By Tim Riley

Stunned, you hang up the phone. Your client wants to meet you at work. You work at home and your home is a wreck. Travails like this happen to home-based workers all the time. Sometimes you can avoid the home meeting by reserving a meeting room at the library or a nearby facilities provider, but at at the last minute, you have limited options. The following 10 tips for cleaning up before a home client meeting will help you prepare.

1. First Impressions Count

Walk up to your door while looking through the eyes of your client. Notice what problems seem worst problems and tackle them first. Spend the most time and effort cleaning up areas that will provide the most noticeable improvement. Vacuuming under the sofa can probably wait until later.

2. Limit Time Spent On A Task

Set time limits for your cleaning activities. When a task takes longer than the allotted time, consider moving on to something which can offer better results. The goal is to get the most productivity out of the limited time you have available. (more…)

By Holly Reisem Hanna

I’m one of those Type A individuals who has to have everything all clean and tidy. Every week I spend a good amount of time cleaning and organizing – which I don’t mind, I actually find it therapeutic. The only problem is that keeping the house spic-and-span takes up a huge chunk of my valuable time; time that I could be use to grow my business or spend with my loved ones.

Well, a few weeks ago I read this article on Simple Mom, The Case for Once a Month Cleaning. The article highlighted some really good points about batching your duties. I’ve actually been intrigued with the idea of batching since I read Tim Ferriss’ The Four Hour Work Week. In this book Tim talks about doing chores on a month basis, instead of a week basis – thus saving you time.

So I decided to try out a similar plan and see how much extra time I could save myself each week.

Here’s how the 22 minute house cleaning plan works…

For the first 3 weeks you do a quick 22 minute spot clean. On week 4 you do a deep clean which will take longer, but you’ll gain extra time weeks 1-3. (more…)

By Christy Schutz

As I switched gears from my normal work tasks to ponder on this month’s post, I stopped to take a deep breath and looked around at my home office. My eyes settled first on the stack of books propped up precariously on the corner of my desk. The pile features a host of things I am in the midst of reading, intend to read, or will probably NEVER read because I’ve lost interest in the content or couldn’t get into the author’s style of writing. Next, I turn to see a slew of file folders. They are bloated and bulging from all the papers I’ve yet to file. UGH. I wonder how much of this stuff I really need, anyway.

Finally, I decide I’d be more likely to encounter some blogging inspiration if I were to turn to peer out my office window. I can see a bright pink flower blooming from one of the plants I thought had perished in this past winter’s freeze. Ahh…spring has definitely sprung. Then it hit me. My Work at Home life could definitely use some Spring Cleaning! (more…)