Disclaimer: if minimalist living is your jam then turn back now. The only thing I do minimally is exercise. No judgement if minimalism is your lifestyle choice, it’s just not mine x

In my last post I talked about removing the guilt from the things that I do to make my life easier. In this post I want to talk about exactly what those things are. My days are by no means smooth sailing and my house will never be a show home but doing the simple things, and giving myself room to make mistakes, make my days easier.

Work with, not against your body clock.

I’m a night owl. I thrive late at night and hiss at the sun like a vampire. I have several alarms in the morning to make sure I wake up when I need to. I still sleep in. Recently, I realised that forcing myself to do housework in the morning was never going to work. I’d procrastinate and end up doing it at night anyway. The trouble with that method though is that I spent most of the day feeling guilty because I hadn’t done it. Now, (within reason, obviously I’m not out mowing the lawn at midnight) I do it when the energy is there, regardless of when it’s socially acceptable. 9/10 it means that I’m doing the washing at 9pm and vacuuming late in the afternoon. It’s done though, so does it really matter when? Logically no.

Just buy the damn precut food

There’s a stigma around buying food that is precut or premade. Anyone who does so is lazy and wasteful says society. Eat healthy and don’t eat junk, they say in the next breath. Guess what? Buying precut food means that I do that. I can spend $5 on a salad and pretty much guarantee it will be eaten. Or I can spend $10 on salad ingredients that will turn to mush at the bottom of my crisper.

Alarm, alarm, alarm!

I have alarms for everything throughout my day. Alarms to wake up, alarms to remind me to take my medication, alarms to remind me to pick my son up from school. I even have an alarm to remind me to put my pants on in the morning. You might laugh, but that one was created because I did forget to put pants on one morning… Throughout the day I often get sidetracked and hyperfocused. Before my dinner alarm I would often look at the clock and realise it was 7pm and I hadn’t started cooking dinner yet. I even have alarms to remind me to send my son to bed.

Having things on your bench is actually ok

I saw this statement on a Tik Tok recently. I beat myself up a lot because my kitchen benches are very rarely clutter free. I have sauces, oils, and other stuff. This is all stuff that I use often. I struggle with object permanence and if something isn’t in my face, then a lot of the time it just doesn’t exist to me anymore. It sounds strange, but it’s true. Putting the stuff that I use everyday in a cupboard also adds extra steps to my day. There are many days when those extra steps are too much. So I don’t cook dinner, or make lunch or remember to put deodorant on in the morning.

Buy cleaning products that make your life easier

Recently I bought myself a stick vacuum and a spray mop. One of the reasons I struggle to vacuum and mop is the many steps involved in the whole process. Once I get started, I’m fine but the getting started can feel overwhelming. So I use a stick vacuum that I have in the main living area. I can pick it up and do a quick vacuum without the need for cords, hoses and emptying a large receptacle. I use the spray mop for spot mopping. This means that I can clean messes in a quick, more manageable fashion. The mop head I have can be thrown into the washing machine too, so I don’t even need to deal with a bucket.

Fold your clothes, or don’t

Every six months I go on a decluttering frenzy in my wardrobe and make it neat and tidy. It lasts about 2 weeks before it looks like a bomb has hit it again. What I’ve learned is that I need to find a way that works for me. So I have plastic tubs in my wardrobe and sort the clothes into purpose rather than style. If they’re folded, great. If not, also great. I also have two washing baskets. One for my sons clothes and one for mine. Then what happens to them after they come off the line is the person who owns the clothes responsibility.

Over the last 8 or so months I’ve accepted that being clutter free is not a lifestyle that I can maintain or enjoy. I’ve realised that not having a show room house doesn’t make me less of a person. I was putting impossible standards on myself.