Finding Balance at Home Through Efficiency

Achieving balance in your home life is vitally important to a rewarding and stress-free lifestyle, yet many homeowners are uncertain of the steps they can take to achieve such balance. For many homeowners, the most overwhelming aspect of a home (besides the mortgage) tends to be its general upkeep. Follow the tips below to help improve the condition of your home in the most efficient manner possible:

1. Simplify your possessions.

Simplifying your possessions usually results in the total simplification of your life, and, by performing an honest assessment of the things you own, you help to de-clutter your home. De-cluttering is important to becoming more balanced at home because it helps you to feel more satisfied with your existing space. Additionally, simplification helps you get more use out of the things you already own, as well as reducing the need to make additional purchases. By ridding yourself of the things you no longer need, you’ll gain a greater appreciation for the things you already have.

2. Get organized.

Organization is important insofar as it allows you locate items quickly, as well as giving you a sense of overall well-being knowing that your home and responsibilities are in order. Entire books have been written on organization, but in there are some basic truths: First, it’s important to categorize. Items and tasks tend to share common characteristics, and they should be grouped accordingly. Another important part of organization is developing good time management skills. Although time management is complicated and takes practice, by learning how to organize and complete tasks more efficiently, you’ll be well on your way to enjoying a more balanced home life.

3. Keep things clean…

A clean home is a very important source of happiness and calm. In general, if your home is clean, it helps to promote a sense of peace and a positive attitude, as opposed to messier homes which tend to be a source of added stress for the inhabitants. To help maintain your home’s cleanliness without adding more stress to your already-too-full day, considering doing a daily “quick pickup.” For the quick pickup, you spend no more than 30 minutes performing simple cleaning tasks, such as returning the kids’ toys to their rooms, wiping down the counters, or sweeping the kitchen. The quick pickup is perfect because it helps you to keep things under control in your home, but it also keeps the task of cleaning from becoming too daunting. Knowing that you only have to clean for 30 minutes makes the responsibility seem very manageable, and it will give you plenty of time afterward to do more important things. Then, once a week, as time allows, schedule a full-on cleaning session (read: rubber gloves) for kitchens, bathrooms, and other areas that tend to accumulate grime quickly.

4. …But also keep things in perspective.

Although a clean home is important, cleanliness should never get in the way of life’s more important elements. Today’s homeowners feel unreasonable societal pressures to maintain a perfectly clean home, regardless of careers, children, or other commitments, but, for most families, this simply isn’t realistic. In reality, there truly isn’t any reason to stress about doing the dinner dishes at the immediate conclusion of your meal. If you really don’t feel like doing them right away… don’t. Instead, play a game with your family, or relax with a book until you feel up to the task of cleaning. Despite the message communicated by many popular magazines, perfection is a largely unattainable goal, and, as such, it’s far better to keep things in perspective and focus on what’s truly important: enriching the lives of your loved ones and yourself.

5. Don’t go it alone.

Attempting to complete every task on your own is a recipe for stress and inefficiency, so instead, try assigning duties to different members of the household. There’s no need to develop a complicated chore wheel or rotating responsibilities schedule; simply make a list of all the tasks that absolutely must be completed in your home on a weekly basis, and meet with the other members of your household to discuss who will be responsible for which chores. This improves efficiency for a number of reasons. First, you are no longer solely responsible for completing the chores independently, which means your home will not go completely neglected should you be temporarily remiss in your duties. Additionally, this tends to encourage the less inspired members of your household to do their part, as their duties seem much less intimidating than the overarching instruction to “keep things clean.” They understand their specific responsibilities and how those responsibilities help to comprise an achievable whole.

In your mission to achieve balance in your home, it is important that you try to keep your home well-maintained. By simplifying your possessions and striving to be as organized as possible, you can help to make your life more efficient. Also, by recruiting the other members of your household to keep your home clean, you can help to create a stress-free environment. Finally, although cleanliness is certainly important, keeping things in perspective is even more so. If you try to view everyday tasks as part of the larger picture, you will be more likely to devote your time to those things which are truly important.