Getting Organized and Cleaning
We are working on an orgainzing and cleaning book right now.
As we are doing this I thought I would share a couple of tips that I use.
I always dreaded cleaning or organizing. I am not born orgainzed so I have had to train myself to be organized. These are a few of the ways I changed my attitude.
Time yourself to see how long it takes to do a chore.
2 days ago I cleaned the fridge. It took me 2 minutes to clean off one shelf. After a child meltdown I came back and finished. It took me 10 minutes to clean the entire thing and that was with a 3 minute clean-up from my 2 year old "helping" and dumping something on the floor.
I used to hate to make the bed. Then I timed myself. It takes me exactly 1 minute.
To clean-out my "plasticware" shelf, 5 minutes.
To clean the bathroom sink and toilet, 5 minutes including wiping down the floor. Add the tub and removing the contents and cleaning another 5 minutes. 10 minutes to clean the entire thing!
It really doesn't take as long as you would think to start getting cleaned up and organized. When you realize it's only for 1 minute or 10 minutes then it doesn't seem so bad!
Just do one thing for 5 minutes and see how far you can get.
Whatever is bugging you the most, do it first.
The finger prints on my front door were bad. While David was eating instead of doing the dishes I ran down and wiped the down the door. (3 minutes) It has been bugging me for days, it's off my mind now and I could go on and do the dishes.
Most of the time we spend more time thinking about these things than if we would just do it and get it over with!
That's a couple to get you started. We are almost done proofreading the intro and as I think of more tips I will pass them both along.
TJ
As we are doing this I thought I would share a couple of tips that I use.
I always dreaded cleaning or organizing. I am not born orgainzed so I have had to train myself to be organized. These are a few of the ways I changed my attitude.
Time yourself to see how long it takes to do a chore.
2 days ago I cleaned the fridge. It took me 2 minutes to clean off one shelf. After a child meltdown I came back and finished. It took me 10 minutes to clean the entire thing and that was with a 3 minute clean-up from my 2 year old "helping" and dumping something on the floor.
I used to hate to make the bed. Then I timed myself. It takes me exactly 1 minute.
To clean-out my "plasticware" shelf, 5 minutes.
To clean the bathroom sink and toilet, 5 minutes including wiping down the floor. Add the tub and removing the contents and cleaning another 5 minutes. 10 minutes to clean the entire thing!
It really doesn't take as long as you would think to start getting cleaned up and organized. When you realize it's only for 1 minute or 10 minutes then it doesn't seem so bad!
Just do one thing for 5 minutes and see how far you can get.
Whatever is bugging you the most, do it first.
The finger prints on my front door were bad. While David was eating instead of doing the dishes I ran down and wiped the down the door. (3 minutes) It has been bugging me for days, it's off my mind now and I could go on and do the dishes.
Most of the time we spend more time thinking about these things than if we would just do it and get it over with!
That's a couple to get you started. We are almost done proofreading the intro and as I think of more tips I will pass them both along.
TJ
posted by Tawra Jean at 8:34 PM
4 Comments:
Hi Tawra,
I just wanted to tell you how much fun and inspiration your web page and blogs have provided me!
I look forward to reading more.
I love reading your blog, very down to earth and your suggestions are actually doable! I'm in the middle of scraping our huge deck right now so I can really relate!
Blessings,
Kelly
mom to 6 in PA
Hi Tawra,
Love your blog. Just read your new book Dinner on a Dime cover to cover - it's wonderful.
You're absolutely right - many things seem overwhelming but breaking it down into smaller tasks or looking at the overall time makes it seem easier.
Laundry sorters usually just come with three sections that just weren't big enough for me. I splurged at Home Depot on the wire drawers with tall stands. You can pick the size of drawers you want. I got two stands with various size drawers, labeled the drawers so all family memembers could sort their own dirties (saving me this step). Now I know at a glance when a certain color or category needs to be washed. This is a central laundry collection, if it's not in the laundry room it doesn't get washed. This is one small way to get family members to help out.
Another book about getting organized that I found many years ago is called The Messies Manual. This is also written by someone who is not a born organizer.
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