Exit Strategy, as a term, has been showing up a lot for me in recent weeks. Don’t freak out! I have zero plans to leave or sell my business and I’m NOT taking it as a sign, but I love the idea of planning so you can be ready for a major transition. As I write this, we’re between tenants at our rental property and refreshing the house, as you do when someone moves out, in order to attract someone new. It’s a ton of work. So much work that it’s taking away from other things and I’m feeling fed up and considering letting go of the property. Sticking a For Sale sign in the yard and crossing my fingers is a hasty move (though it aligns with my current sentiments and pattern of behavior) so I’m working on an exit strategy to help figure out if now is good time, what we’d need to do to, possible ramifications, whether it’s worth it, etc.

What I’m loving most about the clarity I’m getting from doing this, is the realization that it can be applied to all kinds of significant decisions. Even cleaning up a chronically messy home! I’m calling it a M-Exit Strategy, a sort of portmanteau, like Brexit, but for a messy-home exit. (I don’t think it will be catching on any time soon.) You might not be ready to get your house in order right now, especially if you see it as a lofty, future-self endeavor. What I’m betting, is that at some point, you WILL be ready! Being ready usually comes after weariness has set in, followed by a spark of realization that ignoring the mess is doing way more harm than good. If you want to be ready for when the spark comes, read on! Until now, you’ve been wishing for a tidy, organized home. Winging it is probably what got you here, so now, you’re going to be intentional and you’re going to START WITH A PLAN!

STEP 1. What’s the objective?

This step is easy. The mess is bothering you enough that you’re considering serious, long-term solutions. List the reasons. You probably have more than one. List them all! Since we’re talking reasons, we should include the problems as well as the expected outcomes of eliminating the problems. Turn it into a therapeutic gripe session. Include every bad situation you’ve been put in by living in this messy house. List the consequences of things that have been lost, damaged, or wasted. Include things that you’ve been late for or missed out on. Alongside those, add all the positive outcomes you hope to achieve with this change. What do you imagine the results will be?

STEP 2. What’s the value?

How much better will it feel to have a tidy home? How will your life improve? Granted, this step is a little less tangible. We’re not necessarily looking at dollars and cents here… though we could! Have you spent money rebuying things you forgot you already had, things you couldn’t find when you needed them, things that expired, or things that got damaged in the mess? Have you wasted money on late fees or autorenewals for memberships you no longer need? Consider the cost and benefit of the current state of your home and compare it to the cost and benefit of trying something different. Is it worth making the change?

STEP 3. What are your M-Exit options?

There are many roads to a tidy home. Start another list. You can quit your job and make keeping house your new life’s work; a noble endeavor. You can abandon the place as a lost cause and start over with a new house. More realistically, you can hire a professional organizer and a housekeeper. The professional organizer creates systems and gets your things in order. The housekeeper helps maintain it. When new things come into the home that don’t fit within the system, or if the system doesn’t end up working for your lifestyle, you invite the organizer back to tweak the system. The frequency varies depending on factors like how often new things come into the house and your tolerance to clutter before getting overwhelmed. Personally, I dream about hiring a house manager; someone to take ALL of this off my plate please!!! Short of that, consider the option that makes a lasting change, which is learning simple ways of doing this on your own and fitting it into the routine of your daily life. Ultimately, you have to choose the option that makes sense for you.

STEP 4. What’s the plan?

Once you decide what needs to be done, determine the individual steps to make it happen. It may start with researching local service providers or looking for a coach. I start everything by looking for advice on YouTube. Whatever it is, list the actions that need to be taken to follow the specific exit option you’ve chosen.

STEP 5. Execute!

You may be a Grade-A Procrastinator, like me, but I’ll bet you’re also a World-class Doer. So when the time is right, go on and put your plan into action! You know what you want and now, when the spark happens, you have a plan to get you there. I’m excited for you to experience the results!