Latest / JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain / 239: Spit Clean Challenge: 5-Minute Fixes to Jumpstart Your Day

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239: Spit Clean Challenge: 5-Minute Fixes to Jumpstart Your Day · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

• 0:00
  Well, it's September. If you're listening to this in real time,
• 0:05
  September 8th to be exact.
• 0:07
  And it is that first full week after Labor Day when I believe everybody's kids
• 0:14
  should be in school. I think that seems very realistic.
• 0:19
  And for a lot of us, September can be considered sort of that other January, right?
• 0:24
  It's this fresh start for the kids. It's new routines because they're back at
• 0:28
  school. You might have a shiny new fresh planner that is the school 18 months.
• 0:34
  You are probably trying to figure out the new drop-offs and the new routines
• 0:38
  and how many minutes can I actually squeeze out where I might be by myself or
• 0:43
  at least with considerably less kids underfoot,
• 0:47
  so that I am ready with a little time on my hands to get stuff done.
• 0:52
  And yet, you might be having trouble getting started.
• 0:58
  Like, what is that? We dream of this moment. We prep for this moment.
• 1:02
  We get excited for this moment. We might be able to put plans on paper.
• 1:07
  We have the thoughts down. We may have even gathered supplies.
• 1:11
  And for some reason, we cannot get ourselves started. What is up with that?
• 1:19
  It's part of our brains, guys. We just have to embrace it.
• 1:23
  But what we could do is lean into each other to try and get started.
• 1:28
  I feel like I am in a season of setbacks right now.
• 1:32
  And I just keep wanting to dig out and I would love your help and I hope that
• 1:39
  I could be helpful to you.
• 1:40
  So we are going to start a challenge today.
• 1:44
  Didn't pre-announce it. Apologies.
• 1:47
  I am just going to drop a podcast every day this week where we are going to do a very quick.
• 1:56
  Getting started activities, something that gets us moving so that all of those
• 2:01
  grand plans we believe that we are ready to do, actually we know we're ready
• 2:06
  to do them, we just have to get going.
• 2:08
  That's what these challenges are going to be.
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  They're going to be less than 30 minutes, hopefully sometimes just 15,
• 2:16
  and you've probably heard all of them before if you're a listener of mine for
• 2:21
  any length of time, but refreshes are okay.
• 2:25
  Getting ourselves moving is the name of the game here. And so right after this,
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  we're going to dig in with our day one.
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  Jump in. You didn't have to be prepared. There's no prep for this.
• 2:36
  Right after this, jump in with me.
• 2:39
  A wise person once said, everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its
• 2:44
  ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid.
• 2:49
  Well, fish, quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys.
• 2:54
  It's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your life.
• 2:59
  I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow fishbrain.
• 3:04
  If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement,
• 3:08
  and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks,
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  then I'm glad you're here.
• 3:14
  Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique.
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  Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
• 3:25
  Okay, so for our very first activity for the day one of our challenges here,
• 3:30
  we are going to do what I called the spit clean.
• 3:34
  And for those of you who are old enough to remember, a spit clean was what your
• 3:40
  mom used to do to you when you were about to walk into somewhere and you needed
• 3:45
  to look at least remotely presentable. It wasn't perfection.
• 3:51
  It was the best she could do in a pinch, which usually involved her licking
• 3:55
  her thumb and scrubbing at something on your face and then dusting your clothes
• 3:59
  off, kind of, you know, rubbing her hands over your hair to make it calm down.
• 4:05
  And then you headed into wherever it was you were headed into.
• 4:08
  It was the good enough, quick, fake cleaning of you just getting yourself set.
• 4:17
  So that is in the spirit of that.
• 4:20
  We are doing a SPIT clean today. And in the fact that you know I love acronyms,
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  we are going to make the SPIT stand for something. But this is a choose your own adventure acronym.
• 4:32
  You can choose whatever motivates you most.
• 4:35
  So various versions of what SPIT can stand for in our SPIT clean is survival proof immediate tasks.
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  It can be speed prep important tasks.
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  It could be stranger proof immediate tasks. spouse-proof important tasks.
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  September prep important tasks.
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  I don't know. If you have another one, please share.
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  I love to hear variations of acronyms.
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  So when you have chosen your appropriate spit clean that speaks to you,
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  what is it that you're motivated to do?
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  Is it that in case anybody should swing by because, you know,
• 5:12
  the bus stop's really near my house and some kid might run in and then their
• 5:17
  parent chases after them and I just want the front area to look great.
