8 small adjustments that have created a sustainable home environment
Confession time: I’ve never been a terribly disciplined person. Oh sure, I can juggle multiple projects, write novels, and just Get Stuff Done, but when it comes down to it, things around the house just kind of pile up.
The sudden shift to working from home a couple of years ago further exacerbated the issue; I went from spending just weekends and evenings at home to being in my space 24/7. Counters and desks were getting cluttered. I always seemed to have a mountain of dishes. I was able to maintain my workout and sleep schedule, but everything else was up in the air.
But one of the gifts that working from home has given to me was time. I no longer had to deal with a commute; instead, my commute was from bedroom to office. And bit by bit, little by little, I found myself just trying to put systems in place that were sustainable and that left me with a space to think, space to play, and space to rest.
I came to the realization this week that what I’ve managed to do is set in place an actual rhythm that finally (finally!!) works for me. I’m training myself to be a little better at it every week. Instead of stressing me out, my home has felt like a refuge. And it’s all because of a bunch of little tweaks I made over the past few years. In no particular order:
#1 Reboot the kitchen every night
Working from home has doubled or tripled the number of dishes I go through every day. The one thing that has helped me feel like things are even remotely under control is ensuring that I reset my space every evening. Snacks tins are put away in the cupboard. Dishes are all done. Surfaces are wiped down. I’ve also linked the practice of listening to a news podcast to this time, so I’m frequently learning something about the world at the same time as getting my kitchen in order.
#2 Weekly chores during lunch
Just over a year ago, I decided I was going to take some time during my lunch break to really just detach from screens. At the same time, I was realizing that any sort of semblance of weekly chores had completely gone out the window as I was just trying to keep up with dishes. So I made up a list of zones to hit during the week for fifteen minutes during lunch. These chores have shifted over time, but it includes:
- Cleaning the bathroom and changing out towels
- Taking out the garbage and recycling
- Vacuuming
- Weeding the yard
- Folding laundry
- Decluttering some surface
#3 A little progress every day goes a long way
I try to take a little time every day to just put stuff away. I’m terrible at it, and it takes a lot of mental energy to remember to put away things that just travel with me, like pens and cups and books and just stuff, all of which move from one surface to another. Instead of focusing on crunch cleaning (“spend four hours cleaning and then the rest of the day feeling exhausted”), I’ve been trying to make a tiny bit of progress every day.
#4 Meal prep
Working from home means that you can just cook every night, right? … right? I discovered relatively quickly that it was actually quite challenging to fit in a workout and cook and clean up afterward, so it was often either cooking and cleaning, or a workout. What ended up helping me was simply making sure I had made food that I could just reheat quickly in the evening after a longer workout. I’ll take a day when I have more time to spend in the kitchen, make a big batch or two of something, and rotate through the week.
#5 Take the cook time to put stuff away
A recent discovery: those few minutes when the microwave is running is a great time to put away dishes, put away snacks taken out during the day, or put away those loose pens or scissors or whatever that had wandered out. And when taking a little longer to cook a meal, you can even clean as you go, minimizing the number of dishes you had to do afterward. (Still not great at this, but learning every day.)
#6 Set up for the next day
I used to set up for the next day only if I knew I had a particularly early morning and needed to make fewer decisions first thing. I could shave off a couple of minutes by just setting out things ahead of time. Recently, I’ve started going a bit further: I put out a fresh mug for my tea at my work desk, pull out a clean teapot and add dry loose leaf tea, and set out an empty glass for my morning vitamins… all the night before.
#7 Ease into the morning
Talk to anyone who has seen me first thing in the morning: I am not a morning person. I’m barely coherent for the first few hours of the day. Couple that with early morning conference calls, and it’s a recipe for disaster. This year, I’ve started setting my alarm a half an hour earlier — not because I really want to, but because it gives me a time to transition from sleep to wakefulness. I can slowly ease myself into the day instead of flinging myself directly into it, and I feel a little more relaxed going into my first meeting instead of feeling anxious that I’m late.
#8 Finish the evening routine early
I started referring to my evening routine as my “landing pattern” quite some time back. And sometimes, if you include cat care, setting up for the next day, and all the miscellaneous things to do before bed, it sometimes takes me close to an hour from the “oh, time to go to bed” thought to when I actually do get into bed for some shuteye. I’ve started to think about doing things earlier in the day, whether it’s cleaning the litter box, rebooting the kitchen, or getting myself set up for the next day. Sometimes, I’ll try to race and get all of those things done before a late evening virtual hangout with a friend so that the transition to bed doesn’t take so long.
Are these common sense? Probably. Are these going to work for everyone? I don’t think so. I’m constantly annoyed by prescriptive articles that tell you what you need to do to be a successful person (sorry, fam: waking up at 4:30am to work out and spend an hour meditating are not in my future). Instead, I wanted to share some of the small practices that have become a part of the warp and weft of my life, something that allows me to enjoy my evenings and weekends a bit more. By sacrificing a little bit of time every day, I’m able to create a space where I can simply relax or spend time in my creative pursuits.
And that, to me, is success.
Photo by Christopher Jolly on Unsplash
Elaine is a senior product manager at Adobe. You can find her on Twitter at @elainecchao. All statements in this essay are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.
