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It's happened to the best of us: You get home (or, if you work at home like me, emerge from your office bleary-eyed in the afternoon) and are delighted to pick up the phone and hear from a pal who's wondering if she can stop by for a little bit. You're thrilled and tell her to come on over, and she says she'll see you in ten. Then you hang up the phone... and panic.
Ten minutes to make your house look as though you haven't spent the last week on the crisis du jour (whether that be your kid's latest virus or a big work project or a leaky pipe) instead of tidying up after everyone. Can it be done?
Absolutely.
Obviously the best scenario is one in which you've more or less kept up with various housekeeping chores and ten minutes is ample time in which to straighten a couple of throw pillows and wipe a smudge off of the coffee table. But some of us aren't that organized, and some of us who might be that organized if we lived alone or only with other adults have kids. Ahem. The fact of the matter is that anyone can find themselves wondering how the house got so messy, and if you've only got ten minutes to get things in shape, you'd best not waste any time on self-flagellation. It happens. Now get to work.
1) Hide clutter. Clutter isn't dirt, it's simply items someplace they don't belong. If it's easy enough to put those things away properly, great. If it's not -- say you've got three garbage bags full of clothing sitting by the door, waiting to be dropped off at Goodwill -- start hiding. I have been known to sweep all of the detritus my children have strewn around the family room into a single box and put that box behind my closed bedroom door until after our company has departed. Easy. I've also been known to thrown the garbage bags into the back of my car (great; that's where they belong) and then toss a couple of random things in there as well (not so great, but I can deal with them later).
2) Prioritize dirt. I obviously love it when my entire house is clean, and I do my best to make that a reality every so often. But ten minutes before someone rings the doorbell isn't the time to scrub the toilet in the master bathroom; concentrate on the areas where your guest will most likely be. That probably means kitchen, family room, and one bathroom, right? Although you're most likely to spend the most time in the family room, personally I think actual dirt in the bathroom and kitchen are much more egregious offenses than a ball of lint on the family room floor.
3) Light it up. I swear I'm not a vampire, but I often neglect to open the blinds in our family room because it's dark when I get up and I spend the day in my office and then maybe it's dark again by the time I remember. Oops. If it's light outside, make sure you're letting light in. If it's dark out, make sure you have plenty of lights turned on. Dark rooms always look more cluttered/dirty.
4) Blast the bathroom. The first cleaner to bust out is for the toilet. Squirt it as directed and then wipe down the counter, sink, mirror, and outer surfaces of the toilet while it sits. Hide any extraneous items (whatever my kids have left on the counter gets swept into the nearest drawer), straighten the towels, and then give the toilet bowl a few good swishes and flush. Boom, the bathroom's done -- this should take only a minute or two.
5) Clear out the kitchen. I hear Flylady is all about having a shiny sink, and while I've never really shined a sink for the sake of having it shiny, I have hidden dirty dishes in the dishwasher, before, just to make the sink appear empty. (Oh, like you never had a pan or something that had to be scrubbed by hand but you just tossed into the dishwasher? You haven't? Oh, okay. Nevermind.) Straighten towels, wipe down the counters and table, and put away or hide the miscellaneous counter clutter if you missed something during step 1. This step should also only take a couple of minutes.
6) Make the house smell good. Some people call this cheating. I call it "leveraging the senses." The quickest/easiest way to fill
