How to Keep Evenings Free for Your Side Hustle
You’ve been making time for a side hustle, but now the house is a tip; you’re behind with the laundry, there’s a thick layer of dust over everything and the ironing basket is overflowing. You’ve realised that you can’t do it all. It’s either your side hustle or your home. There isn’t space for both in your life.
The frustrating thing is that you know other people who are doing it. They’ve got a regular 9-5 job, two kids, their house runs like clockwork and they’re killing it at their side hustle. So what’s their secret? Maybe they sleep only four hours a night or they’ve got a husband who does all the chores. They probably employ a cleaner, pay someone to do their ironing and eat takeaways several times a week. The problem is you just can’t afford any of that. To be honest, who can?
Since the beginning of the pandemic, when lockdown came in, most of us have been working from home a lot more. Even though we’re on the other side and covid19 feels like a distant memory for most of us, working from home has become the norm. It certainly has for me. Gone are the days of leaving home at 8.30am and returning home after 6pm, making dinner and rushing round to catch up on the chores before flopping down on the sofa in front of the TV.
Now I spend most days in my home office, sitting in front of my computer. And we all know that sitting is the new smoking i.e. doing so for prolonged periods of time is not good for our health. It’s a good idea to get up occasionally. To stretch your legs and move your body.
Now you could do a five minute yoga routine or ten star jumps, but if you want to move your body and make the most of the fact that you’re at home I would suggest using that time to do some chores. Whilst five or ten minutes may not seem like very long it’s amazing how much you can get done if you put your mind to it. And the great thing is, if you spend some of your day, time when you’re probably just scrolling on your phone, getting ahead on the chores, guess what, you’ll have more time in the evening to work on your side hustle.
Here are a few suggestions for you:
Load or unload the dishwasher - if your dishwasher is ready, spend a few minutes loading dirty dishes or unloading clean ones.
Wipe down the surfaces - grab a cloth and quickly wipe down kitchen counters, bathroom sinks or other surfaces that need a swift clean.
Quick vacuuming or sweeping - spend a few minutes vacuuming high-traffic areas or sweeping up dirt and crumbs to keep floors looking tidy.
Sort and recycle junk mail --sort through your mail, quickly discarding junk and recycling, and organising important items that need attention.
Make the beds - taking a minute to make the beds can instantly make the bedrooms look neater.
Laundry - start a quick load of laundry by gathering dirty clothes and tossing them in the washing machine.
Fold or hang clothes - if you have clean laundry waiting, spend a few minutes folding or hanging clothes and putting them away.
Dusting - use a duster or microfibre cloth to quickly dust surfaces like shelves, picture frames, and electronics
Water plants - take a minute to water indoor plants.
Declutter - choose a small area, like a countertop or a drawer, and spend 5 minutes decluttering and tidying up. Put away items that are out of place and discard any rubbish.
Clean the toilet - wipe the seat and cistern, put some bleach down and give it a quick scrub with the toilet brush.
Clean the kitchen hob - use a quick squirt of cream cleanser and wipe up spilt food.
Wipe out the inside of the microwave - get rid of all those food splashes.
Take out the rubbish/recycling - if it’s bin day put out the bags for collection.
Washing up - if there’s dishes left from breakfast or lunch wash them up.
Check the fridge - is there any out of date food lurking at the back of the fridge? If so, throw it out. You could wipe down a shelf or two whilst you’re there.
I could go on, but you get the idea. There are loads of things that you could do in five or ten minutes and I’m sure that you can think of lots of others.
So instead of wasting time scrolling and neglecting the chores, get ahead. Otherwise, when the evening rolls around you’re going to have to start tackling them. And an evening spent on chores is an evening not spent side hustling. So why not grab a pen and paper now and write down all of the ten minute chores you could do the next time you’re working from home. Then stick it by your laptop, or even to it and it will remind you of how you can keep evenings free for your side hustle.
You might be saying to yourself, but Sam, I can’t do all of my chores in five or ten minutes and so I have to do some in the evening, which is fine, but if you implement this strategy you’re certainly going to have less to do. If you’re like me you’ve probably got some spare time on weekends to do longer chores.
If you don’t work at home at all, then frustration at this suggestion is probably what you’re feeling at the moment. If you’re not a nurse or a teacher perhaps you can persuade your boss to let you work at home some days. (I’m going to write a blog post about this shortly and when I do I’ll link it here).
Doing chores in small slots throughout the day is just one strategy for managing your time better and freeing up space in your week to work on your side hustle. You’ll find lots more ideas in my handy guide ‘How to Find Time for a Side Hustle When You Really Don’t Think That You Can’. Click here to grab your copy.