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Some people– according to their own testimony – apparently really enjoy tidying up and organising their homes, to the point where they don’t need any special incentive, threat, or cajoling of any kind, in order to keep the place spick-and-span around the clock, and throughout the year.
The world probably owes those people a debt of gratitude – because it’s almost certain that they are keeping something or other afloat that would have sunk if it was just the rest of us tending to it.
For everyone else, however, domestic chores quickly end up seeming a lot more like domestic drudgery than we might like, and any excuse to spend less time doing cleaning, and handling home-based chores and responsibilities on a weekly basis, quickly ends up looking and feeling like some kind of divine blessing.
It’s unlikely that there will ever be a perfect solution to domestic chores, that frees us completely of the need to attend to them. But, there are at least plenty of things that can be done in order to somewhat reduce the amount of time we have to spend mopping the floors, or shuffling things around on shelves.
Here are a few tips for reducing the amount of time you spend on domestic duties around the home.
- Keep your eye on the latest labour-saving devices out there (without being too quick to fall for gimmicks)
This point is extremely obvious, but it bears mentioning anyway, because there are a lot of people out there who do not, by any accounts, much enjoy domestic work, but who nonetheless are missing out on some of the best and most efficient labour-saving devices that exist, specifically for the purpose of reducing the amount of time these chores have to take.
Some of the best labour-saving devices for sparing yourself from irritation in the home are really straightforward and self-evident. If you have a dishwasher, you can save an awful of time on scrubbing pots and pans by hand. And if you have a washing machine, you can certainly save yourself a lot of trouble, and trips to the local laundromat.
There are some less ubiquitous and less well-known tools out there that can also really make a difference when it comes to reducing the amount of time spent on various chores in the home. For example, you can use one of these electric knife sharpeners to get your kitchen knives up to a high functional standard, in a hurry, as opposed to having to spend hours sharpening them the old-fashioned way with a rod, or a whetstone.
Then, there are certain kitchen gadgets allow you to do things as everyday as peel garlic, or chop onion, in half the time those processes could normally have taken.
It’s really worthwhile keeping your eye out on the latest labour-saving devices out there. But, that being said, you’ve also got to remain a bit sceptical, and to try to differentiate between the latest gimmicks and scammy products.
A good general practice is to ask yourself, before buying each new gadget, “would this significantly improve my ability to handle some chore or task around the home, without counterbalancing the benefit with trouble and irritation somewhere else?”
- Go light on the clutter, and avoid being a hoarder
If your home is really cluttered by default, then it stands to reason that it will also be significantly harder to clean, and that any cleaning process will take significantly longer, simply because you’ve got to manoeuvre around all the stuff you’ve got scattered to and fro.
A cluttered home environment makes every chore take longer.
Vacuuming the floors will be much more work, because you’ll first have to clear up everything that was left strewn about on those floors, and move it somewhere else, in order to actually do the work.
Dusting will be more difficult, because there will be more nooks and crannies of the home concealed under, and behind, piles of stuff, where dust and cobwebs will accumulate.
By going through a serious decluttering process in your home, you may potentially be able to cut your daily, and weekly cleaning times, dramatically.
Just focus on not being a hoarder. Don’t hold onto “junk” items that serve no purpose right now, just because you feel that they might serve some purpose down the line. No need to keep a dozen or more old jars, or a two-year backlog of newspapers, unless you are an intentional collector.
You could also try to experiment with a bit of minimalism in general, in terms of how many belongings you actively hold onto at any one time, beyond simple clutter.
A home with less furniture and less stuff in it in general is certainly going to be easier to clean. Maybe it’s time to read Marie Kondo’s book?
- Set yourself (and your family) effective cleaning habits and systems to stick to – don’t just let things fall apart and then go for an occasional “big clean”
Often, messy homes end up becoming messier and messier over time, until, eventually, a certain threshold is reached, and it comes time for a major cleanup operation.
Major cleanup operations are all well and good – except the fact that they only resolve things for a short space of time, and don’t address the underlying reasons why things became messy in the first place.
If you want to spare yourself from living in a messy environment for 80% of the time, and going through a gruelling cleaning ordeal like clockwork, every couple of weeks, you need to focus on establishing effective cleaning habits and systems for yourself and your family to stick to.
These should be things like “rinse every dirty plate and put it straight into the dishwasher instead of leaving it on the counter,” “wipe down the bath and shower after each use,” and so on
Homes don’t become messy due to mysterious cosmic forces – they become messy because, at least in part, the people who inhabit them have habits and daily systems and routines that contribute to making the environment they occupy messy.
If you can replace those unhelpful systems and routines with better ones, cleaning up can become a much more straightforward and streamlined process.
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