The Rule of 5

I have a problem.

I suspect it's a problem that a lot of us share.

I have a hard time keeping a clean house.

I could give a million reasons (excuses) for this.  I have a full time job.  I'm trying to crack a secondary income stream.  I want to spend time with my wife.  I have a 2 year old.  And so on and so on and so on.

Ultimately, my reasons, whether legitimate or not, don't solve me problem.

Instead, I watch a mess develop.  I get stressed about the mess.  And when I can't take it anymore, I burn an entire day off cleaning the house... and lose more time with my family in the process.

But I'm not going to complain about this.  I'm going to present a solution that my family has implemented.  Perhaps it will also work for yours.

We call it "The Rule of 5."

Quite simply, every time we do something in the house, we address 5 issues* located in the room we just used.

Grabbed a pair of socks from the dresser?  Pick up 5 items in the bedroom.  Maybe that means picking up 5 things the 2 year old threw on the floor.  Maybe it means moving 5 unused hangars back to the laundry room for later use.  Maybe a combination of different things?

Turned on the TV in the living room?  Pick up 5 items in there.  Or wipe down 5 surfaces.  Whatever works.

Pretty simple, right?

The ultimate result?  A house that is not only cleaned up without burning an entire day, but a house that stays well maintained, eliminating the need for "cleaning days" in the first place.

Give it a try.  See if it works for you.

Regards,
 - Chris

*There are 2 qualifiers we've added in to make sure we don't lose momentum on high traffic rooms.

1) Once a room is cleaned, we're not off the hook for our 5.  Our 5 just spreads into other room until the whole house is clean and maintained.

2) We're big kitchen people.  Love to cook.  As such, the kitchen rule of 5 is PER ITEM USED.

Making scrambled eggs?  At the minimum, that would require 1 egg, 1 pan, 1 spatula, and some butter.  That's 4 items used - so by extension, 20 items would need to be addressed at the bare minimum.  Making 2 eggs instead of 1?  Add 5 more.  Seasoning those eggs?  5 per seasoning, my friend.