Bachelor Blitz

I’m not a bachelor, but a couple times a year, my lovely wife takes the kids to go visit remote family for a week.  This leaves me as essentially a bachelor.

And when they’re gone, some of those bachelor tendencies creep in. 

If I have a meal, it’s just one plate, fork, and glass.  Into the sink they go!  Load the dishwasher?  Not likely!

Laundry?  Heck it’s not building up quickly!  Why do that?  Take off your socks?  Do they really need to make it upstairs to the hamper?  Nope.  On the floor by the couch they go.

Got packages from Amazon?  Empty boxes pile up by the garage.  Cats play with the packing materials and drag it around.

Painting the bathroom (my current project)?  Between coats, the extra rollers, paint pans, and even the bathroom hardware off the walls sits on the kitchen island. 

Playing video games between home improvement tasks?  The controllers and remotes end up wherever they end up when you last left off.

So basically, it looks like a place under maintenance, crossed with a college dorm room.

But by the time the family comes home, this place has to be spotless.  All hardware and home repair stuff stowed safely back in the basement or the garage.  The dishes done and the sink clean.  The laundry done and in baskets.

And I’ve done it every time.  Did I have to spend the final 24 hours of every trip cleaning like a madman?  Not at all.  I manage this lifestyle with the periodic Bachelor Blitz.

Originally, I started “blitzing” with my kids.  Like most kids, they hate to spend time cleaning up.  But when Mommie’s out on a photoshoot, instead of telling them they have chores, I’ll tell them it’s time for a 15 minute blitz. 

During the 15 minutes of the time-boxed blitz, we run around and find things that need to be done.  Socks on the floor?  Gather them up.  Put the dishes in the dishwasher.  Run the accumulated stuff to the basement.  Run the vacuum through a couple rooms.

Sure, the purists would say that it’s better to take care of things as you go.  That you should pick up after yourself as you go.  I don’t really disagree, but for me that’s not always been practical.  The 15 minute blitz done every couple hours is a solution I can live with

And when the family is gone, I actually schedule half-hour or hour long blitzes.  I wash down surfaces, run the vacuum over the whole house, do several loads of laundry.  During this time, I also do any very short repair tasks that might need attention.  Sand a rough spot.  Spackle a wall and touch up the paint when dry.  Change light bulbs, spray down the house.  Whatever it takes.

Blitzing is a great way to get things done, and is another great example of the adage that "small efforts, repeated over time, will almost always surprise you."