Hi everyone. I'm Ronnie.
And I'm Jessica. And you're listening to Clean
with me. The podcast where we walk you
through cleaning your house. Hey guys, this is Jessica And
what we do is we walk you through cleaning your house step
by step. So if you're new here, welcome.
If you listen already, welcome back.
And this is a really good podcast.
If you have problems staying on task, you get really distracted
really easily or maybe you just have trouble cleaning your house
and you just don't know where to start.
Maybe it overwhelms you. I have all of the above.
I struggle with all of those things, so that's why I am here
to help you and just kind of tell you how I work through
those things. So today we are going to just do
time segments in every room of the house and I usually do this.
I just don't usually tell you that the times up in a certain
area and you don't have to go by this timeline at all.
We're just going to do a speed clean and I'm going to tell you
like it's been 10 minutes just to see how much you accomplish.
Because sometimes one of the tactics I use to stay on task is
I like to time myself and just see how much I can accomplish in
10 minutes. And I like to take before and
after pictures. So first of all, before we start
with all of that, let's go ahead and do a load of laundry.
I like to get the washer and dryer going before I do my
cleaning session. That way that's kind of cleaning
while I'm cleaning, and it's like I'm doing two things at
once. And so move your clothes from
the washer to the dryer, from the dryer to a laundry basket.
And then if you're a person who like me, forgets about the
washer and dryer, I've been reminding people in every
episode lately because it's been working for me so far.
I set a timer because especially because I've been having issues
with my washer and dryer anyway, I'll set a timer for like 35
minutes, however long the length of the cycle is, and then I will
go check on it because otherwise the clothes will stay there for
two to four business days. So set a timer if you forget
about it. If you don't, then awesome.
Just change your clothes from the washer to the dryer.
And then at the end of the episode, I'll remind you to do a
second load and also fold that load that we're doing right now
and putting in the dryer and put it away.
So I'm going to give you guys a couple seconds to go ahead and
finish up that laundry switch. And while you're doing that,
before I start the kitchen timer, I just wanted to talk a
little bit while you guys are going to do your 10 minute
kitchen clean, Take a before picture really quickly just so
you can see how much you accomplish, especially if it's
really, really backed up. And I recently had a birthday
party in my house, which was brave of me and I had a lot
going on when I did it. So I scrubbed my house and I was
also angry about something. So I was like going through some
stuff. So I kind of honed into that,
which I don't usually do. I don't usually like stress
clean, but I was this time and it really like I was like, wow,
I accomplished a lot. I need to get angry at things
more often. I was like throwing a tantrum
and scrubbing all my baseboards and my house has never been
cleaner and I don't usually like that's not usually how I
destress. But it worked this time and I I
might make it a thing from now on.
Maybe I will start implementing stress cleaning because man has
my house been clean lately. So anyway, go ahead and start
that 10 minute clock on your kitchen.
And the reason why I'm doing the 10 minutes, just start with your
empty reload and run on the dishwasher.
If you don't use your dishwasher and you hand wash, that's fine.
Just put all of the dishes away from your drying rack.
Don't forget to let things soak. Gather dishes from around the
house and, you know, put all those really bad pots and pans
filled with hot soapy water so you can get all the little
stuff. And by the time you get to that,
it won't be that bad. Make sure you're getting stuff
out of your refrigerator and all that.
And just kind of zip around as fast as you can and start on
those dishes and try to pound them out really quickly.
And just consider me your timer. I'm going to tell you when the
10 minutes is up. Let's see how much you guys
accomplish. So I'm going to talk a little
bit about the birthday party and stuff because I get really
motivated by last minute procrastination.
And I know that's not productive, but some of you that
think the same way as me and I know a lot of you that listen do
relate to things that I say and stuff in this regard.
But I tend to procrastinate till the last minute.
And then if there is a big reason for me needing my house
to be clean, like usually I'm able to trick my brain into
thinking there's a reason. But if there is an actual real
reason for people coming into my house and like a birthday party
or something, I clean like no other and I get every nook and
cranny and I am so thorough. And I'm trying to tap into why I
can't just do that regularly because I didn't even do it in
that much time. Like I got so much done in so
little time when I had the birthday party the next morning.
And it's, it's frustrating. And I'm sure a lot of you feel
that frustration and just be cleaning the kitchen while I'm
talking. But I'm sure a lot of you feel
that frustration. Like why can't I just be like
this all the time? Why when someone says I'm on the
way to the house or umm, I'm hosting something at my house,
does the house get perfectly clean and Immaculate, Right.
Like the day before? Of course I had to wait till the
day before. So anyway, I was thinking about
this and I was thinking about the reasons why.
And you know, I think that's just how I'm wired.
It's just I, I think I do have ADHD.
I've never been diagnosed and I'm just kind of wired that way.
So I've mentioned this before. I love playing like friend
roulette. Like I'll text a couple friends
and I'll be like come over and then I'll hide my phone and then
I'll clean my house, stress clean my house.
