Looking for tips on how to save time in life. I work full time and have 4 kids (that’s a lot of cleaning up). I’d like to save time in keys parts of life so that I can spend more time with my kids. What suggestions have you got for me, reddit?
Seconding this and along this line, I just finished a book a few weeks ago called "The Idle Parent: Why Laid-Back Parents Raise Happier and Healthier Kids". It might help with the mindset: it's good for them to be useful and do stuff with you.
My kids were learning to do laundry and bringing their dishes to the trash/sink at an early age. Also, I gave them 10-15 mins every night to pick up their room before bed.
I work with under 5's & we have our 2 year olds scraping their snack plates. 3 year olds scrape all their leftovers & 4 year olds stack plates, bowls, cups etc.
My children are at an age where they can be helpful. It is amazing how much less stressed I am when I utilize their help (when wisely applied). We stained a decent size deck in an under an hour as a team compared to most of a day by myself.
I give them ownership over things they take pride in such as operating the zero turn mower and other equipment on our small farmette.
i second this, i wish i was taught these skills growing up its hard having to teach myself
I taught my kids to cook basic meals from aged 10. My son had more patience making scrambled eggs than me. My Grandma taught me & it was great to pass on her method. Of course, with my 2nd born, I taught her using a microwave.
This reminds me of the vintage picture book where the mom rabbit is able to be the Easter bunny because she teaches all her baby bunnies to help out and cover the home takes.
Yes! I love this book. I always thought it was funny because each pair of kids does a different chore, and IIRC there’s one pair that cooks, one pair that does dishes, etc….and then one pair that paints paintings for the walls. Ideal division of labor 😂
Yeah how many paintings do these rabbits need?
I would not have enjoyed this as a kid. But, now an adult with my own space to take care of, I wish my parents had me try everything so I'd have experience at least one time doing some of these things.
My top tip is to have less stuff, so that everything has a home.
I'm slowly working my way through all of my stuff. Trying to get rid of things that I thought I would use but never did. Hell, I even got smaller storage bins to make myself keep less things lol
The digital world cannibalizes time.
Less screens = more time. If only I'd take this advice.
Reddit and Threads are my biggest time-sucks.
Time's the one currency you can't earn back, friend.
- Batch cooking means one big mess, multiple meals.
- Teach kids to pitch in. They learn life skills, you get help. Win-win.
- Embrace the 80/20 rule (focus on the 20% of tasks that give 80% of results.)
- Automate bills and investments, i.e. set it and forget it strategy.
- Learn to say no: Every 'yes' to others is a 'no' to family time.
In my world, that's always been family and smart investing. The rest is just noise.
Seconding batch cooking! Especially with things like soup, chili, pancakes, and french toast that are easy to freeze. You can get those fancy freezer cube things (a brand name example is Souper Cubes) or you can just use a freezer safe zip bag (ziploc). Just be sure to let the food cool for a bit before putting it in the freezer because hot food + freezer can cause the freezer to warm up to an unsafe temperature.
Usually what I do is let it cool for about 15-30 minutes on the counter, put it into its containers, put it in the fridge for an hour or two, and then move it to the freezer. Also if you freeze pancakes after they have cooled, they won't stick to each other so you won't need to use parchment paper or anything like that
Would you mind sharing some of your “Automate bills and investments” techniques please?
First off, set up automatic transfers to your investment accounts. Whether it's your 401(k), IRA, or brokerage account, schedule these transfers to happen right after payday. It's like paying your future self first.
For bills, most providers offer autopay options. Set these up, but always keep an eye on your statements. Even robots make mistakes sometimes.
Consider using a budgeting app that can categorize your spending automatically. This gives you a clear picture of where your money's going without the headache of manual tracking.
Also, look into apps that round up your purchases and invest the spare change. It's a painless way to boost your investments.
The goal is to make good financial habits effortless. Once you've set it up, you can focus on the big picture stuff - like advancing your career or finding new investment opportunities.
Thanks for taking the time to provide such detailed tips. ¡Gracias! 🖖🏽
I hate to say it, but it usually means spending more money.
