Consider an answer given in Refactoring, and don't explain it to a non-technical person. Refactoring is a technical activity that they don't need to know about:

Of course, many people say they are driven by quality but are more driven by schedule. In these cases I give my more controversial advice: Don't tell!

 

Subversive? I don't think so. Software developers are professionals. Our job is to build effective software as rapidly as we can. … A schedule-driven manager wants me to do things the fastest way I can; how I do it is my business. The fastest way is to refactor; therefore I refactor.

(Refactoring, Martin Fowler, 2000, page 61)

Of course this won't work if you're going to spend a month doing nothing but refactoring, but I think that's generally a bad idea anyway, and it's much better to just refactor to the extent necessary to make your current or next task easier, or to clean up code that you've just been working with.

Consider an answer given in Refactoring, and don't explain it to a non-technical person. Refactoring is a technical activity that they don't need to know about:

Of course, many people say they are driven by quality but are more driven by schedule. In these cases I give my more controversial advice: Don't tell!

Subversive? I don't think so. Software developers are professionals. Our job is to build effective software as rapidly as we can. … A schedule-driven manager wants me to do things the fastest way I can; how I do it is my business. The fastest way is to refactor; therefore I refactor.

(Refactoring, Martin Fowler, 2000, page 61)

Of course this won't work if you're going to spend a month doing nothing but refactoring, but I think that's generally a bad idea anyway, and it's much better to just refactor to the extent necessary to make your current or next task easier, or to clean up code that you've just been working with.