Keepin’ it company-ready, Cluckery style

“5 minutes, Jen. 5 minutes.”

This is what my friend Kathleen told me over 20 years ago, when I asked her how in the world I could homeschool my scatter-brained, never-sit-still son!

Homestead Beauty! We’ve had TWO of these gorgeous rainbows over our property in the last week, reminding us of God’s faithfulness!

Most of my adult life, I’ve been a “minutes girl.” When there’s a large project to tackle, I often eat it in small bites.

The first time I remember putting this into practice was when I was a young 20-something HR Assistant at Autoliv. We went through a huge merger; my responsibilities were Out Of Control. I no longer felt that I had time for “little” things like filing. Someone even said, “You know, Jen, you and Jill don’t smile like you used to.” He was right! It was a pretty awful season.

Obviously, what this led to was a filing cabinet stuffed with piles of unfiled “stuff.” So then when someone needed something…arrrgh.

That’s when I implemented my 5-minute rule.

In that case, it was my “File One Folder” rule. I wrote it right in my planner in my daily tasks: “File One Folder.” Every day I opened that file cabinet, pulled out one folder, and put every single document where it belonged. When that was done, I shut the cabinet until the next day. Within a few short weeks, that cabinet was cleaned out.

This continued as I got married and had kids. Storage room out of control? 5 minutes a day. Flower beds full of weeds? 5 minutes a day. Cut-out and photocopied recipe cards stuffed in a drawer? 5 minutes a day. Photos piling up waiting to be put into albums? 5 minutes a day. Said photo albums stuffed with duplicates and 6 slightly different pictures of the same moment? (Can you say “pet peeve”?🤣) 5 minutes a day.

But now I’m in a different stage of life. 50 years old, kids nearly all grown. And while I’m still Wife, Mom, Homemaker, my life has expanded to welcome many of YOU. Many weeks find me doing impromptu farm tours and on-farm events, introducing new customers and old friends to The Cluckery.

And let me tell you something about homesteading.

It is a MESS. Feed bags, grit bags, garden tools, the ubiquitous orange buckets. Bowls for the cat, weeds piled from weeding the garden (maybe!), and a wheelbarrow full of dirt to fill in holes the chickens dig so we don’t break our ankles!

In fact, I’ve heard it said (again, rightly) that a productive homestead usually looks a little run down. And that makes sense: You can waste a LOT of time trying to make things look pretty while the tomatoes rot on the vine and the summer squash get eaten by squash bugs! Gittin’ ‘er done is more important than looking good.

BUT: the looks of this place are actually pretty important. It doesn’t need to be ritzy (good thing!), but it needs to look CLEAN and TIDY. If you’re coming out to the farm for the first time to see what we’re all about - and possibly to decide if I’m the chicken lady for you - and things are just dirty, what does that say about how we manage and process your chicken? We MIGHT have sort of a double standard…filthy on the farm and clean in the processing, but your mind isn’t going to make that differentiation.

Yet HOW do I keep it company-ready? I will say that not having little kids is a huge help! (Although if someone is going to be upset by toys in the yard, they can just go find themselves another chicken lady! So there! 😁😜)

But how DO I keep things down to a dull roar, so to speak?

Well, we come back to one of my key tools in life: Being a “Minutes Girl.” Every Friday my planner has a little note: “Tidy 20.” That means I set a timer, usually turn on a farm business podcast on my phone, and walk around the property looking at things from a customer’s perspective. Some Fridays it’s just putting away garden tools and dealing with the stack of feed bags. Other Fridays I work on the Dreaded Spot Behind The Barn. Maybe I move some pallets I no longer need…or fold up portable fencing. It is astounding how much can be gotten through in 20 minutes!

Honestly, this practice relaxes my brain…a lot. If something is rather messy, it no longer weighs on my mind, because I know I can get to it on Friday.

AND…I no longer have to dash outside to tidy up if I have the sudden opportunity to do a farm tour! Even IF a few things are out of place, I know the overall look of the place is okay, because of this consistent Friday practice.

There was an unexpected side benefit, too. Cheaper insurance! Woohoo!

We had to update our homeowner’s insurance last year, and let me tell you: I was nervous. Our roof is original to this house, over 20 years old by now. They came out, took a look around, and wrote us an inexpensive policy BECAUSE THE PLACE WAS NEAT AND TIDY! They didn’t feel like we were much of a liability. WELL! You could have knocked me over with a feather. Roof, schmoof. They wanted tidy and looked-after! Well, okay!

You guys, I hope you can see that this principle can be used just about anywhere. There is CERTAINLY something to be said for starting a project and finishing it without stopping. I may very well write about that some day, too, because it is a hugely important skill, especially in our days of tech-addiction and stress and the associated increase in ADHD. But doing a huge project all at once doesn’t always make sense. It doesn’t make sense to wait until the property is a disaster to clean it, especially considering how many people I welcome onto our farm!

Plus, then cleaning things up would become a dreaded chore instead of something I actually look forward to. Walking around the garden and yard for 20 minutes putting things away? I can think of worse things to do on a Friday afternoon!

I’ll leave you with this practical suggestion: one place I put this to use EVERY YEAR is in our personal files. Do you have ANY idea how far back your electric bills and tax forms go? Do you find yourself needing to STUFF papers into your cabinet? 5 minutes. Every January (yes, really) I go through all of our personal files, beginning with “Auto” and ending with “Utilities.” Anything older than one year (unless of course it’s medical/tax stuff with rules of their own!) is GONE: either run through my handy-dandy paper shredder or put aside for scrap paper. This includes the appliance manual for the coffee maker I pitched out last year: nothing is off the table. And within about 2-3 weeks of 5 minutes, my files are once again manageable. My kids will thank me after I’m dead.😁 I thank me now. Ha!