My kids are grown and gone, so that helps. But when they were here, I spent all my non-signing time stocking the fridge.
Basically, I let the housework go until the EOM is over. Then I vacuum, clean bathrooms or whatever. I also do my filing at that time. I do a load of laundry in the morning when we run out of clothes. I wash a load of jeans, and then drape them on the porch to dry in the sun. (It's less work: no need to keep checking the dryer). I wash the t-shirts the next day and hang them on the shower rack. No need to babysit them in the dryer either. I dry socks and underwear in the dryer, but it's okay if they wait and get wrinked. I spend about 1 day entering all my work orders into quicken, then next day matching up the check stubst that came in, and the third day calling everyone who forgot to pay me.
I am lucky that my husband is a foodie. He does a lot of shopping and cooking. I shop at smart & final and buy in bulk. We don't have creative meals. I buy a huge hunk of meat on sale, someone cooks it, and then we snack on it for lunch and dinner until it's gone. If we have to eat a roast 4 days in a row - oh well.
We don't have a dishwasher, so I tell everyone to rinse their dish and set it in the other side of the sink. I wash them in the morning. They are rinsed, so it goes quickly. If I have a swamped morning, oh well.
I do crock pot meat a lot too: throw the meat in with some kind of liquid and my husband can figure out if he wants to fancy it up (burritos or whatever) when he gets home. I always make sure we have tortillas, cheese and salsa in the fridge: they can turn any leftovers into a burrito while I am out signing. Everyone likes burritos. I always have fruit on hand too.
We don't have any animals or houseplants: they are just more chores. |
