8 Time-Saving Household Hacks

Few things are more repetitive, mundane yet necessary than household chores. With these genius hacks, you can keep your house spotless with time left to relax.

1. A Wet Wipe Down

Wiping as you go along makes cleaning easier and faster because dirt has not had time to accumulate and stubborn stains have not set in. Keep a bottle of wet wipes handy. Spare a minute to wipe down counters, sinks and table tops every other day. This way, an afternoon of scouring and scrubbing gets reduced to no more than minute-long wipe downs.

2. Rely on the Roller

Dust off lamp shades, fabric sofas and cushions with a lint roller during television commercial breaks and your dusting will not seem like such a chore.

3. Sauce It Up

Make sauces and gravy in bulk. Then, portion them out and freeze them for use in the future. The sauces can be thawed for quick pasta dishes, stir-fry, or baking throughout the week or even the month.

4. Multi-Purpose Meals

One-pot meals and stews are extremely versatile. Make a large portion and save seconds to prepare the next meal like a pie, baked rice or pasta, or a sandwich. Transform a stew into a variety of dishes in a jiffy because the ground work has already been done.

5. Contain It All

Hate doing dishes? Then minimise. Get containers that can go from the freezer to the microwave or stove, so leftovers need not be transferred to another container to be heated up. This will save both thawing and transfer time as well.

6. Two in One

Cook two dishes in a single device at the same time. One of the most tried and tested methods is to steam food by putting it in the rice cooker while the rice is being cooked. Most cookers come with a steamer that lets you place a plate over the rice. Minced pork, bean curd, eggs, fish, ribs and vegetables can all be steamed simultaneously.

A multi-tier food steamer can do the same thing too. This way, you can prepare more than one steamed dish in the same amount of time.

7. Sort It Out

Invest in several laundry baskets so you can sort your clothes as you are done with using them, instead of right before you do the wash. Sort as you toss your dirty clothes in the basket and save yourself the extra step.

8. Keep It Straight

Stock your wardrobe with clothes that do not wrinkle easily. Try lyocell, a semi-synthetic form of rayon which is sometimes called by its brand name, Tencel. It is soft, drapes well yet does not wrinkle. Rayon itself is also quite resilient. Other synthetic, wrinkle-resistant fabrics include polyester and nylon, while cashmere, which comes from goat hair, is a wrinkle-free natural fabric. While cotton has had a bad reputation when it comes to wrinkles, more stores are offering cotton apparel that has been treated so the material does not crease as easily.

A dust-free home, clean laundry, convenient home-cooked meals – all the comforts of a well-kept home can be yours without the hassle if you adopt these handy household tips. Find some time to give them a try.

Where to buy:

Lint roller

Freezer-to-oven containers

Food steamer

Laundry hampers

Wrinkle-free clothes