Works for Me Wednesday... Shoveling while it's snowing

My favorite quote:
"cleaning while you have children living in the home is like shoveling show while it's still snowing."

Cleaning is a constant never ending job. Some people enjoy it. I'm not one of those people. I have four small children. The youngest people are 3 1/2, 2 1/2 and 11 months. It's these three that are the snowstorm. By the time I have one room cleaned then next four rooms have been destroyed.

Another issue I have is that I moved into my house eight months ago. I still feel like there are things that don't have homes and like I'm still not organized completely- but the day to day stuff with all the crazieness makes it hard to get to that stuff. Anyway....









So here was my solution (here is where "Works for Me Wednesday" comes in):
What you need:
-one messy needing to be organized house
-one stressed out needing help mom
-one friend good enough to see your house in not a perfect (or near perfect) state
-two days with a 3-4 hour block of time (preferably naptime so kids will be out of the way)

We decided to help each other out so that we can 'shovel faster'. So twice a month we spend about four hours at my house 'shoveling' (yesterday we tackeled organizing the new toy room, the food storage closet under the stairs, the loft and the laundry room- all of which had piles of things without homes) then we spend the same time on different days at her house doing the same.

The benefits?
I also have cleaning ADD (self diagnosed) since I get easily distracted and can't seem to focus for extended amounts of cleaning (probably none of you have this problem) so having a friend there keeps me focused.

Also, it's more pleasant to have conversation and 'hanging out' time while working.

Two of us can work fast enough that several rooms get cleaned at once- before kids can destroy our efforts- YAY!

Also, I was on a 'cleaning roll' and kept going after she left and did a ton more. So YAY! There is my 'works for me Wednesday!'

For more 'Works for Me Wednesday' ideas visit Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer.