As a bachelor, I don’t really care that much about cooking and cleaning. Part of that it just laziness and not wanting to spend a lot of time on it.
So finding quicker/easier ways to do things is always appreciated. I know there are a lot of ‘hacks’ websites devoted to doing things a little faster, I don’t know if I’ve seen one devoted to people who want to find ways to cook/clean and make it as easy, painless and easy to clean as possible.
I’ve thought of finding someone in my apartment complex and offering them $10/hr to clean my apartment (a regular cleaning only takes an hour, a deep cleaning maybe 3 or 4).
I guess there are disposable crock pot liners and foil baking dishes. Or if you just hate scrubbing pots, let them soak with water that starts out warm, with dishwasher powder in it, overnight. They should just rinse clean in the morning.
Look, I’m married with a toddler, I’m really** interested in making housework faster and easier.
The best cleaning hack I’ve found is good music/podcast and a beer. It’s downright enjoyable to clean the kitchen after I’ve been sitting in front of my computer all day if I’ve got a beverage and some tunes.
I would say the biggest trick is just don’t clean as often. Cleaning is not hard to start with, neither is cooking. Cook enough for a few days at a time. I use one set of silverware, 1 coffee cup, 1 glass, 1 saucer and one plate and they stay in my dish drain dolly on the sink. The sooner you clean them after eating the easier, when you put them in the sink wash them at the same time so you dont have to return to the sink. Maybe vacuume once a week, clean the shower etc once a week. Don’t make your bed just crawl in. I keep mine made but sleep on top with another blanket if I am staying at my own house. Cleaning for a bachelor really can’t get much easier than it allready is.
Spend one day a week cleaning your place (probably not all day, maybe just a couple of hours, but get it spotless). Then spend a few minutes the rest of the days cleaning up as you go (dishes into the dishwasher, clothes in the hamper, etc.). Once you learn the habit, you’ll find you really don’t have to do much to keep a clean place. I do laundry on Sunday as I watch football - about a 6-8 minute interruption every hour or so for about 3 loads. No biggie - but it helps to have a washer/dryer in your place of course.
Cooking - frozen foods, “just add water” stovetop skillet dishes, fresh fruit for snacks. Sandwiches. Salads. Cereal. Unless you want to cook gourmet meals every night, a skillet, a couple of pots, a pan for the oven, and a microwave are all you need. As much as possible use plasticware, foam/paper plates, disposable cups if you want. Less cleanup that way. But do learn to clean as you go, in the kitchen as elsewhere. Even a couple of days of letting things slide will lead to clutter that will eventually seem insurmountable.
Also, make your bed every day. Trust me, it helps.
I’m not much of a cook, but if you want to make something nice and have little cleanup, learn about cooking en papillote. That’s just a fancy French term for making something in a little pouch or envelope made from parchment or aluminum foil.
Paper plates + plastic utensils = no (few) dishes to do.
Eating out or ordering makes even less cleanup since you’re not cooking as long as you take the garbage out. You DO take the garbage out, right?!
It clearly not ideal but for a few years when I was in grad school it kept me fed and prevented me from living in filth when I was putting in 12-14 hour days between school and work.
One thing I was advised to try, haven’t tried, but need to try is to put a pot of water in the microwave and let it boil up a lot of steam (not in a metal pan). Then attack the mess that is inside. This advice was given to my by a bachelor.
If you are really baching it, and not just ordering out, then you must be using the microwave and it has to be a mess. Let me know how it works out.
Also, put used dishes, glasses, coffee cups, silverware, pots and pans in the dishwasher as soon as you are done with them. And I don’t mean waiting until after you are done eating. Letting them pile up in the sink or on the counters is bad on the psyche and can lead to thoughts of inferiority and inadequacy.
I’ve done that, except I mix a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in the water. The baking soda helps to clean and definitely deodorizes the microwave.
Get your kitchen and bathroom spotless, just once. Then, maintain that level. Think about it, even if someone vomits in a tile clad, spotless room; you can probably clean that up with nothing more than a spray bottle and a bunch of paper towels. It’s when you let it go for weeks that you need special cleansers and hours of work. You can dust with your shirt sleeve, let it go for months and it’s a trip to the store, liquid, wipes, do the deed, dispose of supplies. It’s WAY easier to just maintain.
Cook larger quantities and freeze/refrigerate what’s left for another meal. If I’m making spaghetti for myself, I’d make enough sauce for that one meal. If I made 4 portions and froze 3, I would only have to wash that pot once instead of 4 times.
You can do anything for 10 minutes. So just clean for 10 mins.
You’d be surprised at how much you can get done in 10 mins. Put on a podcast or something while you’re at it, and you’ll be done cleaning before the podcast is done!
When you heat up canned food, open the can and put the entire can in a pan. Fill the pan with water, so the can opening remains above the water line. Boil until ready. You don’t have to clean the pan afterwards.
For hardwood or linoleum floors, wear socks inside the house. Slide around to pick up dirt, wash them in the laundry as usual.
Re-use towels after showers. Hang them on the towel bar or curtain rod between showers to dry. I found this cuts laundry by about 20-50%. Extra bonus: when it’s time to wash a towel, throw it on the ground while it’s still wet and move it around with your feet to clean the floor.
Buy plastic utensils. Plates are easy to clean, but you can get paper plates too. The best value is a 100 pack of wooden chopsticks, $1.
Heard this one from a friend: unplug the fridge. If you eat out all the time, you’ll never use it. Bonus: you save about $20 a month in electricity.
If you can, get a dog, the larger the better. Whatever you don’t eat gets mixed with their kibble. I had this one dog, a pitbull/lab mix, who would eat everything, including bones. We never threw away a morsel.
Jealousies: close all the windows and spray them from outside.
Got this one from my dad: Never clean walls, always paint over them. If any furniture gets in the way, paint over them too.
I went 10 years with only an electric wok and a fork. No cups, plates, or other useless girly stuff. Eat from the pan and lick it clean. A cat is useful - they have rough tongues and can clean off any baked on food residue that your tongue can’t get off.
As long as you don’t have carpet, you can hook up a hose and just clean your floor and walls with that - I used to hose everything into the bathroom, and then down the floor drain. That’s what it’s there for, no?
I think this slightly misses the point of cleaning. Everybody feels this way about cleaning, so the way cleaning is has already incorporated your question. That’s why there are sprays that loosen up grime 'n stuff. It’s not like all the housewives really love elbow grease and take the long way around and thus use a completely different method to one that is available to you as a bachelor who doesn’t like cleaning.
But when you’re reading tips in those “cleaning hack” lists, don’t fall for the ones that combine vinegar and baking soda, you end with mainly water. Water is pretty good for cleaning, but since it comes out of the tap you don’t need to make your own. (<- That’s my tip.)
