Day 3

Good morning and how are you?

I assume your bed is made and that you are dressed and prepared from head to heel to face the challenges of today! Before you came to your computer did you prepare yourself a drink? How clean was your kitchen? Did you notice?

Yes, today is D-Day for dealing with Kitchen grime but first I want to put a plan in place for the rest of your Home Master journey. As I said in the introduction, this is about creating a routine that works for you, not just me. So, I have made up an info sheet that you can start writing down vital information that will prepare you for creating your own highly effective system.

At the bottom of the page I have provided a link to download your own 'Instances of Completion' worksheet to get you started. Print off one copy so that you can look at it as I walk you through it. Be sure to use recycled paper if you can either stuff that has a spare side available or the bought recycled variety (be it pre or post-consumer I don't mind - both made a positive difference in some way).

When we are done going through it you will need at least four copies of this page or, if you are really motivated, you could set up your own spreadsheet to work it out. These pages will, in effect, become a short-term journal for you and it will help you look at what tasks you are doing, when you already tend to do them and when would be the most effective time to do them once we map them to your other scheduled responsibilities.

I will also say here that it also pays to have a grey-lead pencil available for this job as tasks rarely change but from time to time routines do. So, if you use a grey-lead pencil then you can always erase it later and use it again!

So, now have you got the page handy? Awesome! Let me walk you through each part...

Step 1: Select the type of tasks you are charting

We are going to cluster tasks based on how often you believe you do them. This will give you and ordered way to manage completing the pages. On the downloadable page you can see that we have provisioned for tasks that are completed:

• daily,
• up to fortnightly,
• approx. monthly to quarterly,
• approx. bi-annually to annually,
• seasonally.

Most of these, of course, are self explanatory. Seasonal, if of course for events such as Christmas, Lent and Easter, snow season and so forth. It pays to keep these sheets in plastic pockets in your new binder. It will make it easy to pull out and update across each day without the concern of possibly misplacing them.

When completing the worksheet for daily we do that a little differently. This is explained further on.

Step 2: Enter the task

Over the coming days and weeks, enter the tasks that you undertake each day in accordance with the page type. It will form the basis of moving your household tasks into a calendar.

Step 3: Enter each date you completed the task

As you go about your routine place the date you completed each task in the date column. On the weekly, 1-3 months and 6-12 months pages you may also wish to put the first two letters of the day of the week so that any day preferences will show themselves.

Once you have ten in a row you will likely have enough information to map it to your schedule. However, there is one other vital piece of information that will make this easier for you - the time elapsed (or the preferred time of day).

Step 4: Enter the number of days between task completion

In this column, it is the simple job of working out how many days were between the last two occasions that you completed the task. This will indicate how often you will need to place it on your calendar.

There is another piece of information which will be critical for the tasks completed on the daily task sheet that you will need to add - that is the hour of the day that you completed it.

For both the hour of the day on the daily worksheet and the date on the other worksheets you may also like to include and arrow before it pointing left or and arrow after it pointing right each indicating that, in hindsight, you should have done the task sooner (left arrow) or that it should have waited (right arrow).

If you have children of school age, or thereabouts, it may also pay to set up separate pages for the tasks you allocated to each of them. This, again, will help you plan for their routines which contribute to your household management.

This process of completing the pages for each task is now an ongoing task for you as you strive to complete your own Home Master. Sounds daunting? Nah - it's easy!

Now to deal with that kitchen

Yes, it's D-day for that kitchen we are going to do something about it right now! Today, we are going to bomb the clutter in your sink with cleaning power and get that sink looking the best it can be. Whilst we are at it we are also going to do some more de-cluttering - this time in the kitchen focussing on the clutter that clogs up bench tops, window ledges and breakfast bars. Remember the rule of 64?

• Pick up 16 things and putting them straight in the rubbish bin,
• pack up 16 things for the second hand store, Freecycle,or other group, and
• put away 16 things where they actually belong,
• select 16 things that are no longer in regular use to be archived into storage.

Get stuck in with the appropriate how-to for either stainless steel or ceramic sinks - whichever you may have. If you find a moment between tasks get stuck into the de-cluttering or get onto it after doing the sink and then be sure to wipe down your counter tops - there is a how-to for that below too!

Can I let you in on a secret? Let me whisper it to you,

'If you wipe down your sink and bench tops every night then waiting for the kettle to boil in the morning is far less painful.'

So, using the worksheet I have provided, add in each of the things I have asked you to do so far:

• make your bed,
• prepare yourself from head to heel,
• de-clutter with the rule of 64,
• clean your kitchen sink, and
• wipe down your counter tops.

Don't forget to add today's date as you do them too!

Well, it looks to me like you have some work to do - so I should let you get to it. Have a great day and I'll see you again tomorrow!

Glide on into Day 4.