Carrie Cox’s Corner

Okay, so maybe dummies isn’t the right word. Maybe it should be called tidying for slobbies. Nah, that doesn’t have a ring, either.

We’ll stick with the title we got; at least for me it is still accurate lol.

So, I’ve always had a hard time keeping things tidy, even when I was young. It’s like my brain wouldn’t just let me clean, I had to over think it, research the best ways, unclean, then haul everything out and make a 5-9 hour project that would usually overwhelm me but occasionally work out, and my room would be somewhat clean, but only for a day or two.

Yikes.

I see this in my boy. He did the exact same thing yesterday when I told him to clean his playroom. I can see why my mom was always so frustrated when she told me to clean my room and an hour later I’m reading old scrapbooks I found when I was digging out the trash under my bed.

Yikes.

As an adult and educator, I can see now that my brain works a little differently, and I might be a little ADD. Learning how your brain works and accepting it comes with some gains. I appreciate the brain God gave me. It’s awesome for big tasks that need complete focus and consumption in, but it’s not great for the daily things. It also helps me to be really creative even artistic, because nothing is confined, everything can be moved, but again, it makes me want to move around the living room furniture at least twice a year because I just have to see how it would look.

Yikes.

I can see why my husband (not my mom anymore lol) has been frustrated at me in the past for “cleaning” and spending two hours on a junk drawer while the rest of the house is a fire zone.

Yikes.

But, I finally found something that worked for me. Understanding, at least to some degree, your own brain and learning behaviors, as well as flaws can help you find dupes and hacks to overcome these shortcomings that we all have. These weights that we have to lay aside. I’m 38 this year, and it has finally clicked. Not in everything. I wish. My house is no where near perfect, but if I want to clean it, I can do it in about an hour. The myst has finally cleared. I learned after I started teaching that timers worked well not only for my students, but with me, so my cleaning routine is based on a timer, (usually the one on my microwave in my kitchen). It’s always based on small little bit sized chunks that I can complete in 5 minutes.

So here is what I do….

5 by 6

1. Kitchen

2. Living Room

3. Bathroom

4. Bedroom

5. Floors

6. Laundry

Done.

Yikes, I’m so proud of myself!

So what does it look like? Small chunks of time and working as fast as I possibly can.

If I’m low on time or motivation (ha, or both), I choose 5 minutes, if I do have time and or a good burst of energy, I do 7 or even 10. So here’s what it looks like.

Kitchen. I usually start here. Honestly, it’s the place that I keep the most clean. I actually enjoy cleaning it. I spend 5 minutes clearing out the counters and the big spaces. I look and say, what big things make this place look junky, and then I work my butt off to beat the clock. I don’t really do dishes at this time, I just put them in the sink. It’s kind of a separate chore for me that just gets done daily at some point, but this 5+ minute tidying frenzy is amazing, and when that timer goes off, my kitchen looks put together.

Living Room. I usually go here next. It actually is a big open space that includes the dining room area, music corner, entry way, and our living space with couches. I again focus on the big things that need to be to be straightened, items that need to be deposited in other rooms, folding throw blankets and fluffing pillows, wiping down the table and coffee table, and putting shoes that have gathered in the entry way into closets. It goes by so quickly. Racing against the clock is actually fun.

Floors. This usually means the floors in the living room and kitchen, but sometimes can extend to vacuuming upstairs or mopping the tile. Sometimes Claira is working with me (frequently she is, which is awesome by the way. She is better at this than me. He pillows on the couch look like a magazine lol). When she is working with me, sometime I will vacuum while she sweeps, or she will mop while I sweep, and others day (when there’s lots of dry grass tracked in by husband who is a yard man on the side) we both sweep. It just depends on what needs to be done. I have a push broom and a regular broom. The soft push broom works best on the hardwood floors, and I have a cool way of cleaning it quickly outside. Usually by the third chore, we’ve turned on our cleaning album, which usually is the same one, and we all clean and sing as loud as we can ha. Having the same routine, the same songs, the same pattern, is what turns it into a habit and not a chore. It’s just usually the motivation to get started, but once you pull the trigger, the rest just happens. Sometimes my motivation is totally zapped, especially when I’m in school and come home late. I’m zonked. I will pass out on the couch for a bout 10 minute or so, and then think to myself, I can do anything for five minutes! But this is where the magic happens. When I finally set the timer and get going, I don’t dread it anymore. It’s a game, and it’s fun. And sometimes I cheat and add two more minutes on the clock and feel like a punk.

Everything in life is a mental game.

Yikes.

Bathroom. We are blessed to have three bathrooms in our house. Well three toilets and two baths if you want to be technical. I usually clean our bathroom during this time, which is always where we have his and her closets and we keep all of our clothes. I keep cleaning supplies housed in there and even a little broom and dust pan in my closet. After three consecutive days of cleaning my bathroom, I’ll switch out to the half bath. Claira takes care of her bathroom upstairs. Hallelujah. I’m teaching Hunter to clean the half bath, but he can’t quite do it independently yet.

Bedroom. If I have the time, I usually put 10 minutes on the clock here because my bedroom is where I put everything when I’m cleaning the other rooms lol. It also has our home office, and is a catch all for both my husband and I. I always start with making the bed, if it isn’t made already, and it’s a good start. We have a little love seat in our room that likes to pretend it’s a clothes holder, so I usually clear that off next. It’s so welcoming when it’s clean and clear. I also open the blinds and curtains and let in as much sunshine as I can. It really enlightens the mood and also show cases the dust.
Speaking of dust, I don’t have it on my list, but I will add it to the main rooms once or twice a week. I have a list of extra chores that I try to do one per day, and dusting is one of them. It doesn’t happen as faithfully as the others, but when the house is all tidy from the basic clean, you can’t help but notice the dust and windows and other “dirt” more, and it helps to be a good reminder to clean it.

Laundry. My least favorite daily chore. Ug. I think it’s that the process has so many steps, even putting it away is a bunch different places and different decisions. I have laundry on my coffee table right now. This one can’t quite get done in 5 minutes, but if it’s feeling really heavy and overwhelming, I can break up the tasks in 5 minute chunks. I would say 15 minutes is what it takes to fold a load and put away. I haven’t found my balance with it yet, it’s getting closer, but it still gangs up on me and taunts me. I’ll let you know once it’s mastered, but I feel like it’s a life long battle, lol. Such first world problems. I am really thankful for clean clothes, for a dryer, for clothes to wear. Counting my blessings while I’m searching for my matching socks is an attitude check, a needed one. So Laundry is last on my list. The last to conquer, or the last to dwell with gracefully.

So that’s it, my friends. Tidying up for dummies. You’re probably thinking, well no duh, Carrie, you just clean up the space, but it took me this long to figure out the steps to do that and only that, not deep clean, but tidy. So I guess my new title should be, Tidying for Dummies, but unfortunately for me, it only works if I do.