Five Minutes

Yesterday, we had a 5 minute day. The state of the house had deteriorated somewhat, and was starting to be a bit overwhelming. But having a full day of getting in and cleaning the house just isn't an option with a 3 year old. So we do it in 5 minute spurts. We set our little electronic timer (bought from Coles), and off we go!

This is DD's playroom.

And this is the same playroom 5 minutes later! Huge difference huh?

This is where we store our sheets and towels. It might not look like a mess, but things had just been put in anywhere, and were all mixed up.

Here we go, 5 minutes later and I can find things again. Not to mention fit in the sheets I'd just folded off the line.

After a busy day, our kitchen table isn't looking too good.

But it only took 2 minutes to get it back to looking like this! (The paint won't come off.)

Since our 5 minute day, we've kept on top of it with a 5 minute cleanup before DD goes to bed (much as she is protesting!). It's amazing how much you can get done in a short amount of time if you're focused. Things that you put off because you think they are going to take forever, can often be knocked over in 5 minutes. And even if you can't get them done in 5 minutes, often you've made enough of a dent in it that finishing it off seems easy.