Challenge: Speed-cleaning

[yvi]

It's Saturday (in most of the world right now, at least, I think only four time zones have reached Sunday yet) and Saturday is the day that many people tackle household tasks.

So today I finally got fed up with the absolutely dreadful state of my office, which had been a storage room while my pet was in hibernation. Well, she's been awake for almost a month now and it was still never tidied. This picture already looks not so clean and tidy and that was two months ago - it has gotten even worst since then.



And I am not exaggerating when I say it has gotten way worse - the right desk was completely cluttered, the left one pretty much, almost no floor even visible, old computers standing around, etc.

So, I finally got fed up today. So I told myself I'd spend half an hour just tackling the big stuff. 30 minutes, no distractions, focusing on the big things instead of getting side-tracked by the details. And in that 30 minutes I managed to:
* put away all my laundry
* get the bike and the bag with old clothes out into the floor so I can carry them down Monday
* picked up the puzzle that took up so much floor space - we were planning to glue and frame it, but that "were planning" has been going on for months now, so packing it away made more sense
* put all official documents on one pile to sort later
* put the electronics and computers on another pile and the monitor back on the desk+
* threw away the garbage lying around on my side

And that was 30 minutes and it looks so much better now. Another 30 minutes tomorrow and my side might look remotely tidy. Another 30 minutes and it might even look clean.

So, that's what 30 minutes can go. So here's my challenge: Pick a Thing you have been putting off way too long now (cleaning the fridge? sorting the yarn stash? cleaning out the wardrobe?). Tell me about it her and get your encouragement :) Pick an hour of the weekend where you are not busy with something else and then just do the Thing for 30 minutes. Afterwards, relax for 30 minutes and tell us what you accomplished.

Comments

[ar]

My mother's always gone with the Fly Lady doctrine, which states that you can get a lot done in fifteen minutes. This is an excellent post, and I agree entirely with it, though I do best, personally, in a fifteen-minute chunk.

This weekend, there're several things I need to stop putting off cleaning: the shower and bathroom area in particular. So maybe I'll get the roommate to do either the stovetop or the inside of the microwave at the same time, and we'll really have something going. :D

And good work on your own pile of stuff to do! You got a lot done yourself.

[yvi]

Gosh, don't remind me of the inside of the microwave ;) But I just cleaned the bugs, so that's something else to feel accomplished about :)

Shower/Bathroom is so annoying, but also very satisfying when it's all shiny and clean, so go you! And simultaneous cleaning is always very encouraging.

(I read a few flylady things every now and then, but find it too focused on having a more traditional household and life - I don't have a house, I don't cook breakfast for a family in the mornings etc.)

[ar]

Augh, bugs? You have earned a reward times, like, three, then. :O

I figure simultaneous cleaning will get the most done, yeah. And that means I don't have to do it until they come home from work tonight, lol.

(I've never read much of their stuff, but I do have one of their cookbooks--or a cookbook they advocate or something--and it is full of deliciousness for the most part. So mostly I take the food and fifteen minutes business away, lol.)

[yvi]

Comes with the territory of caring for a reptile :) Actually, the insects have become sort of a hobby themselves and they are relatively easy to care for, but cleaning is always a chore I'd rather have my boyfriend do ;)

Simultaneous cleaning is totally the way major cleaning is done at castleYvi - everyone tackles one room and glares at the other person if they try to slack off :D

And that means I don't have to do it until they come home from work tonight, lol.

Heh :)

[recessional]

I tend to find the entire Flylady model too focused around "traditional" ideals and concepts of what a "clean" house and "organized" life is, and the idea that your life will hugely revolve around that.

Where I learned my cleaning philosophies from a woman who was a full-time physician on top of having three children, one of whom was special needs. So my targets and necessities are totally different from what seems to be the central philosophy of Flylady, and ALL of my targets are focused around a basic ideal of "functional".

