At this time of year it can be hard to focus on work, especially if you work from home. It seems like once the weather shifts we get that spring cleaning itch. We want to open the windows to air out the winter germs, grab a big black trash bag, and get All The Things in order in our physical spaces. Let’s talk all things spring cleaning today – small business owner style.
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Read the transcript:
Janice Cook 0:00 Welcome back to Your Win-Win Teacher Business. At this time of year, it can be hard to focus on work, especially if you work from home. It seems like once the weather shifts, we get that spring cleaning itch. We want to open the windows to air out the winter germs, grab a big black trash bag, and get all the things in order in our physical space. Let’s talk all things spring cleaning today – small business owner style.
Janice Cook 0:32 You’re listening to Your Win-Win Teacher Business – a podcast for teacher authors who want to make a big impact in the world for teachers and students, and have fun doing it. I’m your host, Janice Cook, here with a pep talk to start your week off strong. Some seasons of running a business feel hard and sticky, but it shouldn’t feel like that all the time. Let’s make your business a win-win, together.
Janice Cook 0:57 Before we get started with today’s episode, I wanted to give a shout out to AJ from Indy for leaving such a sweet review for the podcast. AJ said, I am loving this new podcast by Janice Cook. It was enlightening to listen to her story and how she has followed the ups and downs in her teacher life and business life.
Janice Cook 1:19 I really want this to be our podcast, so please know that it means the world to me when you log into Apple podcasts and share your thoughts about the show. It’s so helpful for other teacher business owners to know what to expect before they push play. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Janice Cook 1:37 Time is at a premium in the spring. Things are wild for me as a dance mom and a softball mom and at work, I’m racing to do all the big projects that require large chunks of time in a quiet house, because we all know that won’t be a thing once school lets out for summer. But every year, as the seasons shift and the weather warms up, I get what I call the spring cleaning itch. It becomes hard to focus on work tasks because I want to get a big, black trash bag, declutter, deep clean, and just take over the world in general. Does this happen to you too? It’s a maddening feeling because I don’t have time to step away from work or the spring sports schedule to do that top to bottom deep clean, declutter of anything, and yet the feeling is still there, making it hard for me to focus at work.
Janice Cook 2:37 So what are we going to do when this spring cleaning itch arrives? Let’s have a pop quiz. A, take time off from work to spring clean our whole house? B, ignore the house and spring clean inside our businesses? C, run and hide since we feel like we just don’t have time to do it all? I’m gonna vote for option D, where we leave that all or nothing mindset behind, and find the smallest possible step that will quiet the noise in our mind.
Janice Cook 3:10 Today’s episode is a little different. Think of it as a choice board. I’d love for you to find one tiny action step in this episode that you can tackle before Q2 to feel a tiny bit better. And if you want to re-listen to the episode and choose another small step after that Be My Guest. This episode can be in your back pocket any time that spring cleaning itch arrives. And if you like to body double, you might consider putting this episode in your ear and heading to the bathroom, because that’s where I’m going to start the list today, believe it or not.
Janice Cook 3:49 I’m a proud owner of the Naptime Kitchen Home Reset. I’m not an affiliate. This isn’t an ad, but I own this product, and I want to share with you how I use it. If you aren’t familiar, this is an audio course that Kate uses to go through her home systems twice a year and make sure everything in her house aligns to the current season of life her family is heading into. She goes through her system at the New Year and right before her kids come home for summer break.
Janice Cook 4:22 But I am not Kate. I use this course to help me identify the next small step that fits my life capacity. When the spring cleaning itch arrived this year, I decided that I only had time to deal with the smallest part of my home, and that’s my one and a half bathrooms. So I listened to just that part of her audio course and took action.
Janice Cook 4:48 And as a side note, since I know we’ve veered a little further away from business than I usually do on this show, market research tells me that people use my DIY business systems course in the same way. They listen to the scheduling module every time they need a schedule reset. In other seasons, they dive deeper into other modules and do a deeper cleanup. But some of the time, they just need a small step, a small scheduling boost, to get a big transformation in their productivity. So as we wrap up Q1 and prepare for an exciting to do list in Q2 I’m quieting my small business owner brain and scratching that spring cleaning itch with the smallest baby step of giving my bathrooms a home reset with Kate’s kind teacher voice in my ear.
