After a long day at work, I just want to come back to a spick and span home to relax, and not have to spend too much time dealing with chores. However, I know that I cannot put off doing chores, as dirt, dust and *gasp* mold will start piling up if I don’t clean my house for a few days.
I would very much rather spend my relaxing time just chilling at home. I do not want to have to retreat to an airbnb or a hotel for a staycation, when I would much rather have a staycation in my own home.
So, how do I ensure that my home is always spick and span so that I am always looking forward to coming back home after a long day of work?
Since I prioritise my free time to do all that I want to do, it is a need for me to minimise my chores. It takes good planning in order to minimise chores, so you have enough time to do whatever that you want to do. Being the avid planner that I am, I constantly plan my whole life, including my household chores, with the aim to make full use of my time allocated to work, rest and play. This is so I can be as productive as possible.
Here are the 10 highly practical ways that I abide by, to minimise my household chores and yet ensure that my home is always clean.
I hope you find them useful!
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List down all the chores that you need to do
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Categorise your tasks into Daily, Weekly and Monthly Chores
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Have a Chores Checklist
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Find ways to make household chores more enjoyable
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Automate chores (using robots)
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Take measures to minimise chores
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Keep your cleaning supplies where you need them and make sure you always have stock
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Buy your cleaning products and ingredients in bulk
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Get a dehumidifier
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Divide your chores
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List down all your chores that you need to do
Listing down all your chores that you need to do, will help you get a better overview of all your chores that you need to do and will also help you plan better for the whole year. I recommend that you use excel or google sheets, instead of loose paper or a physical notebook, to list down all your chores. This is so that you can easily remove any chores you find redundant, and all your chores can be stated down in a single tab (rather than a few pages, if you were to use a physical notebook).
For me, here are the chores that I need to do throughout the year.
- Wash clothes
- Hang clothes
- Iron clothes
- Throw rubbish
- Wash dishes
- Clean kitchen
- Sweep floor
- Mop floor
- Change bed sheets
- Wash toilet
- Cleaning your glass doors
- Throwing your rubbish
- Watering plants
- Dishwashing
- Polishing of cabinets
- Clean my blinds
2. Categorise your tasks into Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Yearly Chores
You cannot do all your tasks everyday – especially when you have a full time job. It is also completely unnecessary to do certain chores on a daily basis. If you want your home stays spick and span always, without you having to spend all your free time cleaning up your home, you need to realistically plan the amount of time you want to cater to doing your chores.
After you have written down all your chores (as stated in point 1), you can proceed to categorise your tasks into Daily, Monthly and Yearly tasks.
Are you feeling lost about which chores should be categorised into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly chores? For the rest of this section, I will break down how you can easily categorise your various chores into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly chores.
2a. Daily Chores
Your daily chores should be catered to areas that will easily attract pests, accumulated marks that may become permanent if not cleaned regularly, and areas where there is a high chance where mold will form, especially when not cleaned regularly. I also recommend that you cater around only 1 to 2 hours each day during the work week to do your daily chores, and then allocate more time during the weekend to do your weekly chores.
Here are my suggestions on the chores that you should do daily.
Clean your glass doors (5 to 20 minutes)
If you do not clean your glass doors regularly, in the long run, it will accumulate marks that will be difficult to clean.
Throw your rubbish (5 minutes)
Your rubbish should be cleared everyday, no excuses. Not clearing your rubbish will attract pests like cockroaches, lizards and rats. Once you attract such pests, it will be difficult to get rid of them and you will likely need a professional to do so!
You will need to wash your dishes everyday, for the same reasons as why you need to throw away your rubbish everyday.
Water plants (1 to 10 minutes)
Needless to say, your plants will die if you do not take care of them properly. The least you can do is to water them with the right amount of water each day and make sure they get efficient sunlight.
Sweep your floor (5 to 20 minutes)
Sweeping your floor daily will help prevent the accumulation of dust so your home can feel spick and span on a daily basis!
