Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Time After Time

Time Savers.... You know, those little round candies that can taste like fruit or.... wait. Those aren't time savers? OOOOH. Life Savers. Right. Got it. Is there a difference really?

Anyways.

Moving on.

Tips for saving time.

Have you ever gotten up in the morning and you've gotta get your kiddos ready for bed, and they really just don't want to buy lunch? Well, this one's a kind of obvious one. Make their lunch the night before. Pack everything in their lunch box and put it in the fridge. That way, in the morning just pop it in their backpack and send them out the door. Or, drive them to school. Whichever one you do every morning.

Same goes with getting the kids ready in the morning. Have them bathe or shower before bed, and set their clothes out on a chair or in the bathroom. That way they get to sleep a little later so they get more rest, and they don't have to scramble around and search for clothes when they wake up.

Hang your keys on a hook somewhere in your kitchen. Why the kitchen you ask? Just because. As soon as you walk in the door, hang them up. Next time you leave the house you don't have to hunt for the keys, because let's face it, how many people actually think to look for the keys an HOUR before you have to go anywhere? Not me. I don't look for mine until I've walked out the door and realized that I've forgotten them.

When you are making meals at night, make two or three times the amount you're actually going to need. That way you can refrigerate or freeze and serve again later. Saves on cooking time on two or three seperate occasions.

When you're out shopping, if you have a few extra dollars, pick up some scented candles, gift cards, small trinkets. If you need to, buy them with a particular person in mind. Even if that person's birthday or anniversary or whatever - special - date isn't for months. When it DOES roll around, go to wherever you've stashed the gifts, wrap it up, and there ya go. You don't have
to go to the store the day before/of and wonder what in the world you're going to get for them.

If you're in the house alone and trying to clean... turn off your television. But it makes the job go by quicker! No. It doesn't. It distracts you from the job that you are doing and ends up taking much longer than necessary. Listen to music if you have to. That way you're still entertained, but not distracted.

Don't wait until the end of the day to pick up. This one took me a while to figure out. When I was babysitting my nieces, those 2 little girls along with my Alanna could trash a room with toys in NO time flat. If I left the toys on the floor and let them play all day, then tried to clean up after my sister got back... geez... took for ever. But if I picked up the toys they weren't playing with at the time, or, I cleaned up while they were eating, it left less for me to do at the end of the day. Less overwhelming.

Again with cleaning, if you're used to nailing every room every day... kudos to you. If not, pick one room a day. That way the task seems less daunting. Clean the kitchen. Then the living room. Then the bedroom and so on. That way, you only have to maintain the previous ones while you're cleaning the new "room du jour". You're not trying to tackle every single dust bunny in every room in your home all at the same time.

When you go grocery shopping, plan ahead. Not just for what groceries you need to buy, but what meals you're going to make. If you plan meals and then shop for just the items you need to make each meal (plus some snacks, I mean, come on... but plan which snacks will be given on which days). You save money NOT buying food you DONT need and won't eat for however long. And then you don't have to walk UP and DOWN every SINGLE aisle in the grocery store searching for items that may or not be there. You know what you need and can go right for it.

Dishes. Oh how I loathe thee. Start this with an empty dishwasher, obviously. After you use your dishes for whatever meal, immediately rinse them (if your dishwasher SUCKS like mine, if it doesn't ignore step one), and then stick em in the dishwasher. You won't end up with a sinkful of dirty dishes that you don't want to touch, but have to put in the dishwasher all at once.

This one is not a time-saver so much as a money saver (I can't help myself... I get SOOOO many calls from people who pay WAAAAAY too much for calling)... instead of DIALING 411 for phone numbers, send a text message from your cell phone to the number 466453, which is GOOGLE spelled out on a regular keypad, with the "listing. city. state" and you will get a text message BACK with "Listing. Address. Phone Number." Here's the time saver tip (ok, so this one is a money saver one too), if you HAVE to call, and know you're going to have to call back with another number request as soon as you hang up from the first one.... TELL THEM YOU NEED MORE THAN ONE NUMBER. You can ask them up to 3 things per call. AND you can request the info to be sent to your phone in the form of a text message, so you don't have to call again when you forget.

Write down how much time you want to spend on each task each day. And stick with that time frame. Use an oven timer or an egg timer if you have to. But once the timer goes off... STOP. Move on to the next thing. Don't just work for hours non stop (again, trying to do everything all at once). That makes it seem like it's taking up more time and like it's a more difficult task than it really is.

Another one I'm guilty of NOT doing... be organized. "A place for everything and everything in its place." You don't waste time looking for things because you know where it is.

This one kind of goes along with number one. Instead of seperating your laundry by type (shits, jeans, socks) and putting them in their own designated drawers, when you're folding your clothes and putting them away, group them together in outfits.

So there you have it. Some time (and a tad bit 'o money) saving tips. There's no need to always be frazzled and stressed out.

2 comments:

  1. you are a smart cookie! good things for me to keep in mind when I have kiddos. Cleaning and stuff you do what I do with music!

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  2. Haha. Last night I handwashed an entire sink of dishes singing country music to myself. :-P

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