Twenty Minutes

Tis the season for thread to be attached to at least two peoples pants, glue gun strings to be dangling off the table, drips of wax on the counter, felt stuck to sweaters, scraps of material everywhere......you get the idea. With lots of crafting, baking and creating comes lots of mess. Creative residue.

We have also had lots of people over, guests, visitors, home school group, book club etc. So while a mess natural follows crafting (at least for us) I would like to keep it as contained as possible. We are always finding different things that work; chore lists, rotating regular jobs, etc. Right now we are doing the twenty minute countdown. It has been so effective and it is simple.

We all choose a corner of the main floor. One person at the front door, one at the back, another person in the kitchen and the other in the living room. I set the timer on the stove and we all tidy. We start where we are and work our way into the middle of the room. When you are done moving to the centre you move into someone elses space to give them a hand. Every few minutes someone yells out a time check, which encourages us to keep going. No one complains, they know how long twenty minutes is and that it is a doable amount of time, both to get it done and not feel overwhelming. I don't expect it to work forever, but for now I am feeling so grateful for this solution.