Top 10 Best Household Chore Shortcuts

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:47:00 GMT

Am I the only one who finds weekends far more exhausting than the M-F routine? Weekends often become the Great Chore Pile-On as we rush around catching up on all the things we didn't get done during the week. Forget about a day of rest, how about a day of less work?

Here are 10 household chore shortcuts that won't win you homemaker of the year, but will buy you more time to hang with your kids in the pool:

1. Floors - With the occasional sweep-up, even dusty old wood floors look okay from far enough away. Carpets are grand because unless they're white, you can run a little sweeper once every other week and be just fine. Better yet, just train your eyes away from the floor altogether. Pretty soon you won't mind at all.

2. Laundry - Laundry is tricky. You obviously need enough clothing for you and your little ones, but most of us have enough items kicking around that laundry can be ignored for quite awhile. In my house, we're embracing the beauty of the spot clean. If the laundry pile gets too high, just chuck the piles into the washer or dryer so at least you don't have to look at it.

3. Oven - If you don't have one of those self-cleaning types, why poison yourself and your loved ones with oven cleaner when a quick wipe out will usually do? If it starts smoking, time to start having more takeout.

4. Tubs & Showers - The beauty of tubs and showers is that they are usually hidden away from visiting guests. If necessary, you can run a quick cloth soaked in Windex around the worst spots and hope for the best.

5. Refrigerator - Now this is an appliance that needs to have a self-cleaning capability. I'll admit to washing ours out only every 6 months or so. The only shortcut I've found is dishsoap on some paper towels.

6. Family Car - Our car gets so grimy with crackers and spilled milk that it smells like a bucket full of week-old fish. We only vacuum it out when we see ants. I wish I were kidding, but I'm not. The upside is public transportation or walking looks awfully good by comparison.

7. Kids' Rooms - The nice thing about young kids is that they usually litter most in the public areas. On the off chance your kids' room is a cyclone depot for toys, you can always shove everything into the closet, in case of grandparents visiting or other guests.

8. Closets - You probably shouldn't clean these out ever, especially since this is the place you can stash your overflow from all the other rooms you aren't cleaning.

9. Basements & Garages - If you're in the suburbs or exurbs chances are you have one or the other of these monolithic monstrosities and they're full of crap a mile high. We had a garage sale a few weeks back and in some mystery of the material universe we actually appear to have more stuff covering every square inch now than before. The best plan here is to put everything in a pick-up and haul it to Goodwill or the like.

10. Windows - Dirty windows are a pane (har har!), but when you have kids, it's easy to blame the fingerprints on them anyway. Once a year, we hire this nice man to climb up a huge ladder and clean ours inside and out. So for at least two days a year, we can see the sky from our living room windows.

What chores do you skip or scrimp on?

5 Ways to Recapture a Day of Rest

Rachael Brownell (Redsy) — Sun, 18 May 2008 17:36:00 GMT

Finding a day of rest in the busy hither and thither of modern family life might seem old fashioned and quaint, but many of us need it now more than ever before.

Assuming you don't have a second home in the Hamptons or an ability to go to Club Med, here are a few ideas to cultivate more rest:

1. Create a Hammock - If you don't have anywhere to put a hammock, create one. A hammock is relaxing because it is outside and you have no other tasks to accomplish other than laying there, taking deep breaths, and maybe grabbing a cat nap. Create a hammock by laying outside somewhere on a soft blanket and closing your eyes. Of course, this works much better if you don't have to dodge marauding dogs or children.

2. Unplug - Turn it all off. The television, the cell phones, the computer, the pager, the fax, the blackberry. If the idea of doing this makes you twitchy (it's a lifestyle, man!) then come up with a way to keep your mind off of all those crucial emails you might be missing (the ones about enlargement and magic happy pills especially).

3. Road Trip - A change of scenery is refreshing.. even if it's only a trip to a part of the city you've not been to before, or a visit to a town 45 minutes away. Pack up a picnic and get out of your usual routine.

4. Hello Leisure, Be My Baby - In our society, we often mistake leisure for watching television and eating potato chips. True leisure and rest are states of being that require few inputs and free time. Television and music and beeping phones are all a distraction. For the type-A's among us, leisure time (unstructured, unplugged free time) can be scary, so sometimes you might have to ease into it. Plan an hour to start and go from there.

5. Just Do It - The neat thing about cultivating a day of rest, whether it's for religious or health reasons is you begin to make it part of your family routine. My brother's family sets aside Sundays for quiet family time. The kids can play games (board, not video) and are given a day off from chores and homework. The parents don't clean or catch up on email or mow the lawn. I've been able to do something similar in my family, but usually only for a half day.

Making rest and leisure a priority sets a good example for the kiddies, which is why after posting this, I'm closing this computer, laying out on a blanket and counting the clouds.

Strollerderby : day of rest

Top 10 Best Household Chore Shortcuts

5 Ways to Recapture a Day of Rest