The Lazy Genius Podcast - #155 - How to Clean the House When Everyone Is Inside It (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

A lot of us are still sheltering in place, and that brings a new set of challenges when it comes to cleaning. Because there are so many challenges, we’re going to make this a two-part miniseries. Today, I’m going to share 10 principles of lived-in cleaning. Then next week, we’ll get into some specifics like laundry, bathrooms, dust, and crumbs on the floor. Here we go. Helpful Companion Links If you’re active on Facebook, we’d love to have you in The Lazy Genius Facebook group. It’s a lovely resource and community. The episode on How to Hire a Housecleaner if that’s something you want to consider when the pandemic is all over. My pandemic Spotify playlist, Quarantine Groove. I’m the most active on Instagram these days (and I’m sharing my results of The Favorites Files there, too). You can find me at @thelazygenius. Download a transcript of this episode. This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everyone, you're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 155, How to Clean the House When Everyone is inside it. A lot of us are still sheltering in place and that brings a new set of challenges when it comes to cleaning for sure. Because there are so many challenges, we are going to make this a two-part mini series. Today I'm going to share. 10 principles of lived-in cleaning. And the next week, we'll get into some specifics like laundry, bathrooms, dust and crumbs on the floor. You guys, the dust and the crumbs, there are so many people creating so much dust and so many crumbs. So that is a game plan. Two weeks of figuring out how to clean the house when everyone is inside it. Before we get started, I just wanted to remind you that there is a lazy genius Facebook group to join if you are interested. It is full of incredibly smart, encouraging normal people who crowdsource lazy genius solutions to all kinds of problems. There's a link in the show notes if you're interested in checking it out.

I just feel like now is a time when we need community and solid resources to help us get through this. I'm glad that you see this podcast is one of those resources. And the lazy genius Facebook group is both a resource and a community. So I hope you check it out. All right. Let's talk about cleaning the house when everyone is inside it. these 10 principles are going to get you there.

Principle number one, you will never be done, but you can be done today. I put a call out on Instagram last week asking you guys for your cleaning challenges right now. And this thought came up often. Because of all the people home all the time and the constant mess, it feels like cleaning is never done. And in a way that's true, nothing stays clean for long, even on the best days. It's kind of a bummer. So while it's true that you will never be done, the gift of being a lazy genius is you can decide to be done today.

You can even make that decision based on different things from day to day. You might wake up one day with a lot of energy and motivation. The kids are like happily playing outside in the yard and your done might look like you're going to clean an entire bathroom or you're going to mop the kitchen floor and then be done. But then other days, done is just a done. having the dishes in the sink instead of all over the counter or the toys picked up in one room and nowhere else. Ideally, the room that you're currently sitting in. So principle number one, you will never be done, but you can be done today. Principle number two, raise a new standard.

Part of me wants to imagine like thousands and thousands of lazy geniuses raising an actual standard like a flag in our homes, like declaring a new way of cleaning. But I don't mean a flag. I do a standard or a new way to measure what clean means. One of the lazy genius principles of cleaning a home in regular non-pandemic times is that you decide what clean means. And that is still true. You still get to decide what matters and what doesn't to you, right? It's just that this way of life has changed our standards and what matters without our permission. We're still trying to like put the old standard of a clean house into this new way and that's likely not going to work very well so it's time to raise a new standard my standard before all of this was that i liked for things to be

tidy throughout the house clean was less important um i had even hired a house cleaner to come and take that part off my plate every other week there is an entire episode on it by the way about hiring a house cleaner and true solidarity for all of y'all who miss your house cleaner i miss mine desperately back to the old standard though my old standard my old standard was tidy mostly everywhere, but especially in our main living area, which is like a living room, dining room and kitchen, like in one, you know, open space. That has now shifted to tidy in the living room only. And even then, only at night when the kids are finally in bed. Our dishwasher broke last week because, of course it did. So we're washing dishes for five people and three full

meals and a couple of snacks by hand. It is super annoying. And, um, The dining table also is now like the school room and the art table. So there are just, there are undone projects and there are school papers on the table. And that's a table that's usually cleaned off, right? So I am raising a new standard that I don't have to have the same level of clean in my kitchen and on the dining table right now. I do want it in the living room so that when Kaz and I finally sit down together at the end of the day, I need ice cream and chips and salsa and watch Brooklyn 9-9, that we can do it without staring at a bunch of visual clutter. But that one room is all my standard is right now.

