Monday Tip: Time for a Spring Clean?

This is official: Spring has started and a lot of us were lucky enough to experience higher temperature and sunny spells last week. Actually it seems that some of us either got over excited or thought that summer was here because there were lots of flip flops, shorts and tee shirts out of wardrobes and I must say that looking at it, I thought “that’s brave!” Actually I even saw a lady in a little summer dress and sandals when the thermometer was not even reaching 15 in the shade… Anyway Spring is definitely here, along with Easter, daffodils and Spring cleaning!

Spring cleaning is good for lots of reasons including hygiene, gain of space, improving your living space and consequently your general wellbeing. Some of us (me for example) are used to having lots of little things cluttering there space: children toys, paperwork, coats, shoes, tools…  all of these have got a dedicated space but for some reason, they crept to other locations where they made home. Some others are really well organised and have everything in the right place. They are also little house fairies and manage to keep it very clean, but even those need to do some Spring cleaning. The difference between the 2? Some will take less time at it than others!

Now comes in the question finding the time… again…So, you need a plan!

Here is what you need to do: You need to be SMART!

S.M.A.R.T is an acronym for:

• Specific – Your goal needs to be specific. If it is too general it will be hard to achieve. You do not go to a trip around the country without a map, do you? This is the same here. To define your goal answer the following questions:
  Who will be involved? Can you include the family?
  Establish a time frame – can you do it in a weekend? Do you need to spread it across the week?
  What will you need exactly? Do run short of cleaning products and accessories in the middle of the work.
  Establish the reasons why you are doing all this and keep it in mind to stay motivated
  
• Measurable – You need something that helps you measuring your progress. I recommend establishing an exact list of what you want to achieve in each room. Every time you have accomplished a task you tick it and move to the next one. Seeing the list becoming smaller helps you remain focussed.
  
• Achievable – Make sure that every tasks is achievable. Once you have decided what needs to be done, think of how it will be done. Do you have everything you need?
  
• Realistic – always be realistic! You could decide that you want to have the house done in a weekend and fit in the same weekend the kids sport clubs, dinner at your parents and friends coming for tea and cake one afternoon, the chances are that unless you work every single free minutes and all night you will not achieve your target on time. Being unrealistic often means giving up the whole project because you feel you have failed.
  
• Time based – Establish deadlines for each job. It helps just focussing on one task at a time and not worrying about the rest. If you establish your deadlines in advance and stick to them, you will feel less overwhelmed. I want to point out on that one, that sometime, it is impossible to stick to the deadline because of something happening that was not planned. If that happens, don’t lose track and adjust the deadlines accordingly.

Some tips:

• In each room use 3 boxes: one for things you keep in this room, things you need to move to another room and last one things that you want to dispose of.
  
• Get the family involved. Children over the age of 10 can help with the house cleaning so get them involved with their own room. They gain a sense of independence and you gain time!
  
• In each room, when you are ready to clean work clockwise to make sure you don’t forget any corner
  
• Anything that hasn’t been used in the last year, pack it away or dispose of it.
  Make sure you go through the wardrobes and empty them of clothes you do not wear anymore.
  
• If you can’t do the whole house in one go, try something like one or two cupboards a day for example. Just be honest with yourself!

Smart Goals can be applied to a huge range of things involving project planning so don’t hesitate to apply it to other areas of your life.
Good luck with it, I am off to start with my spring cleaning!!