Set a Timer

Working full-time has taken a toll on being a good housekeeper. I get home and have to cook dinner, we exercise, watch one TV show, shower, clean up the kitchen, and then I look around me and we have stuff that needs to be put away, the dishwasher that needs to be unloaded, then loaded, the laundry that is piling up... So, my natural response was to let things go. I thought to myself, "Well, it is okay if I cannot have clean floors (getting a dog kind of ruined that, anyway). And so what if it takes me awhile to get laundry done..." etc. I am thankful for two things:

1)A husband that doesn't have to go to work at the crack of dawn who does half of the list above for me and 2)a timer...

A couple of days ago, my friend Rebecca, said that she gets home and just cleans for 20 minutes/day. So I thought, well, that IS a good idea! Then it occurred to me....

I set a timer everyday, almost constantly, for my fourth graders. You have 10 minutes to complete this worksheet. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, start (5 mins). You have 20 minutes for break, beep...etc. You have 30 minutes for lunch.... beeping again.... Almost everything I do is on a timer. 55 minutes while the kids are in Art... "Okay, so, how much can I accomplish in this time (the only real time I have to do anything work related outside of teaching 10 4th graders)?"

So today, I got home a little after 4:15 p.m. I looked around me at the house with laundry on the back of the sofa, laundry in the dryer, dishes in the sink and dishwasher. Okay, so set a timer... I have approximately 40 minutes to get this house looking good for my husband (who could care less). GO!

Well, it worked. My house looks a lot nicer and I am hoping to keep this up!