Do you put off your housework until the house is such a mess it can take you a whole day to clean it up?  Do you avoid washing up and then waste money on takeaway because you can’t be bothered looking at the kitchen?  Here are a few tips from one procrastinator to another to help you save time and money.

Do you live in fear of someone “dropping by” because your house is in such a state?  Yep, that’s me.  That’s how it’s been for me all my adult life.   But recently it’s started to bother me enough to finally do something about it.  

So I broke down each individual daily task by time, to get a better perspective:

Making the Bed - 2 minutes (at the absolute most)

Load of Washing - 5 min to sort and load, 5 minutes to hang up. Total – 10 minutes

Washing Up – 10 minutes (less if you only have a dishwasher to load and unload)

Sweep Kitchen Floor – 5 minutes

Tidy the living room – 5 minutes

Total time:  27 minutes

Now if you look at it in a single half hour block and think “I don’t have half an hour” – then break it down into individual jobs.  Honestly, who doesn’t have time to pull the bedclothes up, smooth the doona and replump the pillows?   Who doesn’t have five minutes to straighten the papers on the coffee table, put the kids toys in the bedroom, take glasses/coffee cups to the sink?

You’ll notice none of the jobs on here last much longer than a commercial break on television – so you can watch your favourite show and still get a load of washing on, sweep the kitchen floor and get the washing up done as well!

This works for any job you think is “just too big”.  Break it down into it’s smaller parts, doing a couple of minutes at a time.  For instance, instead of reorganising the whole pantry, do just one shelf at a time!

A good job is definitely it’s own reward - you’ll always feel so much better when it’s done, and the door bell will no longer strike fear into your heart!