Top tips for saving time in your home

For most of us, there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. We rush from one thing to the next at home, trying to keep all those plates spinning – cooking meals, cleaning the house, sorting out the laundry – and sometimes it seems like we’re working all the time to keep it all going and never actually get to enjoy the results. We’ve put together our top time saving tips, so that you might actually be able to find time to sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy your home.

Save time in the kitchen

There are dozens of ways you can increase your efficiency in the kitchen, ranging from the super-organised ‘do all your cooking and veg preparation at the weekends and freeze it’, to shaving a few seconds off here and there. While we’d like to think we fell into the super-organised group, we’re really more…er….seat of the pants people. With a little thought, though, you can cut out all those moments when you’re just ‘waiting for things to cook’, and fill the time usefully. For example, if you’re going to use boiling water, put the kettle on first before you do anything else. You can start chopping the veg or measuring the pasta while you’re waiting, or unloading the dishwasher or wiping the ledges down…you get the idea.

Reorganise your kitchen so that everything’s accessible and in a logical order – if you always use the same mixing bowl with your scales, it makes sense to store them together. If you’re constantly moving things around (for example, moving the fruit bowl to give you enough countertop space), then have a think about whether you could do some reorganisation – could the fruit bowl live in the hallway, perhaps?

Saving time on housework

Everyone’s least favourite chore, we’re always looking for ways to make this more enjoyable. Our top tip here isn’t really about getting more organised, but if you do your jobs while listening to some upbeat music you can pretend it’s a workout. Otherwise, make up two cleaning kits in caddies, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, and store them somewhere handy. This stops you having to lug things around the house, and also means it’s more likely that you’ll deal with upstairs spillages and marks promptly as you haven’t got far to go to find a cloth. If you need a special cleaning product for a particular floor or surface, try and store the products in that room.

Time saving admin

As well as filing mainstream household paperwork such as bills, make up some folders for instruction books so that you know where everything is if you have a query or want to leave everything handy for guests. If you have any building or renovation work done such as new floor or wall tiles or painting, file a sample of the new tiles or paint colour. If you then need to match it in the future, this will save hours and hours of guesswork and also means you’ve got a sample to take out and match with furniture or other colours. If your file is getting a bit bulky, as many instruction manuals are written in several languages you could always just scan the section you want and keep it on your computer

Efficient storage solutions

Storage can transform a cluttered home, revealing spaces you never knew you had. If you’re constantly buying new storage solutions, though, then the secret might not be more storage but less clutter! How much of the stuff you put into storage six months ago have you actually gone back to? If it’s out of sight, out of mind, then perhaps it’s time for a charity shop run. Clear surfaces are much more efficient to clean, so if you spend all your time dusting it could be worth re-thinking what you actually want to keep.

Now, time to put the kettle on…..

 

By Sara Walker.