Five minute February challenge

[Chicken lady]

Dh said “I think we could finish cleaning the garage in about an hour” (I think dh is nuts) but, there are 28 days in February. If I spend 5 minutes every day - that is 2 hours and 20 minutes. Most of what needs to be done is quick - dump out a flower pot and move it to the greenhouse, pound in a nail and hang a tool, toss out a broken umbrella....

i realize i’m starting this late, but I spent more than ten minutes on the 1st, so i’m calling it good.

i’m not going to actually time my five minutes every day. Some days I will just do things like “wash this bucket and put it back where it belongs”

anybody else have a five minute challenge they want to try?

[Tybee]

Yes, I want to enter our day's spending and income onto a new spreadsheet so that we have better tracking of spending. Will need an hour or so to set it up and then 5-10 minutes a day should work for the recording.

[Chicken lady]

Do you think you can make time to set it up today?

[Tybee]

Definitely--we are just pulling tax stuff together so can do it after that, this afternoon. It's a preset form, just need to make a few modifications.

[Teacher Terry]

A friend of mine sets the timer for 15 minutes every and her and her husband clean. I find it interesting how everyone is so different in what works. I prefer longer periods of time. But it’s important to do whatever works.

[Chicken lady]

Day 3: Dumped out and stacked some flowerpots, found a handful of plastic spoons to run through the dishwasher (we use them in pottery class), and took the piece of fencing that I saved from someone’s trash a long time ago and will need in two weeks out to the barn.

[Teacher Terry]

I finished the 2nd book by a slob comes clean and love her nonjudgmental style as well as practical tips. I think it’s the best book about decluttering and I have read a lot of them.

[Chicken lady]

Day 4:

Picked up the really cute, but broken duck umbrella that has been in the garage for, um, years. Told myself “ok, it’s the moment of truth - fix it right now, or throw it away.” I don’t know how to fix it. So I threw it away.

grabbed the handful of garden stakes that were leaning in the corner and carried them to the barn, where I deposited them in the garden stake holder on the very useful cart that dh made me two years ago.

Tybee?

[Tybee]

Day 4:

Picked up the really cute, but broken duck umbrella that has been in the garage for, um, years. Told myself “ok, it’s the moment of truth - fix it right now, or throw it away.” I don’t know how to fix it. So I threw it away.

grabbed the handful of garden stakes that were leaning in the corner and carried them to the barn, where I deposited them in the garden stake holder on the very useful cart that dh made me two years ago.

Tybee?

I am going to change mine. I will still do the financial tracking but it is not conducive to the 5 minute thing as it takes as long as it takes.

I bought a new kitchen timer and am going to set it for 5 minutes and just run around returning items to their proper places for 5 minutes.

2/4: done

[Chicken lady]

I am visualizing a game show challenge “how many of these items can Tybee put in their proper place BEFORE the timer runs out?” - cue dramatic music, and, go!

day 5
unearthed 4 plaster molds that were carried back to the house to be washed, but left in the garage because they were too gross to put in the kitchen - back BEFORE we installed the new kitchen. Brought them in and washed them. The washing took way longer than 5 minutes, but getting them out of the garage took a lot less, so i’m splitting the difference.

[Rosemary]

I had a similar realization recently regarding keeping the house somewhat in order... that if I could do some of the not-weekly chores, such as straightening particular kitchen cabinets or wiping off refrigerator shelves (which usually turns into a 2-hour task due to the infrequency at which I attempt it) on a more regular basis, it would be far easier and a nicer place to be all the time. But most days after working and commuting, cooking, cleaning up, prepping lunches, taking care of the pets... I'm pretty much ready to don pajamas and read a book. I made a chart with one such task each day for each person in the house. The idea is that it will only take 3-5 minutes per day per person to keep things up, and limit the all-day cleaning we typically do before a guest visits.

[Chicken lady]

Well, yesterday I discovered that planning to do my five minutes when I hit home was not a good plan.
day 6 - nothing

so this morning I made sure to get it done
day 7 - wrapped broken mirror in cardboard and put it and the trash can lid that doesn’t fit any of our trash cans in a trash can.

i put the lid out last week too. This week I taped a big note on it that says “this lid IS TRASH”

[Teacher Terry]

The end of the day is hard. I noticed once I turned 50 I would come home and put a simple meal on the table because we were raising my 14 yo stepson and then I was mostly done except for talking, reading or watching TV.

[Chicken lady]

Full days of school kick my behind. Also, it dropped to the teens after I got home last night.
day 8 - nothing again.

but they did take the trash can lid this time.

[Chicken lady]

Day 9 - put another large broken plastic thing in the big trash can, and a small thing in the donate box.

[Chicken lady]

Day 10
cleaned up a plant tray and a bucket

[Chicken lady]

Day 11
brought the two babygates dd borrowed for her puppy into the house and washed them. Halfway through washing them, decided baby gate design has probably improved in the last 25 years and if anybody has a baby, we can buy new ones. We have 4, so i’m going to keep one for times I need to block little goats or bunnies on the dining porch and get rid of the rest. Dd doesn’t want them back.

