By Neen James
The excitement of the holidays is now upon us and it
is during this time we often feel like we have more on our ‘to do’ list than
there are hours in the day! A common
area of stress for many people is getting our homes ready for the holidays. Working in partnership with a fantastic
service, like Harmony Clean can help save you time, help you relax and also
give you peace of mind.
Harmony Clean www.harmonyclean.com
is about healthy home cleaning, naturally. They provide a complete, customized
maid service (as regularly as needed) with caring, trained staff that are
bonded and insured. Recently I
interviewed Vicki Brown, one of the founders of this unique company and asked
her how we could get our homes ready for the holidays. Here are several
strategies we decided would help get your home ready this holiday season.
Make a holiday ‘to
do’ list – include on your list the activities you want to complete
at home, the activities you want to outsource and your shopping ‘to do’ list.
Book a special one
time clean – if you know you have company coming, a party or a
gathering of people; consider hiring the experts to clean your home from top to
bottom. This will also make it easier for you to maintain during the holiday
period.
Pay attention to
bathrooms – these areas of your home will get significant traffic
during this busy time, keep these areas clean by placing cleaning products in
each room so that you can quickly wipe the counter tops, clean the shower doors
and wipe down other areas. I like Shaklee products (recently endorsed on the Oprah
show) that are environmentally and people friendly - http://www.shaklee.net/formhealthyhabits/
Change bed linens – it
is great at night to snuggle up into flannel sheet sets. Allocate time to
change over all the linens in each room. Do it all on the same day as it makes
it easier to remember when they all need to be changed again.
Attend to your
guest room – allocate 60 minutes to clean, tidy, dust and clean
out closet space in your guest room. This is a great time of year for
unexpected visitors so make sure your guest room is ready for anyone that might
drop in for a visit or stay over after a meal.
Dust your
baseboards – this is a great time of year to pay attention to
all the areas in your home you don’t normally clean. Vacuum these areas or wipe
them free of all dust, this will also help your heating system function better.
Clean lights and
chandeliers – some our lights might be covered in dust and
cobwebs so ask the cleaning service to spend time on these fixtures. It is
worth allocating someone else to do this time consuming task.
Wipe down kitchen
cabinetry – ask your cleaning service to attend to this area.
If you are cleaning your own home, spend time wiping down each cabinet and pay
attention to the base boards.
Allocate time to
decorate – make an appointment with yourself (and recruit your
family to help if you can) to sort and hang your holiday decorations. This can
be a fun way to spend time with those you care about. If you don’t have any
family living close by, recruit a few friends to help you, put on a few drinks
and turn it into a holiday catch up.
Make an
appointment with yourself to shop online – instead of
spending time in stores, determine how many gifts and items you can buy online
(from the comfort of your own home). You might also end up spending less money
as you won’t be distracted by the other items in store.
Outsource your
linens – take your table cloths, matching serviettes and any
other linens you might need for your holidays, to your local dry cleaner and
ask them to press them, this will save you time. You may even consider giving them to a local
ironing service instead.
Polish your silver – if
you have special dishes, utensils or items that you don’t use year round but
want to use during the holidays, make time to sit down and polish or clean
these items. You could also make this a fun activity and ask your family or
friends to help you while you talk about fun memories of years past.
Research your
recipe books – pull out all the relevant recipe books that you
want to use and mark the recipes you will be making. Sit down in one place, in
one sitting and make a list of every ingredient you are going to need for your
special meal. This will prevent multiple trips to the store (or multiple orders
online).
Purchase fresh
flowers – these add a special touch to your home during this
busy time; they create beauty and will be appreciated by those around you. You
can have special holiday arrangements delivered by many companies, I like www.1800flowers.com
Find your serving platters – search
your pantry, your cupboards and your basement for all those large platters you
like to use during the holidays. It may take time to find them, clean them and
then decide which food will be displayed on which platter. I always place them
all on the counter top the day of the event so I know which platters are going
to be used.
Use party hire – a
senior executive I spoke to recently says she simply phones the party hire
store and tells them how many people she has coming for a meal and they deliver
the cutlery, crockery, linens, candles and extra seats and tables she requires.
She rinses off the crockery and they come and pick it all up – no cleaning, no
fuss. Can you reach out to your local party hire store and see if they provide
this service?
Get your groceries
delivered – order your groceries online from your favourite
supermarket and have them delivered to your home. For a small tip to the
delivery person, you will save so much time and it also means you won’t have to
carry them indoors during the cold weather.
Order your main
ingredients – if you like to have a ham or turkey on the holiday
table, now is the time to place your order for those items and any special
order pies you might want. Search out your local farmers market or local
produce store.
Use caterers – if
you don’t enjoy cooking or you don’t have time, consider hiring someone to help
you with the food preparation. Many stores have great pre-cooked meals now and
many of them will do special catering, just ask your favourite food store.
Get help –
during this busy season there are many services that can help you feel less
stressed and give you more time. Consider online shopping services, personal
chefs, and dry cleaners, cleaning services, flower delivery and local school
children. You might be able to recruit local neighbourhood school children to
help you with the many chores you need to get done. I offer to pay my neighbours
to help me achieve my ‘to do’ list.
The holiday season is for enjoying with friends and
family, it is not meant to be a stressful, busy time. This year decide you are
going to stop trying to do it all and get help where ever you can.
Neen James is an
International Productivity Expert: by looking at how they spend their time and
energy – and where they focus their attention – Neen helps people to
rocket-charge their productivity and performance. A dynamic speaker,
author and corporate trainer, Neen demonstrates how boosting your productivity
can help you achieve amazing things. With her unique voice (Aussie accent),
sense of fun and uncommon common-sense, Neen delivers a powerful lesson in
productivity. Find out more and subscribe to Neen’s free monthly ezine at http://neenjames.com
