You have seriously inspired me to get organized and have decent, if not perfect, looking house. Thank you for that.
I stumbled across your blog probably 3-4 weeks ago at orgjunkie.com for MPM. I then became enthralled with your writings. I truely thought it was me writing them. You have inspired me to try to organize my house especially since we are moving soon and I used to have a daily chore list for myself years ago and I just decided to do it again. But this post BLEW MY MIND I always think oh I don't have time to clean the house for whatever reason, I have to go to work, my daughter has to go to gymnastics, I have school tonite, Dr. appts, you know ANY excuse. But now maybe those excuses can be my time clock. Maybe I can clean the kitchen before gymnastics or something like that. Thank you for this post.
Just a quick update. I did eventually get off the internet last night and spent almost two hours cleaning my kitchen, although that was mixed in with loads of laundry, getting the cat inside, eating dinner, etc. My kitchen is now CLEAN! And it's still clean today! The kitchen table hasn't been this clean since Christmas Eve! Thank you for posting this – it really hit me and got me moving.
Your living room picture has made me miss that rug!! I have bought it twice whenever a baby is old enough for tummy time but then each time had to throw it away because of cat pee. Well, he finally went to the great mouse hunting grounds in the sky and I picked a different, more costly rug for the most recent baby. Just a warning to anyone -those thick looong fiber carpets never come clean with the vacuum-even if you hand vacuum with the hose. Almonds from weeks ago will suddenly POP out of the rug. I haven’t had a major spill but I’m pretty sure there is no way to get it out carpet that thick.
Ok, 2 more posts and then it’s dish time!!! Thank you Nony!!!! And bless you too!
I love this idea. I use a timer in my kitchen to keep me on task sometimes. Like 5 minutes per counter, 5 minutes for dishwasher etc. but I’ve never thought of timing a task just to actually get a good feel for the time it takes. Thanks!
Thank you!!! Thank you for this post especially at this crazy time in my life when I too am trying to un-slobify my life. Makes a huge difference when you realize a task only takes a few minutes 🙂
Dana,
What’s wrong with you??? You’ve cleaned up a number of rooms in your house in a short space of time & your worrying about lame excuses for what you haven’t done!?! OMG… you have done an amazing job & have inspired me that I too can do it!
GOD BLESS YOU!
Love from the UK x