The sink cleaning thing, for example. If I'm going to do One Thing in my kitchen in the evening, it's not going to be my sink. Indeed, my sink languishes water-stained and grotty for most of a month until I have a day where I have nothing to do and then I bleach or scrub it. But if I have One Thing in the kitchen I am going to do, and be proud of doing, it will be - oh, fill-and-turn-on-dishwasher. Empty dead food out of fridge. Put away the boxes of stuff that are all over the counter. Hell, organize my tea-shelf.

Etc. Different philosophies. I do not care whether my house looks like I'm a good housekeeper, I guess is the thing. I care if my house is actually clean and functional.

/random tangent

[yvi]

Oh Gosh, I am not alone! I tried getting into that site a few times, but recoil in horror at the "Make your bed!" (I have a 6 square meters bedroom that no-one except the people who liver here ever see - I haven't made my bed in years) and "Get dressed every morning!" (I work, thank you very much). And swishing the toilet every day? Not my goal in life.

I am sure it works for many people, but the 'steps' there just make me boggle.

And now I am surfing that site and boggling at the 'put your shoes on each morning'. Huh.

[recessional]

No, not alone at all. It's been pushed at me or at friends several times and just . . .

It is based around several assumptions. It assumes things about your heteronormativity, that you are or wish to be in a relationship, etc. But the fundamental assumption that doesn't work for me is that what's important in housekeeping is having a PRESENTABLE house: that you want people to walk in and go "oh, what a nice clean house!"

From this, you do start with things like the sink, because this is a visible "CLEAN! SHINY!" and it will encourage you, etc. Likewise for the "nice clothes everyday" and "swishing the toilet everyday" and the obsession with decluttering*. Et cetera, et cetera.

This is not my philosophy of cleaning. Having a clean and tidy house is actually very important to me, but it's not about people seeing it. It's about me seeing it, and using it, and the fastest, easiest, most EFFECTIVE ways to clean and tidy and use my house.

Which is why, although my sink is always washed out of, you know, food? It languishes water-spotted. But my dishwasher is regularly filled and emptied, and my counters are washed.


*I have a use for cluttering, but for example, my desk accumulates clutter through a month, and then loses it - not because I "clean up the clutter", but because I do my bills, answer my letters, answer my cards, etc.

[softestbullet]

Lol, for real, why would anyone make their bed?!

[ninetydegrees]

The only things I found really, really useful from this site are:

Clean a little where you are.
Put away stuff now/Do it now instead of later (this really changed things as I don't have to spend hours and hours doing all the stuff I haven't done during the rest of the week).
Don't keep stuff you don't use. I love throwing things out so this one was very easy :)

The rest is crap as far as I'm concerned and her view of things made me uncomfortable.

[ninetydegrees]

I cleaned one more cabinet and a drawer in my kitchen which leaves me with just one cupboard, a drawer and the top of the cabinets to clean (but I'm too small for the latter and need to buy a stepladder first). My kitchen is nearly perfectly clean! \o/

[yvi]

Go you, well done!

[shiny_crystal]

I tend to do little stuff while I'm in the place anyway. Today, while I was in the kitchen and my tea was brewing, I reorganized my storage cupboard and threw away anything past it's best-before-date. Similarly, I did the washing up while the water for my noodles was heating up.

More to be done, though. I should start setting a timer for household tasks again ... it works for writing. 30 minutes is a good span :)

[schnurble]

Haven't looked at this Flylady stuff, but I also find that doing things in a short time frame is much more effective than having hours for it. Because if you know you have only a few minutes, you're much more inclined to concentrate on what you're doing and not get side-tracked by details.

I usually spend a few minutes in the morning before leaving for work or in the evening after getting home before Hubby comes home on household stuff. Like put dirty dishes into the dishwasher, wipe the kitchen counters, clean one thing in the bathroom (toilet, sink, shower, bathtub or floor), put some stuff away... One thing is quickly done, and work doesn't accumulate so I don't have to spend a big portion of my weekend with cleaning and tidying up :o)