Like they're coming over and then they don't really come over
or I, they are and I don't know anyway.
And then I check my phone like 10 minutes later and the house
has been miraculously clean top to bottom in 10 minutes like
never before. Because I think someone's coming
over. I don't know why I'm wired that
way. But during this 10 minute
kitchen clean, I want you guys to try as hard as you possibly
can to hone into that and pretend like you have somebody
that's going to be up in your drawers, up in your cabinets,
your refrigerator. And you need to pound out these
dishes as fast as possible and start wiping down things that
you haven't dealt with in a while, like your spice cabinet,
your refrigerator. I was getting all the nooks and
crannies scrubbing my cabinet, stuff like that.
I think the key and why I was finishing so quickly is because
I was sticking to like if I had a wet soapy rag in my hand, I
was sticking to wiping down. And I was really honed into
wiping down. And I was like, I'm not just
going to wipe down the usual stuff.
I'm just going to literally wipe down everything.
And I do tell you guys to go like wipe down crazy.
I always say that, but in the complete literal sense I want
and you guys end up wiping down after we do the dishes and
everything. Which if you're done with the
dishes and you want to move on to other parts of your kitchen,
awesome. If all you get done is even part
of your dishes in the 10 minutes, that's still
accomplishing a lot. So whatever you guys can get
done, just get done. If you want to move on to wipe,
picking up, throwing away trash and wiping down, you can do
that. If not, then just keep working
on those dishes. But yeah, I like when I was in
the wiping down mode or when I was in picking up mode after.
I would do every single dish in the house and then I was like,
OK, I've got the wet soapy rag in my hand.
I'm going to get every single cabinet.
I'm going to use my pink paste. I would carry that around with
me. And I was just cleaning every
single cabinet, every single drawer, wiping down everything,
vacuuming out drawers that haven't been like my drunk
drawer or something that had crumbs in it completely like,
oh, I have a rag in my hand. I can clean out my refrigerator.
Taking everything out of my refrigerator, doing a thorough
wipe down because you know when people are coming to your house
and they're, umm, going to be inside of your refrigerator and
stuff getting ice and whatever. So I was cleaning my freezer, my
refrigerator, but I was going from one end to the house to the
other, just wiping down, just doing a thorough wipe down and
then just wiping every single thing that I passed.
But there was like a method to my madness, like I was starting
and went into the house and working my way to the next and
just angrily wiping every single nook and cranny down.
And my friend that all that seen my house at its absolute worst
and it's best. She even was at the at the
party. She was like, wow, your house is
really clean. And I was like, do you actually
mean that? And she's like, no, seriously.
Like it's probably the cleanest I've ever seen it.
So whatever I did worked. And this is like the person that
I look up to cleaning wise because her house is always
Immaculate. So I was like, and she's got a
bunch of kids. So I was like, thank you so
much. That means more than you'll ever
know because I really put a lot of work into this.
We're coming up on a 3 minute warning for the kitchen, so
don't let that stress you out if that's something that stresses
you out. I'm not expecting you to finish
the kitchen. I just want you guys to see how
much you accomplish in the 10 minutes.
So just to show you how big of a difference 10 minutes can make,
even if it's just a dent in your dishes.
And I was cleaning things when I was cleaning for the birthday
party. I was thinking in a different
kind of way. So I wanted, I kind of just
wanted to think about the way I was thinking.
I was thinking in a way that they're going to look in every
single cabinet of my house. You know how you see those like
funny videos and memes where a parent like a mom is like, I
need to, I need every inch of this place top to bottom clean
or whatever. Those little memes and stuff
when people are coming over for a holiday.
And that's kind of the mode I was in.
But I wasn't expecting for real them to look in every tiny area
of my house. But I was using it as a good
reason to just get my house really, really clean and
organized. So I was pretending that they
were going to look in every coat closet.
I was pretending that they were going to write, have to ride in
the car with me to go down the street to get some ice or
something. So I was trying to think of
every little thing. And so I've been really trying
to keep up with the house in that same way in the last few
days after the party, when I'm doing my cleaning, I still try
to clean as thoroughly as I did that day.
And obviously it doesn't happen every day.
Things come up like today I have to make Christmas sweaters for
the kids for tomorrow, for school or whatever.
So I'm not going to be doing as deep of a clean.
I'm just going to be doing regular maintenance cleaning.
But I have been trying to anytime I have a good cleaning
day, whether it's leading up to a party or just a day where I
just got a lot accomplished, I always try to sit and evaluate
and think, why did I do so well, The obvious reason, obviously
people were coming over, but also I was pretending like they
were going to be in every area. And I just really just honed
into just focusing on cleaning without the extra distractions.
And I really got so much done and I did have the kids during
all this time too. So and just be working on your
kitchen still while I'm talking. Umm, we're coming up on the last
couple minutes of the kitchen clean and that's something I
usually 'cause my kids know how to tear up a whole house, like
I'll be cleaning one room and the rest of the house will be
destroyed. So I was super strict because
there was a birthday party. I was way stricter on them.
