How long has your trash can been dirty?

3 simple facts:

1. Everything you own is getting dirty on the daily.

2. It can be unreasonably hard to keep up.

3. The above facts have nothing to do with your character or discipline or goodness or responsibility.

Immediately you think, "You don't understand, you've never seen my house"!

Sir or ma'am, I do not need to; these aren't subjective facts.

You need systems that work for your life and as many hacks as you can get. So here's a hack:

Cleaning does not need to be a production.

I'm racing all day long, and as I'm racing, I'll notice, "hey, the trash can is getting a lot of dirt build-up."

The old me would make this a gigantic production- "I do not have time or energy to lug the trash can outside, bag the trash, get the hose out, and the soap and a rag, listen to the baby cry because she doesn't understand why she has to be locked in her seat when all she wants to do is splash and taste the dirty trash water, scrub all the nooks and crannies, rinse, and leave outside to dry."

Of course I don't have time to do all that! Most of us don't! (And even if we did, isn't there a better use of our time??} So our trash cans, or showers, or toilets get crazy dirty before we force ourselves to make the time to clean away the build-up.

Here's the hack: every time you throw away a paper towel that isn't super dirty, wipe away a bit of grime. Each time you get a new rag out to wipe the counters, use the old rag to wipe away some build-up. Keep wipes handy and when you notice someone dripped syrup down the trash can, wipe it before it hardens into impenetrable sugar rock.

I'm attaching a video that shows my trash can with a good bit of build-up, and I timed how long it took me to clean it off. Is it perfect? No. But guess what? It takes me over an hour to clean the trash can the way I mentioned above, (I rarely clean alone, and my children always need me to stop and help with something). And this took me 2 minutes and 46 seconds and my trash can is shiny and clean.