And while it's definitely not ideal, making the choice makes a difference. So raise a new standard. Start paying attention to where you're cramming pre-pandemic expectations into a pandemic-shaped hole and maybe rethink what matters right now. Principle number three, create a common cleaning code. A common cleaning code. Okay, I want you to choose three things. or less. Three is a much more doable number here than like five or ten. Please stick with three or less.

Choose three things that are the baseline for what makes your house feel as clean as you can under these conditions. This is where you name what matters. You share it with the people you live with. Maybe you even come up with a list, you know, with them. But if you stick with the common cleaning code and that's all you maintain every single day, you'll be more or less okay. So the common cleaning code could be actual tasks or one of the things could be that each person spends 10 minutes wiping something down with cleaner, you know, like it could be a use of time rather than an actual task. Or maybe one of the three things is that the entire family does two family tidies a day. Hours last as long as a song or two. There's even a big block sing song song called Tidy Up.

That is two minutes long. It's super catchy. Super great. So, your common cleaning code is whatever you need it to be. But name the three things that make the biggest difference on a daily basis, write them down, post them somewhere, whatever it is, and act on them every single day. Make sure they're doable. This is not an ideal world situation. The common cleaning code is meant for falling apart world, not ideal world. So it needs to be really, really simple. Here are some ideas really quick if you need you know some ideas to get your own going so all dirty clothes go on the hamper dishes are either in the sink or clean at the end of the day the floors in the kitchen and under the table get swept or vacuumed every day living room is tidy toys in this room or that room are

in baskets by bedtime rinse your toothpaste off the sink after you spit it out things like that So all very, very basic things. So principle number three is create a common cleaning code. Principle number four. Use the good enough rule. This goes with raising a new standard and even the common cleaning code, but we need to give ourselves permission to live like a B, B plus life right now when it comes to cleaning.

This is not a straight A time of life. Good enough is good enough. So when you feel the itch to clean a room and actually have the motivation to go along with it. Remember that good enough is good enough. Maybe you don't get all the scum out of every corner of the shower, but it's like mostly wiped down and that's good enough. The floors are swept, but not mopped. That's good enough. The baskets are full of unorganized toys, but at least they're off the floor. Good enough. Use the good enough rule. This is the time to embrace average performances. That's our life now. It's cool. Good enough is good enough. Principle number five. Name your best.

20 minutes. 20 minutes is a very special length of time. It's really short, barely shorter than an episode of TV without commercials. But if you actually pay attention, you can get a lot done in 20 minutes. Okay, so let's say that you sleep eight hours a night. That's funny, which leaves 16 hours of being awake and you know, like sort of doing stuff. So you're helping with school, you're making dinner and lunch and breakfast. you're reading, you're blowing bubbles outside, you're refereeing sibling fights, all of it. But if you take the percentage of 20 minutes from 16 hours, you're talking about 2% of your day, two. And you can get a shocking amount done in 2% of your day if you name your best 20 minutes. So think about the time of day where you're usually at your pandemic best.

