From Disaster to Company Ready

Last week I did a little experiment. I wanted to see just how long it would take me to get my house in order, assuming I had let it go all day long. I specifically wanted to see if I could get my house ready to host company. We do occasionally have dinner guests, so this isn't a totally unreasonable scenario. We normally do pick-ups after meals, and we're working on teaching the kids to put things away as they finish with them. But for this experiment, I didn't do any of that for an entire day. The house had looked pretty good (not perfect) the night before, but other than prepare breakfast for everyone, I did nothing else the rest of the day.

At 4:15pm here's what my house looked like:

The boys' room

The girls' room

Another view of the girls' room, with the little one who
was already begging for more attention.

The kids' bathroom

The hallway to the bedrooms

The dining area, if you can't tell, there are blobs of yogurt all over the floor.

The kitchen

Another view of the kitchen, including the broken utensil drawer.

The family room, and several more kids

Another view of the family room

If this doesn't look like a terrible mess to you, you can probably stand to minimize a bit more. :) Or you need to look closer at the pictures. The kids have pulled out every toy that was available during this toy rotation, they have also gotten into craft supplies they were not supposed to have access to, and there are tons of tiny paper snips on the floor of the girls' room. Also, since I didn't make lunch, the kids helped themselves to yogurt, bread, chips & salsa, etc.

But now it's time to clean-up. For arguments sake, I wanted to do this by myself, assuming that my children were distractions instead of helpers. If you remember my list of dailies from yesterday, that is the pattern I follow during this clean-up.

1. Move laundry
4:17pm - before I can actually go move the laundry, I discover that my baby has yogurt all over her face and hands. I'd better wipe that off before she gets it on other things.

4:21pm - laundry moved, washer & dryer running, kids' laundry basket empty.

2. Clear kitchen table & counters - I quickly start putting food in the fridge, dishes in the sink, and garbage in the garbage. My baby is following around whining at me already, so I stop every few seconds to feed her a spoonful of yogurt from a bowl someone had filled and left out. I also stack the kids' chairs to get them out of my way faster.

4:26pm - counters & table mostly cleared

Here you can see my baby who is clinging to my leg most of the time as I work.

The counters already look tons better, but now the sink is full. On top of the water filter you can see the orange bowl with the yogurt I was feeding my baby. 

The counters and stove are empty, but the stove is still gross... I'll get to that in a bit.

3. Wash dishes - remember, getting your servants put to work is one of the most important things in keeping your life simple. I started by getting the laundry machines moving. I cleared the table & counters next so that all the dirty dishes would already be in the sink. Now I can empty the sink into the dishwasher.

4:34 - dishwasher loaded, sink empty, baby finished yogurt and has walked out to play with the rest of the kids for a bit. Now I can add soap and start the dishwasher.

4. Wipe down kitchen table, sink, counters & stove - now it's time to get back to that stove... while it's cleared, it still looks like this:

My daughter helped to make oatmeal this morning.

4:41 - I have now wiped down the kitchen table, counters & sink, and scrubbed the stove. I also wiped up the yogurt blobs on the floor, because I can't sweep with those there.

The stove looks lots better!

5. Sweep kitchen floor - Time for the floor. I start in the entry way, but can't do a whole lot with toys on the floor:

I toss the toys back into the family room and quickly sweep the entry. Then I move to the kitchen and shift the chairs to the family room so I can sweep around and under the table as fast as possible.

4:47pm - in case you couldn't tell before, our kitchen floor was desperate to be swept.

4:48pm - chairs put back, kitchen done.

6. Straighten and wipe bathrooms - off to the kids' bathroom. I throw the toys into the hallway or into the tub toys. Garbage goes in the garbage. As I'm throwing toys into the hall, I notice that one of my boys has wet his pants (the twins are potty training). So, I help him to the bathroom, sit him on the toilet, and wipe down the counter while he goes. When he finishes, I help him get dressed, wipe down the toilet tank and the seat with a wipee, and then take him to clean up the puddle he left in the family room. 

4:53pm - bathroom done. Notice I have a little one with me again.

7. Empty garbage cans - I actually emptied the kitchen garbage can just before I swept the floor, and the bathroom garbage doesn't need to be emptied, so I skip this step and move on to the next.

8. Clean-up pile - This is by far the most time consuming part of the process. I like to start in the back bedrooms, because the kids are not in there right now, and because I can close doors as I go to discourage little ones from making a mess in there again. Now I also tell the kids to put on a "short show" (meaning 30 minutes or less), because I need them out of the way while I put all their toys away.

So, I start in the boys' room by making their beds, folding their blankets, and throwing any toys, paper or anything else out into the hallway.

4:57pm - Boys' room done, on to the girls' room. Again, I start with the beds. The girls have a lot more in their room, so as I make their beds I toss the things I find out of place into a pile on the floor. When I finish the beds, I go around the perimeter of the room and shove everything I can find into the pile. I make sure to search under beds, under the dresser, in corners (especially in the closet), and behind the door.

Beds made

Clean-up pile in the girls' room.

