the power of five minutes a day
day by day, one five minute pickup at a time.
that’s how i keep my living space decluttered. well, that and doing the dishes every day, but that’s for another post.
I know, I know, how crazy do I sound? “iT oNlY tAkEs fIVe MiNutEs A dAy tO hAvE a ClEaN HoUsE” 😀😀😀 I mean, I might as well renounce my credibility before I even earn it, right? So the obvious truth is that takes longer than 5 minutes to keep a clutter-free home, but when you’re being consistent with this as a daily habit, it really doesn’t take that much longer!
I have tried a lot of cleaning routines before, but they never stuck because I had missed the crucial step of the daily pickup. So the toilets are clean, but there’s nowhere to sit down?? That’s greeeeat. If my living space is overwhelmed with clutter, then my headspace will be too, you can count on that. It wasn’t until I discovered blogger Dana K. White that I learned about the five minute pickup! It’s such a simple idea and makes so much sense, but for some reason I never thought that keeping your home clean meant actually, you know, KEEPING it clean. I thought I could declutter once and then suddenly become Ms. Organized forever and ever. I thought I just hadn’t found the “right” strategy yet and kept that thought in the back of my mind for someday. Why do we humans think the habits that stem from our literal identities are going to suddenly and dramatically change overnight even though we know they won’t? Probably because it’s more blissful to live that way. We can hold onto our fantasies without ever having to get up off our butts! I mean, that’s how it is for me anyway.
So how do you actually do a five minute pickup?
It’s simple! You set the timer for five minutes and then… pick up. But I know that starting this habit can be hard. I know from experience that when you’re looking around at a cluttered room, it’s hard to know where to begin. That’s why I like to start with the floor. If I can clear the floor in a room, it instantly looks amazing. For some reason my brain tends not to see the clutter on top of counters & furniture like it sees the junk on the floor. So I pick up trash, food scraps my toddler left in the middle of the room three days ago (oops), random cat toys, whatever my toddler pulled out of every cabinet in the house when I was in the bathroom for three minutes… you get it. Sometimes if I’m feeling real crazy, I’ll even sweep! After that, the five minutes is usually up and the room looks significantly better. If I want to, I can keep going. A lot of times I don’t, but sometimes I do. If I decide to keep cleaning, I move on to the nearest flat surface. Personally, I'd rather make a visible dent in a much larger space (i.e. kitchen table, desk, counter) instead of getting one tiny surface perfect. But if having one surface completely done makes you feel better, do that! Do whatever helps you best.
Nowadays, it takes just 20-30 mins to clean up the entire house. But most days I still only stick with 5! I’m comfortable with having a home that looks lived-in as long as it’s warm & inviting. That’s my style! Imperfect, but homey, homies.
This week give the five minute pickup a try. I can pretty much guarantee that it will change your life!! This isn’t one of those trick-yourself-into-cleaning-longer things either— once your 5 minutes is up, you’re free to quit! Tomorrow it will be slightly easier. I don’t know about you, but now that I have a toddler I love it when I can do something today to make tomorrow slightly easier.