So, in the following areas, I have a decided LACK of life-hacks. A lack I am feeling. Anyone have suggestions?
1. Laundry. Two adults, two small children (4 and 1.5), both adults work basically full time, and currently we both have long commutes. (Scott's commute varies depending on which client his firm has him working with. Mine is pretty set.) We have a HE washer/dryer pair in the house and all our clothes are machine washable, and unless there's something gross I wash on cold. There's usually a pile of dirty clothes on the floor of our bedroom and in the upstairs hall bath (where the boys sometimes change), but it's often a small pile. The bigger problem is not finding time to FOLD all this stuff...there's usually a pile of clean laundry, often a ridiculous one, on the floor of our closet. I finally gave in and lined the floor with a clean (at the time...probably dusty by now...) sheet, augh. We have plenty of hangers, and JUST enough drawer space, if we actually did the folding.
Two caveats: an obvious hack here is "do it right after it finishes drying". For my morning load of laundry, that's just before we go out the door (we turn it off if it's not done, but it usually is) to work. For my evening load, that's often slightly *after* everyone's in bed. And another obvious hack is "have the four-year-old help fold". He is definitely physically capable of helping with these things. However, emotionally, not so much. Last time I tried that he folded several things (4? 5?) and then flung the rest around. That's really frustrating and causes me more upset than having to dig in a pile of clean laundry for my clothes (or my kitchen towels, or...yeah).
2. Cooking. I want healthy, home-cooked meals, but the shortage of time is terrible, and I *do not enjoy cooking*. I enjoy the result. Not the cooking. But I'd like less preservatives and weird chemicals in our diet, and therefore I am not as happy with premade food as I once was. Personal chef level cooking, while it answers that, is outside my budget. The crockpot helps, but the same few roasts/soups gets old, as does the general *type* of output (and my four year old is especially unfond of it). But the crockpot has to be something that can go all day. If it's a "two hours on high" recipe, it's only useful on weekends/days I'm home. My commute and job mean I leave by about 7 am and get back about 6:30 or 7:00 pm, by which time Scott has fed the boys dinner, usually with the microwave if I didn't leave a crockpot meal going all day (he doesn't like to cook either, otherwise "let Scott do it" would probably be my solution to this). Part of the problem with cooking is the dishes generated! It's helpful if they can go in a dishwasher, that's much more achievable.
Prep time is also a big deal here, since any time I spend cooking is time I am not spending doing other things, including helping with the boys, cleaning the house, washing more laundry that I later will fail to hang up, etc.
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Anyone have techniques/life hacks to suggest? (Laundry, cooking.)
Date: 2013-06-13 01:18 pm (UTC)1. Laundry. Two adults, two small children (4 and 1.5), both adults work basically full time, and currently we both have long commutes. (Scott's commute varies depending on which client his firm has him working with. Mine is pretty set.) We have a HE washer/dryer pair in the house and all our clothes are machine washable, and unless there's something gross I wash on cold. There's usually a pile of dirty clothes on the floor of our bedroom and in the upstairs hall bath (where the boys sometimes change), but it's often a small pile. The bigger problem is not finding time to FOLD all this stuff...there's usually a pile of clean laundry, often a ridiculous one, on the floor of our closet. I finally gave in and lined the floor with a clean (at the time...probably dusty by now...) sheet, augh. We have plenty of hangers, and JUST enough drawer space, if we actually did the folding.
Two caveats: an obvious hack here is "do it right after it finishes drying". For my morning load of laundry, that's just before we go out the door (we turn it off if it's not done, but it usually is) to work. For my evening load, that's often slightly *after* everyone's in bed. And another obvious hack is "have the four-year-old help fold". He is definitely physically capable of helping with these things. However, emotionally, not so much. Last time I tried that he folded several things (4? 5?) and then flung the rest around. That's really frustrating and causes me more upset than having to dig in a pile of clean laundry for my clothes (or my kitchen towels, or...yeah).
2. Cooking. I want healthy, home-cooked meals, but the shortage of time is terrible, and I *do not enjoy cooking*. I enjoy the result. Not the cooking. But I'd like less preservatives and weird chemicals in our diet, and therefore I am not as happy with premade food as I once was. Personal chef level cooking, while it answers that, is outside my budget. The crockpot helps, but the same few roasts/soups gets old, as does the general *type* of output (and my four year old is especially unfond of it). But the crockpot has to be something that can go all day. If it's a "two hours on high" recipe, it's only useful on weekends/days I'm home. My commute and job mean I leave by about 7 am and get back about 6:30 or 7:00 pm, by which time Scott has fed the boys dinner, usually with the microwave if I didn't leave a crockpot meal going all day (he doesn't like to cook either, otherwise "let Scott do it" would probably be my solution to this). Part of the problem with cooking is the dishes generated! It's helpful if they can go in a dishwasher, that's much more achievable.
Prep time is also a big deal here, since any time I spend cooking is time I am not spending doing other things, including helping with the boys, cleaning the house, washing more laundry that I later will fail to hang up, etc.