Get help to deep clean the house once a month. Grocery shop at just one store instead of hunting deals across several. Eat out instead of cooking.
You get the idea.
Yep this is facts. Literally buying time.
We sell time to make money, then use money to buy back time
Not sure if I fully agree with the shopping just at one store portion. Maybe bulk up on sales across multiple stores once per month and then find a single store to supplement?
Eating out instead of cooking will add up super fast, especially with this amount of people.
Maybe cook bulk items that can be utilized in multple meals (chicken, ground beef, etc). If OP doesnt have one, maybe look at something like a crockpot?
I think they mean "don't go to 3 grocery stores every week".
I have about 10 items I like from Trader Joes. I visit the store once every three months (or thereabouts) to stock up on those items. My weekly shopping is at Food Lion one week and Aldi the next. So I buy at least two weeks worth of diet pepsi at Food Lion to last until I shop there again, and at Aldi I get at least two weeks worth of cheese and chicken.
Exactly right. I've been to like 3 different stores this week hunting bargains. 8 corn for $1 was a steal at the big chain! Now, I need to go to Costco to get the organic whole chicken. And yesterday, the Asian market for fresh herbs...
4 kids meaning 4 more pair of hands to clean. It doesnt matter how young they are, except if they are literal babies they can learn to keep the house in order. Cleaning with your children will also give you time to spend with your children. Never ever ever get angry if they dont clean like your specification, you must make them like cleaning because they can spend time with you. For example, just blast the radio and while cleaning you all can sing together while cleaning.
Clean up, clean up, everyone everywhere clean up
Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere! Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share!
You sound like my wife
This! When I worked the closing shift in a 2 year old room at a daycare, the kids loved helping me!
When you set it up right, toddlers can do so much. I got 2 years olds to tear a trash bag off the roll and shake it out, soak water off the sink using paper towels, help sweep, put away toys, fold blankets, and help me see what was messy.
I'm having a child later this year and can't wait to teach him how to do tasks and household chores. Toddlers want to learn and feel useful. So put them to work with the appropriate expectations and it'll pay off in the future.
Kids can learn how to cook too, with supervision by the adults.
I'll never forget when my three youngest were helping prep veggies for a roast. I took pictures of them chopping the veggies (I was,at most,arms length away from them since the house wasn't big at all). I was SO PROUD I showed my boss. She lost her mind asking me "why do those babies have knives?!"
"Because Michelle, I want my kids to actually know how to do things when they grow up"
My mom's first cooking lesson for her grandkids was how to make scrambled eggs when they were 5-6 years old. They stood on a chair while she helped them crack the eggs and scramble them in the pan.
There's things that you can do like cut the hair of your family members. saves time driving and waiting. If you have the friends over of your children then they can all tire each other out in a relatively short period of time. Have them help with laundry, yard work or other things. I've found that the less items we all had the easier it was to clean up. Like each child had their own sports bottle and dishes so they used one set at a time instead of twenty glasses each every day. Less of everything makes it easier to clean. I automate bills online. We've streamlined investments. I keep minimal paperwork. I shred everything I can. I guess I could go on, but just keep looking for ways. I think the biggest help is cooking double and freezing a batch or two.
Good point! less stuff is less cleaning and fewer things that break and need repair
When my kids were little I stopped worrying about folding their clean clothes. They immediately get unfolded while they dug thru drawers.
Piles were just sorted into proper drawers. Most kids clothing is fairly wrinkle resistant and they give no shits anyways.
It saved a lot of time and arguing.
Love this idea. I have a constant mental battle with the pile of clean laundry in my loft. I have no problem washing & drying it, but the folding & putting away pains me just thinking about it. There's only 4 of us?! I have no clue how my mom managed laundry for 7.
I have done this. It's great. Grandma has kittens when she sees their drawers but the amount of time saved is worth it.
This is the way. As long as the clothes are clean and still fit properly, that's all that matters.
Yep.
I remember my mother being all concerned with what others would think. I simply asked when the last time she saw a kid in a wrinkled shirt was and if she felt they were neglected because of it. She got the point.
