Time Saving Tidbit

My kitchen floor bears the marks of a week’s worth (uh…perhaps more) of meal preparation and consumption.

A virtual culinary mosaic of spaghetti sauce, flattened peas, scattered oats, even what appears to be a dehydrated sliced strawberry. Is that asparagus? When did we have asparagus last? 

 

Unfortunately a full-on floor mopping is out of the question. That kind of undertaking requires at least an hour—10 minutes of prep time to clear the floor of furniture, large non-disposable items and children; 10 minutes of shooing the children out the door, or down the stairs again, with the instruction “Do NOT walk on the wet floor!!” Then there’s the 30 minutes of sweeping and mopping, or scrubbing and scraping, depending on how long it’s been since I last undertook this chore. Finally, 10 minutes to dry.

Do the math. That’s 60 minutes until the highest traffic area of your house is once again usable. Who has that kind of time?

I know it has to be done, from time to time. But we all have personal preferences and tolerance thresholds which dictate how much time should pass between those times.

But today, I don’t have the hour. So I choose to spot-mop.

If you’re new to my avant-garde “time saving” methods, I’ll briefly explain the spot-mop method:

1. Sweep the open areas of the floor and remove the marbles, playing cards, crayons and stray game pieces from the pile of sweepings for sorting on a different day. Discard the remaining debris.
2. Wet a rag, sponge or even a shirt sleeve in the case of a true time-saving emergency.
3. Step into the entry way to your kitchen and slightly cross your eyes. The most glaring and visible spots will become evident through your blurred vision.
4. Scrape, scrub or wipe depending on the severity and age of the spot.
5. Continue steps 2-4 until your floor appears clean through your blurred vision.

This entire process should take no more than 5 minutes.

And now you have 55 “extra” minutes in your day to spend as you please.

You’re welcome.

What will you do with your “extra” 55 minutes?