Are you super house proud? Is every cupboard perfectly stacked and organised? Do you have a delicious, home cooked meal on the table for breakfast, lunch and tea? Do your kids leave the house pressed and pristine each morning? No? That’s probably because you are normal and saving time is more important than perfection.
For me, cutting corners saves my sanity when I am super busy, and I don’t mind admitting it.
Saving time with food prep
I know that cooking from scratch saves money and is more nutritious. Nonetheless, I work full time and there are times when I really don’t have the energy. Saving time is often as important as saving money to me.
There is nothing wrong with buying the odd jar of sauce to make a curry or Bolognese. They can be bought pretty cheaply in Aldi or Lidl. Every now and again I bulk buy a load of jars and packets from Approved Food. They are hugely discounted because they are past or near their best before dates, but still perfectly good to eat.
I love to bake, but I am not above buying the odd cake mix either. Betty Crocker is my favourite. The devil’s food cake is to die for and I was delighted to find a gluten free version in Aldi the other day. I have made this up for Easter.
Not so house proud
I cut corners in other areas of my life too. Housework is a bug bear for me. I hate the time it takes to clean the house from top to bottom, but I dislike a dirty house more. Spending hours and hours cleaning at the weekend is not ideal, though.
I will never be the type of person that cleans the skirting boards with a toothbrush or scrubs the bathroom every day. Life is too short! I whizz round with a the bathroom spray and the hoover once a week and get the whole lot done in 3 hours or so. Things look pretty clean and organised nonetheless. I keep the house tidy as I go, as that is less time consuming.
Life’s too short to iron a tea towel
Ironing is boring and time consuming. I prefer to give things a good shake and hang them to dry as neatly as I can. Mostly I don’t buy clothing that will crumple so badly it needs an iron. I wouldn’t dream of ironing towels, tea towels or bedlinen. This way I keep this task to a minimum.
I’m not the type of person who wears a top for two hours then chucks it in the laundry basket. I wear things at least twice if I haven’t broken into a sweat. Clothes last longer if you wash them less.
Saving time in the garden
We used to have two big vegetable patches. I love growing some of our own food but this was way too time consuming. Last year we cultivated just the one and chucked a load of wildflower seeds on the other. The bees and butterflies loved it.
The garden is big. The space is fantastic but we could spend every spare moment maintaining it and saving time is really important. We both work full time and don’t have the hours that Monty Don has. We are saving time in the garden by gradually planting low maintenance plants such as shrubs and bulbs. This is a work in progress.
Relax
It is really easy to set yourself impossibly high standards. We can easily be drawn into the Instagram pictures of beautiful homes and gardens, perfect shiny families and chef standard cooking. If that floats your boat and gives you pleasure, then it is time well spent. However, if time saving is important for you, try relaxing your standards, saving time and enjoying a bit more leisure. Nobody is perfect!
You will find more time saving ideas here.
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Re the clothes washing – I ‘febreze’ a lot of my things to get a second wear out of them. Actually not the genuine article Febreze, I use supermarket own brand Ironing Water (something I would never ever use for its intended purpose!). I noticed that this had the same contents as the Febreze type sprays but it retails at less than half price. Anyway, once I’ve worn something, I turn it inside out, spray it with my ‘febreze’ (which I’ve decanted into a spray bottle) and then if the weather’s good, it gets put on the line to have a blow and dry off, it weather’s bad, it gets put over a radiator.
I also wear silky cami tops under cardis, jumpers, they’re get washed every wear but come out of the machine almost dry and don’t need, or don’t get in my case!, any ironing. Used to love ironing, even ironed knickers, what the hell was wrong with me?!
I am with you on this especially the housework and laundry. I mainly cook from scratch but make extra and freeze portions so I don’t have to cook main meals every day. For lunches I make a huge pot of soup and again freeze portions. I have had to cut back in the garden too due to family needs and my own recent health issues. I love the garden but I also like to go off for a day when I feel like it and not always be working.
Everything I’ve planned in my life over the last 10 years has been with simple in mind. The garden has raised beds so a quick strim for edging and mow, hey presto garden done. Bark chippings suppress weeds in the decorative bed. And close heavy planting in the veg beds stops the weeds their too. The ground flour of the house is all wooden floors, easy to clean. My only bug bare are windows.
I have it a lot easier being on my own and living in a small apt. 1 bdrm (about 570 sq. ft). I try to have a half day once a week and while the laundry is in the machines (we have a laundry room in the basement of the building) I come back upstairs and dust, swiffer and vacuum.
If the laundry goes in the dryer (usually just sheets & towels) they get folded and put away as soon as they finish. Other laundry goes onto my drying rack and is ironed later. I actually don’t mind ironing – I find it strangely relaxing and can do it in the evening when listening to the radio or watching something on TV.
Generally speaking, my place is pretty organized and tidy – but I doubt that I would ever pass my grandmother’s white glove test! 🙂
I do a main shop every two weeks now, a top up here and there (I don’t drive so have to carry everything myself on the subway) and I tend to cook once a week – I’ll make soup, maybe cook some chicken, and roast some vegetables. I then alternate food from day to day and I always have eggs, cheese, tinned fish and salad fixings to fill in any gaps.
I find that if I keep on top of things, put stuff away and keep a decent pantry, then it all goes pretty smoothly.
Margie, I love your organisation, & how you have sorted food. I found it so much easier to be organised on every level when I lived alone in a small cottage.
If you don’t like cleaning the house from top to bottom, Jane, get the family members to help. All who live in the house should (well, in my opinion) contribute to its upkeep, so even little children can be taught to fold towels, put their clothes away, take off their shoes when they come in, etc. It doesn’t have to be too much to start with but by the time they are teenagers they should be as competent at cleaning a house as any adult. It should not be the woman’s job in this day and age to do all the housework, all the family live there.
A little and often is also a good maxim where housekeeping is concerned. I don’t mind housekeeping (as I prefer to call it, rather than housework) because I like the environment which I inhabit to be as nice as I can make it. This doesn’t mean scrubbing the skirting with a toothbrush, just keeping everywhere reasonably clean and tidy. Tidy the sitting room before you go to bed and you will be met with a nice, tidy room first thing in the morning, rather than squashed cushions and newspapers everywhere.
Even when I worked I always baked from scratch. Nothing is quicker than making a Victoria sponge, just cream marg and sugar, add eggs, the flour and pop in the oven. Job done.
I don’t iron tea towels, but fold neatly (I have those waffle type towels so they don’t look any better even if ironed!) but for the few plain cotton clothes, yes, I iron those, there’s nothing quite like getting pristine white tea towel for glasses out of the drawer … maybe I should get out more, ha ha!
As for bed linen, as we only like pure white cotton, this must be ironed, but husband does this. He doesn’t mind ironing. I don’t really mind it, as I like to see a neat pile of laundry ready to be put away, but I find it more tiring than he does. Similarly he does the lion’s share of the gardening, while I do the path sweeping, bulb planting in pots as my arthritis prevents me kneeling down. He is also a whizz at prepping veg for me if we have a roast meal, and did all the veg for our Easter Sunday lunch for the whole family.
My advice to one and all, get the family on side, especially husband/partner, even if they work full time. We all should contribute to the upkeep of the home in which we live. It isn’t a good example to set our children if they only see mummy cleaning, cooking, etc.
Margaret P
so true, Margaret. I get uneasy when I see women doing everything, as it’s not only unfair for one person to be the dogsbody, but also bad training for the children.