7 Housework Time-Savers – With Quality Results!

As mums and homemakers, it can sometimes feel like we’re running against the clock. There are just so many things to do every single day: cleaning, tidying, ironing, cooking, doctor appointments, playing with the kids, baths, social life, etc.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t like to spend needless amounts of time on things that could take less. So I love shortcuts and hacks like the ones I’m going to share with you.

Here are all eight ways to save time on housework without compromising on quality:

1- Batch cook a meal

Be your future friend and batch cook a meal. This doesn’t mean spending hours in the kitchen. It may simply mean cooking a double quantity and either freezing it for a rainy day or for a meal that same day or week.

You can also double a cake recipe and keep half stored in the cupboard or fridge, and freeze the other half.

2 – Use a slow cooker

Simply prepare the ingredients in the morning, throw everything in and come home to a cooked meal. You save time by not having to mix, turn, knead, fry and you don’t have to wait around for the cooking process to finish before something starts burning!

3 – Menu plan and online shop

Gemma Bray talks about this in TOMM, but basically you save time by creating a shopping list to fill your online cart as you meal plan.

Meal planning saves time because you don’t spend time buying ingredients you won’t need for that week’s meals. Also, each day you simply check the meal plan and get out any ingredients to defrost.

No more spending time wondering what to make before every single meal of the week. Or, worst still having a meal idea and then realizing you don’t have the ingredients!

Online shopping saves time because you don’t need to walk up and down aisles, wait in the queue to pay. You also don’t buy as many non-essentials because you can’t see them as easily in the online stores.

Another good thing that most online supermarkets have is a list of your favourites, so buying the things you use the most is quick and easy.

You can also create a monthly meal plan that you have on rotation (with the flexibility of adding a new meal here or there if you like). That way you don’t spend hours thinking up ideas for your weekly meal plan.

4 – Unload the dishwasher and set the table before bed

I started doing this just a couple of weeks ago, but it really saves time in the morning. Walking into a tidy kitchen is a recipe for happier, more efficient mornings. Some items also go straight from the dishwasher to the table, which also saves time.

5- Only iron the bare essentials

Some great ways of reducing the amount of clothes that need ironing are:

• buying iron-easy clothes and bedding
• shaking out clothes when they’re wet
• air-drying wet clothes on hangers
• spritzing creases with water and leaving to dry, stretched out
• placing clothes on a hanger in the bathroom before your shower and let the steam ease out the creases.

6 – Clean your house in small manageable chunks daily

Some great ways of saving time cleaning are cleaning small manageable chunks daily. This is because there’s less accumulation of dust, less energy required for one cleaning event, and less dust and dirt getting spread around the house.

Some good ways you can do this are:

• hoovering the main traffic areas every day or every other day
• keeping on top of dusting the furniture
• spot cleaning your bathroom every day
• removing clutter from hotspots

7 – Declutter regularly

Spending 10 minutes a day getting rid of clutter in hot spots, really saves time in the long term. For one, everyone gets into the habit of putting things in their proper places when they understand everything has a home.

Also, it is a lot less likely that you will misplace or lose things in your house, if you are decluttering and tidying regularly. If you do lose something, you will be able to find your lost item more quickly too. Win, win, win!

What about you? What are your top tips for saving time on housework? Let me know in the comments below 🙂