The "lazy man's philosophy" developed by living at home for 8 years: using your brain is more important than your hands
Wu Xiaomei worked as a live-in aunt in Hangzhou for 8 years. Many people are curious, how much patience do they need to persevere in doing housework for such a long time? The answer she gave is quite surprising: the reason is that she does it quickly, so she doesn't feel tired. The secret is that she keeps thinking about how to be "lazy".
For example, use disposable paper cups. Don't throw them away after drinking. Cut a few strips from the mouth to the bottom, then flatten them like flowers and turn them upside down on the table to become a temporary mobile phone holder. For another example, when wiping glass windows, don't just use a wet rag. First use a damp cloth to wipe off the dust. Before the glass is dry, crumble an old newspaper into a ball and wipe it vigorously. The ink on the newspaper can not only absorb water stains, but also make the glass as smooth as if it has been newly wiped. It is more effective than any high-priced glass water. These methods don't cost a penny and rely on a lot of thinking.
The "saving tips" of a 24-year-old former programmer: cleaning the whole house appliances for 26 yuan
What gives women living alone the biggest headache? Not cooking, but appliance maintenance. Luca, a 24-year-old programmer turned lifestyle blogger, found that many so-called "technical jobs" actually have very low barriers to entry, but they are blocked by the prejudice that "girls are not good at doing things".
Take air conditioner cleaning as an example. A door-to-door service can easily cost hundreds of dollars. However, she did it herself, and the complete set of tools cost only 26 yuan: a bottle of air-conditioning cleaner, a soft brush, and an anti-fouling cover for water (you can also use a plastic bag instead). The steps are very simple: first unplug the power, then open the air conditioner cover and remove the filter, then spray the cleaner on the heat sink and let it sit for 15 minutes. During this time, you can rinse the filter with a shower head. After 15 minutes, reinstall the filter, cover it, and turn it on for 15 minutes. The sewage will automatically drain away from the drain pipe. The whole process takes no more than 30 minutes, and the detergent can be used many times. Following the same logic, replacing a faucet really only requires a wrench and a roll of raw material tape, and checking your water and electricity meter is a matter of elementary school math.
The storage division's "Business Opportunity Discovery Technique": One service, in exchange for ten times the tuition fee
Freelancer Dou Chenle spent a thousand yuan to learn storage. The most important thing was not to start any order-taking business such as door-to-door storage, but to organize his own home. He made some calculations: According to the quotations given by the storage companies on the market, if he organized his cloakroom from top to bottom, the money saved would be enough to pay for the tuition fees.
He shared a method called "Lazy Man's Seasonal Storage Method", which is to stop buying a bunch of storage boxes with different specifications. First of all, hang all the clothes you often wear in the season on uniform flocked hangers and arrange them in order from light to dark colors. In this way, it not only looks like a clothing store, but also makes it clear when looking for clothes. For out-of-season sweaters and sweatshirts, don't fold them into squares, but roll them into "sushi rolls" and place them vertically in the drawer. This way when you pick up one of the items in the middle, the ones next to it won't be scattered. The most crucial step is to make the decision of "breaking away". Hang a hook on the inside of the closet door. Any clothes that have been worn for a day and do not want to be washed but are not dirty yet, such as jeans that have only been worn once or twice, can be hung here to ventilate them instead of being discarded on chairs or sofas. In this way, the room can be half tidy in an instant.
"Housework enlightenment" for 5-year-old children: Labor is the best early education
There is a live-in aunt named Wu Xiaomei. She once took care of an eight-year-old child. Now the child can clean his own underwear and pick vegetables. Wu Xiaomei has observed a phenomenon that children are not born lazy, but because they find adults doing certain things "fun" and want to try them. For example, when it comes to peeling garlic, never give your child a whole head of garlic because that would be too boring. You can tell your child to place the garlic cloves in a sealed box, cover the lid tightly, shake it vigorously for dozens of times like shaking a dice, and then open the lid again, and the garlic skin will fall off automatically. This is just like a game. The children not only learned to peel garlic, but also understood the principles of "heat generated by friction" and physical collision.
For newbies in the kitchen, there’s always going to be a sticky mess when handling shredded potatoes. The trick is that you should not fry the shredded potatoes immediately. Instead, soak them in water for ten minutes to wash off the starch on the surface, and then take them out and drain them. Each shredded potato fried in this way is clear and crisp, and it is not easy to stick to the pan. What should you do if oil splashes out while cooking? Slightly dry the moisture on the surface of the ingredients before placing them in the pot, or sprinkle a little salt in the oil. Both of these methods can effectively prevent oil splashing.
The techniques behind them all point to the core, that is, there is no standard answer in life, the only way is to keep trying. From five-year-old children shaking garlic peels to adults repairing air conditioners, the discovery of every "little trick" is the beginning of taking more control over life. It is never too late to catch up on this lesson, because the best teacher is your own daily life.
