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A frustrating home – 7 things that waste your time every day. What can you do about them?
A home that frustrates you – 7 things that waste your time every day. What can you do about them?
Everyone has something in their home that makes everyday life more difficult to some degree. Often, it is something very small. Keys you are constantly looking for. Winter coats taking up half the wardrobe in summer. A chair you have to move every time you want to open a cupboard. Afternoon sun creating glare on the TV screen.
Each of these things seems insignificant on its own. The problem starts when the same situation happens every day. Simple tasks begin to involve extra searching, moving, rearranging or adjusting.
That does not mean you need to redesign your entire home. Many of these everyday annoyances can be removed without renovating, buying new furniture or spending a lot of money. Sometimes all it takes is moving one item, repositioning a piece of furniture or introducing a simple habit. Where should you start?
1. Put small things away straight away, before they turn into clutter
Clutter rarely appears all at once. It usually builds up gradually. First, a mug gets left on the table. Then a parcel waiting to be opened appears next to it, a sweatshirt ends up on a chair, and the shopping stays on the kitchen worktop because you were going to put it away in a moment.
Each item is only there “for a moment”. A few days later, however, instead of having had several tiny jobs to do, you are faced with a much bigger tidy-up.
The simplest solution is to deal with short tasks immediately. Take your mug to the kitchen when you are heading there anyway. Hang your coat up when you come home. Put cosmetics away after using them. Place a document where it actually belongs.
A simple rule can help:
If something takes roughly three minutes, do it straight away. If it needs more time, schedule it.
At first, this is easier said than done. You have to consciously keep an eye on new habits, and you will probably catch yourself more than once leaving something “until later” again. Over time, some of these actions simply become automatic.
There is one more condition: things need to have their own place. If documents end up on the table every day, the problem may not be a lack of discipline. You may simply be missing an easily accessible folder or drawer.
Recurring clutter often shows you where your home organisation does not match the way you actually use your space.
2. Create one place by the entrance for everything you need when leaving home
You are ready to go. You have your phone and your wallet – but where are the keys?
A moment later, you realise they are on the kitchen worktop. You go back for them, put your shoes on again and then remember that your headphones are still in the bedroom.
If this happens regularly, create a small leaving-home zone in the hallway. You do not need any extra furniture. A tray on a chest of drawers, a hook for your keys and a permanent place for your bag or rucksack may be enough. You can also leave things there that you need to take with you the following day – documents, a parcel to return or a library book.
The most important rule is simple: the things you use when leaving home should always go back to the same place. Your keys should not be on the table one day, in a coat pocket the next and on the kitchen worktop another time. Eventually, this leaving-home zone starts to work almost automatically, removing at least one thing you need to remember in the morning.
3. Is the sun getting in the way? Check your blinds and furniture layout
Natural light is usually an advantage, but it does not always work in your favour. Afternoon sun can create glare on your TV or computer screen, shine directly into your eyes while you work or fall exactly on the place where you like to relax.
Start with the simplest solution.
It may be enough to turn your monitor, move your desk slightly or change the position of your television in relation to the window. If the room layout does not allow that, a suitable window blind may help.
Pleated blinds can be adjusted from both the top and the bottom. This means you can cover only the part of the glass through which the most troublesome light is entering at that particular moment.
If you prefer to cover the whole window, a standard roller blind may be a better option. Depending on the fabric you choose, it can help reduce the amount of incoming light or darken the room more noticeably.
Choose the material according to how much you want to limit the light entering the room. A standard pleated blind will reduce the amount of light, while a blackout version is more suitable where you want a noticeably darker interior.
With strongly sunlit windows, the problem may not be limited to light. The room can also heat up.
One possible solution in this case is a Honeycomb pleated blind with a honeycomb structure. Air pockets between the layers of fabric mean that the blind can additionally help limit heat transfer around the window.
4. Adjust your wardrobe layout with the seasons
If the weather outside is getting colder but summer dresses, shorts and lightweight shirts still occupy the easiest-to-reach part of your wardrobe, getting dressed each day becomes less convenient than it needs to be.
At the change of season, check whether the most accessible spaces are occupied by the clothes you actually use at that time of year. After winter, thick coats, jumpers, hats and scarves can move higher up, further back or into storage boxes. Their place can be taken by clothes suitable for spring and summer. In autumn, you can reverse the arrangement again.
The same approach works for shoes and accessories. Sandals and winter boots do not need to compete for space by the entrance all year round.
A seasonal change is also a good opportunity for a quick wardrobe review. If you find yourself moving the same item yet again even though you have not worn it once for many months, consider whether you still want to keep it.
5. Have you been putting off small repairs for months? Make a “15-minute list”
A loose door handle. A drawer you have to lift slightly to get it to close. A squeaky door. A blown light bulb. A chair that has been wobbling for several months.
These little problems all have one thing in common: they seem too minor to deal with immediately, but they are annoying enough to remind you of themselves on a regular basis.
Instead of waiting for the day when you finally catch up with every outstanding repair, you can create a “15-minute list”. Only tasks that can be completed in a short time go on it: tightening a handle, changing a light bulb or adjusting a simple fitting.
