by Kara | May 30, 2024 | Home, Organizational, Residential
If you’ve decided you need household help but aren’t sure you have enough for a household assistant to do, think again. Besides doing laundry, tackling meal prep, and handling other everyday chores, a skilled household assistant can organize your home inside and out and help you tackle the dream projects you always hoped would be possible.
Everything a Household Assistant Can Do
Chances are, if you’ve considered a household assistant, it’s because you’ve felt the pressure many busy professionals and overwhelmed moms feel—your to-do list keeps getting longer, and it seems there’s never enough time in the day. All the behind-the-scenes planning and anticipating you do often leaves you little time for yourself and the things you love.
But there’s hope. Even if you thought household assistants were just for celebrities or that you didn’t have enough for an assistant to do, there are several ways an assistant can organize your home and give you your time back. In fact, in all the homes Pepper’s assistants have worked in over the last 12-plus years, they’ve never had a problem finding enough to do!
At Pepper’s, we have a team of more than 30 highly skilled personal assistants ready to help you tackle a broad array of household tasks and projects. Upon entering your home, your assistant will look for opportunities to make improvements, organize household chores, and create a system for completing them efficiently. You’ll have a household guide that outlines everything from your favorite grocery store to the location of your water shut-off valve.
You can rely on your household assistant to handle tasks such as:
- Planning travel (including packing and unpacking)
- Decorating for holidays
- Doing laundry (including making dry cleaning runs)
- Planning and managing home parties
- Shopping for groceries and running errands
- Preparing food
- Taking out trash and recycling
- Scheduling and supervising on-site vendors
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Your household assistant can also take your home organization and special project ideas and make them a reality. Examples include creating a home art space, transforming outdoor areas to be more enjoyable, and finding home service contractors for maintenance and repair jobs.
The support you receive from a Pepper’s household assistant isn’t one-size-fits-all; it’s flexible to adapt to your specific needs. And if we don’t have a household assistant that fits the criteria you seek, we’ll find one. So, if you need an assistant who cooks, we’ll find someone who can cook your preferred cuisine. And if you need an assistant that’s great with pets, no problem! Our goal is to help you build a collaborative, stress-free relationship that meets your immediate and ongoing needs.
Steps You Can Take to Determine Your Household Help Needs
It’s not always easy to visualize what a household assistant can do for you day to day. That’s why Pepper’s assistants are trained to work with you at your pace, offering support and suggestions to ensure a smooth transition of chores from you to your assistant.
A great way to create a clearer picture of what your life could look like with a household assistant is to start with a list. Itemize all the things that you would love to never do again that someone could do for you. It might be doing laundry, standing in line at Costco, decluttering countertops, or making Amazon returns. Whatever it is, add it to your list.
As you continue this process, you’ll begin to see you’re probably spending more time on household chores than you realized. One study found that unpaid household chores took an average of 21.5 hours per week—three hours a day!
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Tackle Household Chores and Much More
Imagine what you could do with three more hours in your day. You could spend more time with family and friends, reconnect with an old hobby, or even find a new one.
These are the kinds of benefits Libby Wagner enjoyed once she began working with her Pepper’s household assistant. In a case study of Libby’s experience, we discuss how her assistant took time-consuming chores off Libby’s to-do list and helped her complete dream projects that made her home more enjoyable. Having household help transformed her home and life.
“I’m able to spend the time I need to on my business, which is a lot, and then I get to enjoy my home and my life and the precious unstructured time that I have not taken up with doing errands and chores,” she said.
To learn more about Libby’s experience with her Pepper’s household assistant, download the full case study.
by Kara | May 13, 2024 | Home, Organizational
Spring is the perfect time to refresh and rejuvenate your home after the winter months. The garden is coming back to life, and it’s becoming warm enough to open the windows and let in some fresh air.
With the help of our handy checklist, you can manage your household and keep everything clean, organized, and operating smoothly.
Spring Household Maintenance Planner for Working Moms
As the old saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” However, it’s easy to forget or put off home maintenance if you don’t have a list of what to check for and a method for keeping everything organized. One survey found that 68 percent of homeowners don’t have an annual home maintenance checklist or routine.
