cleaning

Manifesto for adulthood: There’s no shame in shortcuts

May 25, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

I woke up this morning and starting going through my mental “to-do” list. I do this every morning, and it dawned on me that I was super busy. How did this happen? I quit my fancy consulting job and took a part-time job to give me more time. In an effort to get some free time back, I started working on some shortcuts.

It’s a trial-and-error kind of thing, looking for shortcuts. You don’t want your life to get shittier because you’ve neglected stuff to get other stuff done. A shortcut is beautiful when it allows you to get the important tasks done while you reclaim precious moments of time.

Here are a few shortcuts I’ve been experimenting with:

Simplify house cleaning. Instead of cleaning the whole room, concentrate on one thing. I vacuum one day. Then another day, I might dust or de-clutter a room. Breakdown “cleaning the whole house” task into smaller tasks. Also, try 5 minutes of cleaning per room.
Hire someone. My brother-in-law saw his neighbor’s teenage son and offered to pay him to mow his lawn. It was a win-win for all involved: Inexpensive and the teenager gets some cash. Don’t spend unnecessary time worrying that chores aren’t getting done; delegate them.
Frozen food/no-cooking meals. I keep frozen chicken and veggies stocked so that if the cupboards are bare, I can throw something together quick. We also make some of our meals super easy, like pre-cooked chicken on a salad. There are services like Blue Apron, which provide all the ingredients for three or five meals a week. And let’s not forget pizza delivery, because sometimes it’s better than spending an hour in the kitchen.
Get organized. This takes some effort upfront but saves a ton of time in the end. Just as we wrote about sorting kids’ outfits while folding laundry, being organized will help everything run smoothly. Everything has its place, you just need to find it. Lots of toys? Get lots of bins. Lots of dishes? Keep that dishwasher empty, and you won’t have clutter on the counter.

Tell us: How are you are taking shortcuts to enjoy life more?

This is the second in our “Manifesto for Adulthood” series, where we share our philosophies for being a better adult in the modern world.

The Dutch oven Mexican stand-off in my kitchen

April 8, 2016 by Suzanne 2 Comments

My husband and I share most household duties, but dishes are an ongoing pain. Sure, we have a dishwasher (which became a requirement after our first marital apartment did not). But there are lots of things you can’t put in the machine, namely Crock-Pots (too big), blenders (weird shape, too tall) and the worst offender of all, the Dutch oven.

We like to make soups and stews, so the Dutch oven gets used pretty often in our house. (My husband likes to make beef stew or slow-cooked pork chops; I tend to do curried lentils or split pea soup.) That big, heavy pot is perfect for simmering at low heat for hours.

But then, we eat all the stew, or move it into smaller containers for lunchtime portions. And the empty pot sits on the stove for a few days.

At some point, it moves to the sink or the counter.

Other dishes move in and out of the sink, through a wash cycle, into the drying rack, back into the cupboards.

But the Dutch oven? It sits.

Soaks.

Re-soaks.

Stinks.

Stinks more.

Finally one of use caves and washes it. In the most recent stand-off, it was me at the sink, ruining my gel manicure, fuming as I scrubbed the heavy lid and pot.

Who wins? Who loses? Did I win, because the pot is clean, I don’t have to see it in the sink anymore, and I can lord it over my husband for future chore karma? Or did he win, because he didn’t have to wash the Dutch oven? Did I lose, because I had to scour and scrub while holding my breath? Did he lose, because I was cranky about my dishpan hands all night?

I’d love to say we’ll learn our lesson and clean the dirty dish quickly next time, but history says we’ll continue to repeat our mistakes.

Someone please tell me we’re not the only household experiencing weekly Mexican stand-offs in the kitchen.

Images via the Library of Congress here and here

Shortcut: 5 minutes of tidying

February 25, 2016 by Leslie Leave a Comment

TIDY UP (1)

Shortcuts are life hacks for busy adults, quick tips to make life easier, and solutions we’ve found to eliminate (or at least reduce) frustrating tasks. Take ’em or leave ’em, but they work for some of us! If you’d like to share your own tip, email thesmartdomestic@gmail.com with the subject line “Shortcut idea.”

While hanging out with a friend who is expecting a bundle of joy this summer, we were discussing how to get a handle on the clutter at our homes. I put all my blame on my husband and dog, as usual. (I mean, that sand isn’t tracking itself onto the floors!)

My friend told me about a brilliant way she was starting to save on the time it took to clean house. She and her husband spend 5 minutes a day on one room. They just do as much as they can in that 5 minutes and then leave it for later. That’s a tactic my husband and I could probably stick to.

Here’s my plan: Go to a room, get supplies, set a timer, and go! With baby toys, a shaggy dog, and a husband who has a million hobbies, things can get messy quick. But with a few minutes of work each night, we can keep things in slightly better shape.