AD | For many people (including me), tackling a household chore checklist every week is not how I want to spend my free time. Unfortunately though, these time-consuming tasks are what keep our homes clean and comfortable. But there are plenty of ways to cut down how long you spend on them. From making use of the time you spend waiting for your whiteware devices to finish, to doing other tasks or soaking dishes while you enjoy a meal, here’s how to simplify your household chores, giving you more opportunities to enjoy the finer things in life.
How To Simplify Your Household Chores and Save Time
Prioritise the Most Important Rooms
The easiest way to create a time-saving schedule is to rank the importance of each room in your home and then work out how often they’ll need to be cleaned, based on how much you use them. Spaces like the bathroom and the kitchen will accumulate the most germs, so put them at the top of your list to make sure they get done first if you run out of cleaning time.
You can also assign one or two rooms to a specific cleaning day, to break up the overall home clean into smaller, more manageable activities. Using these two strategies will help you save time in deciding when, where, and how to start.
Embrace the 5-Minute Rule
The golden rule in increasing productivity is not postponing smaller tasks that can be completed immediately. So, if you could complete something in five minutes or less, do it there and then, to reduce your workload and give you more free time for activities you enjoy.
Create a Set Schedule
For example, use the time while the oven cooks dinner to wash any dishes and utensils already in the sink from the meal prep stage. I always do this because for me there’s nothing worse than having to tackle a dirty pile of pots and pans after a meal. Or, you could clean down all your kitchen counters while you wait for your air fryer to finish.
Soak Dishes
If you find you’re spending AGES doing the dishes, here are two simple tricks to cut that time and stop your sink becoming too full. Firstly, clean crockery and cutlery as you use it. Single glasses, plates, knives, or pans can be cleaned quickly and packed away.
Secondly, pour hot water and a splash of dish soap or bicarbonate soda and lemon juice over any pots, pans, or trays you used during cooking, and let them to soak while you’re eating. This helps loosen any food or fat that’s stuck on and makes the final washing up a lot easier and quicker.
Time Your Chores
Time can easily get away from you when you’re busy, with one hour suddenly becoming three or four. So, to stop tasks taking over your entire weekend, try allocating a set amount of time to finish your chores and give yourself a timetable for when you’ll do them. As a freelance Content Creator who works from home, this is what I have to do so I can keep track of all my billable work.
An additional benefit from timing the task from start to finish means you’ll have a clearer picture of how long it really takes, so you can simplify your household chores and plan your time better going forwards.
Laundry as a Background Task
Once your clothes are in the washing machine, you have time to clean and sort your bedroom. By decluttering the dirty laundry, you’ll feel more motivated to pack away the clean clothes once they’re dry again.
Batch Chores
Outside of the handy five-minute rule for quick chores, another good way of cutting down how long you spend on your household tasks is by batching your chores. For example, rather than doing a laundry load every day, try filling all your washing baskets and then do a whites wash all in one go. Then a coloured wash the next day. Similarly, don’t run your dishwasher every single night at the same time just to maintain a habit. Wait until it’s full as that’s more efficient.
You can extend this trick to food preparation too – once or twice a week, double a recipe you cook to give yourself leftovers for the next day or for your freezer.
Delegate If Possible
If you live with other roommates or have a family of your own, there’s no reason not to delegate chores to other household members. Kids and teenagers alike can look after their bedrooms and personal items, which not only helps teach them personal responsibility, it also reduces your workload. If finances permit, you could even look at hiring a cleaner for some of the jobs you really hate or need help with.
What do you think of these ideas to simplify your household chores and claw back some valuable time? Have you tried any of them? Do you have any other tips and tricks to share?
* This is a collaborative post – please see my Disclaimer.
I like the delegation bit, though I’ve got to remind myself not to turnaround and mini manage that said task delegated. The timing of a task is a good tip. Never considered it. I can take forever to complete chores so now ill time it to see how long is my forever 😂
Delegation is so hard! I sometimes end up washing dishes again as they’ve still got food on them but I don’t want to complain as then I’d end up doing them all the time 🙂
I love all of your tips!! The 5 minute rule is a great way to avoid procrastination and delegating is also a must. It really is so much easier when everyone helps out!
The challenge is getting (bribing) them to help though!
I do my washing in batches. When I get a sunny day, I do 3-4 loads and dry them outside. It saves time and electricity by not drying them indoors with the dehumidifier on. It works nicely for me.
I hate having to dry laundry indoors – every sunny day is a multiple wash day for me too!
All of these are really useful as one of the things that puts me off doing chores is the time it takes to do them. I recently came up with a schedule which seems to really help as I broke down the bigger household cleaning into small things each day — which reminds me, I need to go and wash the floors, haha!
I know what you mean – it’s much easier breaking things down, then the only challenge is deciding which one to start with!
It seems like every time I’m “done” with my household chores, I’ve got to start all over again for the next week. The five-minute rule is very important, as you’ve said. If I procrastinate, I never get anything done!
Household chores are like food shops, you have to keep doing them, it’s such a pain!
These are some great tips, Lisa. Since I have to do all the chores, I do them instantly. You are right bathrooms and kitchen are the first. Doing laundry twice a week, I like to keep my sink clear of dishes. I usually use the time in between my cooking. 🙂
Thank you, Via, I can imagine you are super organised, my friend!
Really helpful tips. I’ve started double-batching my recipes, and it’s definitely making a difference.
Thank you, so glad it was helpful.