It only takes 5 minutes….

I agree with the statement that so many things can be done in 5 minutes or even less time than that. And if you collect items when you see them and bring them back to their home place, your house is so much easier to manage and so much tidier.

And when you are single and control all part of your life I cannot see why you would not be able to complete all those little tasks that take 5 minutes or less when they need to be done.

But right now, I got up earlier than my children to get some items done including this blog and one of them just arrived and I have to stop writing every 2 seconds because she is asking me questions, which is part of life distractions and treasure of course.

I am loosing my thoughts and realise that it will take me much more time than planned to write this blog so when it comes to other items the same thing is happening over and over and over again!

Items that can be done in 5 minutes or less

The list can go on and on of what you can do in 5 minutes or less time that is so true.

Here are the typical examples:

• Shine your sink

• Clear your hot spots

• Empty dishwasher or fill in dishwasher

• Make your bed

• Bleach the toilets…….

Part of some cleaning routines such as Flying ladies is to put a timer and run through the house and collect as many items as possible that do not belong to that area and then redistribute them where they belong.

That is a great concept but personally that technique makes me so dizzy if I try to organise it.

I do start the timer and then I look around and grab things and put them in a basket and then run with the basket and put those items back in their place.

On the way I encounter other items which also go in the basket and the timer is ticking and I literally start feeling sea sick and panicky.

I do not know if it is the stress of having to do the gathering in such a small time frame or if it is because you look around, grab an item down and then another item high up.

Go up the stairs to drop the upstairs items…Run back downstairs….

I am not great on roller coasters and now I created an imaginative one in my own house….

If the process is natural then I am fine but when forced on me, it distract me and stresses me out.

I also always get disappointed. Or by the fact that I should not to have put myself under pressure to get a tidy house or that I actually did not get all done in those 5 minutes.

I am not sweaty, light headed and sometimes the one room which was tidy is not a mess because I dumped everything there to go faster….

5 minutes becomes hours….

Obviously shining my sink only takes 2 minutes but I have 4 sinks so between the cleaning and moving around the 5 minutes now become 10 minutes.

So is this really realist to tell someone, look get our act together, this task only take 5 minutes and you should do it immediately when you see it.

Once again, life gets in the way all the time.

I am a little of a hypocrite to be honest because I say that all the time to my kids.

Why can’t you do your daily list of chores, it only take 5 minutes…and it is a true statement when you are motivated and you know what you are doing and want to do it.

But when you are a kid, doing a task in 5 minutes means different things.

• It can mean

  • Doing it fast and dirty, so then when I ask “have you hoovered the stairs?” the answer is yes. And indeed the hoover will have been on and rushed from one step to another but the result is less than adequate

  • Pretending to do it, tidy your bedroom becomes an hour job. Each time you move toward the room, you hear a little busy bee moving things around, but after 20 minutes and checking on progress you can see that the toys have been rearranged but the pile of laundry to return to its wardrobe has reduced by one T-shirt.

  • Making such a fuss about the task, so when asking to bring your shoes to the shoe box, your child is going to make such an argument that by the time you are ending the conversation, 20 minutes has passed. You are angry, frustrated and defeated, you grab the shoe yourself showing how fast it could have done and realise that you wasted your time as well as good energy.

  • Later…so that when the child has no problem doing the tasks what so ever, just not now. They have a perfect reason, the episode has only 20 minutes left so they will finish the episode and then do the task. They have Homework, that is a hard one to debate with….but of course the 20 minutes become an hour because now with the modern television, when an episode is over, the next one start immediately…

  • Replace a task with an other….so you want to wash the floor as this is your task that you want to complete but in order to do that you need the other person to have their task of hoovering done, because washing a dusty and hairy floor really does not work! But on their list, even though hoovering is there, there is another task for example taking a shower and that is the task they decide to do….so now, you cannot tell them that they cannot do the task because it is on the list after all…..and you are left with 2 options….change your list as well or just do their part so that your can be done…..

When 5 minutes are crucial….

Nevertheless, the 5 minutes rules can be a problem as we discussed but some 5 minutes should never be ignored.

Life is a roller-coaster but the small things can mean so much to others.

I have the responsibilities of raising children and looking after my house hold and that includes my many animals.

And the very small items such as watering plants, making sure the animals have water, changing the different litters in the house,…are 5 minutes jobs that cannot and should never be by passed.

This is not just hygiene and smell in the house, this is respect and well being for your loved ones and this should include the different creatures that live with you.

That is a standard that no-one should ever over look, ok so you were too tired to shine your sink, the consequence is that the following morning, you have to clean it before you can use it.

Not feeding or providing water to a leaving create means that they have no hope to get that water for themselves. They are guests in your house but they also rely solely on you for their well being and no other distractions should ever be more important than looking after your creatures……

OK I agree this was a little patronising and down to earth but sometimes things have to be told with the gravity and consequences…

Until the next time, wishing you all a wonderful week….