This time of year brings change.  Seasons change, school years are end, schedules and priorities shift.  These are all great things, but sometime these changes and the summertime lack of structure can leave our homes and offices disorganized.  Here’s a simple idea to keep your home and offices in (relatively) good shape:  “Back To Ready”. 

We used to call this strategy Back To Normal, but as my 7-year-old always asks, “What is Normal, anyway?”  “Back To Ready” is a favorite for myself and my clients (I’ve suggested it to 2 clients just this week and one suggested I share, so I am!).  It is a proactive, positive step to manage our lives and spaces, and it prepares us for whatever the week throws our way.  We may not be able to control what comes up, but we can control how we deal with it.

Working from home, I find it difficult to focus on work when my home feels cluttered and unfocused.  In my defense, to a casual observer my home would not look cluttered.  But I know when things are left undone, and because of who I am and what I do, I have a very low tolerance for disorganization.

So “Back to Ready” is very important for my success!  What does “Ready” look like?

• Beds made; Bedrooms tidied up / surfaces cleared off;
• Clothes and shoes dealt with— Dirty ones in the hamper, clean ones put away;
• Breakfast dishes in the sink or dishwasher, table wiped off;
• Bathroom cleaned up, towels hung up, surfaces clear, mirror wiped clean;
• Papers gathered together for me to work on them, or purge or shred them.

“Back to Ready” takes 30 minutes on a Monday morning (or occasionaly Sunday night) for us, though you can pick your own day!  It involves starting laundry and a sink of soapy dishwater, going room by room and collecting clutter, emptying trash and vacuuming.  I start the process while the kids are still home, so they can tidy up their rooms and put away their clean laundry.  And we choose Mondays because we are very hard on our home on the weekends!

Choose one spot, and start there every week, so you don’t waste time and mental energy wondering “Where to Start?”  You can choose the easiest room (my youngest son’s), or the most public room (the entry way and living room), or the hardest room (kitchen) first.  It’s up to you, just choose.  Now, only spend a few minutes in each room—this is not major cleaning, this is just maintenance between cleanings, and preparing for the week ahead. 

I carry a notebook with me, too, to jot down the random ideas that occur to me during this particular exercise.  The ideas could read “Need laundry detergent, need snacks for baseball, bake cookies for friend, new sneakers for the teenager, change smoke detector batteries, etc.”

Look around your home this week, determine the 5 or 6 tasks that would help you and your family prepare for the week, and complete those tasks early to get you and your home Back To Ready.  Summer is a great time to try something new when it comes to morning routines, so give it a try!