Spring Cleaning Made Easy

What is it about this time of year that inspires us to set aside a whole day or maybe two to get our whole house spotless and clean? Is it the weather? The sun is shining and we are feeling good, do we want that to reflect on our household? Maybe.

Did you know that spring cleaning started as a common tradition because years ago households needed to practically board up their homes to prepare for the winter and keep their homes warm? When the only heat source was from the fire in the hearth, by the time spring came around there would be a layer of soot on everything in the house. It was necessary to shake out all cloth materials and wipe the house clean from top to bottom and fly open the windows to air out the room.

Today, while many people still keep a tradition of thorough house cleaning during the spring, it isn’t really entirely necessary to give the house a complete run through. Especially since we don’t have to worry about layers of soot, and we are better able to keep the house clean with regular upkeep year round.

Keeping up with the spring chores year round is the ultimate time saver. By the time May comes around, you may have a big project or two that you want to get done, but smaller tasks will already be done and you will feel more accomplished.

If you still have your spring cleaning to do here are some tips to help you do so a little easier and will save you time in the future.

1. If you are storing away your winter clothes, consider using large plastic storage containers that feature snap-on lids. These can be found in the house wares department at most stores and are very inexpensive. Storage containers are very important to keeping your clothes dust and discoloration free, which may otherwise be a problem if they are left hanging in the closet from one season to the next.

2. When packing your clothes, roll them instead of folding. This not only eliminates creases and wrinkles, but also saves a lot of space. You will be able to pack a lot more clothes with this technique.

3. Label your clothing containers as “Spring”, “Fall” and “Winter”. This will help you to easily locate your wardrobe inside the closet.

If you have any clothing that you don’t plan to wear or simply have outgrown, consider donating them to a local goodwill or other nonprofit organization. Rather than tossing them out, your clothes can provide revenue for a worthy cause and help the less fortunate to be able to afford clothing that would otherwise be unattainable.

4. Break down your chore list so that the overall task will be easier.  For the bigger outside jobs like pressure washing driveways and decks etc. hire a company to make the over job of spring cleaning easy.  Then break down the inside room by room and break it down over time to make it easier.

Remember that Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service and other professional companies are skilled at organizing, cleaning, and many,  many other jobs that can help you with your spring cleaning. There is no project too big or too small and overall you get to enjoy a bit more of your time, rather than facing the job yourself, and you can relax knowing professionals are taking care of you and you can actually enjoy your spring.

Mom Brain is Huge Time Waster!

If you have ever lost your keys you know how stressful it can be when you have somewhere to be in T-minus X minutes and counting. You probably also know what it is like to have to make that call and say you will be late  - or worse, can’t make it – because you can’t find the keys. And yes, then there are those moments, when after we have exhausted all possible places on where those dang keys could be, we find them hanging on the hook where they belong.

But have you found yourself forgetting more and more lately? Keys, cell phone, appointments, parent/teacher conferences, etc.? I bet you even blame it on being tired or hormones or the like, don’t you? Well I have your diagnosis, and I am sorry to say, it is Mom Brain. Seriously.

As a mom, you have the ability to remember who did what, where and when, down to precise seconds in time. You know each of your four children’s class projects inside and out and could recite their papers quicker than you could the Pledge of Allegiance, and do it while preparing their favorite meal without looking at a single recipe or pulling out a measuring cup one time. But when it comes to finding keys, cell phones, or remembering that dentist appointment it took 3 months to get **POOF**! The memory space for all of that has seemed to disappear.

I won’t go into the technical reasoning for the mom brain, but I will sum it up quickly for you. As children, we build our memories through use of repetition and game use (i.e., the board game, Memory) and we are able to remember anything we choose. I still sit in awe of my 8 year old who can tell me where we lived 6 years ago and what he was for Halloween when he was 2 years old. I can’t tell you what my kids were for Halloween last year, without looking for the pictures.

I digress.

Over time without challenging our brain, playing mind strengthening games and such, we lose the ability to store as much memory as we used to. Think of mind exercise like body exercise. When we fail to exercise the muscles of our body, we lose some of the capabilities those muscles have.

Fear not, just as I provided the diagnosis, I can provide a cure.

