One week ago, I told you I was going to time my clean-ups for the week: house work, that is. My least favorite waste of time. And then, I asked you to do the same, just to see what sort of numbers would come back, if any.
Did anyone make it for seven whole days? Because I didn’t.
I found myself resenting having to go write everything down. It’s not easy. I multi-task like a fiend, pick up faster than you can sneeze and literally have 30-second rounds of clean-up scattered throughout the day. It’s a defense technique so I don’t find myself at the end of an exhausted day with a filthy house to clean. It’s so much easier if it’s just done in tiny snippets.
After two days of record keeping, I stopped doing my habitual tiny snippets of cleaning and let it build up so I wouldn’t have to write things down as frequently. The sessions got longer. And I got more resentful.
Now, today, a week later, my kitchen is disgusting because I revolted and refused to clean it for two days.
Somehow, rebelling against yourself really isn’t as satisfying as rebelling against someone else. Sigh. Guess what who gets to suffer for my rebellion and clean up the kitchen after I write this post? Erg.
So, with my trusty friend the calculator and a little simple arithmetic, here’s what I got:
7 days.
6 of them at home.
1 of them without a child.
12 hours and 43 minutes of house work.
I do at least 1 hour of house work every day and no more than 2 and a half. And, for the curious, if I go over two it’s because I included a “special project” like baking bread or deep cleaning my bedroom.
On a typical day, no more than 1.5 hours.
I discovered that I naturally exchange one chore for another to keep the time from building up. For example, if I spend an hour catching up on laundry, I pick a ten minute dinner to cook. Apparently I do have some sort of internal clock when it comes to stuff I hate.
For the record my living situation (which totally affects all this):
- I work from home.
- I’m single and have no adult roommates.
- I have one toddler and one indoor cat.
- My apartment is approximately 700 square feet, if that. All one floor. No carpets.
- I have my own washer and dryer but I wash all my dishes by hand (which completely sucketh).
If you care to play along, leave a comment about how your week went. Please include some stats like number of kids, whether you work or not, live with another grown-up, etc…
Single adult female, 2 br house, work FT. 1 toddler. No pets. Wall to wall carpeting in every room but the kitchen/dining room.
Ran dishwasher twice; cleaned 2 bathrooms; swept and washed the kitchen floors; took out the trash; did 5 loads of laundry; cooked 10 meals; picked up toys a few times.
Didn’t bother to vacuum this week. Maybe next week.
Did remember to water the plants.
It came out to about 1 hour a day, which is a significant decrease from when I also had a guy and two cats…in spite of adding taking out the trash to my “to do” list. What a rip…that seriously takes 5 seconds.
Okay, married, two kids, two dogs, 2 story house, stay at home mom and babysit in my home(one toddler) 3 days a week.
I didn’t actually keep time but I was more mentally aware of my cleaning AND I clean way more then I ever thought YET my house is still a mess…. somebody please explain that too me :0).
I literally clean all day! I do a lot of, little bit here, a little bit there type of cleaning. I vacuum at least once a day, do 1 to 2 loads of dishes everyday, laundry 1 to 3 days a week, and pick things up ALL day. Cleaning my kitchen is a daily job within itself. Luckily my son puts away his own laundry and keeps his room clean. I let the dogs out 4 to 5 times a day and if we put yard work in there, well, I don’t even want to know!
I think if I actually timed myself it would be frustrating because I clean so much and my house still is a mess and on a daily basis I don’t get all the cleaning done that I would like because I’m so busy keeping my kitchen clean and picking up after everyone, that is really the bulk of my time.
One day I might actually time myself so I can look at the total time and go “what the F****”!
I like this game!
Single, student, 2 kids. 5 year old and a newborn. 1 goldfish. Small house. 500 sq feet, plus basement, Carpet in basement. 2 loads of laundry every day. 1 dishwasher load everyday. 8 diapers, 2 baths, 3 meals, 2 snacks, 2 bedtime stories, 1 trip to the park, 4 bottles, 3 breastfeeds, and 0 sleep. Every day.
I think I own 1 vacuum and 2 brooms, but haven’t seen any in quite some times, for all the crap on the floor.
no kids. live with my mom. she cleans. I lose