Spending an entire weekend tackling household chores isn’t much fun, but neither is trying to keep up with everything during the workweek. The good news? Committing to taking care of certain tasks on your days off enables you to enjoy more free time during the week without sacrificing your entire weekend. Whether you live alone or with family, creating a weekly to-do list that works for you and not against you ensures that you’ll stay on top of things like laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning and other chores as efficiently as possible.
In addition to freeing up your weekday evenings, doing chores over the weekend prevents big messes from piling up. Doing so also provides a clean slate for the week ahead and a sense of accomplishment that makes you feel like you didn’t “waste” your time off. Keep reading to discover which chores to do on the weekend for an easier week.
1. Laundry
It may be one of the tasks you dread most (especially if you have a large family), but doing laundry is one of those chores that you need to keep up with. And keeping up is a lot easier when you stick to a schedule. Laundry is a time-consuming task, so doing it on weekends just makes sense. To save time and literally lighten your load, ditch your liquid or powdered laundry soap and switch to laundry detergent sheets.
Laundry detergent sheets are among the most eco-friendly laundry products. Plus, they are lightweight, compact and easy to store — unlike bulky boxes and plastic jugs. With no heavy bottles or boxes to deal with, getting everything done is much easier.
Sort your dirty laundry during the week, placing whites, darks, bedding, etc. in separate hampers. When the weekend rolls around, everything will be ready to go straight in the washer. Set a timer so you know exactly when it’s time to switch things from the washer to the dryer. Then, when everything is dry, fold it and put it away immediately. Once you get into a routine, you can knock out several loads in surprisingly little time. The key is making sure you do this every single week so you don’t fall behind.
When you’re finished, you and your family will have closets and dressers filled with fresh, clean clothes for the week, along with clean bedding and towels. It may take some time to get into the habit of doing laundry on the weekend, but you’ll be amazed at just how much easier it makes the workweek.
2. Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning
Do you get tired of having to figure out what to make for three meals a day, seven days a week? Or do you end up wasting time (and money) going to the grocery store multiple times a week? Planning meals and purchasing the necessary ingredients over the weekend saves time and makes it much easier to maintain a healthy diet — even when you’re exhausted from work.
Decide what meals you would like to have for the week, and make a shopping list with everything you need to buy to prepare them. Be sure to check your pantry first for things like spices, dry pasta, rice, etc. that you may already have on hand. Once you have your list, head to the store and pick up everything you need. Alternatively, order your groceries online and pick them up curbside to save even more time and avoid temptation inside the store.
Depending on your proximity to the grocery store, this is a great task to work on while waiting for your laundry to wash/dry. Toss a load in the washer and choose meals while you wait for the cycle to end. After you swap that load to the dryer and put another in the washer, write down your ingredients. If you live close to the store, go shopping while that batch washes and dries. This is a great way to multitask and tackle two important chores in as little time as possible.
3. Cleaning
Ideally, you should deal with minor messes as they occur and tidy up after yourself throughout the week. This minimizes the amount of cleaning that you’ll need to do over the weekend. Once Saturday rolls around, you should just need to tackle the more in-depth projects.
First, put away anything that is out of place. Then, dust, vacuum, sweep and/or mop as needed. Wipe down your counters with reusable and super-absorbant paper towels, clean the toilet and tackle any other cleaning jobs you don’t have time for on weeknights. We also recommend cleaning out your fridge at least two weekends per month to make sure none of your leftovers start looking more like science experiments. Now is a great time to wash dishes or load/unload your dishwasher, too.
4. Paying Bills and Dealing with Paperwork
There are always bills to pay and paperwork that needs your attention. Unless something absolutely needs to be done during the week, save it for the weekend. Keep all of your mail and other paperwork in a safe spot and then sort through it when you have free time on Saturday or Sunday. Toss all of the junk mail, sort and store important documents, pay any bills that will be coming due in the next week and fill out and submit paperwork.
Closing Thoughts
The weekend is a time to relax and unwind from the workweek. That doesn’t mean it should be entirely unproductive, though. Once you get in the habit of cleaning up after yourself during the week and tackling the chores above on Saturday or Sunday, you’ll be amazed at just how much easier your week will become. And with a bit of practice, you’ll be able to handle those weekend chores in no time!