I recently read the “lazy genius way” and suggest it. One thing I like is how they state there are different seasons in ones life. Maybe now is time to not care about specific chores since I assume your kids are young and be kind to yourself for letting certain things slide. For me, working towards a minimalism mindset is helpful too as less stuff to clean,organize, put away and purchase. The minimalist mom on you tube is inspiring.
Meal planning/meal prepping/batch cooking
Online grocery shopping (either delivered home or pick-up)
Shopping in big batches for high consumption, easy to store items
Using helpful appliances (a vacuum robot for example)
Choosing low maintenance clothes/furniture
Decluttering (including décor)
Organizing your spaces so that everything flows (if it isn’t already so)
Maybe you could spend some time (a week or two) recording on a diary how you spend your days, so you can see at a glance where you spend your time and where you could save some
Involve them in tasks.
You 100% can get them involved in tasks like washing dishes, sweeping, cooking, etc early on. And then as they get older, things like vacuuming and larger tasks.
If they're young, they may need a small incentive to do stuff like clean their room, but phase this out as they get older.
Some things, you can do WITH your kids, especially in the kitchen
I have 5 kids. It’s all about the prep work and thinking ahead.
Meal plan and prep whatever you can on the weekends. Pack school lunches at dinner time so you get it done at once and only have to clean up once.
Pack bags and pick out clothes the night before to make mornings go more smoothly.
Teach kids to clean up after themselves so that YOU have more time. My kids start doing their own laundry at age 10.
Laura Vanderkam does a lot of good work about managing your time efficiently - she has a blog and books.
Edit to second the Lasy Genius recommdation. Life-changing.
Agree that involving kids more is a good idea but make sure to keep it age appropriate and be careful to not parentify the older kids.
Also, if you have a spouse, they need to be pulling their weight, too.
Thanks for bringing up the parentification. This issue does not get enough attention, especially in big families. My dad and stepmom adopted eight kids and thought it was just a great idea to turn me into their house elf/Cinderella slave 😒
The stoic question is always "is this activity NECESSARY in the moment?"
The biggest time waster for me is food. I narrowed down to what I don’t mind eating consistently for efficiency, and enjoyment. I have the same items delivered to me weekly and I make the same foods every week in batches on one day so I don’t touch the kitchen all week. I have a lot of on the go snacks like protein bars to tide me over til dinner. Spending 30-60 minutes in the kitchen every day is crazy to me. I’ll gladly spend more to gain time… even if that time is me sitting in silence staring at the wall. It is important to me
Batch cooking. Don’t ever make just one casserole. One for tonight and a couple more for the freezer.
The book The Lazy Genius Way has great info about time saving techniques for household tasks. Also a podcast
Meal prep.
Ideally, teach your kids to clean up after themselves as soon as they're able. I don't have kids, so I have no idea how hard that is.
I grew up in a big family too and one thing we did starting in around jr high was each kid had “their day” to make (or help make) dinner and do their own laundry. I think my brother made tuna noodle casserole every week for years, but we still all learned the skills and got stuff done.
I wonder if that's an adult your brother likes tuna noodle casserole? My parents made me in charge of vacuuming as a kid and as an adult I absolutely hate doing it.
Ha ha no one made him do tuna noodle—he did it because it was easy and he knew how to do it
Also check out Finnish drying cabinets. It's my fantasy to just put the wet dishes in a cabinet, shut the door and have them drip dry there.
I hardly ever dry my dishes. They drip dry .Then I put them in the cupboard.
Right! Suppose you could skip the step of putting them in the cupboard, because the drying rack is already in the cupboard, which has no bottom and stands directly over the sink or a drainboard?
A big one for me is just doing things rather than putting them off. I spend a lot of time feeling like I have no time because I procrastinate everything and then feel overwhelmed by tasks. When I manage to be productive and just do the damn things, I sit back at the end of the day with nothing to do and it feels really good. Still a work in progress for me, but a great thing to teach kids.
Laura Vanderkam writes about this. She has 5 kids.