• 5:22
  If it's my spouse thinks I never do anything all day.
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  And this is later in the day and before he gets home, I'm gonna whip some things
• 5:31
  together so it looks like you are busy all day, but at least it looks like you were busy all day.
• 5:37
  There's a difference between perception and reality. We're all clear on that.
• 5:41
  But whatever sort of motivator you're, I just need to start moving.
• 5:46
  And what we're going to do is all you need is yourself and a way to set a timer,
• 5:51
  whether that's your Alexa or your stopwatch or your timer on your kitchen stove, whatever.
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  Set it for five minutes.
• 6:02
  Be ready to keep hitting repeat. I want you to think of the three,
• 6:06
  two, five, don't go past five.
• 6:09
  I would prefer three. If you can get those three done and you are up and you're
• 6:16
  moving and you're like, I'm just going to roll with this for the next two hours, roll with it.
• 6:20
  But your goal is three to five tasks that will be considered part of the spit
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  clean. Some suggestions I have.
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  Just starting to run with soapy water in the kitchen and give five minutes of
• 6:35
  getting everything into that sink and wiping down those counters.
• 6:38
  That can be done in five minutes. It's the quick tidy where you start at your
• 6:44
  front door or your front door,
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  whichever most people are going to end up accidentally noticing the rest of
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  your house, and see what can I just eyeball that somebody might notice.
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  We don't notice them anymore. Just the quick tidy of something in that entryway
• 7:01
  where people may come or go.
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  Catch us off guard and we want it to look spit cleaned.
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  The making of your bed, it's a less than five minute task.
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  It is the biggest thing in your room and it makes the whole rest of the space
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  feel like you can conquer the day.
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  The fast wipe down of a powder room in case a kid pops in that's playing outside
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  and has to go to the bathroom and perhaps a parent wanders in behind them to help them out.
• 7:32
  You want to feel like that bathroom doesn't mortify you.
• 7:35
  That can be done in five minutes because again, these are quick wipe downs.
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  These are quick gather ups.
• 7:41
  They're fast hits. We are not deep cleaning anything. This isn't your perfect cleaning routine.
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  I am not endorsing that this is the standard.
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  We're just spit cleaning.
• 7:55
  All right. One other one that you could do is before
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  you start this whole process is drop a load in the wash or restart that washer
• 8:04
  because we know what that's all about or restart that dryer so once you're done
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  this maybe the clothes are de-wrinkled
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  and ready for you to fold so if you focus on just those quick hits.
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  Go for it. Like literally, I'm in your ear right now. Stand up,
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  hit that five minute timer.
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  Promise me for the next 15 minutes, you'll hit that timer on repeat three times.
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  Pick out those three tasks and let me know.
• 8:31
  Once you have started moving, does it make like the rest of the day,
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  make the rest of the day feel like it's more conquerable?
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  Does it make it feel like those other things you've been dreaming about doing
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  with this time suddenly seem doable because you don't have to feel guilty about the fact that,
• 8:50
  well, how can I work on this project when the rest of the house looks a mess?
• 8:54
  This is enough to get it satisfied so that you can work on that thing that you
• 9:00
  were kind of excited about and that you wanted to lean into once you had more,
• 9:05
  I'm air quoting here, time.
• 9:09
  So give yourself that permission get up
• 9:12
  do a spit clean with me if this feels good if it works and
• 9:15
  you want to tune into tomorrow's podcast and hear my
• 9:19
  other quick things tomorrow through friday i'm just going to do these quick
• 9:24
  hits each day to get you up moving rolling and myself as well i hope that that's
• 9:31
  something that sounds good to you if you do want to reach out and chat with me in any way.
• 9:36
  I love, love, love hearing from my listeners.
• 9:39
  You can email me joy at joylovinghome.com. You can message me on Instagram.
• 9:45
  I'm joylovinghome there as well. If you are part of any of my groups,
• 9:50
  start a post and say, hey, I'm spit cleaning. Is anybody with me?
• 9:56
  Those are great ways for us to communicate.
• 9:59
  And the most amazing way for me and to share this podcast with other people
• 10:06
  who you feel like might be moms at home that are also stuck,
• 10:09
  let them know about the podcast, rate and review so it will pop up in their searches.
• 10:14
  I would so appreciate all of that.
• 10:17
  All right, guys, until next time, continue to choose joy.