Living in a city can be incredible: you have everything you need right on your doorstep, and there’s always something exciting around the corner, whatever night of the week it is. But once you factor in all the time you spend working, commuting, doing household chores, exercising and sleeping, there can be surprisingly little time left over to actually have fun exploring the city. Time is money, and very much of the essence, so, here are 4 IDEAL time-saving hacks for city dwellers.
MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TIME ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
The average British worker spends 54 minutes a day commuting. If you take public transport into work, then you probably see your commute as a time to be endured, rather than enjoyed. But using that dead time to do something productive could free up time later, and help your commute to pass more quickly.
If you travel on a train or bus service with free Wi-Fi, then your commute is a valuable time to get other tasks sorted, so spend your morning journey preparing your to-do list for the day ahead. Apps like Wunderlist will let you organise your professional and personal to-dos, and will even send you reminders about upcoming events during the day. You can even share your to-do list with others, meaning you can organise collaborative tasks with your colleagues, friends and flatmates — all before you’ve even arrived at work.
LET SOMEONE ELSE TAKE CARE OF THE LAUNDRY
The average Brit spends a whopping 102 minutes a week washing, hanging and folding laundry. And if you live in a flat without a washing machine, then that figure is likely to be much higher, as it doesn’t account for the time you have to spend trudging down to the laundrette each week.
But there’s no need to let this precious time go to waste, as there are services who will do all the hard work for you. Laundrapp’s wash and fold laundry service will collect, clean and deliver your laundry to your door, meaning you’ll have more time to spend going out and enjoying yourself (or sleeping, if that’s more your thing). Plus, you won’t have to deal with laundry racks full of wet clothes anymore; an ideal space and storage solution if you live in a compact city flat or studio.
AUTOMATE YOUR SHOPPING LIST
If you’re still writing your shopping list out by hand and taking the physical trip to the supermarket each week to do your shop, then consider how much time you could save by doing your shopping online. Most leading supermarkets have an online store that lets you save your weekly shopping list and get it delivered directly to your door. So, you won’t have to spend time each week writing a list and going to the shops — just choose a delivery time, and click send.
If you like to cook, but find that planning recipes and buying all the ingredients takes up too much time, then try a service that lets you cook without the hassle. Recipe box kits, like Gousto, allow you to pick from a list of tasty meal options, and then deliver all the ingredients you’ll need straight to your door. That means you can get on with your cooking as soon as you get home, and you won’t need to worry about dashing out to the shops because you forgot something essential.
PREP YOUR WEEKNIGHT MEALS IN ADVANCE
Even with a recipe box subscription, there’s still likely to be evenings where you’re just too tired or busy to cook from scratch. So, it’s a good idea to cook a few back-up dinners in bulk and then freeze them for later. This way, all you’ll have to do when you get home is pop your homemade ready meal in the microwave or oven, and then you can spend the rest of your evening doing whatever you like.
Soups, curries, casseroles, pasta sauces and poultry dishes can all be cooked in bulk, and they make great meal prep options as they can be frozen for up to three months. This selection of freezer-friendly recipes from GoodFood should give you plenty of inspiration for quick midweek meals.
