#sharing life hacks

[museaway]

As requested, here's how I trained myself to wash the dishes pretty much daily.

Dishes and laundry have always felt insurmountable to me. It's probably because they never end. I live alone and I don't have a dishwasher, so I have to do the dishes whether I like it or not. I would much, much rather watch YouTube than do chores, so here's how I get around that.

(It's long so I'll put it behind a cut.)

Disclaimer: What works for me might not work for you. We all have different lives and situations. Take what works for you and leave the rest.

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Solution #1: Make it low commitment

Sometimes I look at the sink and think, "I have to wash all of these?? It's going to take FOREVER. I'll do it tomorrow."

On those days, I challenge myself to wash dishes for the length of one song. It doesn't matter how many dishes I wash, just that I wash them for as long as the song plays!

Sometimes the song will finish and I'll feel up to washing for just one more. Usually, I end up listening to three or four and clean the whole sink. But if the song ends and I want to go do something else, I'm allowed to.

Try working up to multiple times a day.

Make a playlist with songs that make you feel energized! I use anime OPs because they're loud and fun to sing to.

Be gentle with yourself. If you washed one cup, that's great! That's a clean cup! That's one more clean cup than you had one song ago.

You're taking care of yourself by doing this. Really, it's a great kindness you're doing yourself and your family by cleaning something! You deserve to be taken care of!

This method also works with putting away folded laundry. If you don't want to use music, set a timer. Work for 3 minutes and stop.

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Solution #2: Gamify it

When I have a little more energy, the goal changes:

"Can I clear the sink before this song ends?"

"Can I wash all of these within three songs?"

"Can I wash this cup before the chorus?"

This technique really motivates me. I tend to focus and work efficiently since I'm trying to beat the song. If I don't make it, I usually give myself another song or two. It's rare that I stop until the sink is clear.

Whether you beat the song or not, you've washed a bunch of stuff, so you win either way!

This technique also works for putting sheets on the bed, dusting, taking the trash out ("can I get back before the song stops??"), etc. Timers can replace music here too.

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Solution #3: Use a habit tracker

The above solutions got me to stop leaving dishes in the sink for three days, but I was still leaving them overnight. To train myself to wash the dishes every single day, I made it a nightly chore for a solid month.

I used a habit tracker so that I got to check it off every day! I love checklists, so this was terribly satisfying.

I've tried a slew of habit trackers and hate all of them except for this one by TheFor. It's simple, has color coding, supports habit-based goals (like dish washing 7 days a week, or sweeping the deck once a week), and displays an overview so that you can check if you missed any days! Free on the Apple and Play stores. This isn't sponsored; I'm just a fan.

It took a month for my new habit to form, but it did! I'll now go wash the dishes when I see them in the sink, although I still use the first two solutions to keep it from feeling like a chore again.

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Hand-washing tips:

Dish gloves will save your hands! Get a pair you like

I like a wooden dish brush with a replaceable head

I think it helps to like the scent of your dish soap

Get big, easy-to-clean things out of the way first. They take up a huge amount of room in the sink and make the situation look worse than it really is. Think colanders, cookie sheets, the pot you only boiled water in.

Wash things in categories. For example, I like to wash all of the mugs at once. It seems to go faster that way.

Leave the hardest-to-clean stuff for last so it can soak.

Paring down my mug collection sincerely helped the mug overload. Maybe put spares in a drawer for a while.

Sing while you work

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Here's my dish washing playlist

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

My Simple Hack For Starting Tasks

Future ADHD

[rosesandthorns44]

Why did nobody ever tell me that one can rip the godforsaken push-and-turn cap off of pill bottles, and there is a perfectly functional, easy to open cap underneath???

What sorcery is this?!?!

Who knew about this and didn't tell the rest of us???

[lialox]

I don’t know who needs to hear this but IKEA’s one year return policy could save someone.

During the pandemic I had to go through some weird moving/living situation dilemma. I thought I would be fucked over with all the furniture I just bought and nothing to do with it.

When someone pointed out the one year return policy and I just.

Returned my whole apartment.

Got all my money back 100% after almost a year of using it all it was great.