I clump my time together while other stuff is going on. When I am waiting for the pizza dough to rise or stew to cook I am walking with my mother or in your case it would be the 2 kids. If I am selling something on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist I list local pickup only and someone wants to meet me 40 minutes to a hour away I tell them I will charge them a fee of 1 dollar per minute. I talk to people and do financials when on break or lunch at work.
Meal prep Sunday. Or Saturday.
Not sure exactly what you mean by "frugal with your time." I guess you mean saving time? I would not really call this frugality at all. I find frugality to be opposed to saving time. Frugal ways of doing things are usually more time intensive but they save you money.
For example, drying your clothes by clothes line in the yard is going to save money one electricity, but it takes a lot more time to string up your clothes than it does to throw them in an electric dryer machine.
If you want to save time / have more convenience, often the answer is to spend money, which is the opposite of being frugal.
4 kids? Meal prep.
Learn to leverage your time. I agree with everyone here about having your children help. Yes you have to teach them and work with them but then you have years of help.
Have one of them take turns emptying the dishwasher every day. Or one on the top and one on the bottom rack. If you have a empty dishwasher than you never have to have dishes in the sink. Teach them to rinse and put in the dishwasher.
I have 6 children. We did 5 min cleanup after dinner and then one child would finish up. That gave me more time.
We worked an hour together every summer day but Sunday. They learned new skills and we got a lot done. Then they would have a lot of free time.
A crockpot gives you more time. Easy to dump in meat, veggies and a sauce for dinner early in the day.
Teaching your children to do their laundry by age 12.
I also had baskets for underwear and socks. Clothes were always hung on hangers not folded.
Less stuff. Less but better— Greg McKuen.
The first step of time management, just like the first step of financial management, is doing an audit. For one day or one week use an app like Toggl to account for what your time is being spent on. Are you taking forever going to the grocery store three times a week? Or do your evenings default to hours of Netflix? Do you just chill on social media while waiting for sports or dance class to end? First look at where your time is going, then you can start to align your goals with your time use.
Also make a note plan of what your goal is. Just spend time generally with kids? Or special one on one with each? High quality memory making time?
To go back to the examples, maybe doing a grocery pick up once a week will save you time, or you can start getting a brisk walk in while you’re waiting for class to be out, or you and your family can make a list of things you’d like to do in the evening besides watching TV. But first see where your time is going and what you wish you were spending it on.
As an avid cyclist, bicycling to work saves time. Sure it takes longer to commute to work but if you would have spent 30 minutes driving to begin with and it takes you 1 hour to ride your your bike, you just squeezed an hour long bike ride into 30 minutes.
Carpools 100%
I have a tip not exactly for saving time but optimizing it:
Before you sleep every night, write down a list of next days goals and tick them when you finish them. This will save you time of not thinking what your tasks are, and sooner or later you will get better at it.
Teach your kids to tidy & clean. When they're young, make it into a game. "Who can find 5 red legos? Children aged 10 (or younger uf using microwave) & over can be taught how to make simple dishes like scrambled egg, pasta, mac & cheese, or homemade pizza (I'd make the dough, they'd shape & decorate them.
Vacuuming, dusting & dish washing are all easily learnt as well as ironing school uniforms.
I order groceries online- Walmart plus let's you have free delivery and the prices are comparable to what you see in store. I used to get so stressed out with my entire day dedicated to going to the grocery store.
Make more of it. Wake up at 5am
Disposables! Cutting down on dishes/cleanup is the quickest, most effective way to recoup time. We started doing this after our third kid was born and we were in the survival mode that is life with a newborn... And just kind of never stopped lmao.
I would involve them in all tasks. Cleaning, walks, sports, cooking etc. obviously there will be a learning curve but this models healthier behaviors, helps them find play in common daily life, improves their likelihood of habits and hobbies increasing throughout their lifetime versus picking it up once, exposes them to learning to try new things and a beginner mindset. Honestly I get if it wide range it may not see ideal, but a walk after dinner, or putting a song cleaning up together after a meal will still create memories and reinforce habits that seen as fun, productive, easy and nostalgic in their futures.