Author: Chris Wadsworth

Home Cleaning and Habit Number Three

A quick review is in order.

Habit number one means that you have taken a position that you are in charge. You are the creator of what is important to you. Being proactive is about choice. 

Habit number two is you taking the first step towards envisioning the result. You need to be clear on what you want to accomplish. Therefore, habit number two is about vision – your vision – about what you want to create. 

Habit number three is the actual result – the physical creation. The joining of habit one and habit two is the essence of habit number three. Habit number three is where one and two come together. 

Habit number three is putting first things first. You define the things that have the most value to you. First things are what you value the most. Habit number three is about time management and life management. You define what is most important and define the priorities.

• We can get caught up in the trivial. 
• We all can allow ourselves to be distracted.
• From time to time, there may be a crisis or an emergency.

The urgent-and-importance 2×2 matrix below helps to put things in perspective.

To be truly productive, we need to prioritize. Imagine if we first do all our trivial work before addressing the significant and meaningful tasks. How would your life progress if you responded immediately to every email, phone call, or Facebook status post?

To make meaningful progress, you need to set your priorities. 

Make organization a top priority. Being organized will help you to make substantial progress, whatever your goals may be. To be organized means that your home and office need to be clean and uncluttered. To be organized is not necessarily urgent but very important. You can put off being organized, and the result may be that you slowly but surely become less organized. To be less organized, in general, means a lower level of productivity.

That is why it is so important to have a clean and organized home and office.

A clean home needs to be a top priority; here are some excellent reasons:

A clean home reduces the chance of being sick.

Dust, for example, is a widespread cause of colds, coughs, asthma attacks, breathing, and respiratory problems, and various types of allergies. Respiratory issues can be minimized and even entirely prevented by reducing dust accumulation in your household.

A clean home or office reduces stress.

When you walk into your home or office, and it is dirty and messy, you can feel a sense of stress and disappointment. On the other hand, a clean home or office helps to reduce stress. Your mind is at ease.

Being organized saves you time.

When you spend time looking for something that has been misplaced in your home or office, you are wasting time. Wasting time can often be a common occurrence for people who do not prioritize being in a clean and organized environment.

Many people allow (remember you are in charge) disorder to take over their home and work environments. Lack of organization is a timewaster.

Set a good example.

A clean house, office, and work environment displays self-discipline and makes a statement that you are responsible. A clean and organized home or office sets an excellent example for the people around you.

A Professional Cleaning Service

You most likely have a busy schedule. You find it difficult to maintain a clean and tidy home or office. You may want to explore the services of a reliable and experienced cleaner – and that’s exactly what A Clean Vision is.

A significant benefit of working with a professional home cleaning company such as A Clean Vision is that we set the cleaning of your home or office as the top priority. We put first things first when it comes to cleaning your home or office.

Give us a call at (802) 295-6065. We are a family-owned and operated business and have been cleaning homes and offices in the Upper Valley since 1993.

“When one side benefits more than the other, that’s a win-lose situation. To the winner, it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust.”

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

To think win-win does not mean that you always must be nice. It isn’t about being nice. It is also a long-term approach, not a short-term “quick-fix. According to Stephen Covey, it is a character-based code for human interaction and collaboration.

“In the long run, if it isn’t a win for both of us, we both lose. That’s why win-win is the only real alternative in interdependent realities.”

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Win-win agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial and satisfying to both parties. To operate in the win-win world, you must develop three character traits.

Integrity: sticking with your true feelings, values, and commitments
Empathy: Determining the outcome with a clear understanding and consideration for the other party’s desired outcome.

Abundance: You also must have an abundance mentality where you understand that an outcome good for one side can also be good for the other side. You do not operate as if it is a zero-sum situation. A win-win creates a successful outcome for both parties.

How can you apply win-win to home cleaning? Here are some examples.

Example 1 – Clutter

You have too much clutter and unused items in your home and decide to donate the items you no longer need and use to a local charity. You win (home less cluttered), your home cleaning service wins (easier to clean), the charity wins, and the recipients who receive the donated items win. Everyone wins.