Wash toilet bowl with toilet bowl cleaner (2 minutes per toilet bowl)
The toilet bowl is where you emit out urine and poop. Not only does urine contain bacteria, it also leaves a stench that may be permanent in your toilet if you do not clean your toilet bowl often with a toilet bowl cleaner.
As for poop, did you know that most of it is full of living bacteria from your gut? All the more, you should wash your toilet bowl often!
Pro tip: Your toilet can also be a rather humid place, if there is not enough ventilation. By opening windows, you can quickly improve airflow to help eliminate the buildup of moisture.
2b. Weekly Chores
Your weekly chores should be catered to zones in your home that will become moldy overtime. Such zones do not need daily attention, as they still do not attract pests or mold when left uncleaned on a daily basis. However, if you leave them untouched for a few weeks, more dust, dirt and bacteria will start accumulating.
This accumulation of dust, dirt and bacteria will have an impact on the air quality and also lead to a higher chance of mold forming. Dust, dirt, and bacteria need to be removed from your home to ensure you have a healthy environment in which to live.It is a tardy process to remove mold and as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. So, why not take the necessary steps to prevent mold by doing your weekly chores.
Here are my suggestions on the chores that you should do weekly.
Wash clothes (1 hour – most of this time is passive)
If there are only 1-2 of you in your home, washing your clothes everyday is such a waste of water. Washing your clothes once a week helps to reduce the water you waste.
If there are more people in your home, you can increase your frequency of washing clothes to around 2 or 3 times a week.
Hang clothes (10 to 20 minutes)
Your hanging clothes frequency per week should be the same as your washing clothes frequency. You should strive to also hang your clothes right after they are done washing and not leave your clothes in the washing machine for days. Your clothes in the washing machine are damp and have a higher chance of growing mold.
Mopping your floor with both water and detergent will help remove bacteria that you cannot see, and this will in turn make your floor so much cleaner. Overtime, mopping your floors will help prevent the build up of mold and mildew.
Iron Clothes (1 to 10 minutes)
As an individual with an average sized wardrobe, I recommend you to iron your clothes once a week. Ironing your clothes once a week will reduce the stress of needing to iron every day. Also, the amount of clothes you will need to iron each time is not as crazy as ironing once a month.
Wash entire toilet (30 minutes to 1 hour)
When you flush your toilet bowl, all the bacteria will also be flushed out with the miniscule water droplets and will linger in the air for a few hours, before landing on surfaces like your skin counter top, your toothbrush, your floors, or your walls. Your basin will likely also be infested with bacteria, due to the food remains that you spit out after a meal. Therefore, it is so imortant to set aside some time to scrub and clean your entire toilet thoroughly at least once a week.
2c. Monthly Chores
Do you want the items in your household to last as long as possible, so you do not need to spend unnecessary money to replace those items? Do you want your home to constantly stay clutter free? If so, you need to deep clean and also declutter your home once or twice a month.
Deep cleaning is a great way to help preserve the life of your home and ensure that your home remains spotless. Items such as your range, oven and fridge, and materials such as carpet will last longer and look better if they are cleaned on a monthly basis.
Decluttering is a great way to ensure that your home does not get accumulated with too much stuff. Too much clutter can have an impact on our mood, make us less productive and make us more likely to snack on junk and watch TV shows. So, if you want to continue to stay productive and your best self, reduce your clutter at least once a month!
Deep Cleaning and Decluttering your home on a monthly basis will also help reduce the overwhelming feeling that we may feel if we do EVERYTHING during our yearly spring cleaning.
Here are my suggestions on the chores that you should do monthly.
Polish your cabinets and clean your ceiling fans (1 to 2 hours)
We tend to neglect our cabinets or ceiling fans and overtime we’ll start to see little specks of dust accumulating on the surfaces. Scheduling yourself to clean your cabinets once a month will help ensure that the amount of dust in your home is always kept under control.
Deep Clean Kitchen (1 to 2 hours)
The kitchen is a place where grease can accumulate if your kitchen is not cleaned properly. Giving your kitchen and all your kitchen utensils a wipe down once a month will help ensure that the lifespan of all your utensils is prolonged. Your kitchen will also never ever feel sticky and oily.
