10 Minute Cleaning Game Days 16-23

Ok.  I went away last weekend an have been busy working out of the house this week so I haven't been spending much time updating the blog.  To my dismay I also haven't been doing much cleaning either.

Day 16 & 17
My friend has a clean house.  She loves cleaning products an she loves to clean.  She is horrified if a guest finds a dust bunny.  I didn't find any.  Within this perfectly kept home is a sparsely filled basement, which drives her insane.  I thought it was wonderful.  She thought it was cluttered.  Unable to tackle the task on her own because it was bothering her so much another friend and I spent a couple hours re-storing items an prettying her emergency stockpile area.  When she saw what we had done she was so pleased she started throwing away the junk that had been bothering her.  This is not a usual 10 minute clean, but seeing as I was on vacation, I'm counting it.

Day 18
I spent my time cleaning up after the man weekend.  Enough said.

Day 19, 20
Turns out when I'm working out of the house an tired when I get home, I do not clean.  I suspected as much, but now I have quantifiable proof that I have shared with the masses.  I get lazy.

Day 21
I had a client today, so the 10 minute clean took about half an hour (let's call day 19 and 20 a wash, shall we?).

• I cleared out the living room and dusted the surfaces.  Don't ask about where the stuff went.
• Swept the main floor common areas.
• Started a load of dishes and wiped down the kitchen counters.
• Quickly wiped bathroom sink.
• Maybe took a quick nap.

Day 22

Haven't done the clean yet.  Not really motivated.  I could promise I will, but that never turns out well.  The living room looks good, the kitchen is a bit sloppy, the bathroom is dirty, the bedroom is messy.  After one week of slacking on the game the house shows it.  I guess you'll have to wait for my next update to see if I broke down and did anything about the mess today.

10 MInute Cleaning Game Day 14 & 15

So I've been doing a lot of my (real) work lately.  Yesterday I got to a wall where I needed to put my head on the desk and sleep.  I was trying to convince myself that I needed a break.  So I sat at my desk and asked myself, "well, what will you do on break?"  My mind flashed to the couch, the soft, comfortable couch.  I realized I should keep working instead of entering a multiple hour nap.  Instead I decided to get active and do my 10 minute clean.  It did help a bit too.  Here's what I got done.

1. Gathered dirty laundry and started a load in the washer.
2. Swept the bathroom and replaced the bathmat.
3. Wiped down the kitchen counters and stove.

I'll be going away this weekend, so I wanted to get my cleaning out of the way early today too.   I managed to fit these tasks into my 10 minutes.

1. Quick tidy of the basement.  Looks lived in, but should be good enough for man weekend here.
2. Loaded and ran dishwasher.
3. Started clearing off DH's dresser. 

There's still some junk on each of our dressers, but I can see wood on both!  When I started playing the 10 minute cleaning challenge, our room was a mess.  Whenever we had tidied before, a lot of junk was thrown in and the door was closed.  I really see it coming together now, and that's exciting for me.

The living room looked fine as is today.  Maybe a little dusty but could pass.  When I started the living room would accumulate so much junk! 

This seems to be working.  Throughout the day we're cleaning more we see issues, so there's less to pick up in the 10 minutes and I can use that time more and more to tackle cleaning issues that have been bugging me.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 13

Lucky number 13!
So today I said no funny business and did my 10 minute clean first things this morning. 

Nothing too exciting got accomplished:
Made the bed, emptied dishwasher, loaded dishwasher, wiped down counters and stove, scrubbed sink. 

It didn't add much to my morning and I smile when I walk into the kitchen now!

Usually I do a bit of this each morning and do my 10 minutes later.  This morning I said, hey!  I'm already 4 minutes in!  Let's just take this a couple steps forward and get a few more things done!

We did load the dishwasher etc. after dinner last night, but everything didn't fit.  Then we made chai tea, so there were more dishes.  Ideally the kitchen would be tidied and cleaned each night after dinner before moving onto TV.  We'll see if that habit develops...

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 12

Happy Labour Day!

With DH home today and this being a bonus day, the cleaning worked out a bit different than usual.  Seeing me clean, DH kept taking over and forcing me back to my real work (I usually work best on Sunday nights (or Mondays for long weekends) a habit carried over from my schooling years).  So, I did get 10 minutes of cleaning in today, but DH did much more!  What a fun turn of events!