Example 2 – Sharing a Home

When we share a home with others (and most of us do), there may be times when one or the other feels that the messy situation in the house is not their fault but the fault of the other. This may not be entirely accurate, but perception is sometimes reality.

What about hiring a cleaning service to make sure the messy situations are reduced or even eliminated. Both home-sharing parties win with a reduction in messy cases, and both parties win even more by not having to deal with cleaning the home.

Example 3 – The Human Experience

Imagine you do not like cleaning your house. Imagine that there is a company that specializes in home cleaning and enjoys operating its home cleaning business. You hire the company to clean your home, and this produces a win for you. The company you hire feels privileged to be cleaning your home and receives compensation for cleaning it. This is a win for them.

The idea of win-win is not a technique. It is a philosophy. We must ask ourselves what we want and what the other party wants from a given situation. We need to break down certain paradigms. Many people feel that if they are friendly, then they cannot be tough. However, you can be both pleasant and tough at the same time. Negotiate an agreement that creates a win for both parties.

Commit to maintaining a balance between your win and the other parties’ win. Look for ways to create win-win outcomes.

A Professional Cleaning Service

You most likely have a busy schedule. You may be looking for a win-win. You may want to explore the services of a reliable and experienced cleaner – and that’s exactly what A Clean Vision is.

A Clean Vision always looks for outcomes that produce a win-win. We set the cleaning of your home or office as our top priority. That means it is a win for you and we win too as we have another satisfied customer.

Give us a call at (802) 295-6065. We are a family-owned and operated business and have been cleaning homes and offices in the Upper Valley since 1993.

Communication is one of the most critical life skills. You spend years learning how to read and write and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen, so you really, deeply understand another human being?

How could this factor into having a clean and organized home?

Who Lives with You?

The other people who share your home with you are part of keeping your home clean and organized.

• Do they have a higher tolerance for clutter?
• Do they think that the kitchen can be cleaned up tomorrow, or do they insist upon having everything cleaned before going to bed?
• How clean is clean?

These are other questions that could be part of a meaningful discussion on keeping your home clean and organized.

Have You Hired a Cleaning Company?

If you have a cleaning company helping you with your house cleaning, a similar conversation is necessary.

• What should they clean, and what should they not touch?
• Is window cleaning part of their process?
• Do you want them to clean up a carpet stain or point it out to you?

If There Are Issues

Suppose partners or family members do not do their fair share or even contribute to more clutter and disorganization. In that case, it is time to have a conversation.

• Do not be condescending.
• Seek first to understand.
• Look for opportunities in the conversation to establish common ground.

If you use a cleaning company and something is not the way you want it to be, talk with them. Talk with precisely the right person who can have an impact on resolving the issue.

Do not start off accusing the person or company of wrongdoing. Instead, try to understand what they understand. You may have a different understanding as your perspective may be different from theirs (most likely it is). Seek first to understand the issue from their perspective, then, with this understanding, express your viewpoint. Find a solution using both views.

Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

This habit will work in essentially all situations. Whether at home or in the office. Keeping a house clean and organized is not easy. Get the people you share your home with to pitch in. If you need the support of a cleaning company, then consider A Clean Vision. We have been serving the people of the Upper Valley with home cleaning support since 1993. Give us a call at 802-295-6065.

And in closing, seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Seven Habits: #6 Synergize

In the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey’s Habit 6 focuses and revolves around synergy. In this blog post, I will be discussing how to create a synergistic environment for home cleaning so that you can have a clean home with the least amount of effort.

To have a synergistic home cleaning approach, you need to create an environment that encourages people’s participation. Sit down with your family; encourage them; discuss what will work best for everybody when it comes to keeping a clean household. You can suggest approaches such as cleaning up one room at a time or a section or area of your home. You may want to suggest splitting up the cleaning duties among everyone in the family and assigning different tasks to each person.

The next step is to set a time limit for people so that they know exactly how much work they have to do. If you are looking at synergizing your home cleaning, try not to include chores such as grocery shopping or laundry since these are tasks done outside the home. However, if it frees up time for someone else then it also could be a synergistic approach to achieving the result you desire – a clean home.

Home Cleaning Habits – Split Up the Cleaning Duties

Synergistic Approach to a Clean Home – Set time limits for each person with different tasks assigned to everyone in the family.

