10 minutes
Life with a toddler looks something like this at the end of the day:
Can you even see the baby? Everyone play "Where's Grayson!"
But 10 short minutes is enough to set things straight again.
It's amazing to me that 10 minutes gave me enough time to even vacuum the floor and straighten the chords to the TV and DVD player that had gotten a little wonky over the past few... well... Let's be honest. They've been wonky since we moved in. But they are now neatly tucked under my clever disguise basket...
And speaking of disguises, would you ever guess there was a TV hiding behind that quilt?
Anyway, the point of this post is as follows: I came downstairs to this mess after tucking my very busy toddler in after a full day of play, play, play, and felt like doing anything but tidying. I somehow managed to fight the urge to plop on the couch (I have to admit that the state of the couch at the moment may have had something to do with that...) and timed myself. 10 minutes. A whopping 10 minutes. And now I'm sitting in a lovely, clean room watching my happy baby play on the floor with one of Asher's toys. I'm enjoying my view, and Gray's enjoying the fact that he can suck on that dump truck as much as he wants without any fear of his brother coming by to snatch it from him! Sometimes life seems overwhelming, but you just have to buck up and give it 10 minutes. You'd be amazed at what 10 minutes can do! Go clean out that file cabinet! Tackle those photos! Fold that laundry! 10 minutes here and there might just be all you need. And for me? I'm off to the kitchen! Soon there will be counter space, and I can't wait!
haha, nice to see your toddler makes messes like that too! have any tips for getting it clean in 10 minutes while they're both awake?
ReplyDeleteI feel like when I clean when Brody's awake, it's kinda like bailing water from a sinking ship, haha!
My main trick is to not clean when Asher's in mess-making mode... BUT, should I decide it's necessary, I generally pull out a toy he doesn't play with too often, or set him up at the sink with a bunch of suds to keep him thoroughly occupied while I scurry around! Also, I hide a lot of Asher's toys and only let him play with some of them each day, so there aren't quite so many to keep up with. I keep ALL his toys for the day in the same basket, so when it's time to tidy I can just throw them all into the basket, instead of sorting and trying to put them all in their proper places... hope that helps! Soon Brody will enjoy helping out! Asher usually helps me tidy before bed, but it takes a long time and we were running a bit late the other night so we skipped it. But, I so get the bailing water analogy! It's definitely a "one step forward, two steps backward" sort of challenge! :)
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