What I’ve learned from tidying up after my three kids

When I spend a lot of time doing something, regardless if it’s at work or at home, I try to think about my process, and if it’s possible to improve it.

Being a father of three kids I spend a lot, A LOT, of time cleaning up. So much in fact that I developed a few general techniques on how to approach it as a project, depending on the complexity and scale.

Phase one: The birds nest

This is the most challenging phase of a project. At a first glance there is a feeling of shock and disbelief. The unknowns are too many. All you got are lots of questions. What led up to this? How is this possible? etc… There is simply no obvious first step to take.

Bang for the buck

The point of this technique is to give you early positive feedback, building your motivation to finish the project.

Start by having a quick look around. Ask yourself the question: “What can I do in two minutes to make the biggest difference?” Don't mind the bigger picture, this is about making progress.

Often I choose something like a bookshelf or the sofa, and focus my energy on making that look perfect for the next two minutes. Most of the time it’s sufficient with one iteration, but if needed repeat until you are ready for the next phase.

Phase two: Logistics

This is a less severe situation. In this phase we have a fighting chance of getting a good overview. It’s possible to visualize the goal, and to make general plan how to reach it.

I usually spend a few minutes, walking around like a crime scene investigator, trying to see patterns and devise a strategy on how to proceed.

Hub and Spoke
Start by moving objects to one of your hubs. Hubs, in my case, is most often the same as a room. For instance, all the Beyblades should go to the hub in my oldest daughters room. Once completed you can have a look around and get a nice feeling of progress. The mess is now contained and roughly sorted in hubs.

Let’s move on to the spoke part. This is where you take each hub and start moving individual (or small groups) of objects to their final destination. Books to the bookshelf, crayons into their boxes and so on.

This part is often the most time consuming, and since you are working with the details, you don't always get the same sense of progress. It’s very true that the last 10 percent takes 90 percent of the time. I often treat myself to a nice cup of coffee during this phase, to keep up the motivation.

Phase three: Wrap up

The final phase, where you get the chance to feel good about your work and reflect on what can be improved next time around.

Future phase: Long term change

The one issue with this approach that I have identified is something that I think it shares with a lot of agile processes.

How do you find a balance between fixing what’s broken right in front of you, and making changes that works long term. Like getting my kids more involved in tidying up.

Oh well, I still got some time to accomplish that.