Transformation Ten is one of my little homemaking mottos that helps me tackle housecleaning in small bites and tame my attitude at the same time.
When we wonder how to organize our life, we usually think about containers, labels, and homes that magically stay clean without further effort. But someone who is organized is someone willing to continue taking the effort of homekeeping, to maintain the work consistently.
Entropy is real, and it’s not an enemy to conquer. It’s a reality to expect, take into account, and work with. Our plans don’t beat it; our plans take it into account.
Transformation Ten is our answer to the complicated, overbearing cleaning and organizing checklists out there.
You don’t need to clean by someone else’s schedule.
Instead, see what needs to be done in your own home, and spend 10 minutes improving the order and organization there.
What is Transformation Ten?
We’ve all seen the comprehensive cleaning and organizing checklists that remind you to clean behind the fridge or dust the window trim in the storage room. Somewhere out there, a well-meaning guru will happily remind you to deep clean your pantry every month and reorganize your bathroom drawers, too.
If you roll your eyes at such charts and checklists, then Transformation Ten is for you.
Transformation Ten is a catchy reminder to spend 10 minutes once, twice, or thrice a week cleaning or reorganizing a small area that will positively affect at least your peace of mind and maybe even your personal productivity.
No one can tell you what that area ought to be. Each week you pick the thing that’s bothering you, that’s holding you up, that’s the biggest (small) problem area. Each week you take just ten minutes and make an improvement in order and tidiness in that small spot.
This accomplishes more than just the small amount of order. It also, gradually, changes our perspective and attitude about organization itself.
Transformation Ten is one of my little homemaking mottos that helps me tackle housecleaning in small bites and tame my attitude at the same time. Cleaning and decluttering should just be a small piece of your weekly cleaning routine.
When we wonder how to organize our life, we usually think about containers, labels, and homes that magically stay clean without further effort. But someone who is organized is someone willing to continue taking the effort of homekeeping, to maintain the work consistently.
Why do Transformation Ten?
When organizing an area is no longer a huge, overwhelming, whole-closet or whole-house project, but just a ten minute focus, we overcome our mental and emotional hurdles to becoming more organized.
We aren’t going for night and day or for whole-new-self change. We’re just going for 10 minutes of better. We succeed at that. We appreciate the difference it made. We are less devastated when the work is inevitably undone by normal, everyday entropy. After all, it was only ten minutes. We can do that again.
When we spend just a portion of the day reclaiming some order, we are accepting the fact that organizing is maintenance. We have tidied up our home, but we know it will not be long before that exact same area will need another ten minute transformation. But, because it’s only ten minutes, that’s no big deal.
Organizing our home is about faithfully fulfilling our role, not about reclaiming or changing our identity or lifestyle.
It’s a series of small transformations, small repentances, and like repentance, none of them are permanent. In this life, we will continue to perform them, even in the same spot, for the same sins.
Transformation Ten is a catchy reminder to spend 10 minutes once a week cleaning or reorganizing a small area that will positively affect at least your peace of mind and maybe even your personal productivity.
No one can tell you what that area ought to be. Each week you pick the thing that’s bothering you, that’s holding you up, that’s the biggest (small) problem area. Each week you take just ten minutes and make an improvement in order and tidiness in that small spot.
When do Transformation Ten?
Of course Tuesday is the logical time to do a transformation because it also starts with T. But the truth is that any and every day is a good day for a transformation!
Once we start making it a habit, even only a weekly habit, we begin to see it’s not a big deal and we can work small organizations in to the margins of our day.
But all habits begin somewhere, and ten minutes on Tuesday is a great place to begin.
Next, do a daily ten-minute-tidy with your kids. We call it EHAP:
Want a Tidier House?
- Get clear where and when your family needs to tidy up.
- Bring the kids on board to take responsibility for tidying more than their own stuff.
- Learn the three steps to make the habit stick for the long haul.
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