And I've had a problem with this in the past and my friends have
pointed it out to me in a polite way of course, that I kind of
let the kids destroy the house. And that's why I have such
trouble keeping up with my housekeeping is because they go
room, room, room, room to room to room to room, destroying
everything, right? So I really was super strict
about them staying in their room and then every 10 minutes or so
I would go check in the room and I'd be like, you guys pick up
everything that you just took out because this room needs to
be clean as well. And I'm not usually that on top
of them. I'm usually kind of lazy about
telling them to clean up after themselves or just letting them
kind of go from my room to their room to the living room and just
tear things up. So I was really on top of them.
So I've been thinking about that and that's really what made the
huge difference, if I'm being honest, was making my kids just
one pick up after one each activity.
So they finished an activity. I'm like, and it sounds like
common sense and it kinda is, but I'm really bad about it.
So I'm like, hey, you just finished this puzzle.
You pick it up, you just finished, uh, painting these
rocks. You clean up every bit of paint.
And so I was really staying on top of them instead of just
letting them destroy the house. And although in theory that
seems like a lot of work, constantly staying on your kids
like that, it saved me so much time in cleaning.
And people have been trying to tell me this for years.
And I guess just experiencing it and actually doing it and
realizing it for it's sometimes you just have to kind of learn
for yourself, like, yeah, this actually made a big difference.
It's actually a lot less work for me to just stay on top of
the these kids and make sure they're not destroying my house.
Then to clean up after them after they've done their little
tornado effect in every room. OK, so the 10 minutes is over.
I don't want this to stress you out at all.
I just want you guys to take a picture, look at the before
picture, look at the after picture and just see how much
you got done in just 10 minutes. And I bet you at least finish
your dishes. If not, I'm sure you made a big
dent in it. Maybe some of you are even into
the wiping down picking up phase and maybe you've completely
cleaned your kitchen because maybe it was just, you know, the
morning mess of the day. And now that we've done the 10
minute clean, I want you guys to just go ahead and finish up the
kitchen. I'm just gonna talk for a few
more minutes. I just wanted you guys to see
how big a difference of 10 minutes can make in any
situation, no matter how dirty your kitchen is, if you are just
focused and honed in on cleaning for 10 whole minutes, it does
make a big difference and it, it's uh, a lot more than we
think it is. And whenever I do this, it just
kind of serves as a reminder to me.
Like I work up, I work the clean active cleaning up to be this
big terrible task. But once I'm in it and doing it,
it really doesn't take me as long.
Even if it is a disaster as I think it's going to be.
It's more the stress and being overwhelmed by thinking about
how hard it's going to be then it actually being hard.
So whatever stage you are in the kitchen, after the 10 minutes,
don't forget to take out your trash and replace the liner.
Don't forget to wipe everything down.
Don't forget to put things away. Wipe down your microwave, your
refrigerator, light switches, dining room tables.
Something that I hadn't done in a while was organized my
bookshelf. I did that when people were
coming over and I've been trying to keep up with stuff like that.
So since I kind of brought my house back to Ground Zero, if
you will, with the birthday party and clean, really did a
thorough deep clean with that. I've been working really hard on
keeping up with it and my house is staying pretty clean.
A lot cleaner. So one good hardcore cleaning
day and then just regular maintenance cleaning every day
after that is all you really need.
Just one good deep cleaning reset.
So listen to one of our deep cleaning episodes, our longer
ones, my mom does the two hour ones and do a really good
cleaning overhaul of your house, getting every little nook and
cranny. Just one day when you have some
extra time, some extra, umm, maybe time without your kids or
something, and just really focus on getting your house as clean
as possible for the coming week. And then just work really hard
on keeping up with the maintenance cleaning after that
and just not undoing what you did.
And it's good to do a really deep clean like this maybe like
once a week, every two weeks. That'll really keep the deep
cleaning part easier. The more often you do it, the
less intense it's going to be. I had a lot to do when it came
to the birthday party because I hadn't done a really, really
thorough deep clean in a minute. So I was, you know, on my hands
and knees in the bathroom and stuff like that because it had
been a minute before I clean since I cleaned all that and all
the, you know, closets and stuff like that.
So as we're coming to an end to the podcast, don't forget to
switch your washer and dryer whenever your timer goes off and
just sit back, relax, fold those clothes, put them away, start a
new load. Listen to another episode if you
still have momentum. And don't forget to do a
thorough floor clean, a thorough sweep and mop of your kitchen
and dining room, and then you can move on to your living area
and get that clean. We have episodes on everything.
Don't forget to check out cleaning with Jessica, which is
my true crime podcast. Uh, that also is about cleaning,
but I more talk about true crime while you guys are cleaning.
So if you're interested in true crime and you want to check that
out, it is cleaning with Jessica and it's black and red and has
my mug on the picture of the of the little logo.
So thanks again and as always, happy cleaning guys.