5:02pm - now the girls' room is mostly picked up, but there is still a large clean-up pile on the floor. I decide this particular pile should probably be sorted as I move it. I run to the kitchen and grab a small garbage bag, then return. Dress-ups get tossed into the hallway, since that is where most of the dress-ups already are anyway. Garbage and paper scraps get tossed into the garbage bag. I spread out the blanket next to me and toss anything else onto that. 

The sorted pile from the girls' room... minus the dress-ups.

5:05pm - the girls' pile is sorted. I grab the corners of the blanket so that it becomes a makeshift bag to carry everything on it, and place the blanket, and the garbage bag on the train table in the family room. Then I move on to the hallway. Most of the hallway is full of dress-ups, but there are a few other things there as well. I grab the dress-up bin from the family room (you can see it on the couch in one of the before pictures), and bring it to the hallway. All dress-ups are thrown in the bin, everything else is thrown down the hallway towards the family room, and the dress-up bin is put away in the closet. 

This chair is not actually supposed to be at the end of the
hallway. My husband has been sitting in it to read stories
to the kids at bedtime, so I'll leave it here for now. 

5:09pm - hallway clear. On to the family room. I quickly crawl around the perimeter of the room, pulling things out of nooks & crannies, off of surfaces like the piano & bookcase, and out from under couches. As I go I toss things towards the train table. If it belongs *in* the train table drawers (in this case, the cars, trains & tracks belong there), I toss them into an open drawer. If it does not belong in the drawers, I toss it *on* the train table. The only exceptions to this are the large family room blankets, and throw pillows. Those get put directly away. They take up too much space on the table, and make such a big difference when they are out of the way.

5:14pm - less than 5 minutes later the room is mostly clear, we're just left with a pile of extra things. Notice the garbage bag and the blanket full of stuff from the girls' room.

9. Put away stray items - since I now have the biggest items put away, it's time to sort the rest. This is when it becomes so important to have a place for everything. It's pretty easy to sort things when you know where they belong.

5:16pm - only two minutes required to quickly sort the pile of stuff. Clockwise from the top left, I have a pile of dirty clothes, some pencils/erasers that belong in the school room, some craft supplies from the craft bin, a magazine that belongs on the bookcase, three baby blankets, a charging cable for an old phone that belongs in a basket with extra cables inside the bookcase cabinet, the bag of garbage, extra dress-ups that weren't in the hallway when I put the dress-ups away, a kitchen gadget, two fly-swatters that belong on a hook in the garage, a tub toy, and a whole pile of hair things that belong in the bathroom drawer. Also not pictured here was a cup that missed out on the dishwasher and that my baby wandered off with while I was sorting. All that's left to do here is put the piles away.

5:20pm - Train table piles are put away, and here you can see the older 5 kids just finishing their show.

10. Vacuum - Again, I like to start in the back of the house, this time I start with the girls' room.

 Then the boys' room.

 Then the hallway.

 And finally the family room.

5:32pm. Vacuuming done. I would like to note that from a plug in the kids' bathroom my vacuum can reach the entire house except for one small corner of the family room (the master bedroom has wood laminate floors). That corner is not noticeable most of the time, so I didn't bother moving the plug just to get it.

As I go put the vacuum away in the garage, I notice that the washer & dryer have finished their cycle, so I might as well move laundry again. This time I start a load of adult darks.

Since I'm preparing the house for hypothetical company, I throw all the clothes onto the toddler bed in the master bedroom.

5:38pm - House ready for guests! Total time elapsed 1 hour 21 minutes, including time to take pictures, feed a hungry toddler, and clean up a potty accident.

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, there are several things I did NOT do for this clean-up.
I did NOT wash windows or doors or walls.
I did NOT fold the large pile of laundry accumulating on the toddler bed (normally step #11 on my list of dailies).
I did NOT wipe down the master bathroom (guests don't generally use that bathroom anyway).
I did NOT pick-up in the master bedroom (again, guests don't generally go in there).
I did NOT even open the door to the school/craft room (the door has a keyed lock on it, and has not been opened all day, and would not be opened for guests).

If I had overnight guests coming, there are a few extra things I would need to do.
I would scrub the inside of the toilet with the toilet brush (during the bathroom clean-up).
I would double-check that the school-room is picked up (I rarely leave it cluttered, and I'm usually the last one out, but better safe than sorry, especially since this is where guests would sleep).
I would pull out an air mattress and set of sheets, inflate the air mattress and make the bed.

Also, here's the break-down of each step and how long it took me:
1. Move laundry - 4 minutes
2. Clear kitchen table & counters - 5 minutes
3. Wash dishes - 8 minutes
4. Wipe down kitchen sink, table, counters & stove - 7 minutes
5. Sweep floor - 7 minutes, including moving chairs
6. Straighten & wipe bathrooms - 5 minutes
7. Empty garbages - 0 minutes (didn't really do any)
8. Clean-up pile - 21 minutes
9. Put away stray items - 6 minutes
10. Vacuum - 12 minutes
11. Fold laundry - 0 minutes (didn't fold any), but I did move laundry again - 6 minutes.

FYI - I did not keep track of times as I went on this, I simply took pictures as I finished each step, and then took note of the time-stamp on the picture. I figured that would be more accurate, and faster for me. :)

My mom told me I need to do this same experiment again in the near future, but requiring my kids to help by doing their chores.