[Chicken lady]

Day 12

got a hammer and nails and hung the tools that were leaning against the wall/falling over.

carried a random 2x4 back to the wood rack in the shop.

[rosarugosa]

You are doing great, CL!
I need to make progress on the cellar, which is a bit daunting. I'm trying to spend 15 - 30 mins or so here and there, or come up with one small concrete task at a time. Yesterday, I went through 2 storage boxes of crafts supplies and whittled them down to one.

[Tybee]

Threw out a featherbed that had gotten dirty and afraid putting it in the washing machine would break it.

Took old dog kennel out to street and someone took it, so that's great.

Returned violin blanket to violin--it had been on my bedroom floor, who knows why.

[Chicken lady]

Day 13 - nothing.

day 14 - threw out another old pair of shoes

[mschrisgo2]

CL, just curious as to whether or not you are seeing the end of the tunnel on the garage cleaning? and if your DH has noticed progress?

[Chicken lady]

Well, I keep thinking “this is the last easy thing” and finding another one. I see a difference, but I don’t think it is half done. Dh has not noticed because he worked last weekend and he leaves in the dark and gets home in the dark. He might notice if he doesn’t work tomorrow.

[Chicken lady]

Day 15 - nothing.
Day 16, found a hanging thing with pockets and hung up some more tools.

still nothing from dh, but I am close to cleaning off the top of the dresser I bought to refinish. If I move that (to the basement, i’m waiting for summer to refinish it outside) and he doesn’t notice, he’s going to get a lecture on how to motivate people to do stuff (and why the things that are less important to me get neglected)

also, you would think a centipede lived in this house! I have no idea which pairs of boots are his and which were abandoned on the shelf by our son. The adorable frog boots are now too small for ❤️Gs, And could probably be stored in the basement in case if a rare child visitor who needs to borrow them, my tennis shoes need to be washed and returned to my closet.....

and i’m Not sure why we are still storing THREE basketballs in the garage when the basketball hoop has been removed for at least 5 years.

also, I am not recording small bits of trash or recycling that I pick up as I go, or the reduction in cardboard boxes caused by using them to transport the recycling (there is one left), or the reduction in wood scraps caused by using them to start the wood stove. (We have a lot of small pieces of untreated cedar shingle/siding and dimensional lumber collected during construction)

[Teacher Terry]

Sounds like the basketballs can go to the thrift store.

[mschrisgo2]

Does your school have basketball hoops? Come spring, those could be golden.


oops, didn’t see TTs post.

[Chicken lady]

Day 17 - confirmed that dh does want to keep all nine pairs of boots that are on his shelf.

[mschrisgo2]

CL, I feel for you... DH keeping 9 pairs of boots on the shelf. And you have done well getting rid of your shoes. Did he notice?

[Chicken lady]

He was home yesterday. He said nice things to me about the whole house, not just the garage.

I am not upset about the boots. It is his shelf. It is neat. He wants them (and there are some special circumstances - some of them aren’t “just boots”)

my guess would be 10% of the stuff around here belongs to just dh, 30% to both of us, and 60% he would toss out in a heartbeat.

[Tammy]

Percentages are interesting. I think 10% of the stuff in our life is mine, 40% is jointly owned, and half is my husband’s. But overall we are pretty minimalist. I’m just extreme about it.

It’s only recently that I’ve found a way to be completely ok with that. I always wanted to downsize more than he did - for about 35 years. Ha.

It helps that we bought a small house a few years ago and don’t have to move stuff anymore. And the kids are all on their own.

So now I’m able to visualize our living situation as a place where we both feel at peace, I care very little about most of the stuff but it’s a happy Buddhist acceptance in my mind, and my few things are in my realm. The rest doesn’t concern me.

I’m not sure how I got to this mental place but I like it here.

[mschrisgo2]

He was home yesterday. He said nice things to me about the whole house, not just the garage.


Oh, I'm glad he said nice things! And I realize he does always come through.
If I may ask, what kind of work does he do that requires long days, and weekends too?

[Chicken lady]

It doesn’t always require weekends, he usually works long days, but not awful. He does have very early or late “meetings” with people in different time zones. Sometimes he can work from home, but right now something went wrong, so until it is fixed, everybody involved is working a LOT.

[mschrisgo2]

How's it going, CL?

[Chicken lady]

It’s going really well. I stopped posting because I didn’t want to talk to myself. Basically, there is one small/medium pile left in the corner behind my car and an empty dresser waiting to be refinished. There are a bunch of things to address - all the leaves that have blown in, and the badminton set that is being stored in a giant plastic flower pot because the box fell apart, and the cat bed needs to be washed. my/the family shoe shelf could probably be purged more, but it is neat and not overflowing.

I think we could actually clean it in an hour now.

[nswef]

That's great CL.

[mschrisgo2]

Wonderful, CL! Now for DH to find that hour he was talking about...

If you are keeping the badminton set... I stored ours for several years in a garment bag, hanging on a hook in the garage. I disassembled the poles, measured them, then measured every bag I came across until I found one that they would fit in, at one of the thrifts for 50 cents, if I remember correctly.