Get a Clean House with the One Minute Rule

May 22, 2014 | Bathroom, Blog, Cleaning Tips, Kitchen, Toy Organization

I have a bad habit of creating drama in my life out of boredom.  Call it ADHD perhaps, but whenever things start to go smoothly and heaven for bid, even get easy, I always do something to create more stress and drama in my life.

Case in point, our new puppy.  Milo was a very difficult baby. He cried non stop and is still quite demanding, even at 20 months old.  I have yet to have a full nights sleep (he still wakes up 2-3 times each night) and he never has a day free of multiple monumental temper tantrums.  That being said, it has gotten better lately.  My life with three little kids had begun to flow with a daily routine that was beginning to seem almost effortless.  Effortless = BOREDOM in my world, so I got a seven week old puppy to shake things up a bit!

Puppies suck. They suck bad.  My little shit head “Oscar” is adorable and quite possibly the last nail in my sanity coffin.  People say “puppies are like babies” and “puppies are a lot of work”, but I like to learn things the good old fashioned hard way.  Oscar wakes me up to go outside and pee every few hours.  All.Night.Long.  He likes to go outside even more during torrential downpours.  I’m pretty sure he enjoys watching me wait in the freezing rain, in my pajama’s, while he sniffs around for half an hour finding a place to poop.  For some strange reason it takes him a long time to crap outside, but five minutes after coming back in the house, he can go again on my carpet without hesitation.

Puppies pee a lot, like a lot. Honestly, I was convinced he had a bladder infection after days of peeing on my carpet every ten minutes, right after he just peed outside.  It turns out puppies just pee and poop all the time, like a drippy facet of feces, all over my carpet. Seriously. Why would anyone want a puppy knowing this information?

Needless to say, between my constant trips outside and my constant steam cleaning, I was not getting much else done around the house.  My other three kids still need me on Mom duty, so housework had taken a back seat.

It was starting to get bad before I remembered the ONE MINUTE RULE.  If something takes less than ONE MINUTE, do it right now.  That means putting the dishes in the dishwasher right away, instead of the sink.  Picking up the piles of toys or clothes my kids have left on the floor and generally, just putting things away when I was done with them. Reminding myself of the ONE MINUTE RULE was helping to stop my procrastination and keep things tidy, but tidy is not clean.

Clean House Rule

That is when I started to time myself doing actual housework, to see what I could accomplish in under ONE MINUTE.  I was amazed! There are so many chores that take less than 60 seconds to do.  Now, I am not saying these are done perfectly. Perfection is the mother of Procrastination.  If you are always putting things off “until you can do them right”, you will wind up living in the house that skank built.  Life is busy.  Doing things the lazy way is WAY better than not doing them at all.  The truth is, we don’t earn bonus points for cleaning our house the hard way and most of the time, that extra scrubbing is pointless anyways.

So here are some chores that I can do in ONE MINUTE or less! (Seriously, I timed them).

Make a bed.

Mop the kitchen floor. (For real…time yourself!)

Wipe down a bathroom. (Just spot wipe the mirror, wipe the counters and clean the toliet)

Dust ANY room with a swiffer duster.

Empty the cat litter.

Wash ONE window inside.

Pick up toys off the floor.

Start a load of laundry.

Wipe the kitchen counters.

Wipe the front of the appliances.

Clean a ceiling fan.

Load the dishwasher after breakfast or lunch.

Ok. You get the idea. You MUST time yourself doing some chores around your home to see what you can accomplish is ONE MINUTE or less. You will be shocked…and motivated to clean your house!