Janice Cook 5:41 So the first thing she took me through was my medicine cabinet. With her patient voice in my ear, I gathered all the medicine and first aid items from all the different places they had scattered in my home, and I brought them to the master bedroom, because that was going to be my home base for this reset project. I thought about what I wanted to always have in stock, what needed to be discarded, recycled, or restocked. I thought about what needed to be stored out of the reach of kids and pets, and what needed to be in a self serve station for all members of the family. I thought about what we needed when we’re on the go for activities, when we were traveling, when we were at our desks working, and where having duplicate items could reduce friction in our everyday lives. I stocked up for allergy season and spring sports season, and I even phoned my accountability buddy – shout out to Alicia – to see if I was forgetting any items or hacks in this small, bite sized category. Containers were wiped down and returned to their homes, and I already felt my shoulders dropping away from my ears. Spring would move more slowly because I cared for my home systems in this small way today.
Janice Cook 6:56 And then my business brain turned on, as it often does. Take a moment and wonder what business items you do not ever want to be caught without. What would slow you down if it suddenly ran out or stopped working? Do you need a power backup or an additional plan for an internet outage? Do you need to scope out a work location that you could flee to if your typical work from home location wasn’t meeting your needs for any variety of reasons? And as a friendly reminder, since this episode is designed to operate as a choice board, and we’re all about small steps in this season, if this feels like the perfect one or two steps for this season of life, I will not be offended if you push pause and go take action.
Janice Cook 7:47 I had some more steam left, so I kept going with Kate in my ear. Kate talked me through the world of toiletries. I gathered all the items in this category from all of the places in the house they might be hiding. She delivered a pep talk about sunk cost and reminded me that my physical space has value. She counseled me about the complex feelings of gifts and the value of the time it takes to maintain overstuffed inventory in every decluttering season. I looked at expiration dates, asked myself which household member each item was for, decided how much back stock was the right amount, and created limits around the storage space that could be devoted to this category. I reviewed the back stock system with the members of my family so they knew where to check if they were out of something that they needed. And to reinforce that first we check the back stock, then we tell mom a refill needs to be purchased. No one listening to this podcast is surprised that I have SOPs in my house, just like I do my business.
Janice Cook 8:54 And then my business brain turned on, right on cue. I wonder what you keep back stock of in your business? Post it notes, legal pads, favorite pens, printer paper, printer ink, an extra mouse, daily, weekly, or monthly planning pads. Where is the best storage location for these important items and what is the right amount of back stock to keep on hand? Remember, this episode is designed as a choice board. We’re here to take small steps. Maybe this feels like the perfect one or two steps for you today. I invite you to push pause and go take action.
Janice Cook 9:36 Next, I moved on to the getting ready items. First, makeup and skincare gathered from all the places in the house for all the people who have these items. We washed brushes. We made wish lists of future products we wanted to try or refill. We discarded and replaced. We cleaned containers and storage areas. We talked about the best storage location for each person who had these items, and I had to Name What Matters – that’s a phrase from Kendra Adachi at The Lazy Genius. Is it the spotless, clear counter that matters to me, or is it that makeup and skincare happen in rooms that don’t have carpet? Is there somewhere that a tray or a makeup bag or some sort of a lazy susan could help corral these small items and support the creative chaos in a way that didn’t destroy my space and my peace? And we went through the same process with hair accessories and tools, they also needed to be gathered from all places in the house. We had to talk about items. Did we even use them? Did we even like them? Are there things we’ve always wanted to try, but we haven’t made a game plan, even though we’ve acquired them? Is there something we want to add to our wish list? Can we get a stay at home spa day on the calendar to dive into some of the amazing items that we already have? What’s frustrating when we’re getting ready? What’s frustrating to me? What’s frustrating to my kids? And as we had these conversations, three words came to mind – Easter Basket ideas – just saying.
Janice Cook 11:20 And as the peace flowed into my home, my brain once again turned to business. Some people get their best ideas in the shower or on a car ride. Often, this is how things happen with me. I take one step forward in my home life to bring peace, and then I take one step forward into my business to bring peace. So I found myself craving the same sense of peace in my business, and I thought, I bet you have a handful of go to items that make you feel your best when you start your work day. I bet there are things you like to have handy before hopping on a zoom call or creating face to camera content. Consider having a stash of these items at your desk where you do this kind of work. And if you know you need new lighting, a different tripod, or another piece of tech in order to remove friction for your business, it’s A-Okay to take a moment to add some things to your wish list, or brain dump, or parking lot, or notes app while your brain is on this channel.
