something borrowed

For more than eight years now only one magazine subscription has faithfully been renewed year after year at our house.

Family Fun.

Because the ideas are good.

They are practical.

And because I sometimes imagine acquiring a paid, regular writing gig for them.

They have a section of their magazine called “My Great Idea”.

Or  at least – it used to be called that.

I think now it’s called “Creative Solutions” but me and Family Fun go way back so sometimes I get a little Old School with the names of their departments.

And on one recent month one of the reader-submitted “Creative Solutions” was a winner for our house.

The mom created a clean up routine she called The One Minute Tidy.

(Or something like that.  You know, my memory.)

The name is not the important part, actually, although for me – you might think it would be.

The point is –

she gathered the whole family,

chose a messy room,

set a timer for one minute –

and everyone rushed in like crazy people and cleaned hardcore for one minute.

I thought, “Hey, my rooms are messy.  I have a timer.  Even my crew of scalawags could sustain a cleaning effort for a one minute interval.”

And so was born the Keigley One Minute Tidy.

And let me tell you something – it really works.

Sometimes, as the author advised, if  the room is over-the-top messy, say before a Wednesday Group Gathering, we allocate five minutes or three or some other odd number.

And then we clean like crazy.

And it’s perfect.

Kevin likes to throw an inspirational song in there to rev us up sometimes and that’s cool too.

Except when we get distracted from the task at hand and start singing and dancing.

Not me, of course.

I do not sing.  Nor do I dance.

I clean.

At any rate,

The One Minute Tidy is a good idea.

And you may officially steal it,

as I did,

beginning now.

Go.