Monday was a sucky day. The kids were happier making the mess and watching me clean it up. I handle that VERY poorly. (I know shocked, aren't you?) So, after banishing them to the outer reaches of ... their bedroom, I picked up until I was good and cranky and then I sat down in front of the computer to mope a little bit. (Hey, it's better then yelling, not as instantly gratifying, but better. Aren't we all supposed to look for the "better" things in our lives?)
Back to the moping. So, I was moping at the computer. It's a fabulous image of me, sitting, in front of the computer, trying to figure out what to do since I had blog-hopped earlier today. And then - it hit me, and I didn't hit back. I remember several family home evenings where we "helped" my mom clean up. She'd made several different attempts to get us to help, but this one worked the best.
I have called it the 10 minute Tidy. It's really simple. We divide into teams (an adult and at least one semi-willing child per team). I have chosen at least 2 rooms/areas that need attention. We split up into said rooms and clean, for - wait for it - 10 minutes. When said 10 minutes are up, we then move to the next area.
I know, awesome isn't it? I could make millions... of things disappear just by forcing my family to help. And the kids (and Dad) like that there's a time limit, so it feels more like a race to see who can clean the most.
Hooray for my mom and hooray for that drop of inspiration in my lap. We will definitely be using this again.
Proof we got some cleaning done. (Or that I was playing with my camera, you be the judge.)
3 comments:
What a great idea, I really need to do something like this at my house!
Your hilarious! I know I've told you that so many times, but I love this post, I want to repost it on my blog, because it's so entertaining and helpful at the same time. I'm totally going to do that too, we do the 10 min tidy on Sundays when we get home from church. we've been doing it for years because we leave the the house in such a disaster when we rush away for church. But this is better.
That's such a great idea! Love it. Here's another fun on that I used to do in my classroom. When the 10-minute one gets a little old I'd have a treat in my hand and tell the kids that I was thinking of one item in the room that needed to be cleaned and the kid that figured it out when time was up got the treat. It was AMAZING how fast they worked to try and get to the right thing.
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