Efficiency

I have (slowly-- how appropriate) come to the realization that I am not the most efficient or fastest at accomplishing certain tasks. There are nights when I'll reflect on the day past and wonder "Where did the time go?" and "What did I do with it?" Usually this occurs when my to-do list for the day is still pretty full. (What's most troubling is those days when I only had two or three items on my list anyway and STILL didn't accomplish anything.) For a Type-A such as myself (though I am learning to relax... a little), these are pretty serious and concerning questions. After all, if I'm to conquer the world (ha!), then I first better conquer my to-do list, no matter how mundane and piddly the tasks.

One such task that eats up endless hours of time is cleaning the house. (I'll let you in on a little secret: I now clean the house once every three weeks. Shocker, I know. Thanks to two kids and a much busier schedule, however, I don't have the time to clean more often than that. Note: this does not mean my house is not tidy. That's not going to change, especially since I hate clutter and mess!) Anyway... the task at hand (see what I mean about efficiency?)

Usually, it takes an entire week to clean the house. A week! Ugh! No wonder I don't clean as regularly as some! I try not to clean much in the mornings since that's my time with the kids (running errands, doing school, playing, etc.), though on occasion I will clean a few rooms under child supervision. The bulk of the task then falls to my afternoons, specifically when the kids are resting/ napping. That's two hours. So why couldn't I get the house cleaned in that amount of time? After all, I kept reading about how quickly maids can clean a hotel room or house (though I don't think it counts when there's more than one cleaning a house).

But now, I might have finally caught on to something. I say this confidently since my house, as of Tuesday afternoon, is clean (well, except for the floors. They'll have to wait until tomorrow because, let's be honest, there's really nothing that could make cleaning them quicker.). This after starting just yesterday. This is a big deal for me, especially since it frees up time later this week for fun things (anything not associated with cleaning).

So here's my secret (or two):
1. Dusting cloths. I found this via Pinterest, and have been very pleased with the results. Aside from these being all natural products, they cut dusting time in half. Really! No more "spray, wipe, repeat". It's simply wipe and done!

2. Magic eraser the bathroom. Tried this today, and was pleased with the results though I'm not sure if I'll continue this method or another (see #3), especially since I still had to dry off/ wipe down the sink when I was done.

3. Spray down the bathroom then wipe with a dry cloth (not wet). This also worked really well. Should I switch to a natural/ home-made bathroom cleaning spray, this will probably be what I'll do in the future. The bonus? I didn't have to use paper towels to dry the sink afterward.

Now that I've saved all that time cleaning, maybe I'll figure out how to make the rest of my life just as efficient. I can hope, right?