I wanted to do a separate post on this particular blitz (read about my other blitz ideas here) because it has a lot of other points to consider than just the actual blitz, including how ready you want or need to be for Dad’s arrival home, what types of activities you and your husband want/need for Dad to do in the evenings, and the idea of “getting it all done.”

If you have been a parent for long, you’re probably already learned that you never truly “get it all done.” If you haven’t learned that yet, I hope you will learn that soon. It is extremely frustrating to go through your parenting years thinking that you can get it all done. Since nobody really can.

One of the blitzes that we used as our kids were growing up in order to be a little bit more ready for when Dad got home was that of the “Dad’s in the driveway” blitz. At the time we started this blitz, we lived down a long way – probably about an eighth of a mile long. Ray worked long hours – always eleven to thirteen hours a day at that time. While I never truly got it all done, I tried to stress to the children the importance of having things picked up when Dad got home. Ray was the kind of husband and father who never minded if it wasn’t all done – and he always rolled up his sleeves and got started helping us as soon as he walked in the door. However, I wanted to free up as much of his time in the evenings as I could since it was so short.

Thus, we developed the “dad’s in the driveway” blitz. That one eighth of a mile long driveway trip became another way that my children learned how quickly they could get things done. While we didn’t set the timer for the blitz, it was a blitz nonetheless. Someone would shout out, “Dad is in the driveway!” And everybody would jump into action. In the three to five minutes it took him to drive down the lane, get out of the car, gather his things, and come in the door, the four, five, or six of us could have a lot picked up. And we were ready for our evening with dad.

Maybe your children are too young for this kind of blitz. Maybe you need for your husband to come in, roll up his sleeves, and help get things in order. If that is the case, no guilt here. You need to do what you need to do. For our family, since we usually only had from seven to nine or so together in the evenings, this blitz helped shape our evenings and gave us more time for a nice family dinner, family worship, and family playtime.

Of course, another spin on this blitz is the “company’s in the driveway” blitz. Isn’t it amazing how fast you can get things done when you are expecting company? If only we could work that fast all the time!  🙂

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We have a saying in our family that goes something like this: Don’t clean anything. Don’t scrub anything. Don’t mop anything. Just focus on horizontal surfaces.

My husband is not a stickler when it comes to cleaning. As a matter of fact, he would seldom notice if something is dusted, vacuumed, or scrubbed. However, he is very sensitive to clutter (which was very unfortunate for him when we had nine people living in fourteen hundred square feet for twelve years!).

It is for this reason that during any cleaning blitz or cleaning time at all, he is often found shouting out the command to focus on horizontal surfaces.

As women, we have a tendency to want to “clean” everything! We want things to sparkle. We want things to shine. However, what really sticks out to most people if they come to our home is stuff lying around – clutter.

It is for this reason that my second tip to help your family get things done fast is to focus on horizontal surfaces. That is, what is out on the floor, the desk, the dining room table, the bar, end tables, coffee tables, dresser tops, and yes, even treadmills.

While this tip is not necessarily one just for speed, it does make things look better fast, which will in turn make us more efficient.

Here are some ways we use the focus on horizontal services method:

1) When calling a blitz, call out a five-minute surface blitz. That is, tell everybody to not do anything except pick up and put away objects that are lying around. This keeps people from vacuuming or trying to wipe something down when things are still lying around.

2)  Call for a horizontal surface session for a cleaning time. This can either be for everybody to get their own things up around the house before somebody cleans or just to pick up in general. When our older kids were little, before each chore session, we had what we called our “room-to-room time.” This was a version of horizontal surface time. We called for this two, three, or five-minute room-to-room blitz in order to give everybody a chance to pick up all of their clutter before chore time. That way, during chore time, the cleaner didn’t have to clean around everybody’s things. It was also a break in the day in which things got picked up rather than left out for the whole day. Since we had chore time three times a day, before each meal for twenty minutes, this room to room/horizontal surface time helped keep things picked up.

3) If you feel like your house is in great disarray, tell everybody that you are not going to clean as far as shining and scrubbing (except for daily kitchen work, etc.) until you have some horizontal surface times in which junk is taken care of. This can work for the whole house or just for individual rooms. Sometimes this is a good idea for children’s rooms. They have a tendency to get overwhelmed when there is too much junk lying around and if you tell them to clean the room, they might go in with a vacuum and a dust rag when they really just need to focus on the horizontal surfaces. (And going in with them and telling them that you are going to help them for a five minute blitz—or that the whole family is going to help them for five minutes really fast can go a long way in helping them dig in to big messes.)

As I mentioned earlier, focusing on horizontal surfaces won’t necessarily make you faster, but it will make you feel better about your house. Implementing it on an ongoing basis will help keep clutter at bay. It will help your children learn to prioritize household tasks. And it might even make your husband happy.

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The secret to a clean refrigerator is FREQUENT attention! That is, the secret is in the frequency with which you deal with said refrigerator.

A refrigerator is a lot like a toddler. It doesn’t need long, drawn out time periods from us–it just needs lots of little snatches of time! I can remember when my littles especially were toddlers and preschoolers. It was easy to get busy with the olders and not spend as much time on the littles. I made it a point each day to put in my schedule little snatches of time that I would devote to the little guys. A quick story. A little rocking. Getting out something interesting for them to play with or do. Putting Lego heads on their Lego men. Just little snippets of time—but lots of snippets throughout the week!

I try to spend time with my refrigerator at least once a day–and sometimes twice a day….but only for thirty to ninety seconds at a time (consider it the equivalent of putting Lego heads on your little guy’s Lego man….we do that without thinking, sometimes several times a day!).

I go in, say hi, rearrange what the other people who don’t appreciate that refrigerator as much as I do messed up. This goes back in there; this goes over there; what are you doing here, ketchup?

I might pull out something and put it in the chicken slop bowl. I might wipe down a shelf. I might put an open package into a zipper bag. I might move a couple of things from too-large bowls into smaller ones and stick the dirty ones in the dishwasher. In forty to sixty seconds, the refrigerator is happy (just like a toddler!)–and I am happy.

Not to belabor this point, but there are many studies nowadays proving that little tiny snatches of success, as well as “busy-ness of hands” (not just mental work–which I tend to do too much of), are like anti-depressants. I believe it! My fridge and I are both very happy!

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