First of all, my goal is to have my work be part of my life and not be an abominable, separate entity to put it a bit dramatically. What I have learned so far is that I need routines for the boring chores, so there is more time (with clean conscience) for the fun. I found this inspiring thread that has collected the ideas of many unclutterers already:
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Posted 10 months ago #
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I'm glad you brought up this topic and added the link. I can't remember what it was like to work outside the home and do everything that needs to be done around the house. Perhaps I had a higher tolerance for messes or learned to ignore some things.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Leo Babauta posts on this very topic on his blogs from time to time, for example finding joy in routine things like chores. I am far from that. I work outside the home 32 hours per week and we have our house on the market. Keeping the house clean is an absolute necessity. However, having it clean all the time makes it easier to keep it clean and clutter free. I think sometimes just getting in the habit of keeping things clean and tidy makes it all easier especially if you are working outside the home. Hopefully if we are ever able to sell and move closer to our workplaces, we will be able to keep it up. My husband and daughter are tornados when they hit a room!
Posted 10 months ago # -
I work full time (50-60 hours) from home and it actually helps me keep up with some chores (like dishes, taking out the trash) because I have to look at it (or smell it) all day if I don't.
That said after several years of struggling to keep up with the "heavy" housework, we finally hired a cleaner to come in every two weeks and do the bathrooms, floors, hoover, dust, wash the sheets, etc. It's the best money I've ever spent. DH and I agree that even if we had to trim expenses for some reason, we'd trim in other areas first before giving up the luxury of a cleaner.
Posted 10 months ago # -
luxcat, we do the same.
we work hard, from home.
we hire cleaners, a gardener, someone to clean the windows.
i would rather work on my business than do those things.
so it is simply a choice between hiring an employee in the business or out-sourcing the other work.
i like giving work to local small business people, and feeling as though wealth is circulating in my small community.
with the big stuff taken care of, i can work on my business as much as i please.
and i do enjoy cooking, doing the laundry, doing the dishes, all the other little things we do to care for our homes.
years ago, i read about finding the zen in the mundane and the everyday, and i have deliberately cultivated that mindset.
it makes life a lot more real and beautiful if we seek the now in everything we do.Posted 10 months ago # -
I would gladly pay someone to vacuum and dust twice weekly and clean windows when they're dirty if I had the money. Especially when there are kids in the picture, I'd much rather watch their games and such instead of being the mommy who has to clean all the time. Yes, I have experience from such a mom. There is nothing as valuable as participation in a kid's life when they are still growing up and no clean window of panzer wagon of dust creeping out from underneath some furniture is as important as actually living with your child.
As long as my finances aren't this allowing, I have to figure out how to reach zen when doing all of it (well, 50/50 with DH) myself. I think I've realized certain things already, but it's always refreshing to read how others do it and get the occasional insanely good idea to incorporate into one's own life.
I love the idea of circulating wealth in the community, like bandicoot said, though!
Posted 10 months ago # -
Ah, we had a housecleaner when DH was ill/recuperating and I was still working. I would have one still, but he won't, so we do it. I love a clean house, and doing most of it is fine. I just hate to vacuum - it's such a fleeting feeling. Unless I'm home alone, and neither I nor the cats go outdoors, it doesn't last half a day. Someone - usually with 4 feet - goes out and tracks in dirt, or grass or whatever. DH does help with this, but still, we live in a damp place, have a gravel driveway, live on a gravel road, and are less than 0.1 mile from a river bed full of glacial loess - I could vacuum/dust every day were I insane enough to let it bother me that much! :)
Posted 10 months ago # -
don't talk to me about the stuff that accumulates on cats' feet!
my guys trek in bloody huge rocks...long twigs....grass....mud...mulch....leaves....
they dislodge most of it onto the floor and the leftovers into beds/sofas.
we may as well be living in a bird's nest.Posted 10 months ago # -
Heh, Luxcat, we had a year when my partner worked from home and I worked in an office. The house got dirtier and dirtier and dirtier. When I started working from home, it got cleaner and cleaner and cleaner. Partly because I am only working part time, and partly because I clean up * think about things as I go (and during long phone meetings) while he can only do one thing at a time. When he's working, he will eat, walk around, go to the bathroom - but he's only thinking about work in his head. He can't make or take a personal phone call (like to make an appointment) or pay bills or even put his dirty bowl in the dishwasher, because he's immersed in his job.
Posted 10 months ago # -
Symbiosis: I find that working outside the home makes it easier to handle such basics as shopping (online or on the way home) and paying bills (online). If I am at home - on a weekend or vacation day or whatever - I find myself doing 10,000 other things and don't want to go out or go online.
Working outside the home also helps me stay motivated to keep the apartment neat and reasonably clean, because I hate coming back to an untidy place. When I am just hanging around the place, I tend to let projects stay in the 'staged' position for ... longer than they should.
A little bit, done often, is all it really takes when you have two relatively tidy adults in a household.
Posted 10 months ago # -
@rosa- funny that you say that. I spend a lot of time (several hours a week) on very boring conference calls in which I am only required to participate on a minimal level. I use that time (thanks to my trusty headset) to empty the dishwasher, fold clothes, whatever needs doing.
Posted 10 months ago # -
We have a cleaner once a week. So worth it for us as we both work pretty much full-time outside the house and we have a dog to walk as well. My GF doesn't like cleaning so she decreed early on that this would happen, and her Mother was always harping on about the dust so this sorted both those problems nicely :-)
I can tidy relatively easily, and our cleaners aren't fussy, they just work around the junk that is around. Plus it inspires me that they shouldn't see the SAME junk for too many weeks so I have to at least move some of it :-)
Posted 10 months ago # -
I cannot remember whether this has been posted here already, but it is so inspiring that I might as well potentially re-post. First I thought it belonged in the Home Office thread but no, it is more than getting papers in shape so to speak. I just finished day 2 if someone wants to join me for discussion:
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/01/01/31-days-to-fix-your-finances/
Posted 10 months ago # -
Nina, that's an awesome list. It looks like an elaborated version of the steps in Your Money or Your Life.
Trent @ The Simple Dollar has a pretty inspiring life story, too. He grew up not too far from where I grew up and I recognize a lot of facets of his life from other people I know.
Posted 10 months ago #
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