Assign tasks that make sense for the individual.

It is important to remember that a synergistic approach means the best possible solution for all those involved. In other words, you cannot use this at your own convenience and expect to achieve any sort of success if it does not work out well for everyone.

When it comes to home cleaning, synergy can be very beneficial.

If you are looking for ways of streamlining your approach towards cleaning the house, using a synergistic model is one way of doing things. You could also pick out some helpful tips and review them together when discussing how to maintain better habits when it comes to keeping the house clean.

Decide on a task list with specific assignments for how to go about cleaning so that it becomes a routine instead of something done haphazardly or when necessary.

Feel free to evaluate out an approach and then review things after a couple of weeks to see how things are going and to modify and refine the approach to make it better. Don’t give up just because things do not work out perfectly at the beginning. Look for ways to make improvements and get inputs from everyone in a group setting.

A synergistic approach focuses on people working together to achieve success.

Stephen Covey says it best when he states, “The key lies in not what we do so much as how we do it.” It takes work and effort, but the results are worth it as the results will be superior to if the burden of keeping your home clean falls primarily to one person.

In this sixth habit, Covey explains that a path of synergy and cooperation can result in the participants reaping the benefits that come with synergy. Habit Six, of Stephen Covey, stresses that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Here is an excellent example of bringing disparate people together with a synergistic approach to make something very wonderful literally from garbage. The video is a trailer for a longer documentary related to now what is known as the Landfill Harmonic.

We can be more creative and we all can look for ways to synergize. Determination and adversity working together.

This is a link to a longer (11:44) video on the same topic.

Landfill Harmonic – Amazing and Inspirational

This habit will lead us to achieving more rather then less. Whether at home or in the office. Keeping a house clean and organized is not easy. Get the people you share your home with to pitch in. If you need the support of a cleaning company, then consider A Clean Vision. We have been serving the people of the Upper Valley with home cleaning support since 1993.

Give us a call at 802-295-6065.

Seven Habits: #7 Sharpen the Saw

“We must never become too busy sawing to take time to sharpen the saw.”
Dr. Stephen Covey

To continuous improvement means to sharpen the saw and this means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you.

To sharpen the saw keeps you fresh so you can continue to practice the other six habits. You increase your capacity to produce and handle the challenges around you. Without this renewal, your body becomes weak, your mind mechanical, your emotions raw, and your spirit insensitive. You may become selfish. If you are in this state then it is not a pretty picture, is it?

There are 4 dimensions of renewal. All are important.

The Physical Dimension involves caring effectively for your physical body. Part of this means creating and maintaining a clean environment. If your rugs are dirty, your air is too dusty or too smoky, or perhaps you don’t have enough sunlight then your physical dimension will suffer.

According to Covey, a good exercise program is one we can do in our own home and one that builds our body in three areas: endurance (aerobic exercise), flexibility (stretching), and strength (i.e. weights or sit-ups). Be proactive and set up where you live and work so that it is clean and organized so that you have time to exercise and also to have time and a place to relax.

The greatest benefit we experience from taking care of our physical dimension is being proactive (Habit 1). Be proactive about defining the environment you live in both at work and at home. Keep it clean and organized. This will help your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and your integrity.

The Spiritual Dimension is your core, your center, your commitment to your value system. This dimension is related to a very private area of your life and draws upon the sources that inspire and uplift you. What uplifts us is different for everyone. However, we will argue that a clean and organized environment is very uplifting and that the opposite is also true.

The Mental Dimension is about feeling good about who you are. Good thoughts lead to improved performance. To have good thoughts about your home and office is fundamental. What could you do to improve your home environment? Could it be more organized or cleaner? Your environment has a big impact on how you feel. Do what you can to create a clean and organized place to relax and work.

The Social/Emotional Dimension is highly related to our sense of our performance. We first have to establish our principles and have integrity. Don’t allow yourself to be driven by what others think of you. Establish what is important to you and then live your life with integrity in which your daily habits reflect your values.

If you do need some help with cleaning your home or office, give us a call at 802-295-6065. We can relieve the stress of cleaning, save you some time and help to make your home or office a more pleasant place to be.