Interestingly, Dale Carnegie described a similar mechanism in his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. In Part Three, Chapter 6, on driving worry from your mind, he tells the story of a man who, after very difficult experiences, realised that concentrating on a specific task helped him stop dwelling on his worries, at least temporarily.
It began when his young son asked him to build a boat. While the father was working on it, he noticed that he was not thinking about his problems. That discovery encouraged him to keep going: he walked around the house and started writing down things that needed repairing or improving. Eventually, the list grew to 242 items.
The “15-minute list” works on a similar principle, but in a much simpler, everyday form. The aim is not to create yet another long list of chores or spend an entire weekend catching up with unfinished jobs. You only need to identify small tasks that can be completed in a few or several minutes.
You do not have to finish the whole list in a single day. Simply cross off one item from time to time. A few minutes of work can solve a problem that used to irritate you almost every day – while also giving you the satisfying feeling that something has finally been dealt with.
6. Organise your home around the way you actually use it, not around conventional rules
Your home does not have to be organised according to the principle that “this is how things are normally done”. It should primarily reflect the way you actually use it.
Walking into another room to get something can easily become something you accept as a normal part of the day. But if you repeatedly go back for the same item, check whether it is simply being stored too far away from where you actually use it.
If you make coffee every day, it makes more sense to keep mugs and coffee close to the coffee machine or kettle than in a cupboard on the opposite side of the kitchen. A watering can can stay near the plants you regularly water. A blanket used for relaxing in the evening does not have to live in a bedroom wardrobe if you carry it into the living room every day. You can apply the same idea to other things: keep cleaning products together in one cupboard, a charger next to the bed and documents in the study.
If you constantly carry something from one place to another, leave it wherever there happens to be space or regularly have to go back for it, it is probably simply being stored in the wrong place.
7. Give the easiest-to-reach spaces to the things you use most often
A good place for an item is not just about choosing the right room. It also matters how easy it is to reach.
A coffee machine used every morning should not sit behind another appliance. Your favourite pan does not need to be at the very bottom of a stack, and towels you use every day should not be kept on the highest shelf. Things you use most often are best kept towards the front of cupboards and drawers and roughly at hand and eye level.
Notice which everyday tasks regularly require you to bend down, move other objects or take one thing out from underneath several others. Sometimes reorganising a single shelf is enough to make everyday routines noticeably easier.
The same rule applies to furniture. If the clothes airer constantly blocks the way, an ottoman is moved several times a day or a table has to be shifted whenever you want to reach a cupboard, check whether these things are really in the best place.
You do not always need to get rid of furniture. Sometimes moving a side table to the other side of the sofa or swapping the positions of two pieces of furniture is enough.
The same applies around windows. If you have to move decorations from the windowsill or pull a piece of furniture aside every time you want to adjust a roller blind or pleated blind, leave enough free space to reach the window comfortably.
If you perform the same little “furniture shuffle” several times a day, that item may simply need a better place.
Summary
The most tiring things at home are often not major problems but small situations that return every day. Searching for the same item, moving a piece of furniture, reaching for something stored too far away or dealing with the same minor fault each time only takes a moment. It is only over time that you notice how many unnecessary extra actions they create.
That is why it is usually better not to start with the entire home, but with one place or one situation that frustrates you most often. Sometimes the solution will be a change of habit, sometimes a better storage location, a different furniture layout or a small repair. The best solutions are usually the ones you stop thinking about after a few days because they simply make everyday life easier.
Frequently asked questions
How can you reduce the small amounts of clutter that appear around the home every day?
Deal with short tasks straight away instead of leaving them until later. If something takes roughly three minutes, you can do it immediately and schedule larger jobs. It is also important for items to have a permanent, easily accessible place that reflects the way you actually use your home.
How can you organise the entrance area so you do not have to look for your keys before leaving?
Create a small leaving-home zone where you always place the things you need before going out. This could be a tray on a chest of drawers, a hook for your keys and a permanent place for your bag or rucksack. You can also leave documents, parcels or other items there that you need to take with you the following day.
What can you do if sunlight creates glare on a screen or gets in the way while you work?
First, check whether you can change the position of your monitor, desk or television in relation to the window. If the room layout does not allow this, a window blind may help. Pleated blinds allow you to cover a selected part of the glass, while a classic roller blind can reduce incoming light across the entire window.
How can you organise your wardrobe so it is easier to use every day?
Use the easiest-to-reach spaces for clothes, shoes and accessories that you wear during the current season. Items that you will not need for several months can be moved higher up, further back or into storage boxes. A change of season is also a good opportunity to consider whether you still want to keep clothes that have not been worn for a long time.
How can you stop putting off small household repairs?
You can create a “15-minute list” specifically for small jobs such as tightening a handle, replacing a light bulb or fixing a minor fault. You do not need to complete everything in one day. Simply choose one item from time to time and remove a problem that regularly makes everyday life more difficult.
Where is the best place to keep the things you use most often?
Frequently used items are best kept as close as possible to where you need them and somewhere they are easy to reach. The front of cupboards and drawers and positions around hand and eye level usually work best. If you regularly have to move something else, take an item out from underneath other things or walk into another room to get it, it may be worth changing where you keep it.
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