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| The kitchen 4:20pm |
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| Another view of the kitchen 4:21pm |
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| The dining area 4:21pm |
Yesterday turned out to be that day. I didn't mean for the house to get totally out of control. We weren't even home for half the day. We started the day rushing off to our homeschool group, and returned around lunch-time. We normally eat lunch at our co-op, but we were late and didn't have time to pack a lunch, so we came home instead.
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| The family room 4:21pm |
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| Another view of the family rom 4:21pm |
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| The hallway 4:22pm |
After making lunch, I was pretty much ready to crash for the weekend. So, I sat down with my computer and allowed the kids to play. We'd already finished our school-work for the week, and I wasn't really motivated to do anything else yet. Shortly after 4pm one of my boys complained that there was "too much pee" in the toilet. I went into the kids bathroom and discovered that the other twin had stuffed about half a roll of toilet paper down the toilet, and there was a flood slowly creeping towards the hallway. I quickly threw a couple towels down to dam the flow of water, and plunged the toilet. This is when I noticed that the laundry basket was totally overflowing as well.
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| The bathroom - still with a puddle on the floor, but contained for now 4:22pm |
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| The girls' room 4:22pm |
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| They had been building tents in their room 4:23pm |
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| The boys' room 4:23pm |
As I looked around the house and realized we were back in disaster mode, I decided now was a good time to try to recover WITH the kids.
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| The gathering 4:24pm |
I rang our "dinner bell" to let the kids know it was time to gather, and I sat them all down on the fireplace hearth to explain the situation. Then I gave them each an assignment. Most of these assignments were their normal chores for the week anyway. Then I went around taking pictures and helping with the assignments in the normal order I do for the house pickup.
1. Move Laundry
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| K moving laundry 4:28pm |
K (age 7) had already emptied the dryer earlier, but the washer was still running when she did it. So now she moved the load from the washer to the dryer, then started another load of kids clothes (and emptied the overflowing basket from the bathroom!).
2. Clear Kitchen Table & Counters
C (age 5) started clearing table & counters while I moved on to help D.
3. Wash Dishes
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| D unloading the dishwasher 4:29pm |
The dishes had been run earlier in the day, but never unloaded, and now the sink had more in it. So D (age 6) an I unloaded together while the others worked.
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| J2 & M working on the clean-up pile 4:32pm |
Also during this time I had assigned the J1 & J2 (age 3 1/2) to work on the "clean-up pile" which involved throwing everything they could find onto the train table. M (age 16 months) tried to help with this too. When K finished moving laundry, I sent her to help the boys with the clean-up pile, since they were already getting distracted.
4. Wipe down Kitchen Sink, Table, Counters & Stove
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| C wiping off the table 4:32pm |
By this time, C had finished clearing off the table & counters and and moved on to wiping things down.
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| C moving chairs 4:39pm |
When she finished wiping the table & counters, C moved the chairs out of the kitchen so I could sweep. Then she went to start folding blankets in the girls' room.
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| D loading the dishwasher 4:40pm |
By now D and I had finished putting the clean dishes away, and started loading the dishwasher again. It wasn't full enough to run, so we just finished wiping down the kitchen and moved on.
5. Sweep Floor
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| J1 working on the clean-up pile 4:40pm |
When D and I finished dishes, I assigned her to start assembling the chunky puzzles so they would fit back into the toy bin, and I swept the kitchen floor.
Mid-Clean-Up Status
When I finished sweeping the kitchen, I went around the rest of the house to inspect the progress so far. Time elapsed since "the gathering" - 22 minutes. (For reference, the last time I did this it took me 31 minutes to get to this point on my own... and the kids have already been working ahead on the clean-up & put away.)
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| K had already put away all the stuffed animals 4:46pm |
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| C was folding blankets 4:46pm |
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| I asked J1 & J2 to put the chairs back into the kitchen 4:46pm |
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| D was busy putting the puzzles together 4:46pm |
6. Straighten & Wipe Bathrooms
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| A clean bathroom again 4:55pm |
Now it was time for me to get back to the bathroom. Straightening didn't take too long, and K had already emptied the laundry basket, so I had a perfect place to put all the wet towels I ended up with after mopping up the flood and wiping the floor.
7. Empty Garbages
I didn't get any pictures of it, but D took out the kids' bathroom garbage for me, and J1 got a new bag for it.
8. Clean-up Pile
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| Boys' room picked up 4:59pm |
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| Girls' room picked up - two of the girls wet their beds the night before, and their sheets were just moved to the dryer 5:00pm |
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| The rest of the girls' room picked up 5:00pm |
With my help, the rest of the clean-up piles went very quickly and we got everything else to the train table.
9. Put Away Stray Items
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| Putting away things from the train table, the puzzle bin is almost full of completed puzzles! 5:00pm |
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| Down to the last few piles 5:04pm |
K and I quickly sorted the remaining items on the train table and K, C, J1, & J2 quickly grabbed piles of stuff and put them away.
10. Vacuum
When we finished the stuff, I grabbed the vacuum from the garage and vacuumed the bedrooms, hallway and family room. K moved the cord for me midway through so I could actually get the one corner of the family room I can't reach when plugged into the bathroom outlet.
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| Freshly vacuumed family room 5:15pm |
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| More of the family room, and the hallway, all freshly vacuumed 5:15pm |
Again, I was burned out by this time, and since I didn't fold laundry during the last disaster clean-up, I decided not to this time either. All the clean laundry is piled on the toddler bed in my bedroom, out of the way.
Total time elapsed since "the gathering" - 51 minutes.
Compared to doing the clean-up on my own - 1 hour 21 minutes.
Verdict - I saved 30 minutes by working WITH the kids... even though I spent a lot of time trying to keep them on task, and several still got very distracted.
Still, less than an hour after "the gathering" the kids were free to play in a clean house. They decided to practice some gymnastics moves. :)
Playing in a clean house is fun!
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