Table of Contents

• Parenting cartoon “Let’s help with short housework!”
• A little ingenuity to make your life more comfortable! Dad’s time-saving techniques!

Parenting cartoon “Let’s help with short housework!”

Profile
Eiichi
After working for a design company in Tokyo, he became a freelance illustrator. He is a hard-working father who creates animation, manga, and illustrations, including winning the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival’s International Short Film Showcase Division Excellence in Animation Award.

A little ingenuity to make your life more comfortable! Dad’s time-saving techniques!

I asked my mom and dad! What are our household chores?

　What are the concerns of fathers and mothers regarding their own household chores? We also asked them about changes in their household chores due to the effects of the Corona Disaster.

Hanashi Maruyama (Female)

• Because of the Corona Disaster, I eat at home more often, which means more dishes to wash and more dishes to put away.
  I think about the menu more often.
• I want to easily remove water stains from the bath and cooking area.

Kuranosuke Takita (Male)

• When vacuuming, I can’t take my eyes off my children and can’t finish smoothly.
• My child makes clothes dirty and I have to change clothes 3 or 4 times a day. This increases the number of times we have to do laundry, and food stains, etc. are difficult to remove. It is also hard to fold the clothes.
• My wife was not happy with the housework I had done for the best of my intentions, and the mood turned sour…

　Families with children need to perform household chores quickly and without taking their eyes off their children. In order to do so, they need to be efficient and do household chores in a short period of time.

The basis for shortening housework is to visualize housework!

　So how can we do our chores more efficiently? Yumi Ichikawa, a Short-Time Housework Coordinator® who advises many clients on how to make housework more efficient and shorter, and has been featured in magazines and on TV and other media, gave us some pointers on how to tackle short-time household chores.

Discuss chores with your partner.

　Have you ever talked with your partner about housework? Many families have never thought of discussing housework with their partners. So, why don’t you make time to talk with your partner about housework first? There are many people who feel burdened by housework on their own, and many people who research housework problems on the Internet or in books, but are unable to find solutions.

　The essential idea of shortening chores is not “let’s shorten our daily chores by a minute or a second”. Aren’t there chores that don’t need to be done? Are we seeking too many ideals? It is about rethinking our daily lives.

　To do this, identify what chores you are currently doing and what you are struggling with. For example, start by identifying everything you do at home as chores, such as unpacking when a delivery arrives or waking up the children.

　This will help you discover what is time consuming, what is really a burden, and find the cause of the chores that you are struggling or having difficulty with. Next, have the couple make a list of the chores that they have identified and discuss with each other whether they are necessary, unnecessary, or too idealistic. While the life stages of couples are changing, such as marriage, childbirth, and childcare, many couples are still doing household chores with the same mindset as when they were single. Try to determine which household chores to focus on.

Try to eliminate or reduce things.

　It is also important to have the courage to stop doing household chores. For example, eliminating bath towels and using only face towels, using shirts made of material that does not need to be ironed, and not folding laundered clothes. Even in our daily lives, we can reduce the amount of housework by making a few small changes. Question the things you have taken for granted since you were a child, or the things you consider troublesome, and have the courage to try to reduce or eliminate them. Simply stopping the things that stress you out will reduce the burden of housework.

What is the mindset of short housework?

　The Short-Time Housekeeping Coordinator® has five preparedness guidelines. Just understanding these will help you to keep them in mind. I often share household chores with my husband, and I sometimes feel that our way of doing things is different from mine. However, keeping the above ideas in mind can reduce frustration.

What is the short housework for?

　It is also important to think about the lifestyle you are looking for. What is the purpose of shortening the time to do housework? Are you doing too much housework and leaving behind the things you value and want to do? Instead of making shortening time the goal, we should ask ourselves, for example, “How can I reduce the amount of time I spend on housework so that I can spend 20 minutes reading a book?” For example, “How can I reduce the amount of time I spend doing household chores in order to spend 20 minutes reading a book?