It will unlikely be the same 20 minutes as before the pandemic. So really think about life right now. It might also be a decision you have to make at the start of every day. When is my best 20 minutes today, right? For me, my best 20 minutes is when the kids have settled into eating lunch. They're like occupied. They eat at 1130 or so. So I'm usually not desperate for food yet. And I can spend 20 minutes doing whatever needs doing. Maybe it's stuff that's in the common cleaning code that hasn't happened yet. maybe it's wiping down a bathroom or resetting a room to get ready for the second half of the day. Sometimes it's several things. The point is you can get a lot done in 20 minutes, especially if you name your best 20 minutes. When are you at peak motivation most days, at least by these upside down standards? None of us are like full of energy at this point anyway, at any point. But when are you like more or less not compelled to just fall face down on your bed and hope no one finds you?

that is not the best time to get stuff done. That's the best time to fall face down on the bed. So principle number five is name your best 20 minutes and then use it to get a jump on something. And if you're feeling the pressure of how to spend that 20 minutes, decide beforehand. If your 20 minutes is at 11 in the morning, think and notice as you go about the morning, what needs your attention the most. What has the biggest bang for your 20 minute buck? Then when the time comes, just use that 2% of your day and helpful. away. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of

Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. principle number six stuff is the enemy of clean this is a cleaning principle i use a lot but it feels very appropriate right now we're all really struggling to get things clean because there's like more people using more stuff during more hours of the day than ever before so a couple of ways to approach this first clean up one mess before starting another one so clean up the breakfast dishes before doing school. Clean up the school books and papers before pulling out the paint supplies.

Clean up lunch before you make dinner. Clean up pretend doctor's office before putting together a puzzle. It doesn't have to be like really mechanized or soulless or oppressive. Like you know your house and your people better than I do. But just in general, one day to deal with all the stuff is to clean up one mess before making another one. The second way to think about stuff being the enemy of clean is to re-evaluate your stuff. Maybe you start decluttering a little and removing what doesn't serve you in your house anymore. Some of you mentioned decluttering, but not having any place to put that stuff since everything is closed. I would actually check your local thrift stores before assuming that. Mine are closed to shoppers, but my local goodwill is still taking donations.

So just check before assuming. But maybe it's time to declutter a bit. I have an episode on decluttering that I'll put in the show notes too if you're interested. another way to reevaluate your stuff is to do a pandemic purge okay so you're not going to get rid of everything because that's crazy but maybe you need to minimize the amount of stuff in your house and keep the essentials for now so put everything that isn't essential into a box label it by the room that you took it out of so boys bedroom living room playroom kitchen whatever just throw stuff that isn't like super beloved or necessary right now

into a box and stick that box in a closet or garage. And once we're out of this and can go back to a more normal rhythm of not being at home all the time, you can see if that stuff can go back. But get rid of some of your stuff right now and see if it helps. No special sorting or organizing or deciding. Just get it out. Just take it out of the room. But stuff is the enemy of clean. And there's so much stuff. I get it. Which leads me to a very helpful principle number seven, become a house of zones. Zones will save your life right now. We're all living in houses of piles and clutter, but try and think about zones a little more to make things easier. For example, your goal is not to have every dish clean at any given moment. That is unrealistic and a little bit

insane. Right now, your reality is cups in the living room, breakfast bowls on the table, random plates on counters. There are basically dirty dishes everywhere in every room. Now, the default reaction to that is to lament how you cannot keep the dishes clean and then you throw in the towel because you'll never get on top of it so the piles continue. Instead of that option or the option of like just trying to keep everything clean all the time, have a dirty dishes zone. I talk about zones in the kitchen in an episode about cleaning the kitchen. But even if the dishes are dirty, having them all in one spot on the kitchen counter at least gets them visually out of the way everywhere else. And in fact, there's this weird mental

victory because the dishes are where they're supposed to be. Even though they're dirty, they're where they're supposed to be in the dirty dishes zone. And you'll get to them when you get to another example is a school stuff zone. So we do our schoolwork in various parts of the house, you know, the dining table, the boys do it in the mini forts that they've built that are covering my house, their beds, the front porch, all over. Now, if they keep their work in those places, I will lose my mind and they will lose their work. It's just too much stuff everywhere. And then there's no hope of keeping anything clean because there's stuff everywhere. It becomes overwhelming. So we have a school stuff zone. We have a, in our house, we have a more like formal dining room that we keep tidy.

