HOW TO CUT CORNERS AT HOUSEWORK...
As a mum of two adorable children under two, I never seem to find enough time to get to grips with the housework. I manage to do the essentials but anything extra gets moved on to the next day... and the next... Which means that when my mother or mother-in-law visit, they take pity on me and cheerfully tackle my huge pile of ironing (at the bottum of my priority list :-). I'm sure any visitors from Holland will be horrified at my dirty windows, though they would be too polite (!) to say. In Holland nobody has dirty windows!
Anyway, over time I have learned a few tricks which enable me to have a house that looks clean and tidy without having to spend so much time on the housework that I can't go out with my kids or check facebook evry so often :-). If you are Dutch and/or Houseproud, look away now!
* Hate cleaning the shower? Just keep the bathroom spray and a sponge/cloth/scrubber in the showercabin and give it a clean once a week while you have a shower yourself. Or encourage your husband or children to do so :-)
* Limit your pile of ironing: never ever iron underwear (nobody will notice), payama's (they'll crease as soon as you wear them in bed anyway), tea-towels, muslin squares (does it really matter that they're neat when you think of what you use them for) or indeed duvet covers (they don't look that creased when they are stretched round a duvet anyway and if you have nicely ironed pillow cases the overall look is fine).
* Never dry dishes, just let them drip-dry. Much more hygienic too! And it's amazing how many dishes you can stack on top of a drying rack!
* Fed up with dusting? When you wipe the table after dinner, occasionally just quickly wipe all the furniture surfaces with the same cloth (as long as it is not too wet).
* Have a wicker basket in every room for those toys that seem to turn up everywhere.
* Putting away dishes can be a nightmare: try fitting that frying pan underneath the pile of saucepans, or lifting the breakfast plates in order to put the dinner plates at the bottum. Store everything in such a way that you can put away the dishes in half the time. This means: hang what you can. Hanging pans, colinders, utensils, sieves etc with hooks from some sort of storage system or iron bar is not only easier but it looks good as well. Think of storage solutions inside your cupboards such as a 3-tier plate stand. Use a mug-tree for your mugs (an added bonus is that you can hang your mugs up even if they are not totally dry yet)
Anyone got any other ideas?
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