After a recent bout of the flu, I’m afraid to say that my home isn’t quite as tidy as it should be. A thumping headache and a rainy morning on Sunday encouraged me to shelve my plans to get myself and the kids ready to go to church and I made the executive decision to stay in bed for a while instead. What a great idea.
At 9.15am I received an unexpected phone call from a friend from out of town. He was wondering if he could call in for coffee to chat and catch up for an hour or so. No rush. He wouldn’t be at my place for at least half an hour. Was that okay? Sure, I said. Sounds like a great idea.
Not only did the house need urgent attention, my purple PJs with the blue hippos on them probably weren’t going to cut it for greeting a guest either. The kids were quickly mobilised into a loungeroom cleaning taskforce while I tried to simultaneously wash up, tidy the kitchen and clear the dining room table. That done, I just had to clean the bathroom, hide the washing pile and get myself showered and dressed. Piece of cake. Cake? Oh no. What could I serve with coffee?
M: I’m feeling sorry for the friend. He was obviously expecting you to be at church, and was planning on leaving a “Sorry I missed you” message.
S: Hmph. At least I got it together in time. What would you have done?
M: Anyone who shows up at my house before 11 on a Sunday morning gets to watch a horror flick entitled “The Undercaffeinated Monster from the Depths of the Doona”.
The whole experience got us thinking and we have come up with a brilliant new business idea – Unexpected Guests R Us. For a small fee, you join our contact list and periodically we call you and say we’re on our way over. It’s amazing how much cleaning you can get done in 30 minutes if you know there are guests arriving.
Basic package would be a phone call with 30 minutes warning. Advanced package would give only 20 minutes. The deluxe package would include an extra challenge. Something along the lines of “We’re on our way and we’ve got Aunt Mabel with us. You know how much she loves your homemade scones with jam and whipped cream. See you in half an hour.”
So give us a call, but best to try on our mobiles because we’re on our way. We’ve got our neighbours two-year-old triplets with us. Will that be a problem?
Yep, just what I need another excuse to move my office out of the dining room.
We’re on our way. It’s just about lunchtime – we’ll bring dessert, will you whip us up a feed?
That’s hilarious, I might just give you a call. My 4 yr old is hopeless at tidying up unless I ask him to do a ten second tidy (from Big Comfy Couch) I have to cheat to make him tidy up enough so I do 10 seconds over there and then 10 seconds over here. I can’t believe it works
Speed Cleaning! Love it.
Brilliant idea, though me being me, I wouldn’t react. In fact, I would let the call go to the answering machine in the first place, and you’d get my greeting message telling you where to go.
Too funny
Ah but then we’d wait at the doorstep while you were frantically rushing around inside tidying up. 1 minute clean!
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Where can I sign up?
This is exactly how I motivate myself to get the house in order – I invite someone over. Works every time.
Jodie, do you find your kids ask “Who’s coming over?” whenever you start madly tidying? Mine do.