Does the excitement of arriving at home in the evening get ruined when you open the door to see a pile of unfolded laundry and a week’s worth of newspapers scattered around?
It’s not that you are a slob; at least you don’t want to be. The problem is, you have so little spare time. At the end of the day all you want to do is grab dinner and collapse on the sofa exerting only enough energy to work the remote.
Instead of berating yourself about not having enough time to clean your home, decide which jobs that you are willing to spend time on and which you can delegate. Yes, you can delegate housework.
When you delegate, you free time for what is more important to you. Start with the laundry. Find a full service laundry that’s on the way to work and drop it off weekly. The next day, you pick up clean, folded and pressed clothes. If the laundry doesn’t do dry cleaning, then find a drive-thru drive cleaner that opens early so you can drop the clothes on the way to work.
Stop ordering pizza or Chinese food when you are too tired to cook. You’ll save money and time after work by purchasing frozen dinners that were made just for you with your favorite recipes by a personal chef.
Some personal chefs cook in your kitchen twice monthly while others deliver the foods. What you spend on custom prepared meals frees your time in the evening and offsets all the foods that go to waste in your refrigerator because you don’t have time to cook.
If you do enjoy cooking but only when you have enough time, then use the same concept as the personal chefs do and plan an all-day cooking binge once or twice monthly then freeze the meals.
Hire a maid service to come in once or twice monthly to do the heavy cleaning, floors, carpets, scrubbing and so forth. Then you can keep the place clean with twenty minutes of speed cleaning on alternate days.
Don’t fool yourself by promising to clean all day Saturday. When the weekend comes, you’ll find more interesting ways to spend your time than cleaning. Rather than set yourself up to break a promise to yourself, find a combination of maid service and your cleaning that works within the time you are willing to consistently devote to cleaning.
Gardening and outdoor spaces are wonderful but only if you have the time to keep ahead of the weeds. If gardening is relaxing to you, then you’ll gladly spend the time to do this. But if you simply like the look of a beautiful outdoor space yet lack the passion for gardening, then get help with the yard. You can save money by hiring a student or retiree to weed and prune a small garden. If you have a full yard, hire a lawn service.
Running errands for routine matters can take hours when you are disorganized and too tired to focus on the task. Keep a list in the kitchen where you add items by location. Have a section on the list for groceries, beverages, cosmetics, personal care items and clothing.
Choose stores where a large number of items can be obtained. That saves time and gas. Bring your list and make one shopping trip each day until it’s done. Or spend Saturday as your shopping and fun day, because you’ll have more time after being freed from other routine tasks.
