Tag Archives: cleaning

The 1-minute rule

I have always known that I was secretely lazy. Don’t get me wrong–I’m a very hard and responsible worker when outside factors are pushing me, like school, or a job. I’m a performance and approval driven person (and trying to get over it . . .), so if there’s a boss or teacher who needs to be pleased, I will do whatever it takes to get the job done. However, when it comes to motivating myself to do things that only I may care about . . . that’s another story. Earlier this year I journaled about it–I had just joined the gym near our apartment and was contemplating my new life of regular exercise:

“I want the infusion of energy that regular exercise brings, but this is also a chance to exercise discipline over myself–because with no external motivation, I appear to be naturally lazy. This was reinforced 2 weekends ago when my frustration about the state of our apartment was driving me mad–the mysterious brown piece at the back of the microwave, the 3 spots on the kitchen flor, the loose thread hanging from our library chair . . . so I had a small breakdown and threw myself into an emotionally charged, frenzied cleaning. At the root of it was the frustration I felt with myself for letting all these little things nag away at my soul and yet failing to take action! I was amazed at my laziness and appalled that I hadn’t just taken care of those things when they first bothered me. Most of them took a minute tops to put aright.”

My resolution after writing all this down was to do what I want. It sounds selfish initially, but with a deeper reading you’ll see that it’s really about self-control and discipline. If I truly want a lovely, clean home, I should be faithful to that desire and follow through to make it happen. It’s a way of being true to myself. I still struggle with it, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve found it helpful to identify what my true and deep desires are, and then to commit myself to working towards them to the best of my ability. For example, I want to be cute and sexy at home. I have a secret fear of becoming an unkempt wifely mess at some point in my life (greasy hair, soiled bathrobe, possibly fleas and/or lice) and I truly want to look as best as I can for my husband. However, my tendency is to throw on that pair of baggy, disgusting sweat pants that are now about 10 years old. I don’t know why I gravitate towards them–I just do (does anyone else have this problem?). So what is more important? My desire to please my husband (which also helps my own self esteem) and be the cute and attractive wife? Or my desire to feel the comforting existence of those pants surrounding me in all their baggy glory on a daily basis? I need to weigh my desires and choose the ‘true’ or greater one, and pursue that.

On a tangent, I’m not saying baggy sweatpants have no place in a marriage, or that wives shouldn’t dress to please themselves as well, or that being sexy and comfy aren’t compatible–hopefully you see the point beyond the example. Your case could, in fact, be the opposite–you feel oppressed by what you think you should look like and trapped by a sense of obligation to your spouse, and wearing those sweatpants could be a move towards freedom for you! Let each woman (or man! No discrimination against male readers!) know herself.

This also means that you have to have a good understanding not only of what your deep desires are, but how they relate to each other. Many times I have to prioritize one over another. I’ll give a kind of obvious example: I desire to be a good homemaker and have a clean, beautiful, peaceful house. However, I also value hospitality. I grew up in a very open and welcoming home, and I greatly admire my Mom’s ability to randomly take in large groups of people on very short notice, or take in a stranded person for Christmas who doesn’t have any family close by–and to do it all with a smile and a genuine enthusiasm and love for her guests. Large batches of homemade pizza, big pots of Pozole, or a paella were whipped up in the kitchen, beds were made, fresh towels laid out. Let’s be honest–hosting a large group can mean your house will soon become a messy, chaotic place (though I have high hopes of discovering the top-secret workaround to this otherwise universal truth via the Martha Stewart magazine). I desire to be hospitable, and I desire a clean and orderly home–the two desires in this example are in conflict. At that point I have to examine them and say ‘which is more important to me?’ And for me, hospitality trumps order. It’s more important for me to take in the 6 woebegone friends who are stranded in Chicago because their flights were canceled than to turn them down but keep my house clean and perfect. I would prefer to have luggage strewn all over, blankets layering the entire span of the livingroom, and a precarious pile of blow-up mattresses, than to have peace and quiet and not extend the hand of love to these friends.

This is hypothetical, since (unfortunately) no friends of ours have been stranded in Chicago. But I secretely hope that someday we’ll get a ‘freebie’ visit via living so close to an international airport.

I read a rule in a book called “The Happiness Project.” The rule essentially states that if it takes less than 1 minute to complete a certain task, you shouldn’t put it off. I think this little rule is extremely helpful, because it eliminates all the clutter of tiny things that you tend to leave undone until they’ve accumulated into One Massive Task. For example, last night my husband and I snuggled under a blanket on the couch. We watched a movie, drank tea, and then headed to bed. I knew that leaving the blanket on that couch in a messy pile was just going to depress me the next day when I encountered the ‘chaos’ in the morning light. I could have chosen to leave it because I was tired and just wanted to crawl into bed–but instead, I reminded myself “this will take 20 seconds tops”, folded the blanket, and felt much better about the general state of things both that night and the next morning. The mysterious piece of brown something in the back of the microwave that I journaled about took all of 10 seconds to wipe out and throw away–but I let it bug me every time I opened that microwave for over 3 weeks. I hereby proclaim that next time, I will simply grab a paper towel and deal with it on the spot.