Completing your annual spring-cleaning is easier with an “organize my house” checklist and some prioritizing in advance. In fact, there are a variety of tools out there to help busy moms plan and schedule household tasks. They include:
- Apps such as Trello and Asana
- Home management books
- Free printables for home organization
No matter what method you use to prioritize and schedule your home maintenance to-dos, consider adding the following items to your checklist:
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Exterior Repairs and Maintenance
- Check for damage to your home’s exterior, including the foundation, siding, roof, and gutters, and identify vendors to help with repairs.
- Inspect caulking around doors and windows and reseal as needed.
- Identify any areas of pest or insect damage and schedule a preventative or remedial exterminator visit.
- Spruce up outdoor spaces by cleaning patio furniture, power-washing decks and walkways, and testing exterior lighting.
- Begin cleanup of lawn and consider hiring a professional landscaper for pruning, mulching, and garden planting.
- Clean out the outdoor grill and firepit.
- Schedule lawn irrigation system startup and annual testing.
- Schedule pool opening.
Interior Decluttering and Maintenance
- Do a walk-through of each room and determine what needs to be reorganized.
- Donate or sell items you no longer need.
- Identify furniture and furnishings in need of repair or replacement.
- Deep-clean carpets and reseal wood floors as needed.
- Clean windows, drapes, and other upholstery to remove built-up dirt and allergens.
- Dust surfaces throughout each room.
- Test and replace batteries in smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms.
- Organize garage and storage spaces as needed.
HVAC, Plumbing, and Appliance Maintenance
- Schedule a professional inspection and cleaning for your HVAC and plumbing equipment, including:
- Furnace/boiler
- Chimney interior
- Septic and well systems
- Sump pump
- Water softener
- Dehumidification system
- Replace HVAC air filters and clean heating/cooling vents and returns.
- Inspect faucets, toilets, and pipes for leaks and signs of damage and repair as needed.
- Clean and descale dishwasher, washing machine, and other appliances to maintain efficiency.
- Replace refrigerator water filters as needed.
- Run an oven self-cleaning cycle.
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How Pepper’s Personal Assistants Helps Busy Moms
Keeping up with household maintenance can feel overwhelming. And if you’re managing household chores, childcare, and your career, you may be like many moms who feel even more stretched. In one survey, 93 percent of moms reported feeling burned out.
Thankfully, there’s hope. At Pepper’s Personal Assistants, we understand how hectic your schedule can be as a working mom, and we’re here to help you plan and organize your lengthy to-do list. One of our highly skilled household assistants can help you easily tackle your spring checklist, so you get it all done and have more time for the people and things you love. From organizing clutter to scheduling maintenance appointments and supervising repairs, your assistant can handle it all. (You don’t even have to be home for it to get done).
To see how much time you can get back in your day, download our free resource: What Your Life Could Look Like with a Household Assistant.
by Kara | Apr 24, 2024 | Home, Organizational
Of all the time-consuming household chores out there, laundry is one of the most frustrating. You can only avoid laundry for so long, and when the piles of clothes keep growing, so does your stress level.
If you’re an overwhelmed mom at the end of her rope, there are some things you can do to “lighten your load” and manage your laundry with fewer headaches.
Why Doing the Laundry Is So Challenging
No matter the size of your family, laundry can be a tedious chore—and one that never gets permanently crossed off your to-do list. The moment you think you’re done, there’s more laundry ready to go in the washer.
For many moms, the whole process of sorting, washing, folding, and putting clothes away is exhausting. When life gets extra busy, it’s not unusual to have clothes sitting in the dryer all day or clean clothes that never make it back to the closet.
If doing laundry eats up a lot more of your time than you’d like, you’re not alone. Research has found that the average mom spends an estimated 3.5 hours on laundry each week, totaling five months of her life spent on laundry by the time her child reaches age 18. Imagine what else you could do with five extra months of time!
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5 Tips to Help Overwhelmed Moms Stay On Top of the Laundry
Though laundry is necessary in every household, full-time working moms are too busy to spend more time on it than is necessary. Between your career, family responsibilities, and other household chores, you have more than enough on your plate.