Janice Cook 12:25 Next Kate took me through travel items. I was pleased that this was a quick category for us. We already have duplicates of items so there isn’t that much to pack. We keep them all in the same place. There really wasn’t anything that needed to be replaced, our storage system was already working for us. And because I plan so far ahead, I can already see on the calendar what our next three trips are, and I feel confident that we have all the solutions on hand for those trips.
Janice Cook 12:55 It was also a good reminder to me that as you put systems in place and maintain them, some systems will need a major overhaul, and some systems will just need a minor tweak. A little bit of maintenance, some thought, and some intention, and over time, the systems become a better fit and require less maintenance. I gave myself a pat on the back that I had solved the travel category well, in the past.
Janice Cook 13:25 In your business, if you have some internet besties that you want to meet in person one day, say that bucket list dream out loud. Tag them on Instagram and share this episode. Tell them how much they matter to you. Dream for a bit about if it might be a workation in an Airbnb halfway between your locations, or if one person needs to fly to where the other person lives for this event to happen. Would sharing a room at a work conference do the trick? Is there an event already out there that you could both make happen, but maybe you wouldn’t have done it unless someone started the conversation? Be that someone get the ball rolling and start a conversation.
Janice Cook 14:08 Next, Kate took me over to towels and linens. I gathered them from all the places I looked for ripped, tired, torn towels that no one ever wants to use. We have a local animal shelter in our town where you can donate those textiles, and our local clothing donation center takes things that can’t be used and actually gets paid for recycling those textiles so we have two great locations near us where we can pass those along to be useful to someone else. We evaluated the finite storage and decided if it was a one in, one out situation, or what the right size collection was for towels in our season of life. We decided whether we were going to restock a favorite kind or try a new kind from our wish list that we’ve always wanted to try. What I did not do was go down a rabbit hole of decision fatigue over towels. Ain’t no one got time for that. We looked at beach towels and pool towels, and I decided to let the kids pick out new ones for the season, because they were getting older and their favorite colors and styles had recently changed. That also allowed me to keep two older style towels in each of our cars, and I feel much more peaceful going into spring knowing we have some just in case towels.
Janice Cook 15:27 Sheets was another system that I was pleased to see we had under control. We keep two sets of sheet per bed so that when we change sheets on Sundays, we’re not waiting for a load of laundry to get sheets back on their bed. We store the whole set in a pillowcase. It doesn’t look cute, but it works great for us. And then, because we have the right size system for our family, when one is torn, it’s one in, one out, whoever belongs to those sheets, they pick out a new set and we just swap them.
Janice Cook 15:59 I went through so many systems in this process, and I smiled so big finding two systems from the past that were still working well for us, travel items and sheets. Little by little, I know that two will become three systems and three will become four.
Janice Cook 16:17 In your business, take a moment and think about your desk. Could you set a timer for 15 minutes and improve the feeling that you have when you walk into the office each day? Could it greet you in the morning like a new fluffy bath towel? Remember, this episode is not an all or nothing intervention. I invite you to find one small step that can help make your space work a little more efficiently, so that you can sit down to focus in a peaceful place.
Janice Cook 16:51 Kate at Naptime Kitchen resets her home twice a year. I wish our business systems were a one and done situation, but the Naptime Kitchen Home Reset, reminded me that there will always be an element of ongoing maintenance for both my home and my business systems.
Janice Cook 17:11 The perfect time slot won’t come along for you to tackle it. The big black trash bag energy will come your way. So we have to have a game plan to manage that feeling. More than likely relief for you is going to be a baby step situation. So embrace that reality, normalize moving in small, intentional steps, and go scratch that spring cleaning itch.
Janice Cook 17:38 Thanks for making this podcast a part of your day. I’d love to help you find clarity with your next step in business. Go to cookfamilyresources.com/hiring-guide I’ll also leave that link in the show notes for you. This guide is packed with good news for those days when you feel like you can’t possibly do it all. It might be time for you to invest in paid support, but the truth is, there are a lot of free steps to explore first. After you dive into that guide, I’ll be in your inbox every Monday morning with more actionable tips to help you enjoy running your business again. See you in the next episode.