[the-iron-duck93]

[marklikely]

them referring to hollywood screenwriter, director, and actor freddie wong as "this tiktoker" fjjdbsbfhfjdjjfj

[thatbitchsimone]

How do I become comfortable with loving someone, if a guy shits in my bathroom I’ll vomit

have air freshener right beside the toilet in ur bathroom like right by the toilet paper so he cant miss it and i promise u he will not leave the bathroom before spraying the stink away after shitting and then u wont even know he took a shit and u can happily pretend that ur man doesnt shit and stay in denial

[lesbiansanemi]

I am so fucking sick of living with my roommate and his fuck ass boyfriend. Also watching my roommate burn every single one of his (already rather minimal, I might add) bridges for this guy is also kind of painful but also his relationship with me is one of said bridges so I'm almost past the point of even feeling bad for him lmao

[mantisgodsdomain]

Playing 3DS games after having seen the overall fandom response to release and long-term impact and the way it's looked back on and such is... bizarre, honestly? Like, maybe it's just because we got our introduction to gaming in the 3DS era, but it's incredibly strange to know that games we knew and loved and would have considered relatively mainstream just... didn't stick in people's minds.

Like, take the Gen 6 Pokemon games. Those were great games! One of the single things about X/Y/OR/AS that we don't see people talking about but that stuck in our mind was how the developers made an effort to make it so that every single Pokemon in the games prior was spread between just those four games! We remember that just the sheer variety of potential Pokemon available was enough to get us a start into challenge runs simply by virtue of how much variety could be added to a playthrough by the sheer amount of potential on offer!

We remember spending hours just... hunting around the region to figure out where those last Pokemon we needed to fill the 'dex were, wandering around to try and find Hidden Ability pokemon from Horde battles, getting to actually interact with our Pokemon in Pokemon Amie.

Yeah, there were more obscure games out there, and yeah, they impacted us as well - Pocket Card Jockey stands out in this regard, as an extremely fun game that we're pretty sure was played by maybe three people, maximum, but it's not quite the same. These were games that we played ourself! These were games we saw other people playing, that we played with people over the internet, that felt like they were well-known! We were under the impression that these were mainstream interests, not Niche! it feels... singularly bizarre to realize that, for the majority of people out there, this game was a forgettable disappointment.

[museaway]

here's a trick I learned lately and it's been life changing: is there a task that will take less than 5 minutes (start to finish) that you've been putting off for whatever reason?

go do it right now and then tell me what it was

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

My Simple Hack for Starting Tasks

Future ADHD

[ittybittyteddie]

I'm sure someone else already thought of this, but I just thought of an agere hack! If you like flavored water, Propel comes in bottles that are designed with a sports cap (idk if that's what they're actually called) and it almost feels like a bottle or sippy when you drink from it! So if you gotta regress in secret, you can use them instead of having to hide a bottle or sippy! 😃

[authorandartist13]

Half of my somewhat decent cooking skills have been attained by going "oh, well duh" and here's one of those moments from today's lunch that has proven extremely helpful when I want to make something appetizing without going all-out:

You can just doctor storebought pasta sauce to make it taste richer. Most of the stuff you add will already be in the sauce, but it still helps make it more to your liking.

Stuff I usually add, if I've got it on hand (you can do any combination of these or other spices, for real, just add whatever!)

-Butter. Man, it's a magical make-the-sauce-smoother thing.

-Sprinkle of onion powder and oregano

-Garlic. I like to melt a pad of butter down in the saucepan with a bit of minced garlic (the stuff that comes in a jar, but you can use any type), then I'll add the storebought sauce and the other dry spices.

-Here are the big two: crushed red pepper flakes and chili powder. A little kick makes any red sauce better imo, so shake a good amount of both in.

-Top with cheese and, if you can, some fresh herbs! Genovese basil is to die for.

That's it! Experiment! Taste as you go! Don't measure, just toss stuff in gradually until it tastes hella good and then use similar amounts next time. Go forth and impress your comrades with your cooking witchcraft, and don't feel bad if it takes a couple of tries to find what works.

[the-iron-duck93]