If you’re wondering how to keep up with laundry and avoid feeling paralyzed by a messy house, take the stress out of laundry day with these practical tips:
1. Set a realistic and repeatable wash schedule.
Depending on your family size and lifestyle, it may be easier to have set days for doing laundry rather than making every day laundry day. For example, you could set aside a morning or afternoon and finish all the laundry in that time frame.
Alternatively, you could set up a weekly schedule in which you commit to doing a specific number of loads on specific days. There are also apps, such as Todoist or Home Tasker, that can help you create and stick to a laundry schedule that fits your family’s needs.
2. Don’t wash after every wear.
Many clothing items—such as undergarments, socks, and T-shirts—require a wash after every wear, but others do not. For example, you can wear jeans and some sweaters more than once before washing them. By washing these items only when they become soiled or stained, you can reduce your weekly washing load and avoid the premature wear and tear of those items.
3. Fold clothes as soon as they’re done in the dryer.
Taking clothes out of the dryer immediately often provides the satisfaction that one more load is done and off your to-do list. But folding and putting away clothes right away does more than give you a sense of achievement: It also helps you cut down on wrinkles and save some ironing time.
4. Sort laundry throughout the week.
If you’re already an overwhelmed mom, you’ll likely become even more distressed at the sight of an enormous pile of unsorted laundry. However, if you pre-sort dirty laundry right after you wear it, you can quickly grab a load for washing without having to sort it first.
There are different ways to sort: You can place hampers for whites, colors, and delicates in a central location, or you can make it easier for everyone to chip in by placing sorting hampers in bedrooms. The next time you need to throw a quick load of whites into the washer, the items will be sorted and ready to go.
5. Enlist some help.
Of course, all the laundry needs to get done, but it doesn’t all have to be done by you. You can split laundry responsibilities among household members—or save time for everyone by outsourcing laundry duties to a household assistant. A household assistant can do the laundry, put all the clothes away, and keep your laundry room tidy and stocked. A reliable assistant can also make dry cleaning runs and tackle many other household chores for you and your family.
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Get More Hours Back in Your Day
Household laundry is too time-consuming to manage without the right help and an efficient system for getting it all done. By outsourcing chores to a trusted household assistant, you could say goodbye to ever doing laundry again and go from being an overwhelmed mom to a content and unstressed mom.
To learn more, download our e-book, What Your Life Could Look Like with a Household Assistant.
by Kara | Jun 1, 2021 | Home
Now that summer is right around the corner, you may feel the urge to open the windows, tackle some organization projects that may have fallen by the wayside, and refresh your everyday environment. One way to liven up your surroundings and give your home an easy makeover is to choose a new color scheme for your home.
Whether you go all in and paint your rooms some new shades, or if you’re thinking of simply switching up the tones of your curtains, furniture, or art, the colors you choose are important. Not only do certain colors represent our identities, but the colors we surround ourselves with can also affect our moods and feelings.
June is also Pride month, so celebrating LGBTQIA+ individuals by decorating your home with Pride flags and other colors that represent your identity or allyship is a great way to show your support.
[Related: Overcoming Stress: A Guide to Better Communicating Within Your Home]
Color Psychology
So what is color psychology anyway? Color psychology is the belief that certain colors can influence human feelings and emotions. This way of thinking is one reason we associate the color blue with sadness, or red with love, and is a helpful tool for marketing design professionals.
When refreshing your colors around your home, consider how each type of color can elicit certain moods.
Red
Red is a bold color that represents strong emotions. This warm hue is associated with love, passion, and power, and can raise the energy levels in your room. A red room can also create a very cozy environment.
Orange
Adding orange curtains or painting a room in your home this citrus shade can instantly brighten your mood. Bursting with vitality and encouraging activity, orange is a great color to paint and office or home gym.
Yellow
Yellow is considered the color of happiness, most likely because we associate it with bright, sunny days. Yellow is a perfect color for a child’s playroom or a dining room to encourage many playful, joyous moments of togetherness.
