The rule of 15s

I am slowly starting to live by what I call "The rule of 15s." I first got the idea from my oldest sister, Thawivann, when she came to help when Lucy was born. Spending nearly a week in my house she found all different ways to organize my house, and brainstormed suggestions to help me maintain order with two little girls. She organized my utensil drawers into categories and then placed them in their own containers. They are still in the same containers with the labels she created. =) So anyway, the rule of 15s. The name is something I made up, but it was inspired by her. She suggested that each day or evening I spend x amount of time picking up toys, x amount cleaning up clutter, and so on. Each alloted time period was no longer than 10 minutes. Her thinking behind this is that the house would be able to maintain some order, and at least at the start of the day we would have a fresh start.

It took a while for us to implement this idea. In the fall when I was watching Stella I tended to do this tidying up at the beginning of the day. Let me tell you, as someone who has occassional bouts of depression, beginning the day having to clean from the day before does very little to keep depression at-bay. By early winter I decided to do the cleaning at night. It is very easy for me to get out of hand, once I actually decide to start cleaning. Taylor is always willing to help, but he needs some focus. So I decided to set a timer, we started out at 12 minutes. We would clean for 12 minutes. When the timer went off we could do whatever we wanted. Having a timer really helps get your butt in gear. Taylor and I are both easily distracted, perhaps him more than me, but having a time limit, and a short one at that, made it easier to stay focused, because we knew we didn't have the stay the course that long.

I tell you, it makes a world of difference to come down the stairs in the morning to a de-cluttered living area. Now I'm sure if anyone else were to come over in the morning they may not appreciate the "cleanliness or declutter." But for us, it's clean and liveable. So, the rule of 15's: spending time in 15 minute increments cleaning. Until recently I really just applied this "rule" to nighttime. But now I am going to try to apply it a second time during the day. I recently found a blog in which a mom said you could keep a house clean by spending only 15-20 minutes a day. I'm all about clean, but in a way that requires very little of my time. So you know I was all about reading what she had to say. Essentially you pick a part of your house or a particular chore and spend 15 minutes on it. Everyday is something different. Basically this is how I have applied "the rule of 15s" to the rest of my day: day 1) upstairs bathroom, 15 minutes. day 2) downstairs bathroom, 15 minutes day 3) tidy TV room Day 4) tidy Evie and our bedroom Day 5) vacuum upstairs Day 6) tidy Lulu's room Day 7) mop downstairs. Every day only spending 15, 20 minutes tops. This is something I can do. Eventually I may add dusting. I did not include sweeping downstairs, I tend to do this anyway at least 2 times a day.

So "the rule of 15s" applies not just to cleaning but also to working out. Let's be realistic, I won't make it to the gym very often. But I can spend 15 minutes (not much, I know) doing some kind of working out. I recently downloaded apps on our kindle for free leg, arm, cardio, and abs work outs. The workouts can be as short as 5 minutes and it's a video, so I am doing it with someone else. I can do 5 minute increments. It ain't much, I'll be the first to admit that, but I gotta start somewhere.

In order to help me maintain "the rule of 15s" I created a dry-erase goals and menu board in my kitchen. I plan out each week what my cleaning 15s will be each day, other goals that I have for the day, and I plan to also map out what I will eat (from morning til night, including snacks). For someone who is trying to either lose or maintain their weight I have found that one of the biggest road blocks is not knowing what to eat. Planning it out prevents over eating, eating the wrong thing, or at times not eating enough. I also think that by planning the week's meals out I can better manage our monthly budget for groceries.