“Who wants to arrive in a dirty house?” I always tell my fiancée. Usually, before we travel somewhere for an extended period, I make sure our place is neat and tidy. Not “the President is coming tomorrow” clean, but with about 70% of the effort I would put into a full sweep. It’s amazing when it works. You come back and realize all you have to do is unpack your suitcase and get back to living.
Well, this time, it didn’t work. My fiancée had already left for a trip of her own, and in the week I was alone, I was slammed with work, admin, and trying to submit an entry for a novel competition. So while I did a bajillion rounds of laundry and finished all the food from our fridge that would otherwise expire, I didn’t manage to clean. Not properly, anyway.
The morning of my departure, I surrendered. I wasn’t going to vacuum. Or wipe dust. Or perfectly scrub all the toilets. But I was going to do something. I grabbed the limescale remover, sprayed all sinks a few times and, five minutes later, wiped them down with a cloth.
None of them ended up squeaky clean, but compared to before, it was an improvement. “This is as good as it gets,” I told myself. At least the whole operation took less than 10 minutes!
Sometimes, your estimates work out, and you have all the time you need to pull off the plan. But if time spontaneously compresses, don’t let that stop you. Where there is purpose, even 10 minutes can be worth it. You may as well start with “This is as good as it gets.”