　Just knowing this way of thinking will change the way you spend your time on housework. For example, if you want to spend more time interacting with your children, instead of starting housework as soon as you get home, try playing with them and you will feel more fulfilled, which will help you tackle subsequent chores in a positive manner.

　If we look for moments in our daily lives that enrich our hearts and minds, we can enjoy tackling household chores.

It seems important to first discuss this with your partner and visualize the household chores. Also, what you take for granted may not be so for your partner. By sharing what you feel about the daily chores, you can cope by sharing the chores that are burdensome or by reducing the chores themselves.
To create free time for your family and enhance your life, why not try shortening the time you spend on household chores? From the next page, specific shortening housework techniques will be introduced.

Let’s try it out! Know-how on shortening housework techniques

　There are many daily chores that need to be done, such as cleaning, laundry, and cooking. We asked Shutaro Matsuhashi, aka Kajiemon, a father of one and a well-known housework comedian, about shortening the time needed for housework that anyone can practice at home!

　I believe that housework, unlike sports or singing, does not need to be improved, and there is no such thing as always learning the basics first. The purpose of housework is to get it done efficiently and quickly. To achieve this, use a variety of tools and special techniques, think cosmetically, and be aware of how to reduce time and effort.

　If you can finish early, you can use the time more effectively for your own well-being, including family time, play time, work time, and hobbies.

　Introduces shortening housework techniques by genre!

　Many families are now home longer due to the Corona Disaster, which has increased the number of times they have to think about their menus. Many families have to cook in a shorter time while keeping an eye on their children…. We will teach such worries to parents with a few recipes that require less washing up and less time and effort.

　White stains on kitchen sinks, bathroom mirrors, and bathtubs are caused by water stains. These are troublesome stains that become increasingly difficult to remove over time. Rubber gloves are the fastest and most effective way to remove these stains. Abrasives sold on the market, such as cleanser and baking soda, are not effective to the fullest extent because sponges absorb the abrasives. Rubber gloves do not absorb anything, maximize the abrasive effect, and by using both hands, double the area that can be cleaned with a sponge can be cleaned at once. Also, complex shapes such as faucets can be carefully polished by using fingers.

　Also, burnt stains around the stove are the same type of stains as water stains, so “cleanser” + “rubber gloves” can be used to remove them in the same way.

　Hard to wipe the table!

　When you eat with your child, the area around the table and chairs gets dirty with food and other things. It is difficult to wipe them with a clean cloth every time. We need to take care of the cloth daily and sterilize it. By using disposable kitchen paper with alcohol or alkaline electrolyzed water, you can reduce the time required to clean and maintain the rags.

　Alkaline electrolyzed water is a safe, child-friendly sterilization method that is also used in amusement parks.

　Stain stains are difficult to remove even after washing in the washing machine. Try a little effort before washing to reduce the loss of time.

　When removing stains, use oxygen bleach, which is hypoallergenic and can be used on colored and patterned fabrics, rather than chlorine bleach, which can only be used on white fabric products. Oxygen bleach draws its power from temperature, so the power of hot water and oxygen bleach can easily remove stains.

　It can also deodorize fresh, sweaty, and aged odors, and can remove stains from shirt sleeves and collars at the same time.

　When using liquid oxygen bleach, warm the stain by placing the stain area on a towel with hot water (40-60°C) and pour oxygen bleach over the area to remove the stain.

　To remove stains from food spills, rather than using oxygen bleach immediately, first remove the grease stain with dishwashing detergent. After that, use oxygen bleach for even better results.

Rather than thinking of housework as a way to “improve,” thinking of it as a way to “get it done in a short amount of time” may help you relax your shoulders and tackle your daily chores with a positive attitude. There are many ways to reduce the burden of housework, including the shortening techniques introduced here.
Let’s find our own style of housework, incorporating innovations that suit each family.