I know Tuesday is usually the day of the week that I reserve for kitchen tips and tricks, but a friend recently shared this awesome tip with me and I just couldn't wait to share it with you!
Recently I found myself with a way-too-messy kitchen with way-too-little motivation to clean it. It was a night I made an involved meal, one with many dirty, caked-on pans. I also had whipped up some homemade bread, and so there was flour everywhere...I mean everywhere. Add to this that the boys hadn't done a very good job of cleaning up from their afternoon snack and their Playmobil figures were on the kitchen counters too.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when I went to start doing the dishes and realized that the dishwasher was already full...with clean dishes that needed to be unloaded. Argh. I shared with some friends that I just didn't have it in me to clean up the kitchen and that's when my friend Erin shared this tip. She said:
Put on some good music, set the timer for 15 minutes and be amazed at what you will get done!
Sigh.
I knew she was right. I had heard this tip before in relation to laundry, but never used it for kitchen clean-up.
So I put on some music, set my timer for 10 minutes (I had to be somewhere and didn't even have 15 minutes to spare) and started at the clean-up.
First, I unloaded the dishwasher...still 4 minutes left!
Then I cleared the counters...still 2 minutes to go!
Finally, I started loading up the dirty dishes.
The time went off after 10 minutes.
The kitchen wasn't spotless, but I stood amazed at how much I had accomplished in a mere 10 minutes. It was clean enough for me to run my errand without coming home to a kitchen disaster.
Here's the thing: I think this 15 (or 10 minutes) minute rule is a good rule of thumb for a lot of house challenges. Set the timer, rock out to some good music, and before you know it you will have a good bit of work under your belt! Once you get going and see how much you accomplished in so short a time, you'll be encouraged and uplifted.
Thanks Erin, for the great tip!
SPC