How's This For A Marvelous Afternoon...
...I have been shamed into cleaning my house.
Not that my house was filthy. Except the kitchen floor and it's just stuff from today's 2 meals so far. We were watching a show the other night called "The Perfect Housewife." Yet another reality show. In this one, 2 women's homes are videoed and then the footage is shown to Britain's "Perfect Housewife" Anthea Turner. She takes the 2 housewives to her spotlessly perfect mansion and teaches them the "art" of housekeeping. Then the 2 women are returned to their own homes to work magic in 2 weeks. Anthea then crowns one of them as "The Perfect Housewife." Here's the show's website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/perfect.shtml
So last week we were watching the show and Anthea asked one of the women to map out her day. The woman then proceeded to do it. One of the things she wrote down on her chalkboard timeline was "dishwasher: 1 hour." Anthea then said, "It should take you 6 minutes, tops, to load the dishwasher." When the lady went home, it actually only took her 3 1/2 minutes at one point. This was the point in which I was shamed. Three minutes and thirty seconds to load the dishwasher. And I had a small pile of dishes sitting by my sink. It was a small pile, granted, but it was virtually all the dishes we have here. Shame, shame, shame. Then the next morning as I was getting ready to take Steve to work, I decided to sweep the floor from the night before. LOTS of evidence that little kids eat there on a regular basis. In spite of the fact that the floor is tiled in horribly rough and uneven slate, it only took me a minute to sweep up the mess. Shamed again. So now my kitchen is clean - not just tidy, but clean.
Steve laughed at me when I told him that the show shamed me into enthusiastic housecleaning. Is that possible? Shame leading to enthusiastic work?
Anyway - I'm SO ready for school to start again. The kids are driving me crazy. No wonder Julile is my favorite during the day. At night she's my least favorite, but that's another matter. She woke up at least half a dozen times last night. Grrr. So much for good nights of sleep. The 2 big kids get good sleep - maybe that's why I can't stand them during the day: they're rested and I'm not.
It's 4.53 now. I really should sign off and go get Steve. I'm just enjoying the clean room with no children - I banished them both to their rooms. I need to get upstairs and change my shoes - it's raining and I'm wearing sandals. I left the raincoats in the van - smart move, huh? I'll make a mad dash out and grab them. Or else I'll wait for a break in the rain and go. Like now. Gotta run!
2 comments:
I doubt I could unload or load ours in
3 minutes...but unload it in say 10 min. and
load it in say 15 minutes..yep I could do that.
But the real kicker is not what you are not doing but
what the rest of the family could be doing. This is how it gets out of hand at our house.
It takes no effort to get out something but an act of
congress to put it back.
If we all would put things away when done then the time goes down too. Dishes that are rinsed, if needed, and placed in the washer if empty would be one. But no we seem to keep putting them on the counter or in the sink at our house.
Or when the girls come home they sorta drop things as they come thru the door and that piles up. When they know that it had a place. I do it too at times but for some reason less since I am not home as much.
It takes no time to walk in and put it away. Compared to the time to do it all at once.
Same with cleaning. If we try to clean up as we go then it takes almost no time compared to it all piled up.
I wish I could see that show.
Interesting.
Hehe. Turns out had this problem long before I had
kids. ;) Hmmm.
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