Today I helped tidy the basement man den, kitchen, dishes, etc.  DH probably put an hour into organizing the basement alone.  What a sweetie!

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 11

Today I was mostly picking up from our get together last night.  It turned into another 15 minute clean (I get so into it!)

I unloaded the dishwasher and filled and ran it with the rest of the dishes from yesterday.  Put away spices and items that migrated to the kitchen.

Quick tidy of the livingroom.

Made bed and put away dirty laundry.

House now back to an almost presentable state.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 10

So today is the first day when I actually CLEANED!

We're having people over tonight but it's turned out to be a smaller group than expected.  The living room is tidy and the kitchen has been cleared out.  The basement looks lived in but not a disaster.  The basement bathroom was not as acceptable.

In 15 minutes (I know I just got carried away!) I:

1. Cleaned the toilet (so much nicer)
2. Washed the sink, and cabinet
3. Shined the faucet
4. Cleaned the mirror
5. Dusted the light fixtures (tiny spiders had taken over!)
6. Swept the floor in the bathroom
7. Swept the stairs and landing to the basement.

The shower will be another day.  The main floor bathroom isn't in disaster mode yet, so it can wait too.  Usually parties end up in the Man Den in the basement and I cringe thinking they're using that bathroom so, getting even this part of the bathroom done has been a big relief.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 9

So last night when we had some down time while dinner was cooking, DH did the rearranging and got the new dishes stored nicely in the buffet.  This wouldn't have happened unless they were already unpacked, so I was pleased with myself for the way I spent my time.

For Day 9 the cleaning got done later rather than earlier in the day.  Today I managed to:

1. Tidy the living room putting everything away
2. Remove some basement items from the bedroom and clear off more of the dresser tops
3. Load and run the dish washer

On top of that, the beds were made, clothes put away and there was general tidying being done as the day went on.  Things are starting to automate themselves.  DH has commented that the living room has been looking great lately and I'm pleased as punch that he's noticed.  It was after he'd heard about my new game that he pitched in yesterday and I like that he's on board with me for this one.  He usually tries to chip in as much as he can and often he even does more around the house than I do.  Sweetie.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 8

Today's post isn't too impressive.  I moved back upstairs to the livingroom today.  We have a habit of bringing thigs home and leaving them in the livingroom.

This has been a month of lots of moves for our family.  Yesterday we visited our aunt and uncle's (my in-laws) to pick up some linens and dishes they won't need once they downsize.  We got home and left everything packed right by the door.

Today I unpacked all the dishes and moved the linens (still packed) to our room.  That is all.

Not very impressive I know.  Especially since the dishes are now out but just unpacked. There needs to be quite a bit of movement to fit the new set in the hutch or cabinets, so this will have to be part of another 10 minute day.

On the plus side, the bed got made, dirty laundry ended up in the basket, the dishwasher got emptied and the livingroom still looks not too bad.  These 10 minutes are adding up.  Not only is the cleanliness carrying over, but little habits are starting to re-form too.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 7

So, as expected, the gains from yesterday did carry over.  Today I decided to move my cleaning challenge into the basement.  The main floor is not tidy, but it could be easily.  The basement hadn't been worked on for a while...

In the basement I:
- Put away books, video games, controllers, etc.
- Folder throws, etc.
- Brought up dirty dishes/threw out or recycled cans, etc.

It looks much tidier down here.

My goal is to get the house tidy during the week so we can do a real clean, not tidy this (long) weekend.

10 Minute Clean Game Days 5 & 6

So.  Day 5.  Hadn't done the clean in two days and promised the Internet that I would do the clean.  Well.  I didn't.  Even with the whole world watching (and by that I mean the few of you that happen by my blog) I couldn't make myself cleanup for 10 minutes out of my day.  I don't even have the excuse that I was working on site.  I was at home all day!  When I'm lazy I'm lazy I guess.

Day 6.  Resigning myself to the fact that this would likely be another no clean day.  Which made me mad.  So, I cleaned.  Woohoo!  Finally back on track!  It had been a few days since my 10 minute clean and although I had been doing quick tidies there wasn't much left over from the cleanliness of before.  Here's what I did today as part of my 10 minute clean challenge:
- Put things away in the livingroom
- Filled the dishwasher
- Wiped down the counters
- Put some things away (there's still a big load near the table)
- Made the bed
- Put dirty clothes in the basket

The 10 minutes didn't go very far today, but I did it!  Tomorrow I have grander plans, wait and see.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Days 3, 4 and 5

Ok, so you may remember I took a little trip this weekend. 

