11–20 of 81 posts
Perhaps you can just do less, try time-boxing.
The slow cooker is one I should add here myself, saves a lot of time cooking
+1 Slow Cooker and also add a Rice Cooker. My fav recipie is beef stroganoff. I buy cooking steak from the local butcher shop who is happy to cut it into diced chunks for no extra cost. In the morning I chop up mushrooms & onion and throw them with the beef into the cooker with a half cup of ketchup and wostershire sauce and set it on low. In the evening when I get home I put on a rice cooker (cheapest automatic mach…
Pay for cleaning. This may work better or worse depending on the age of your kids... But vacuuming, cleaning surfaces, changing beds, etc. can be ousourced and saves LOTS of time.
What I'm calling the "Bachelor Socks Pattern". Go out and buy multiple 6-in-one packs of the same socks (Most economical with black/blue business style socks). Go all out and get like 8 packs @ ~$5 each. At $40 cost you replace all your socks with a single type and color and have a massive oversupply (about 3 weeks worth in the above calc, prob more than you need really). No need to sort, just keep them in a big bask…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1 Slow Cooker and also add a Rice Cooker. My fav recipie is beef stroganoff. I buy cooking steak from the local butcher shop who is happy to cut it into diced chunks for no extra cost. In the morning I chop up mushrooms & onion and throw them with the beef into the cooker with a half cup of ketchup and wostershire sauce and set it on low. In the evening when I get home I put on a rice cooker (cheapest automatic mach…
I've heard people sing the praises of rice cookers before and I just don't get it. I cook rice in a pot and it takes barely any effort. The most time consuming steps are measuring out rice and cleaning the pot afterwards, and you need to do both of those things with a rice cooker? In fact there might be more parts to clean?
I don't know how you do it without, you must be magic.
What I'm calling the "Bachelor Socks Pattern". Go out and buy multiple 6-in-one packs of the same socks (Most economical with black/blue business style socks). Go all out and get like 8 packs @ ~$5 each. At $40 cost you replace all your socks with a single type and color and have a massive oversupply (about 3 weeks worth in the above calc, prob more than you need really). No need to sort, just keep them in a big bask…
I think I got them from www.bargain-bulk-sock-sales.com. Someone here mentioned them (don't remember if they endorsed or merely named) in a previous sock thread.
I've been aspiring to a philosophy I call "event based processing" (I know the term has other meanings in computing) or alternatively "Zero Impact Activities". Regardless of the name the concept is that in undertaking daily tasks the tidy step is completed as part of untaking the task (eliminating a separate tidy phase). Eg as a Parent I was constantly tidying or managing the kids to tidy the shoes area near the from…
Related I played with washing up and putting away ingredients as I cooked. Commonly I would stir then grab 30 seconds to wash a cooking pot/throw out packaging/put away in fridge etc. It's greatly reduced the washing pots phase which commonly includes items that seem less dishwasher friendly. I found it easy to do for most recipies I know well.
It's interesting that as we developed technologies like dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and washing machines we used these machines to do more work rather than save time. My dad would wear a shirt for a week when he was young, now he puts a clean one on every day. Perhaps you can just do less, try time-boxing.
It took a lot more effort to wash clothing in the distant past. Your father wasn't net saving time versus today, as it takes radically less time to do laundry now. You can do a full load of laundry with five minutes of effort now.
Women particularly were laundry slaves in the distant past, it took up an immense amount of their time and effort. It was unpleasant, labor intensive, and very time consuming.
The old processes were horrible:
https://kimrendfeld.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/laundry-in-the-...
Just a hundred years ago, clothing was far more expensive in relation to incomes. Mass manufacturing has brought the cost of clothing down dramatically. People used to wear the same clothing over and over again because it took a long time to do laundry and they couldn't afford 10 or 20 sets of clothes.
It takes me about 30 minutes to do my laundry for the week. That's wearing a full different set of clothes each day.
Do a load of towels every 2-4 weeks? 10 minutes of effort.
And just as to the point, the actual physical labor part of it is almost non-existent. Whereas in the past that was not the case. Women used to physically suffer doing laundry before our modern appliances began to relieve that.
Then you get to the quality of life factor. People overwhelmingly want to wear more than one shirt per week. Not just because it's kind of gross once body oils and countless smells cover your clothing over a week, but it's also about fashion or style (which for many people does matter). Ever go to a restaurant, or maybe just a neighbor's house who smokes, and then have your clothing smell like the place afterward? Wearing that around for a week is gross.
It really does feel good being able to pick up a neutral shirt without having to think or mix and match.
I've also started wearing odd socks. Especially when they're hidden under pants anyway. having the one type helps with this approach.
Ive always wanted 2 dishwashers - one clean, one dirty - then cycle them. So the as the clean dishes get moved they get moved to the dirty one, then repeat
We've all got to have dreams