Green
If you’re looking for a calm, soothing paint color, green should be your go-to. Green inspires a cool, zen-like environment, and can alleviate stress, so it is a perfect shade for bedrooms.
Blue
Blue is also a very calm and relaxed shade to incorporate in your environment. This color can decrease anxiety, and this cool shade even has the ability to lower heart rate and blood pressure.
Purple
Purple is a sophisticated color, often associated with royalty and class. Color your bedroom or living area a purple shade to encourage relaxation and contentment.
[Related: De-Clutter and De-Stress: A Motto for Spring Cleaning]
Pride Flags
In addition to influencing our emotions, the colors we choose to decorate our home with can also represent our beliefs, values, and identities. For example, the numerous pride flags that exist create their own rainbow of colors—each standing for one element of orientation. Using these colors or even decorating with these flags can show your connection with or support for a wide range of identities. Here are just a few:
Traditional Pride Flag
The most familiar flag is the traditional gay pride flag popularized in 1979 in San Francisco.
The colors of the traditional pride flag and what they are known to stand for are as follows:
- Red stands for life
- Orange stands for healing
- Yellow stands for sunlight
- Green stands for nature
- Indigo stands for serenity
- Violet stands for spirit
Transgender Pride Flag
Monica Helms designed the transgender pride flag in 1999, and it was first flown publicly at a Phoenix, Arizona pride parade the following year. The top and bottom of the flag is light blue, the next stripes inward are pink, and the middle stripe is white. This represents the social norm of light blue for boys, pink for girls, and the white represents those transitioning either way, or who are nonbinary.
[Related: How Hiring a Personal Assistant Can Support Your Family While Remote Learning and Working From Home]
However you decide to refresh your colors in your home this summer, remember that colors hold significance. Choose the hues that will make you feel the best, and support the causes and the people you care about.
Need help giving your home the make-over it needs? Are you behind on spring cleaning? Pepper’s Personal Assistants can help.
Contact us today to find out how our personal assistants can help you transform your space into an organized, healing, and refreshed environment.
by Kara | Mar 31, 2021 | Health, Home, Parenting
When it comes to home life and the relationships within, stress can be an incredibly damaging element. Our anxiety levels peak, our reactivity tends to rise in direct alignment. We can become snappy, short-tempered, and even aggressive, which is both confusing and upsetting for those around us. Left unchecked, this pattern can lead to long-term communication breakdown.
This is a 3-minute read and a wealth of compassion. If you don’t have the time, we understand, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, and we will make sure you get the bullet points.
How We Operate
None of us operate at our very best when we feel under pressure. Realistically, stress is an unavoidable fact of home life that we cannot always prevent. However, there are many powerful ways to overcome its hold on our emotional balance to take better care of the relationships we care about most. Thankfully—this article is here to help!
Your natural stress response might be to avoid talking about what’s happening. However, the opposite is necessary if you want to stay connected in your household relationships. Whether it’s with a partner, family member, or roommate, an open line of conversation is necessary for all parties to feel safe and honest about their feelings. Without honesty, family bonds are threatened.
Make The Time
When home chores and family responsibilities mount up, our relationship focus can begin to dwindle. We lurch distractedly from one day to the next while telling ourselves we will eventually find time to talk. However, we must create specific times to connect to allow space to communicate effectively. Regular conversational check-ins will soon lead to ‘home-team success.
Talking about how stress makes you feel at a time when you feel calm can be enlightening for others. Set aside quality time to talk through how it feels when you’re overwhelmed. Discuss what would be helpful to you. Perhaps you prefer not to have solutions thrown at you. You might just need a listening ear. Or maybe physical reassurance, such as a hug, would be beneficial.
Communication is Teamwork
Communication is fundamental to teamwork—a family is a team, after all. Therefore, make the crucial effort to ensure you each feel heard. When you’re talking about a problem, particularly if it’s one within the home, make sure you each have space to talk. Resist the urge to interrupt when others are voicing their feelings. You might be surprised at what you learn about them.
