The Practice of Housekeeping

 Share Our Lives 2025 is a monthly link-up to share aspects of our daily lives with each other. It's fun to take a little time to swap ideas every now and again, although I haven't managed to participate for awhile. Share Our Lives is kicking off the new year with "Saving Time on Chores" as the theme, and honestly, I could use some help! Like most people, I don't particularly enjoy doing household chores, but of course they must be done, and I do like the feeling of accomplishment when I finish a good cleaning or organizing project. My days of trying to keep one step ahead of chaos with little children underfoot or with a big family with busy schedules are behind me, but running a tidy household of only two adults who both work full-time has its own challenges. The biggest for me is that there's no one but ourselves to blame if chores aren't done!

One of the things I'm working on with my WOTY "Practice" is to actually put into practice the things I know to do, and the good habits I want to establish. Staying on top of the household chores is something I definitely need to practice, or practice more consistently. When I get busy or even when I have other things I'd rather do, I tend to do just the minimum and call it good. The problem I sometimes create for myself is that it requires a bigger, badder cleaning session to catch up or to prepare for company. (Like we get company so often, ha! If we did, I'd do a big clean more often!)

So my most important tip for myself, and if it helps anyone else, is that taking a few minutes extra every day or every week will probably save time overall, because the deep clean will go quicker. 

Goals related to my 2025 Word of the Year: Practice 

This will be my little bit of accountability, and one of the plans I'm putting into practice for the year. I am almost always busy on Monday and Wednesday evenings, so I don't plan on doing housework on those days. That means that I need to allot some of my time at home on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to stay on top of things. Friday is sort of a wild card day. If I do a good job of the smaller weekly chores, I can tackle a bigger household project on the weekend. One of those projects I'd like to be able to do is cook ahead or meal prep, which has the potential to save me time with the chore of getting dinner ready on the busy weekdays!

Since it's just the two of us and not a huge place, I've figured out that I can do a proper clean-up and tidy of the kitchen, dining room and living room on Tuesdays, and clean and straighten the bathrooms and bedrooms on Thursdays; and it shouldn't take more than an hour to do that maintenance cleaning. In fact I bet it would take less than that most weeks, assuming we are picking up after ourselves. I can even keep up with the laundry by doing one load each on Tuesday and Thursday, and maybe two loads on the weekend.

Another tip I've learned - and need to consistently practice! - is that "clean as you go" has a lot of applications! It's easy to give the bathroom mirror, sink and counter a quick wipe-down after I get ready for work, and only takes a minute. I have a bad habit of bringing in groceries and not putting everything away immediately, but I'm working on that one! (To be fair, for many years my son would put groceries away when I brought them in, and he was an excellent organizer, so I got a bit spoiled!) There are chores I can do while talking on the phone or listening to a podcast, such as unloading or loading the dishwasher or putting away laundry. 

This photo is from at least a year ago - the kitchen
looks much more "lived in" at the moment

I haven't done a great job so far in January of truly practicing my good cleaning habits, but I guess we've only had one "normal" week. This weekend I reorganized my living room and kitchen a little bit, freed up some space in my guest bedroom (which still needs a lot of organizing!), and got some general cleaning done post-holidays. I bought a new set of canisters so that will help me keep my pantry organized better, which will hopefully save time in the long run! And I cooked a double portion of meatballs, and prepped another batch for the freezer, and prepped the whole meal for Tuesday - saving time by preparing two recipes at once as well as saving time for at least three future meals.

Speaking of preparing meals, I guess that's another time-saver that I know about but need to practice consistently. Having a meal plan. I do mine weekly, at least a basic plan, so that I don't have to waste time wondering what to fix when I get home from work, or having to make an extra trip to the grocery store because I don't have the ingredients I need. I use the Plan To Eat website and app, because it makes it easy to keep track of my recipes and will create a shopping list for me based on my meal plan too. I also keep a dry erase weekly menu and shopping list on my fridge for a quick visual of what we're eating and a place to jot down that we're running low on eggs or sugar or whatever so it saves time making the shopping list. (Disclosure: The link and the button contain my affiliate link, which means you'll get a 20% discount if you use it, and I'll get a small commision for the referral.)

I'm looking forward to seeing the tips everyone else has to share, and I'm sure many of you have better ideas than me! 

This post will be linked up with the Share Our Lives 2025 Link-up hosted by Adrienne, Dara, Jen, Joanne, and Sarah.

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