Life by Jen

If I tell my kids this trick one more time, they are going to disown me. So, I’m coming to the internet to share one of the ways I trick myself into keeping my house clean.

Cleaning doesn’t come easy to me. No one would ever call me a neat freak. That’s not to say I’m messy, but I am busy and cleaning is not the first thing I want to do. I’m so easily distracted and there is always something more important, pressing, or interesting, in all honesty.

So, somehow I came up with the idea to just set a time for 5 minutes for each room in my house, otherwise I would end up reorganizing a closet or some other giant task, leaving behind piles of stuff and not getting through my cleaning project. When I set a 5 minute timer, I can continue to listen to my podcasts or music, and focus on the important aspects of cleaning, because once the timer goes off, I just grab my supplies and move on.

It’s SHOCKING how much I can get through in 5 minutes. Truly. And this applies to a lot of projects. If there is something I am putting off, I can tell myself, I’ll spend 5 minutes and if I am still intent on avoiding it, I’ll move on. More often than not, after 5 minutes, I will have completed the task I’ve been putting off. I will also learn nothing from that, and put off tasks I don’t want to do, time and again.

Today is one of those days where I am super busy, so I will get a podcast going and get things cleaned.

I am always on the lookout for some tricks to help me in the day-to-day. This one has been life-changing for me, and I hope it resonates with someone!