Time-saving tips, and why Immi is spoiled

So, the other week I asked on Twitter (in a state, let me tell you, of some desperation) for people's best time-saving tips.

These are the things people don't do in order to save themselves time:

Don't clean the house.

Don't have children (oops, too late).

Don't join Yahoo groups.

Don't watch TV or play computer games.

Don't dry up – let the washing up drain dry.

Don't iron.

Don't cook.

These are the things people do or have in order to save time:

Slow cooker.

Bread machine.

Dishwasher.

Batch-cooking every Sunday, freezing meals for the rest of the week.

In the interests of slow-cooking/batch-cooking, I invested in a giant slow cooker (6.5 litres!).  Right now there's three meals' worth of bolognese sauce in the freezer, and a vegeterian shepherds pie waiting to be eaten for tomorrow's dinner.  Definitely a good buy.  It also just so happens that I bought Abstract a bread machine this Christmas, we already have a dishwasher (Abstract rearranged the whole kitchen some years ago in his determination to fit one in), and the only things I regularly iron are the girls' school uniforms.  I watch very little TV (Desperate Housewives, which isn't even on air right now, and a weekly Buffy episode with Sparkler), and I can't play computer games because I get far too excited about even such innocuities as cartoon fish who have to pop bubbles to get points.  Honestly.

I hate the house to be not-clean or untidy, though.  And as I'm working from home, I have to be able to look up from the computer and see reasonable clean-and-tidiness.  So, for the first time in my life, I'm delegating.

Yes.  As well as my slow cooker, dishwasher, bread machine and husband-who-irons-his-own-shirts, I now have a weekly cleaner.  It's awesome.

(It's a temporary arrangement for the next month or so while I'm mega-busy, and won't continue if I become less busy again.  But for the moment, oh the joy – my bathroom is clean and I didn't do it!)