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The Ten Second Tidy

How Loonette and Molly, a clown and her dolly, continue to help me stay tidy.

By Shae MorenoPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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As a child of the 90's, The Big Comfy Couch was a staple in my house. My sister and I loved this show! I didn't realize exactly how much a clown and her dolly would have impacted how I do chores even now as a 27 year old. If you've never seen The Big Comfy Couch (first of all, how dare you!), you wouldn't be familiar with the ten second tidy. Loonette looks to the camera, offended that someone made such a mess, and realizes it was in fact her mess and she had to clean it up. Check it out.

Now knowing what a time lapse is, I'm well aware that this ten second tidy was more like a ten minute tidy; but as a five year old this was incredible! "You mean I can clean my room in 10 seconds and be done?" In absolute awe! My mom used to do ten second tidies as a way to get my sister and I to pick up our rooms or get our toys out of the living room.Whatever she wanted us to clean, as long as we could make it a ten second tidy, we were in! Our version wasn't time lapsed, though. It was more of a sprint down the hallway, throw as much across the room towards the toy box as possible, and get back to mom before she counted to ten. Then she would assess and we would do it again. (A truly genius hack for all you parents out there!)

Where the ten second tidy comes into play in my adult life; if I can do it in ten seconds, I just do it. Replacing the trash bag, moving dishes from whatever room they landed in to the sink, wiping the bathroom counter; if you think about it and you can do it in ten seconds, do it. If you're working on a bigger project like cleaning your closet, taking down holiday decorations, the ever so dreaded laundry; do it for ten seconds. If you set a timer for ten seconds and start the task as soon as you hit 'go', you won't stop after ten seconds.

The last time I employed this technique was putting away laundry which is by far the worst of the worst chores. I went, "Okay, in 10 seconds surely I can get 3 or 4 shirts hung and then I'll do it again later." I got two shirts and halfway hung a pair of pant when the timer went off and I was disappointed. I can do better than that! Enter, round two. I ended up putting three baskets worth of clothes away in record time! Also, I can't tell you how many times I've written papers for school that started out as my own personal challenge to see how much I could type in ten seconds. It's not always a lot, but it's always a start.

So, if you are like me and struggle with doing little tasks because it sounds like quite literally the worst thing anyone could do; I highly recommend challenging yourself to a ten second tidy. It's only ten seconds! If you still hate it you don't have to keep going, but you would be that much closer to completing those things. I'd go out on a limb and say that once you get going you won't stop. The hardest part about doing any seemingly mundane task, even one you're kind of excited about, is starting. Challenging yourself and seeing how much you can accomplish in ten seconds is seriously the easiest way to start anything.

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About the Creator

Shae Moreno

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