Clean your blinds or curtains (30 minutes to 1 hour)
Giving your blinds or curtains a little wipe down will ensure that there will not be a buildup of dust, mold or mildew, which will in turn ensure that your blinds or curtains will last as long as possible. Refer to point 6f. below, on why I prefer blinds over curtains.
2d. Yearly Chores
Yearly chores should be catered to tasks that require yearly maintenance, such as your air conditioning or retouching certain areas in your home, like your living room’s wall paint or any aged/torn pieces of fabric.
Here are my suggestions on the chores that you should do yearly.
Air conditioner maintenance (2 hours – most of this time is passive for you)
Get a professional to come by to do a check on your air conditioner at least once a year. They will be able to provide insights on whether your air conditioner is moldy or not working as its best. Knowing the state of your air conditioner and fixing it before the issue gets worse, will help you save money (spent on a new air conditioner) in the long run.
Spring-clean your entire house (A few days)
Many of us also have a Spring Cleaning Tradition, where we thoroughly clean the house, replace certain furniture or household tools, and get new things like crisp new bed sheets, or fresh linen covers for our duvets and pillows. I love the feeling of a home after Spring Cleaning. It makes me feel refreshed and excited for the new year ahead.
If you have curtains, you will need to take them down and give them a good wash and then hang them back up again. Refer to point 6f. below, on why I prefer blinds over curtains.
3. Have a chores checklist
Just like how at work you should not just log everything down in your brain without writing it out, you should also do the same when it comes to your household chores too. And the best way to do this is to have a checklist!
I have created a weekly, monthly and yearly checklist that you can use to update whenever you complete a chore! Having a checklist can help you take note of everything you have done. Having a checklist also helps you take the stress caused by the additional household chore load off your mind.
Download your very own Chores Checklist!
To help you out, I have created a ‘Chores Checklist’ that you can use, to make sure all your chores get done!
[contact-form-7 id=”3276″ title=”Chores Checklist”]
4. Find ways to make household chores more enjoyable
The time you spend doing your household chores is perfect for chilling out to music or listening to a podcast. Your brain is likely in a more relaxed mood when you are doing your household chores, and hence instead of rushing through your chores, why not take the time to immerse yourself with your favourite music or listen to your favourite podcast. There are so many podcasts on spotify or youtube nowadays that you can listen to for free.
5. Automate chores (using robots)
Some of the chores that I mentioned in point 2 can actually be done by robots, or made easier by robots! Here are the chores that I use a robot for, and this has indeed saved a fair bit of my time.
Robot:
Xiaomi Roborock S5
I use this robot for:
Sweeping and mopping floors
Why do I like this robot:
The Xiaomi Roborock S5 does a great job at picking up dirt and dust. It also includes a mop attachment so you can also use it for mopping!
I also love that it is connected to the Mi Home app – I can easily use the app to label my rooms, designate “no-go” zones, and also set up cleanings in specific areas. I am also able to access the cleaning history, which is extremely useful in helping me understand how long the Xiaomi Roborock can last before I need to recharge it again.
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On a side note, if you have ANY robots that you want to recommend or want me to review, feel free to reach out to me anytime via the contact form on the side bar!
6. Take measures to minimise chores
It is more sustainable to prevent rather than cure. There are some measures that you can take to minimise certain chores that are simply not necessary. Here are some of my recommendations:
a. Use aluminium boards and place behind the stove as you cook.
This helps minimise the grease from splattering on the wall behind the stove.
b. Limit the use of carpets in your house.