We left the afternoon of Day 3.  I didn't do my 10 minutes of cleaning that day.  I'm not calling this experiment a failure yet.  I did do some tidying but wasn't sure when we'd be leaving, so didn't know if I'd have the time.  As the heading out time kept getting pushed back, I accepted that we wouldn't be around to mess things up, that we had been tidying that morning and I was ok with the state of the house and that I was ok with not doing my experiment today.

Day 4 we got home very late, started unpacking our small bag and went to bed.  No 10 Minute Cleaning Challenge entry for today either.

Day 5 I got up and automatically tidied.  The bedroom was set to the state it was at after the last 10 minutes in there.  It's not tidy let alone scrubbed, but it's not getting worse.  Today I'm excited about my 10 minutes, so I wanted to get some stuff out of the way that I could get done in passing so that it wouldn't get in the way of my actual condensed cleaning time.  I'd call this a revelation!  My 10 minutes haven't been done yet, but I'm sure they will be.

So, in the last three days I had my first wuss out and my first reflex cleaning.  I really didn't expect these so early in the month, but there they are!

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 2

I was working on site today so I decided to do my 10 minute clean this morning before I left. 

Living room:
I surprised myself because the clean from yesterday seems to have stuck.  All I did today was put away a few  items that had been used the night before.

Kitchen:
Haven't been in the kitchen for a clean yet.  Today I loaded the dishwasher and set it to run even though it was only half full.  That way the dinner dishes can be put away right after dinner tonight instead of some not fitting in.
Next I wiped down the counters and cooktop then swept the floors.
Kitchen side looking much better.  Dining room side still covered with mess, that will have to wait for another day.

Bedroom:
Made the bed, piled laundry and continued clearing off my dresser.

All in all, not too shabby, I'm surprised how the 10 mintues have already started over lapping.  I had been afraid that each day I would just clear out the living room and never get anything else done.  Now, I can see myself slowly moving through the house and even getting to those forgotten corners.

10 Minute Cleaning Game Day 1

Ok, so it's the first day and I'm completely on board with the experiment. Let's see if I can be a dedicated housekeeper! Today I started small. I knew there was too much clutter going on to scrub anything today, so I decided to tackle that. A few days ago I had cleared out the living room but the surfaces had been refilled since.

Here's what I did with my 10 mintues today:

1. Tidied the living room. Putbooks, pens, etc away in their place. Brought the mail To Do pile down to the office to be do'd. Brought the foot stool of our new rocking chair down to the basement. I would have carried the chair too but it was too heavy. No dusting, sweeping, or scrubbing. A couple of items are still bugging me in there.

2. Moved to the bedroom. Made the bed. Started clearing off my dresser. Sorted travel momentos and work receipts to go down to the office to be dealt with. No dusting, sweeping or scrubbing. Room still quite messy.

Didn't touch any other rooms.

So today I discovered that 10 mintues is a very short amount of time. I have little faith that 10 minutes a day will actually be able to make an impact on the house. But then again, I checked the accumulation of stuff in the living room, so that's something. I think I will need to move very fast to have anything real to brag about each day. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have made a bigger dent.

10 Minute Cleaning Game

Cleaning in my house is one of those things that once the routine is broken, the mess piles up fast, then it gets harder and harder to tackle. If I want to be a stay at home house wife, this will not do.

The house right now is on the egde. Easily made presentable but not right now. I'm not saying the place could be spick and span with little work, but it could be made passable in the right lighting.

So I've decided that until I've got this place under control, I'm implementing the 10 minute Cleaning Challenge.

Each day, I'll take 10 minutes to tackle a cleaning task that's been causing me stress. I'm hoping that after a while one of the following will happen:

1. the 10 minute increments will accumulate and the house will be perpetually awesome;
2. the 10 minutes will fire me up to spend more time tackling more tasks that day; or
3. the routines will become second nature and will be done instinctually throughout the day without thinking.

At worst I predict the following are plausible:

1. I will be a slacker and not stick with it;
2. I will be a stickler and only clean for 10 minutes even if I know I need to do more and the place will get worse; or
3. there will be a party at the house that we'd need to do a big clean for and I wouldn't continue after that because the house already looks good, then will get worse and worse.

I plan to try this out for 30 days, then evaluate if this exercise was worthwhile or if there are better possibilities. Wish me luck!