CLEAN UP FOR THE PARTY

I am a very social person and having people over is a delight for me. It can be a source of stress as I want the house to be clean, but it is also a great motivation to clean up. I used to do emergency clean ups for occasions like that (grab a laundry basket stuff everything in it and hide the basket, fill up as many as necessary to clear the area in question) but I have learned that even though they look like a great fix all they do is create another emergency. 

In the aftermath of such an emergency clean up I would find myself asking the following questions

• Where on earth is x? 
• If x isn't in this basket which basket could it be in?
• Who will clear out all those baskets.
• How am I to do the laundry? All the baskets are full!
• Will the 3 laundry baskets I hid in here fall out if I open this wardrobe?

You get the idea. I think I told you that when last time I was really tempted to do an emergency clean up I decided to be brave and face the situation. Well. Today I was brave again. The hardest part for me is getting started. It feels like I have so much today. In order not to feel overwhelmed I wrote down the rooms that will be used by the guests and an estimated amount of time necessary to cleanup each of them. That already made me feel better. My estimate was 2,5 hours of work, which is only 30 min than my daily routine. So I decided which order I would tackle them in and got started in the kitchen. 

I promptly faced my first obstacle. I should have just started the dishwasher the night before. So once the dishwasher was started I decided to move to the next room, the hall. AsI went to get water to mop the floors I quickly got sidetracked by laundry. Realizing that all my floor rags are dirty did not improve my mood. By this time I was officially behind and ready to just get lost in the big maze that is called the worldwideweb. I lucked out big time. The internet was on my side for once and not working.

By this time I had worked only 40 min and lunch was approaching quickly. I grabbed my timer and set out again. As I was behind I decided to forget about my order of things and do the fast rooms first. It payed of. 2 rooms later I was back on track! Hooray!

It was time to face my nemesis. The "coat room". I have very mixed emotions about this room, but let me tell you, it is the hardest room of the house to keep organized! 20 min later I was close, but behind schedule again. And I had cheated a little. I had stuffed the little knick knacks that are at home all over the house into a clear box but as I left the box there and in plain sight I figured I can get away with it. The kitchen went faster than expected.

Eventually life got in the way. Once life was out of the picture again, I tossed my timer and simply kept working until the living room was clean. Things might not have gone as planned, but the downstairs is clean. I am very happy with what I achieved today.

If you have made it to the end of this post in one long swoop it proves that you have what it takes! So get your rear end up and go WORK FOR 10 MIN!

surface of the day: living room

5 a day: I am afraid, I didn't get rid of anything today