It’s surprising how quickly those little details (especially the ones that relate to the house) can get under my skin and make me irritable. The 1-minute rule has been really helpful to me, and I hope it will be for you, too. But this little trick is part of a greater lesson that involves knowing your heart and pursuing what you truly desire with all your strength.

Prayer in times of cleaning

“What you must do is this: rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.”

-From “Hannah Coulter” by Wendell Berry

Sometimes I approach house cleaning with excitement. The smell of the different cleaning products I’ve come to love (a big draw) . . . the soon-to-be-had satisfaction of sitting in a wonderfully clean and organized space . . .the sense of accomplishment I know that will give my day . . . Frequently when I’m done cleaning the house, I light a candle and just sit in a chair with my hands folded in my lap to soak up the goodness of my surroundings.

I’d also like to mention that our new toilet-cleaning solution smells like a breath mint. The last time I cleaned, as I scrubbed the toilet and the breath-minty scent surrounded me, I, um, well . . . well, I started to salivate. Yes, I wanted to eat the breath mint that my senses were telling me was inside our toilet. I’m starting to get a little worried here. Salivation and toilet-cleaning are two things that just shouldn’t be happening together. Thankfully our off-brand glass cleaner smells like a fresh spray of cat pee, and that just about evens things out.

Nothing like the scent of urine all over your bathroom mirror. But I’m too cheap to throw it away and let it go to waste.

Anyway, even though house cleaning can be a pleasurable experience, I’ve also have the struggle we’ve all had: I approach it with dragging steps, tempted to be resentful against something or someone for this work I have to do.

I’d like to issue a challenge for those of you who, like me, can be disgruntled house cleaners: pray your way through cleaning! There are three prayers that have helped me have a better attitude, and can make cleaning a place of peace for me when I have the discipline to switch my focus:

1. Giving thanks for the object I’m cleaning

As I spray furniture polish on our coffee table, I thank God for giving us a coffee table. I love it! I frequently put my feet up on it, or use it to make my cup of coffee readily available. Then I remember that my Dad made the coffee table and I thank God for my Dad and the fact that we have a beautiful example of his handiwork in our livingroom. As I clean the toilet, I thank God for indoor plumbing! I’m not a fan of outhouses, and I’m glad to be living in a time and place where I can go to the porcelain throne with my needs instead 0f a stinky hole in the ground. As I dust off our photographs, I thank God for the people in them–like these two young lovebirds at about 19 years of age.

As I clean the floor and windowsills, I thank God for our apartment, this structure that keeps us warm and dry in the winter and cool in the summer. I thank God that we have enough money to pay rent every month, and that we can get maintenance done for us with a simple phone call to our landlords.

2. Prayer that I will be a good steward of the things I’m cleaning

God has given us many material blessings that I am so grateful for. He can also take them away, and he will be equally loving and equally in charge of our provision. But while we have these things, I believe we are called to take care of them. God has given me carpets to keep our feet warm in the winter and to make the hardwood floors more cozy, and I want to take good care of those carpets and keep them clean. I believe he takes pleasure in order and beauty–you can see that by his design in nature–and I get to reflect those qualities by making the surroundings in my own home orderly and beautiful.

3. Prayer that I will hold on to these things lightly, and that my treasure will be in heaven

The book of Job is a prime example–God’s name is blessed whether or not he gives us comfortable, plentiful, and beautiful material goods. God could call us to sell all our things and go minister to a leper colony in the mountains somewhere–who knows. OK, maybe that’s unlikely, but we could lose our financial stability and be forced to ‘downgrade’ our lifestyle. He may ask us to increase our tithing, preventing us from buying that new bookcase we were wanting, or to start donating to a homeless shelter even though we just lost our job and simply don’t see how our funds will stretch. I don’t want my heart to cling to these things that we have. I can’t think of them as “mine”–God has chosen to share them with me at this time in our lives, and they are his to take away as well. We may not always be able to afford a nice apartment, or the luxury of using AC whenever we want in the summer. My heart needs to be free, with my hands clinging tightly to Him and not to these objects. Only then can I fully enjoy these things, when I am holding loosely. If not, they are a cage, a burden, and a necessity to me. And when desires become needs (‘I need an espresso machine’ versus ‘I would love to have an espresso machine’), the objects of our desire quickly take God’s place on the throne of our hearts. Ironically–and whether you believe in God or not–you will enjoy your material possessions much more once you let go of them in your heart.

See–I’m even cracking a smile at the stinky glass cleaning solution.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, whatever your beliefs may be. I know we all come from different backgrounds and are walking different paths, and that’s part of what makes your comments so interesting! Have a great weekend everyone!