Definitely trash your TV. It's amazing how much extra time you'll get. Freeing 1h a day adds up to 7h weekly.
Depends what you watch, surely?
Bit like saying trash your phone because it's possible for boring people to call you.
Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
61–70 of 81 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#62How old are your children? Get them started helping out around the house as soon as possible. I highly recommend finding a Parenting the Love and Logic Way course near you and taking it. It's been a life changer for me. Less stress at home, children listen, help, and solve problems at home. P.S. 3-4 years old is a good time to start them helping around the house. They can't do a ton at that age but every like bit hel…
Our oldest is almost four and we're trying to teach her to tidy up in the evenings with us, making it a family activity
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#63Mine is to have a cleaner - my only extravagance. It does worry me that my kids have never seen me hoover or clean a bathroom 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
It seems to me that the two-dishwasher setup only work if you only have a small, consistent set of tableware, and you use it at a consistent rate (you use close to the entire contents of the dishwasher before you need any of the dirties again, otherwise you'll still be emptying and putting things away). But emptying a dishwasher load of consistent plates and bowls is very quick, so it seems to me like you can you can…
My biggest gripe with the dishwasher is that things come out of it wet and need drying by hand. Modern dishwashers don't have a drying element anymore. However, just today I read here on HN that plastic items don't dry as well as metal, glass, ceramic. Knowing this will hopefully make a big difference from now on as I can either take these things out immediately after they finish to dry on the counter
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#64Earlier 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?
For me, the big advantage of the rice cooker is the auto 'keep warm' mode after it's finished. I can set it going earlier in the evening and leave it, so it's hot and ready whenever I've finished cooking the main dish. Plus, as long as I stick to the measuring markings, the result is fluffy restaurant-type rice with zero chance of error on my part.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#65>Maybe you just identified some big time sink that you could eliminate? Don't have children or pets, don't live in an oversized place (seriously more space is mostly more junk, which you become enslaved to). Honestly I'm always kinda uncomfortable with everything that is purely outsourcing to other humans (which is a good part of the suggestions here). It's just creating precarious, low paid jobs. I couldn't bear exp…
Well, I already have children and pets, so that's not a runner.
> exploiting impoverished people
I'm not sure if you're trolling here or what, but somebody is not automatically impoverished or being exploited just because they work in a laundrette instead of whatever it is you do.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#66Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#67Live near your job, less commute time. Cook once, eat two days.
I work from home already. I literally can't love any closer :)
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems to me that the two-dishwasher setup only work if you only have a small, consistent set of tableware, and you use it at a consistent rate (you use close to the entire contents of the dishwasher before you need any of the dirties again, otherwise you'll still be emptying and putting things away). But emptying a dishwasher load of consistent plates and bowls is very quick, so it seems to me like you can you can…
My biggest gripe with the dishwasher is that things come out of it wet and need drying by hand. Modern dishwashers don't have a drying element anymore. However, just today I read here on HN that plastic items don't dry as well as metal, glass, ceramic. Knowing this will hopefully make a big difference from now on as I can either take these things out immediately after they finish to dry on the counter
Hmm try increasing your water temp and or running the hot water for a couple minutes before starting a load.
The residual heat helps dry the dishes.
There’s also a post detergent thing you can buy that helps evaporation by breaking the surface tension.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#69Mine is to have a cleaner - my only extravagance. It does worry me that my kids have never seen me hoover or clean a bathroom 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
Dont go with two dishwashers! Thought of this too. You need three. Seriously. You need one extra. Having two only works in theorical or lab situations. 1 for clean dishes 1 for dirty dishes 1 for “overflow” of dirty or clean dishes you will endup in the situation where two dishes are clean and spread over two dishwashers. This is a serious problem. You have no place to immediately put your dirty coffee cup away, with…
I was actually looking into buying extra dishwashing racks. Just take it the whole rack of clean dishes and store that somewhere.
Put in an empty rack and load it up. Could it work!?
Re: Ask HN: What are your best domestic time saving tips?
#70This one might seem trivial, but I start cleaning by picking up the floor first. This makes it easier to move around, which is a prerequisite for almost every other task.
How bad does the situation have to be that picking up stuff from the ground enables you to move freely?
If you have kids it takes about an hour for the house to become hard to move around. We're taking about tiny pieces of lego all over the place, cars building blocks, train sets etc
Sorting those out is the hardest chore for me.