Company ready in one hour or less can be a reality! Even if your house isn’t in great condition all the time, it’s not a bad idea to strive for one hour away from company ready, especially around the holidays. If that’s too overwhelming to even think about, then use this as a goal for each room individually.
That’s where I started – in that overwhelming place, but something happened that made this an important goal.
I came home from work one day to the smell of gas. It was so strong that I could smell it all the way outside. I had to call the gas company to come find the problem.
You probably know where I’m going with this. I was terrified to call them because of the mess.
After I made the call, I did what anyone would do. I spent an entire hour dashing and stashing until they got here. I did a lot of thinking in that hour and decided right then and there that there was no reason that it should take more than an hour to have the place ready to let someone in. More importantly, it shouldn’t be a terrifying thought in an emergency situation.
Company ready doesn’t mean Pinterest Perfect.
It doesn’t have to be spotless by any means, but it should be good enough. Just good enough that if someone needs to come in, they can without you worrying about it too much.
What does it mean then? It means that:
- The floors are fairly clear, or there’s wide enough paths and no exits are blocked.
- The dishes aren’t piled up to the ceiling. A few dishes around or in the sink are okay but not two weeks worth.
- Stuff isn’t falling off the counters and garbage is thrown away.
- You have a few places to sit down or stand where you can talk if needed.
This list is just a bare minimum on the way to being one hour away from company ready.
The very best place to start is by decluttering. Start simply with three things per day and quickly move to 3 per hour. Try to do this 9 times per day for a total of 27 things.
The things can be anything – garbage, receipts, or even paper clips. Either throw these things into the trash, put them in a donate box, or get them listed on a sale site.
REMEMBER: If you can get it out of your house by donating, selling, or throwing it away, you don’t ever have to pick it up again!
This is a slower process so if you need to declutter quickly, you’ll have to either double these numbers or try a different technique.