10-Minute Tidy
During a recent lunch-break conversation at the office, the topic of home cleaning and organizing arose; specifically, the way in which each household divvies up chores. One colleague bemoaned the fact that her spouse is not a good cleaner and never participates in household work. Another stated that she has the perfect compromise at home: her spouse does all the cleaning while she does all the cooking. Another woman (perhaps the brightest of us all) reported that her family has a cleaning lady who comes in bi-weekly to vacuum, clean bathrooms, and dust. When it was my turn to chime in, I said, "In my house, my husband and I do weekly 10-Minute Tidies, The Big Comfy Couch style." Although this statement was crystal clear to me, my colleagues were stumped, based on the multiple WTF looks I received, clearly, an explanation of our cleaning system is in order.
For those who do not understand the reference, The Big Comfy Couch is a Canadian preschool television series about Loonette the Clown and her doll Molly, who solve everyday problems on their "Big Comfy Couch". It aired from 1992 until 2006. (Thank you Wikipedia!) I grew up with only two television channels in my house (I know right, how did we survive?!). Anyways, with only two channels, we had slim pickings when it came to cartoon options. Therefore, even though The Big Comfy Couch was geared for a younger audience, it was either that or the Prairie Farm Report.
During the show, the Loonette the clown would clean up her messes by instigating a "10-second Tidy." Which involved a super speed version of her running around like a lunatic picking up all the things she left out throughout the show. Basically, it was an attempt to use television to teach preschoolers that cleaning up is cool. I'm not sure how effective it was for preschoolers, but based on this blog post, it clearly worked for me. Nevertheless, if you still have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this little video:
You may be thinking, "This is ridiculous. What is wrong with you?! How is this children's television show relevant to adult life, you crazy woman?" Well, let me tell you.
Our cleaning system is the adult version of Loonette's "10-Second Tidy." Except we call it a "10-Minute Tidy" because 10 seconds isn't long enough to clean anything (obviously due to our lack of real-time fast forwarding). During a "10-Minute Tidy," we do the following:
1. Agree on when the 10-Minute Tidy will take place - let's face it, there are nights where I would rather poke myself in the eye repeatedly than do anything remotely related to cleaning. If this is the mood we're in, there is no chance of a 10-Minute Tidy being successful. So instead, while we Netflix, we make plans to clean at a later date usually, one or two nights later.
2. When the dreaded cleaning night arrives, after agreeing to initiate a 10-Minute Tidy, we discuss the tidy tasks - I love my husband dearly, but he is just not a spontaneous cleaner. He will likely never look at a dusty shelf and think, "Hmmmm, I should dust that sometime." Instead, he looks at it and thinks, "Hmmmm, we still have a shelf, cool." However, if I say, "Hey Drake, can you dust?" He'll say "Sure" and will dust the hell out of our shelves. It's just not something he'll engage in on his own (and probably never will).
So, by discussing the tidy tasks, we lay out the jobs that need to be done (e.g. dishes) and the ones that can wait (e.g. cleaning out the front closet...who am I kidding? that's never going to get done) and then divide and conquer the jobs that each of us don't mind doing. This works out great for us because my husband would rather clean the kitchen than sweep, vacuum, and mop. And I would much rather sweep, vacuum, and mop that clean up the kitchen. (To be honest, I think it's because he doesn't actually know how to sweep, he just bats the broom against the floor until he thinks he's been at it long enough).
3. After completing the tidy tasks, we marvel in how clean our house looks and how little time it took us to clean. We average between 10-20 minutes depending on how crazy our lives have been that week. AKA how much of our shit we've left lying around.
Overall, the system works. Everyone couple of weeks, we engage in a 10-minute tidy to do the essential cleaning. And because we are both cleaning at the same time, there's no conflict. Because honestly, there is nothing that pisses me off more than spending any amount of time cleaning (even if its just 2 minutes), while my husband watches tv, plays video games, sits on the couch, or does anything that isn't cleaning. And before you start hating on my husband, I should clarify that in the past, there have been times that I have independently decided that we need to clean right this very minute...without saying a word to Drake. He should just know, right? Then, in a fit of rage, I'd stomp into the living room and pick a fight with him because he's not helping out with tasks he didn't know he was supposed to be doing. Full disclosure, I have been known to turn into an irrational, crazy-rage monster when I'm slightly hungry. So in the interest of maintaining my marriage and sanity, we stick to 10-Minute Tidies to get us through.
That's our style, give it a try and see if it works for you. Or don't. I won't tell you how to live your lives.
Best,
Laura
