INTRO

You do all that you can just to get your family through the day. You use your weekends just to catch up. You do just enough laundry so people have clothes to wear, you are constantly cleaning the kitchen; making sure it is ready for the next meal to be made, you pick up toys and clutter so everyone can safely walk through the house (or at least so they aren’t in eyesight of the unexpected visitor!), you make sure the trash is taken out when it’s full, you hope everyone’s items can be found before they walk out the front door each day and you try to get a new roll of toilet paper in the bathroom before the last one is empty, all the while hoping nobody stops by at the wrong time, especially your mom! And for some reason, nobody in the family is jumping up to help!

Maybe you have decided to pay someone to clean for you. Maybe you buy convenience food and pre-packaged items. You have tried to streamline. You are playing the role of coordinator. No matter how good you get, somehow it is still up to you to find everyone’s missing belongings or to make sure everyone has a clean towel when they get out of the shower! No matter how hard you try, the family days are just slipping by with everyone rushing in and out; trying to make sure they meet all their schedules and deadlines. And in the mean time, it is eating away at the family budget. The cost of having someone else clean your home once a week averages $7,800 per year, not to mention the money it cost to replace items that you know you have, but just can’t seem to find. With $10K per year, you could go on a pretty nice shopping spree! 

Are you and your spouse working full time jobs? Are you home alone with the kids all day? Are you driving all day and barely have a moment at home? Are your children not pulling their weight when it comes to chores?  Do you have to ask your kids over and over again to do something?  Are you doing way more than half of the household chores? Do you have to beg for help?  Is “family time” defined as driving to and from school, games and practices? Do you consider your children interacting with each other when they sit side-by-side watching TV, texting, playing a video game or going through the drive through line at your local fast food place? Is your intimate relationship with your spouse waving to each other as you pull in and out of the driveway? Was this the family you dreamed of when you got married and first had kids? Do you want to stop playing “catch up” and start enjoying your family and your home?

I get it! It is very hard when you feel like keeping up the house and building a great family at the same time is all up to you. I understand how overwhelmed you feel. I know how under appreciated a mom can be at times. I know how you wish there were more hours, more days, more hands. I know how it feels to always feel behind.  I have four children of my own. 

The Team Clean will walk you through the process of turning your family into a team that cleans together once a week. You will learn how to initially prepare your home for Team Clean and what few items you need to make it work. I will walk you through how to get your family on board and help you figure out what role each member will play, depending on their age, gender and abilities. I will teach you how to break the jobs in your house down to simple three-part directions and show you step-by-step how to run the actual cleaning night, with advice about avoiding obstacles.  You will learn how to cover your entire house in less than an hour, without cleaning any other night of the week. 

There is a Part II to Team Clean that turns this weekly “clean up the house night” into a family bonding night and this book will teach you how to make that happen in your home too. We will brainstorm together and build the perfect part II for your family. You will learn how to establish and implement it on your very first Team Clean night (your family will love this part!). I will show you how this tradition will benefit your children for life, strengthen all the relationships within your family and even build bonds with your children’s friends. This last part really comes in handy when they become teenagers. You will even get a chance to hear the dad’s and kids’ points of view, but, in the end, you may be most excited to learn that you’ll never clean your house alone again!

I have raised four children and I established Team Clean in our house twelve years ago, in the Fall of 2000. My children ranged in age from four to thirteen when we did our first Team Clean. I co-own an overnight basketball camp where we instruct 2500 kids every summer. I organize the rooming (by request!), teaming, registration and check-out each week. I chair numerous community non-profit events throughout the year. I started a youth group from the ground up. I have always coached my kids’ teams and lead their after school activities. I have run playgroups for toddlers and overnight weekends for teenagers. I know how to implement systems and create ways for things to work efficiently! I make sure whatever I am doing is run the best way possible for the least amount of time and money. 

You might think I don’t understand where you are or that your family members are different than mine. This is not true. I was in your shoes. Our children never even had chores before Team Clean. The closest we ever got to making our children work was singing the Barney “Clean-Up” song as we had them put their toys in the toy box! 

I want to share the Team Clean concept with you. I will teach you how to be the coach of your family by being your coach! I will lock arms with you and show you how I went from my children not having chores, to my family asking to help me every week. I will show you how cleaning can be a mere “blip” in your week. It takes twenty-one days to form a habit. I say, in ninety days, you can create a solid tradition that will produce life long benefits for your loved ones. What is the date of ninety days from now? Write it down. It will be a good day for you and your family. 

Today is the first day of your ninety days. You are about to learn the Team Clean system. When you look back to this day, it will be like looking back at the “before picture” in one of those diet books. You are making a decision to take the step to rebuild and strengthen your family, and as an added bonus, you will get a clean, organized house and your very own team will be the one making it happen for you! I know I can help you achieve this for your family. Let’s take this journey together.

Are you ready to start?  Give me a “T” ….Give me an “E”… Give me an “A”….Give me an “M”…

Let’s create your team!

Carol PaulI

READ MORE...