You can gain back memory “storage” through use of memory building games and brain stimulating activities. There are sites such as Lumosity that provide such games and activities and claim to improve memory, attention and creativity in quite a short amount of time. Lumosity does charge a small monthly fee each month, but they also do provide a money back guarantee.  In exercising your brain for just a few minutes every day, you should see a huge difference in your memory very quickly.

And with a growing memory, you will remember where those dang keys are, saving you 20 stress-filled minutes of searching and cursing. Who wouldn’t play a couple games a day to have that?

Games like Mahjong Titans are Good Brain Workouts

Luxury Time Launches New “Time With Friends” Program!

Just when you thought that Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service couldn’t get any better, we start rolling out this awesome customer “Time With Friends” Program. I mean, yeah, we outdid ourselves by offering 51% off on Living Social, and then doing it again on AAA’s Member Deals, but heck we thought, we need to offer our peeps something year round, something that really lets them know how much we love ‘em. After all we are only this awesome because we have such great customers.

Welp, here it is. 2 more fantabulous ways to save.

Let Your Friends Know How Great We Are!

Picture this: You are having lunch with a friend of yours that you haven’t seen in months. She knows how busy you are and asks how you ever managed to get away. Your answer? Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service. Your To-Do List didn’t magically disappear – well, I guess in a way it did. You get to enjoy your afternoon with your friend shopping and having lunch because Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service took over all of those pesky tasks that took up all your time and stopped you from being able to enjoy your life.

Your friend tells you that she wishes that she could have more time to enjoy her life as well. Well! Whatdoyoknow?! You can help her out with that!

Now when you book services with Luxury Time, we will give you referral cards to give your friends. After all you are going to need someone to be able to enjoy all that free time with! The best part? Your friend gets 20% off their services with the card, courtesy of you, their best friend. Now that’s a reason for them to pick up the tab on the next lunch.

They Get Time, You Get Time. 

You didn’t think that we would stop there did you? Pffft! We have more! I mean, yeah that’s cool that your friends save money when you schedule services, but we really don’t believe that ole’ mantra, “It’s better to give than receive”, and we didn’t think you would either.

Well, check this out. For every friend that you refer to us,  we give you 1/2 hour free services. Yup, that’s right, we said free. Which not only means more money, but more time. Free money, free time and it’s all yours.

Now how cool is that? Everyone saves money, and everyone has more time to do all the things we want to do. More lunches, more shopping, more relaxing and sitting poolside with all your friends who also have more.

The best part? There is no limit. Refer as many friends as you want to and you keep saving!

What are you waiting for? Call us now for more information on our new Time With Friends Program and how Luxury Time can bring ole’ friends together again.

330.734.9302

www.ltpcs.com

info@ltpcs.com

Luxury Time Featured by AAA!

Christmas is past, and the lights must come down. The New Year is upon us and our Resolutions are being made.

What are your Resolutions? Cleaner, more organized, homes? More time to enjoy the people and hobbies you love? Whatever your New Years Resolutions include, know that Luxury Time can help. With an expanded list of services we can bring you into the New Year with all of your chores done allowing you more time to focus on what pleasures life has in store for you.

AAA and Luxury Time are proud to present a New Years package that would allow you to start 2012 fresh and stress-free. Choose from two packages:

3 hours of concierge service for $37 -or-

10 hours of concierge service for $99

Start the New Year off knowing that your To-Do’s are being crossed off the list, by efficient professionals at a savings of 51%.

Save money! Have more time! That’s probably 2 of your Resolutions right there!

If you missed this deal before Christmas, now is the chance to purchase it through AAA. But hurry! This offer is only good from December 29, 2011 through January 5, 2011.

Click here to take advantage of this deal on the AAA Member Deals web site. Once it’s gone, it may be gone for good!

And don’t forget to “Like” us on our facebook page found here to get time saving tips and deals that you would not be able to get anywhere else.

Oosouji – A Japanese Custom Becomes Your New Year Tradition

“Oosouji” is the name of a Japanese annual ritual; it’s literal translation is “the big cleaning.” “Oo” meaning big,”souji” meaning cleaning.

At the end of every year, usually on New Years Eve for many families, Japanese homes are meticulously cleaned in an effort to drive out any impure influences that may have taken up residence during the previous year.  The timing is important: It’s considered inauspicious to drag old business, clutter and dust into a brand-new year. Purification is the key objective here, the end result (i.e. a clean and uncluttered house), is something I’m sure we all want and strive for.

