VBS left our house in a bit of a disastrous state. Well, it wasn’t VBS’s fault, but the chaos that ensued from being gone several hours each day was the dilemma.
I wanted to bless my husband by surprising him to a clean house when he came home today. But I didn’t want to spend the whole day cleaning since my to-do list is incredibly long right now.
My solution? The seven minute frenzies.
What’s that?
It’s when we set the timer for 7 minutes and we all quickly clean one room. Then we take a quick chocolate chip break and go to the next room.
The results?
I’m very happy with them!
The kitchen before.
Dishes in the sink, messy counters and floor, toys, laundry…it was a MESS!
Seven minutes later…
When you have four people working hard for seven minutes, and two little ones sort of working for a couple minutes, it equates to a nice long 30 minute cleaning spree. In only seven minutes! Woo-hoo!
More pics? I’m almost embarrassed of the before shots, but I know I’m not the only one who has had a messy house before, and I’m really happy with what we accomplished.
Playroom (the worst of them all–Simon learned to climb out of his playpen stealthily and go play during quiet time…ugh!)
Is it perfect? No! But it’s a whole lot better. And you can walk into it now without stepping on anything.
Living Room/Dining Room (14 minutes for this one as a double room…)
Look…we found a table!!!
Owen’s Room (with all the boy dressers and Brynna’s dresser…)
I think Owen approves!
And the last one I’ll share…
The girls room…
The kids were really ready to be done at this point, as you can tell by their collapsed pile on the ground. Good thing this was our final room.
It was a good day–we worked together and cleaned the house and enjoyed some chocolate chips. It’s so much easier to think and relax when the house isn’t a disaster!
Any tricks you have for tackling a messy house?
Have you tried a 7 minute frenzy or something similar?
Great post, and nice before and after pics!
I’ve never tried a 7-Minute Frenzy; however, I can recall several two-minute frenzies when I saw a car pull into the driveway and realized I had about two minutes top to restore order and make sure the toilets were flushed! We didn’t have eight people, but it was amazing what four or five of us could pull off in that situation!
Thanks Mom! I remember playing the game that the boss was coming over and we had only 15 minutes to clean up. You could make cleaning into a fun race against the clock!