The other day I glanced through an article on "tricks" to motivate toddlers (and eliminate battles). One of them was to make things a race against the clock. My thought: Uh, that doesn't motivate wally, but I still do that.
Anyone else say to themselves, "Ok just clean for ten minutes" or "Ok, see how much you can get done in 10 minutes then you can do...?"
Well, both kids are finally in their beds (but awake) and time for a 10. What motivates you to just start cleaning?
I have a goal to do a "10 minute" tidy every evening and even though it usually reclaims the whole house and makes the mornings feel awesome, I am usually too lazy to make it happen. Here is what motivates me to clean: knowing that I have company coming over and/or Shawn is getting home from work soon. ha.
ReplyDeleteoh man, this reminds me of something i started doing last summer. i decided to set the timer for 7 minutes and see how much kitchen i could clean (it was that dreaded time you speak of, after the kids are in bed and you want to plop on the couch). i thought a good name for a book to write someday would be: 7 Habits of Highly Effective Cleaning, starting with my 7 minute idea. i'm such a genius! hahahah. but, seriously, that 7 minutes on the timer really does motivate me.
ReplyDeleteand you also reminded me of a question i keep having with sienna, too: how to get her to clean fast before bedtime? she drags it out because she doesn't want to go to bed. timing doesn't really work, either. anyone, anyone?
and taylor, i've realized my #1 motivator to clean is invite people over for sunday dinner.
Agreed with your #1 motivator. Also we we have 3 or so activities that require a clean floor first (toys away)--Bubbles, dance parties and shows. And we usually do one of the first two before bed so the toys are cleaned up that way, without the drag. But sometimes Wally won't clean up, so we just go straight to bathtime. I guess at that point in the day I just want the kids in bed; I'll clean up. And other times if he drags out the cleaning I don't mind if we don't dance or watch shows.
DeleteAnd on the topic of kids cleaning, like many of you Wally has to help clean up meal-time messes. He also helps me mop the floor. A very wet but fun experience. Or he sprays water/vinegar from on the floor and I wipe.
There is usually something I'd much rather do than clean. That becomes my motivation 90% of the time. If I get the chore(s) done, then I can reward myself with whatever activity. It helps that I've found that most things don't take so long that I have no hope of doing anything fun! But it's a constant inner dialogue. And it's typically during G's nap time (and the activity is usually some sort of craft project). When I don't have a project in mind or underway, I find it harder to convince myself to do the cleaning.
ReplyDeleteInviting people over is the best! But it used to really stress me out because things were so messy. It's SO much better now, because I feel like the house is more manageable when I've been tidying up throughout the week.
Martha- I am thinking of having Brent do toy pick up with Hyrum while I am finishing up dinner. Then everything is cleaned up after dinner and we can get him all ready for bed and wound down without all the distractions of a whole day's worth of toys out. I'll let you know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the cleaning for a few mins thing I really like the timer idea. I am sure it would motivate me and I always feel like things are more manageable when there is an end in sight. This challenge is giving me so many motivating ideas about keeping up on cleaning so that everything feels more manageable. Too bad I'm not getting to far on my list. Maybe I can win Most Improved?
Funny! I was going to write a post called "Ten Minute Clean-Up." It isn't something I am consistent with at all, but every once in a while I, or Richard will announce, "Ten minutes--go!!" And, it's amazing at how much we can pick up in that amount of time. AND, the motivation to clean is escalated because he's doing it with me, (and usually that ten minutes easily branches to 20 with very little effort).
ReplyDeleteHave you ever timed yourself at how long it takes to empty your dishwasher? Sometimes I put it off for so long, and then when I get around to doing it--it takes me less than 2 minutes!