How to Make Life at Home Easier for Yourself
Managing these everyday chores better can relieve stress and save time for everyone.
Dishes
Don’t rinse dishes. If you have a dishwasher you don’t need to rinse every dish before it goes into the dishwasher. Imagine the time this would save. Believe me-you don’t need to rinse.
Even the dishwasher manufacturers say not to rinse. One of them even says that a little grime or crumbs helps the dishwasher work.
You still have to take garbage off of your dishes, but not ketchup or crumbs or sauce.
I have been experimenting with this for many years. Many. Our dirty dishes go directly into the dishwasher. Dirty dishes have nothing to do with the sink. Bypass the sink and you save tons of time.
When the dishwasher is full, we run it. Even when the two of us take two or three days to fill it. Even when there are seven of us and it takes one meal to fill it.
When the dishwasher is done, we empty it. Right away. No waiting. No problem. Done. This is a great way to practice taking turns. It usually takes under two minutes. You can time it.
Laundry
Before we were married, four of the most serious talks my husband and I had were about laundry. Yes, laundry. He was coming from a home where his stepmother did his laundry for him. He was coming to our home, where the children did their own laundry.
Of course young children need help, but the younger they start, the more they like doing this. After all, to them, it is running a machine. They each have their own laundry basket in their room. They use it for dirty clothes. Clean clothes are in drawers or are hanging up. And there is that catagory of “I wore it but it’s not needing to be washed yet.” That’s what the chair is for.
Everyone has their own clothes basket and does their own laundry. Imagine — you only do your own laundry and help anyone younger than ten.
One of the best days was when one of my boys came home from college and I accidently did his laundry for him. I somehow did it wrong and he asked me to please not do his laundry for him because I didn’t do it the way he liked it. Wether that was really an accident or just a strategy, I was happy.
In fact, when college presidents are asked what young people should know when starting college, many respond that new students should know how to do their laundry. It is a valuable skill for them and eases their transition to college life. If you can drive a car, you can get your own clothes clean.
Clutter
You’ve heard the old saying, “A place for everything, and everything in its place”. It works.
It’s hard though, when there are just too many of those things. Clutter control shouldn’t have to happen every day, so if you just do a big purge of all the unnecessary stuff, you’re partly there.
Different households have different expectations and levels of acceptance of everyone’s personal clutter. Households with small children have toys. That’s not clutter, those are my legos. See how confusing clutter can be?
But there are strategies that make life easier.
You ate your cereal in the living room? That’s okay. But don’t leave the room without taking the bowl and spoon directly to the dishwasher. Anything less and you will (you will) be living in a stressful, cluttered environment. Make it nice for yourself.
Another strategy is to start with just your own things.
Those keys are important. Two seconds to put them in the “key bowl” on the counter, instead of ten minutes searching for them. A “key bowl” saves time and lowers your stress level. My keys are now always in that key bowl or the pocket of my jacket. That’s a way to save yourself from letting clutter get the best of you. Clutter can make you crazy when you can’t find things that are important.
Dishes, Laundry, Clutter
Start simply with just these few plans. You will be saving yourself hours, which can be used, well, any way you want to use them. You will definitely have less stress. Less stress doesn’t just make life more pleasant; it is good for your whole body and your future self. But that’s another article.
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