Image by: Sean Dreilinger

How do you make cleaning less of a chore, and more of a fun activity? Here are some ideas.

Put on some music. Wipe that kitchen counter to the beat of the songs on the radio. Throw in some workout moves by wiping that window up, down, up, down. Let the rhythm energize you!

Divide the chore into small tasks. Do you really need to clean the whole living room today? Why not try this — give yourself 15 minutes per room. Set a timer and clean what you can in the given time. When the 15 minutes are up, rest. Then move on to the next room. It makes cleaning time more manageable, and you may want to get more done given that you only have a small amount of time given.

Share the load. Ask a family member or a friend for help. Have a conversation while cleaning a room together. The task is divided in two, getting it over with in half the time. Plus, you spend quality time with them.

Catch up on your reading. Put those audio books to good use! While you’re dusting the furniture, listen to that romance novel you’ve been wanting to catch up on or that fantasy novel about wizards and warlocks. Who knows? You may be so caught up in listening to the stories you clean the room twice!

Anticipate a reward. When you’ve got something great to look forward to, it makes the task at hand easier to bear. If your reward is a foot spa and a pedicure, envision yourself being pampered at the salon. Imagine soaking your tired feet into that bubbling foot bath. All those clutter will be cleared in no time!

Now grab that broom and have some fun!

Post from: Blisstree

How Do You Make Cleaning Fun?

IMG: Sxc.hu

How many of you do all the stuff in your house…including their rooms? My son told me at the beginning of the summer how unfair he thought I was being with the chores. Here’s his list:

- take trash out to the street on Trash day.
- clean his room
- wipe around his toilet lid since he’s the only male to pee around it. (hoping this makes for great aim)
- upload the dishes to the dishwasher.

Once his chores are done he is free to roam the street. His only problem is he’ll take out the trash and just ask to do stuff. We talked about the chores and I told him they were easy enough he could do them all first thing in the morning. He thought he was ruining his whole day because he couldn’t go out until they were ALL done. He then proceeded to tell me, “My friends’ parents don’t make them do chores, they do all the cleaning.”

My response, “Well that’s your friends’ parents stupidity. They’ll grow up thinking their parents will always clean up their house or they’ll marry someone that will and that doesnt’ always happen. You will know how to do things.” Wow, talk about a flashback, I remember my father telling me he wanted us to know how to do things on our own and take care of ourselves. Now I’m doing it to my kids.

So, do you give your kids chores? Even President Obama’s children have chores to do. Obama told CBS News they are old-school and give both girls a list of chores to do. They must walk their dog, feed it and make their own beds. Not sure if they clean their rooms but by the sounds of it that would be a definite yes.

Post from: Blisstree

Do Your Kids Have Chores?

I’m sure there must be thousands of books, articles, magazines, talk-show hosts, videos, experts, Doctors, movie stars, blogs and bloggers dedicated to THE best, most efficient, logical, easy, hard, demented, strenuous and not strenuous ways to lose weight.

It dawned on me that common sense and humor have a lot to do with success or failure too.

In the spirit of making fun of diets (not of people on diets), I have to put together my list of simple, everyday tasks — each with it’s own mathematical caloric equivalent — that are intended to take a more uplifting, if not sarcastic look at calorie-counting: (Talk to your doctor if you think these suggestions are stupid).

• Parmigiano cheese grating — 25 calories
• Phone conversation with mom — 175,000 calories
• Swiffering dog’s hair (every minute, of every day) — 85 calories
• Hanging window treatments — and then calling mom for help — 2 million calories
• Untangling holiday lights — 75 calories
• Looking up hundreds of holiday cookie recipies on the web — 10 calories
• Opening and closing refrigerator hoping there will be a chocolate cake (see definition of insanity) — 30 calories
• Imagining what to buy with your holiday bonus: 5 calories
• Worrying that you won’t get a holiday bonus because your boss hates you: 15 calories
• Negotiating with husband to clean out garage (which includes throwing out corroded golf ball collection) 100 calories.
• Getting rid of every pair of shoes that you thought were cute, but are really ridiculous: 20 points

I promise, if you follow this plan, you will be as svelte as you’ve ever been, and then you can go on Oprah and talk about it. (80 calories.)

Post from: Blisstree

The Household Chores Diet.