Spring Cleaning: Picking Up, PEP, Maintenance

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elq1dI_0pCY

Like the Bible, I will read The Personal Efficiency Program (PEP) by Kerry Gleeson over and over. You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Efficiency-Program-Feeling-Overwhelmed/dp/0470371315

For those of you who are really high achievers, PEP also has a program which can be found at this site: https://pepworldwide.com/personal-efficiency-program/

In our last post we talked about a deep overhaul organization process. Everyone needs to do this at some point. I recommend scheduling it as it may take several days, weeks, or months depending on the amount of items you are working with. I have a lot of stuff and the organizational system took me about 64 hours of time to complete. I spread it over four months as appointments in my calendar.

I’ll dive a bit more into my rave PEP review but I want to touch on picking up first.

Chores are rarely anyone’s favorite thing, but as we get older, I think many of us appreciate the results of our household chores. I love how straight and crisp my sheets feel when I get into bed after a long day. It wouldn’t be like that if I didn’t make it in the morning.

I enjoy eating at least one meal per day on a plate with a clean knife and fork and not having to do dishes because I already did them after my last meal.

I love having clean clothes to wear because I washed them. I also always know where to find them because I put them away after folding and hanging them.

See, life (in my opinion) flows more smoothly and more enjoyably when I take time to honor myself by doing my “chores”.

Whether you are new to the game and want to keep up your new organizational system or you’ve been on a system for years, picking up is always the first step to cleaning your home or office.

In order to keep up with my business (which is primarily run out of the home office) and household tasks, I have adopted a few habits that have aided in my success and deeply enhanced my life and productivity.

1. Schedule organizational time as an appointment (I schedule time for cooking, cleaning, blogging, emails, growing my business, working out, doing my nails/hair, and even reading my bible and spending time with God). When this time is scheduled, I’m highly likely to do them and I can move the time slots around as needed.

2. Make it fun to clean up! Who says you can’t multitask? I do a few things to motivate myself (especially after a long day or week). I will light my favorite candles or diffuse some essential oil scents that I love. I’ll turn on some music, a podcast, and audio book, or a YouTube channel that I enjoy listening to (rather than watching… ex. Ted Talks). Lastly, I try to schedule my cleaning so that I will have at least 20-30 minutes to sit back, have a glass of wine or dinner, take a bath, or do something to enjoy the ambiance of the freshly cleaned home. I have two cats, so the house only stays perfect for about 20 minutes before I start to notice little things. I want to enjoy the hard work even if just for a moment.

3. Do it every day whether you hire a housekeeper or do it all yourself, picking up needs to be done every day in order to keep it from becoming an all day event. Do the dishes at night, keep your dirty laundry in a basket or organizer, schedule big chores like folding laundry, and organize work/school related items. I keep a file set on my desk so that I can organize my papers by: receipts that need to be logged, urgent, bills to pay, items to file, and to do’s for the month (less urgent). This keeps the mail and papers I am working with (short term) off my desk so that I can use it for work space. It also prevents them from getting buried in a pile of papers.

4. Recruit help we live in a day and age where over 80% of American households have two sources of income. If both partners are both working, everyone should be responsible for running the house. That means everyone needs a chore list and everyone needs to be picking up after himself/herself. Talk about this with the people you live with and use it as an opportunity to teach children how to be responsible for the right reasons.

5. Do it now! This is one of the PEP principles that had the greatest impact on me. Do it now means exactly what it says. If you are picking up and think of something you need to do, do it. If you pick up a piece of paper and remember you have to call a client, call them right away. If you pick up a plate (as you’re cleaning up), don’t just place it in the sink, wash the dishes and put them away or place them in the dishwasher. Is the dishwasher full? Empty it now.

Ok, I know what you’re thinking, “what if I don’t have the time?” Schedule it. Do not open your emails and spend 10 minutes glancing at them without trashing what you don’t need and responding. This will prevent double work and wasted time. How many times have you opened an email, realized it would take more than a few minutes to give an adequate response only to have to reread it, and repeat the process two or three times over the week. Trust me, if you schedule time to respond the next day you will be more likely to do it and your recipient won’t feel ignored and perceive you as rude.

When i have a task that I know will take 15 minutes or more, I will schedule it. There are also times when I choose to schedule clusters of tasks. For example, I know it only takes about 15 minutes to get ready for bed, 5 minutes to clean up my kitchen, 5-10 minutes to pick up the rest of the house, and about 10-20 minutes or so to prepare for the next work day. So, I will schedule all of these things between 8:30-9:45PM as “Wind down” time. I do them every day and I know I want to them before the end of each day. I know I want to be in bed by 10PM (earlier if I can) so that I can wake up early. Having this time allows me adequate time to relax and wind down before I go to sleep. I sleep better when I know I don’t have a lot of loose tasks floating around in the house.

When a home is picked up, it’s ready for hosting, working, relaxing, playing, creating, and whatever else you like to do! I love the feeling of walking into my home and knowing I am not greeted with a bunch of clutter. I love knowing where everything is. I love having the space to work effectively from home.

Make a list of the reasons you enjoy having a clean home and let me know what you come up with!

In our next post, we are going to cover the ins and outs of dusting. Don’t forget to watch the corresponding videos in our little series because the posts and videos cover different information!