under normal circumstances and then you know we use it for like when people come over well there's no having people over for dinner right now so the end of this giant dining table which is technically out of the way of our main living area that is where all the school stuff goes it is the school stuff zone is it hidden nope does it make me feel a little cringy when I pass it because it's technically a pile of stuff that is not put away a little bit but that's the zone that's where it's goes. That's where it's supposed to be. So look for things in your life, the stuff in your life that feels like it's everywhere all the time and see if you can create a zone for it. Become a house of zones. And then when the stuff is there, it's less annoying because that's where it's supposed to be.

Principle number eight. Find a new motivation. According to that question I asked on Instagram about your biggest cleaning challenge, so many of you have no motivation to clean. because your usual motivation is people coming over. Again, there are no people coming over. Also, there are no deadlines. There are no visits from grandma to spruce up the guest room. There are no birthday parties to host or even weekends that look like they used to. Our usual forms of motivation have disappeared. So we need to find a new motivation. I think that the principles up to this point will help in creating some space around this. But what is a motivation for you? Maybe it's sanity. Maybe you just need things to be put away a little bit better to feel better by yourself and just mentally.

Maybe it's raising that new standard and finding yourself more motivated now that the standard is different, you know? Just sit with it for a minute. What might be a new motivation for you? Maybe when it's time for your best 20 minutes or you have a random hour where the rest of the family goes on a bike ride or something. Your motivation is you listen to an audiobook or fun music while you get stuff done. So I have this Spotify playlist called Quarantine Groove. I'm so creative with names that I will link to in the show notes. And it is upbeat, but just like a tad angsty because we're all at the very least a tad

angsty these days. And some of the songs have profanity in them. Obviously, I'm not going to blast that list when the kids are home. But there is a fun motivation to being able to blast it when they're on a walk. And I can get a little done while yelling like Demi Lovato at top volume. So another idea for motivation is to bring someone else into it. Put in your earbuds and call a friend and y'all both like blitz clean, but talk while you do it. We've got to get creative on how to get motivated to do anything these days.

Everything's just so weird. Take a minute and find a new motivation, even for today. Because today's motivation might not make sense tomorrow. Let's be real. Which leads us to principle number nine. Days look the same, but you might not. not. Days look the same, but you might not. There are so many things happening around us and within us, and I have been shocked at how different I feel about the same day from one day to the next. It's just how

it is. So remember that even as you try and loosely systemize some of this stuff, you're going to feel different more often than you usually do. Your family will too. It's like we're all on the same boat, But the weather every day is crazy different. And there's no real forecast for it either, you know, or just like riding the waves. So just be patient with yourself and your people in that. Days look the same, but you might not. And that's okay. And finally, principle number 10.

Be a team. If you live with people, you're on a team. Not everything is about any one person ever. Sometimes we have to do things together. Sometimes we have to make a choice that helps someone else in a big way. It's also easy to feel like the captain of the team too, especially if you were like usually the person who's home with kids, if that's your life stage. But everybody has the capacity to be the captain sometimes. You don't always have to be the team captain, but you are always on a team.

And that looks like everyone else letting one player sit out because Shea slash you is just really struggling and needs to go for a walk alone for an hour. It means family tidy time. It means everyone choosing a meal to eat for the week and putting it on the meal plan. It means putting the groceries away together. It means having quiet time in the afternoon, even though one kid hates being alone, but another one really, really needs it sometimes. We're on a team. We're in this together. It's the most important principle, really, I think. And that's it. Those are the 10 principles of lived-in cleaning. Next week, we will talk through some specifics, laundry, dust, bathrooms, the crumbs on the floor and we will figure out some strategies to clean those specific things

with people in the house. But starting here with these principles, it will put you in the right mindset to do those jobs. Also, try and come back to this episode sometimes if you need a reminder. I think it could help. All righty, that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. And I will see you next week. Have you ever felt like you are living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life?

Because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcast.

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