This resonates with me. I know all too well that clutter can derail productivity. It’s distracting. And it can be downright depressing. Clutter wastes time and is uninspiring. The more clutter the more time is wasted.

Christmas 2011 is past, and if your house looks anything like mine, you might indeed be uninspired. How did this happen? Look at all this STUFF. Ugh! Where do you put it all? How do you organize it all?

New Years is less than a week away, and you are determined to be organized, use your time more wisely and in turn be less stressed. Why not take a page out of our Japanese friends old customs? It does after all make sense, a lot of sense.  Most Americans wait until spring to do the Big Cleaning. It is between now and then that we become lethargic and depressed with the weather and state of our own households, waiting for that nice spring day when the birds start chirping and we decide now, this is the perfect time to get our homes in order.

But this day won’t be here for a few months. And the New Year is upon us. How do we keep to our New Years Resolutions when we are doomed to sabotage them before the year even begins?

This week do yourselves a favor. Commit a day to Oosouji.

Start at the top.  The kids rooms are always the hardest to do, but what more perfect time than when they are home on break? Go through their toys and clothes with them. Use the 1-2 Rule. For every toy or item of clothes they received for Christmas, donate 2 items to charity.

Another tip, take inventory of what Christmas items you have and what you will need next year as you put them away this week. The stores are having their clearance sales on all of their left over holiday items and it might be a good time to go buy wrapping paper if you see that you will need more next year. Just be sure that you pack it away and make a note to yourself that you won’t need to purchase it next year. This will not only save you money, but save you stress when the holidays come around next year.

Keep your holiday storage boxes numbered (i.e. 1 0f 5) and keep your inventory list in the first box that you will open  (you will be relieved when you pull it out next year, trust me this is something I have done for 2 years now and I always breathe easy once I see and remember the best gift I could have given myself, that awesome list telling me what works, what doesn’t and what I have and what I need).

Continue on to every room in the house picking up the clutter, making a pile of things to donate and things to trash.

There are some amazing lists that you can find online for “spring cleaning”.  Click here to find one that we found that has every possible task that needs done.

This New Year, go into 2012 with a positive mind and a clean house and you will be getting a jump and the upper hand on your New Years Resolutions.

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Luxury Time Featured on Living Social!

What can’t Dasher, dancer, Prancer and Vixen carry in their sleigh?        Time!

With 6 days until Christmas time is running out! But fear not my friends! Luxury Time and Living Social have come together to save your sanity and last minute Christmas gift ideas, or maybe just some time for you to enjoy these last few days before Christmas!

December 19 – 21, 2011, Living Social will be featuring a wondrous Christmas miracle! The gift of time brought to you courtesy of Luxury Time Personal Concierge Service! Perfect for helping you wrap up those last minute details so you can enjoy the time with family and friends, or perfect for the people in your life could use a little break from the stress of daily training to outrun the clock.

These packages are set at prices only fit for this magical season! We are so excited to be able to offer you this deal available only through Living Social!

You can find the deal Monday December 18- Wednesday December 21 on the Akron/Canton Living Social web site here.

And don’t forget to “Like” us on our facebook page found here to get time saving tips and deals that you would not be able to get anywhere else.

Hiring A Professional

Hiring a professional can not only save you time, but it can also save you money in the long run. Let’s face it, when you do your own projects around the house you probably take shortcuts, that can end up costing you more time and money down the road when you have to redo them. A professional does it right the first time ensuring the quality and longevity of the project.

One of the best parts about a concierge company is that they have a list of qualified, quality professionals that they work with to ensure you are getting the best work for the best deal. Luxury Time has an extensive list of contractors and vendors that we work with because they are the best in their business. One more way we save you time…

Check out this article by Real Simple on When to Hire a Professional.

http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/home-improvement/yourself-when-hire-pro-10000001581970/index.html

Get More Done….Have More Time

Part of the problem with time is that we feel like we don’t have enough of it because there is always something else that needs to be done. How can we fix that? Well, our friends at Forbes have shared with us 8 ways to get more done in 2012. Their helpful tips include little things that make sense like unplugging from the virtual world and focusing on what needs to be done and defining tasks. My personal favorite is the gut check.

Make sure you check out that article here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2011/12/08/eight-secrets-to-getting-more-done-in-2012/.  Apply these tips to your life and you’ll be glad you did when you realize how much more you accomplish and how much time you have left to do something you really wanted to do.