Carpets tend to trap dirt and hence you need to spend extra effort not just wiping, but vacuuming your carpets, once every week. Also just like how you need to wash your bed sheets once every week, you will also likely wash your carpets at least once every month, so your carpets will stay clean.
c. Limit the amount of hard to clean spots
Make sure that there is no spot that is hard to clean, as likely you will not clean it well, and overtime there will be dust or mold accumulating in those hard to reach areas.
d. Reduce unnecessary clutter
A way for you to reduce unnecessary clutter in your home is to only keep what you love and give every item a home. Doing so will help you stay in control with the amount of things you have, and in turn will reduce the amount of clutter in your home. Having less clutter can also help you feel much more calm, relaxed and grounded.
e. Use less dishes
Having fewer dishes and using less dishes will reduce clutter and also reduce the time you spend washing your dishes! A great way to reduce your dish washing is to cook one pot meals. I love one pot meals because they are deliciously hearty and also reduce my dish washing time greatly! Some great suggestions of one pot meals are stews, curries, pasta, porridge, congee.
f. Use Blinds instead of Curtains
I am most definitely a ‘Blinds’ girl, as I personally really dislike cleaning curtains as it is such a lengthy process of taking the curtains down, removing all the ‘curtain clips’, washing the curtains, ironing the curtains, and then hanging the curtains again. Curtains that block the sun well tend to also be SO heavy. As for Blinds, they are so easy to clean. All you need is a blinds cleaner and all you need to do is wipe your blinds at least 4-6 times a year. The higher frequency of cleaning your blinds, as compared to curtains, also means that your blinds will definitely be cleaner in the long run.
7. Keep your cleaning supplies where you need them and make sure you always have stock
Keeping all your cleaning supplies all in one place will help you save a great deal of time. None of us like it when we have to spend unnecessary time finding things. Realising a cleaning tool or product is missing can be quite frustrating. You will also need to waste your time heading down to a nearby outlet to get the products you need at the last minute. The precious time spent finding all the equipment could have been used to finish up the chores instead.
Minimise such wasted time by keeping your cleaning supplies stored in the same location and ensuring that your cleaning products are always well stocked up.
8. Buy your cleaning products and ingredients in bulk
Buying your cleaning products and ingredients in bulk will give you the peace of mind that you will never run out of what you need to clean your home. I recommend buying in bulk quarterly or even every six months. Buying in bulk does not mean that your storage area needs to look ugly. You can beautify this area by placing your bulk purchase in the same coloured drawers or boxes.
9. Get a dehumidifier
Dust mites, and mold thrive in humid environments like Singapore. Actually, even if you live in a dry climate, there is a high chance that moisture can build up if you stay in small living spaces with limited ventilation, such as bathrooms, kitchens, and small apartments.
Dehumidifiers reduce humidity levels, hence also reduces dust mites, mold and mildew from your clothing, furniture, curtains or bedsheets. Reducing mold and mildew also help to reduce odors that they emit and greatly reduce that gross musty smell (Ahem, shoe cabinets).
Dehumidifiers also reduce irritation to your skin and your respiratory system, so you can breathe easier and always feel comfortable in your home! A less humid environment also helps prevent signs of rust or corrosion on your kitchen utensils, computer equipment and various electronics. Lastly, a dehumidifier also helps your air conditioner run more quickly and take longer to run out. This is because your air conditioner does not have to work harder to remove moisture.
You can consider getting either a normal charcoal dehumidifier or an electric dehumidifier. My favourite electric dehumidifier is the Xiaomi Deerma Smart Dehumidifier.
10. Divide your chores
Last but not least, a great way to minimise your chores is to split it with your partner, or children! Everyone in your household should have a responsibility when it comes to your household chores. There are few things more annoying than you needing to do your household chores after a long day or work, and seeing your family just lazing around. If it is only you who is doing your household chores, your family will start taking you for granted.
A good team works together and plays together. When you are all working at the same time to complete your chore, you can inspire a sense of camaraderie that will discourage your family members from complaining or taking things for granted. In addition, if you have children, doing chores can help them develop their sense of independence and self-sufficiency.
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I hope that this article will help you to organise your chores better and also help you save the time spent doing your household chores, so you can spend more quality time doing what you love.
What is your favourite way to simplify household tasks or make house cleaning quicker and easier? Leave a comment and let me know!