Tuesday has traditionally been my big house-cleaning day. It's the day I tackle the messiest part of the house-- the downstairs, encompassing the sticky kitchen, the messy family room, and the dirtiest half-bathroom on the face of the planet. Lately, I've been finding very good excuses for putting off the Tuesday ritual, at least until Wednesday or Thursday. For one thing, it takes two good, solid hours to clean the whole downstairs, and between spinning classes, and non-negotiable trips to the library and donut shop, sometimes I just don't have two hours.
But I've found a trick I want to share that seems to help. The first step to cleaning the downstairs is moving all of the chairs, stools, rugs and trash cans from the kitchen and bathroom to the family room. It only takes about a minute, but once it's done, it's like I've committed to seeing the project through to the end. Giving up and putting everything back on the dirty floor just isn't an option anymore.
So when I'm feeling really lazy, really eager to talk myself out of tackling the mess, I try to work up the energy just to move the chairs. Then I can sit back down at the computer and gear up for the work ahead, knowing that sooner or later over the course of the day, I'll buckle down and get the room clean. And podcasts help too. Lately I've been enjoying The Kitchen Sisters, The Splendid Table and Word for Word.
5 comments:
I do the "move all the chairs and stools" too. It really does make the other chore seem easier. My kids found it was so much fun to have the chairs in the living room, that they moved some back in to make their train/plane/rocket come alive again.
Hello! I just popped over from Singing a verse of my song. I love that you have to fit in a spinning class and a trip to the donut shop:). Maybe those donuts are for the kiddos, I'll have to read more of those posts.
I move the chairs too. It makes cleaning the kitchen, breakfast nook and dining room a cinch. I have a tv in the kitchen and HGTV is my cleaning companion. :-)
I love that you have a non-negotiable donut shop run.
for me, it's pulling the vacuum out and actually plugging the thing in. if it's sitting there in the middle of the floor, plugged in, then the floor WILL get vacuumed. funny these little tricks we employ.
♥
Post a Comment