Not Enough Time in the Day

Housekeeping is not my forte. Why? I really don't know. I like having a clean house. I don't enjoy waking through messes and clutter. But for some reason, I just can't manage to keep my house as clean as I'd like it or think it ought to be. My guess is I'm not the only one with this problem, but really, there has got to be a solution. Someone once told me that I should time myself doing things, that way I know what I can accomplish in the bits of time allotted me. So I've been trying it the last few days.

Little girl toys always end up strung all over the living room. Usually I just leave them. They aren't hurting anyone. Why put them away if they're just going to be all over the room again in a few minutes? I'll tell you why. It only takes 55 seconds to clean them up and put them back in the toy box. All of the them. 55 seconds.

I can do 55 seconds several times a day. And look how much better it looks!

I HATE cleaning up the highchair. Hate it. But how gross is that to have laying around? So I timed myself. It takes me 3 minutes to clean off the tray, wipe down the chair, and vacuum up the food that was thrown overboard. 3 minutes: much easier than trying to do it one-handed with a hungry crying toddler in my arms. No excuses.

So I timed other various jobs that I seem to put off forever...

• it takes me 4:25 to empty the dish washwer
• 1 minute to empty the garbage
• 2 minutes to start a load of laundry
• and 1 minute to make the bed.

So although I feel like there is never enough time, I'm pretty sure I can find a free minute or two here and there to get some of those icky jobs done. I'm inspired now. You should try it!