If we had time, we’d all probably aspire to be a domestic goddess, where gourmet meals just fall onto plates, the house is always super tidy and the kids are so well-behaved, you have to check you’ve not left them somewhere! Whilst you can’t achieve everything on the ‘goddess’ list, you can do some things and it doesn’t hurt to cheat along the way! So check out our favourite ‘cheats’ and see how high up the ‘goddess’ ladder they get you!
Embrace Your Slow Cooker
Your slow cooker can become your best friend (in cooking terms, that is!). Whilst you feel you’ve cooked an awesome home-cooked meal, what, in fact, you have really done is put a bunch of ingredients into the appliance and let it cook itself into ‘awesomeness’ all on its own! The variety of meals you can make in a slow cooker is almost endless – from stews to curries, chicken to salmon and everything in between. A real bonus is that it doesn’t matter what cut of meat you put into it, they all come out absolutely delicious and tender, while your veg doesn’t cook away into sogginess!
Cheat, cheat, cheat!
Your other best friend(s) in the kitchen are those wonderful ready-made sauces, doughs and pastries! Love the smell of freshly-baked bread but don’t have the inclination to start from the flour stage? Then check out part-baked bread, which gives you fresh bread every day simply by ‘bunging’ it in the oven! The same with pastry – we all love fruit or meat and vegetable pies, but who on earth these days wants to be wielding a rolling pin around (unless it’s at hubby or burglars!). Simply buy fresh ready-made pastry or even frozen which takes a while to defrost and means you have to plan well ahead but hey! the benefits in saving time are immense. As for ready-made sauces – well, you can cook intercontinental every day of the week. If that doesn’t rank you on the ‘goddess’ ladder, then nothing will!
Clean and tidy
Most of us hate cleaning so get yourself into a routine; a little each day makes it less of a chore! When you get changed, remember that the clothes you leave on the floor will still be there tomorrow, so just take those extra couple of minutes to hang up or fold what isn’t dirty and put it away, whilst consigning the rest straight to the laundry basket! It’s not rocket science, but it does mean you don’t get mountains of clothes piling up everywhere! Set aside just half an hour each day for cleaning and dusting – and pop the radio on at the same time! You’ll get further into the job if you keep yourself entertained at the same time! Start in a different room each day, that way, your house will soon be gleaming all over and it will be quicker from then on in.
Declutter
We’ve all got little piles of stuff everywhere so from now on, take 5 minutes a day to get rid of some of it! Fill a bin liner a day either with rubbish or with stuff to send to the charity shop – once you get into the swing of it, you’ll have decluttered the whole house before you realise!
Have you found your way to domestic goddess status yet? If so, please do let us know how we can achieve it too, over on our Facebook and Twitter pages.