Ensure that you allow space within your home routine or work schedule for great communication practices. Tackling a stress-loaded issue while you’re getting ready for work one morning is not going to lead to positive results. Most likely, you’ll lead your day feeling agitated and unclear about what’s happening. Choose regular time slots that suit you both to talk freely.
Put Away Distraction
There is nothing more deflating than opening up to someone before witnessing them glance down at a notification on their phone. This toxic habit can stop a great conversation dead in its tracks. Set aside those digital vices and turn to face one another. Grab some coffee to share and get comfortable. Calmer environments lead to better home communication.
Most importantly—acknowledge consciously that home communication may not always go to plan. Stress can sneak up on us. We might fail to initiate a difficult conversation at an appropriate time or say something we later regret. You are wonderfully human, and the process of relationship-building is ongoing. Be forgiving with yourself and others. You’ve got this!
by Kara | Mar 31, 2021 | Home, Laundry, Organizational
With the change of season comes a reset of home life, and when we talk about spring cleaning, the question on everyone’s mind is: Where to begin?
This is our four-week guide on efficiently checking every nook and cranny off your list and who to call if you don’t have the time. Pro Tip: Start saving those Amazon boxes now for donations, repair, and storage.
This is a 3-minute read and a month full of activities. If you don’t have the time, we understand, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter, and we will make sure you get the spring cleaning bullet points.
Week One
Dust Everything
From top to bottom, start in the corners of the ceiling with either a broom or vacuum attachment to reach those pesky cobwebs hiding in your kitchen, living room, bedrooms, and bathrooms.
Then to the drapes, either launder them yourself or have them dry cleaned because, depending on how old they are, they have been collecting dust for years.
Now to shelves and tabletops, not forgetting your books and other decorative knick-knacks while adding anything for donation to the donation box.
Finally, the floors, vacuum, mop, wax, and shine because what goes up must come down, and this task will no doubt leave debris.
Clean Your Electronics
With a damp microfiber cleaning cloth, wipe down all the surfaces of remote controls, phones, both mobile and landlines, tablets, and computers. As some of the most touched items in the home, they are also the least clean.
Week Two
Sort Through Your Shoes
Open toe season is right around the corner, meaning the snow boots and wellies can be stored away, and any older shoes that need repair should be taken to the cobbler.
Clean Winter Bedding
Wash your couch covers, pillowcases, and any other linens used around the house to keep cozy, and take your winter coats to the dry cleaner.
Store Winter Items
As the weather begins to warm, the amount and weight of our clothing start to lighten. Begin boxing sweaters, coats, scarves, gloves, and woolen socks. Don’t forget to check the under-bed storage boxes. Is there anything to sell, donate, or consign?
Week Three
Declutter Your Medicine Cabinet
Believe it or not, cosmetics and medicines expire, and now is an excellent time to weed through them. Get rid of liquid makeup over three months old and powdered makeup that is over a year old. Remembering to be cautious if you have children or pets and where possible dispose of your expired medicines at your local pharmacy. Do not flush them.
Toss Bathroom Clutter
Take everything out of the bathroom linen closet, cabinets, bathtub, and shower. Wash all towels, rugs, and bath mats. Wipe down all surfaces before returning the items and sort those for trash, donation, or consignment.
Week Four
Clean Your Appliances
Take a microfiber cloth with some baking soda, vinegar, and salt as a natural cleaning solution to the oven, microwave, kitchen aid, and toaster oven, anything you cook with, including their plugs, tops, bottoms, sides, and accessories that came with them.
Clean Out Your Fridge and Cabinets
Pull everything out of your fridge and freezer, including the shelves, racks, and storage bins. Bulky things like this we have found best to wash in the bathtub.
Toss any old or unused, spoiled, or expired food items.
Use a cooler to keep things frozen and cool while you work to avoid spoiling.
Run your icecube trays through the dishwasher.
Wipe down insides and out before putting everything back in.
This is also an excellent time to check the kitchen cabinets for any other food that can be thrown out.
And Done
One month full of responsible spring cleaning activities complete. Now when the April showers begin to clear and the May flowers bloom, your home will be ready. Or you could just call someone:
Peppers Personal Assistants
206-228-5768
We’ll take care of it.
