Thanks to my friend Jennifer Tubbiolo I have a new-found appreciation for a few things in my home. Did you know there are built-in "assistants" in all our lives that most of us don't take advantage of? Who are these elusive assistants, and where have they been hiding? They're in the form of automation that can save us some serious time we could use on our families, our spouses or, dare I say it... OURSELVES!
Don't believe me? Here's what I mean...
Have your assistant make the morning coffee
Do you stumble downstairs in the morning still half asleep, yawning and bleary-eyed, and attempt to make coffee? It's during this time that you dump more grounds on the counter than in the filter and inevitably miscalculate the correct number of cups of water to scoops of coffee. Am I right?
My advice? Have your assistant make the coffee! Invest in an automated coffee maker with a timer, (or a coffee maker that uses pre-measured pods that are idiot-proof). Set up your coffee at night before bed when you're wide awake and less likely to mis-measure or dump grounds on the floor. Then set the timer and forget about it. Fresh, hot coffee will be waiting for you when you get up. And, it will give you more precious time in the morning for getting the family out the door. We all need that!
Have your assistant do the grocery shopping
Take the stress out of grocery shopping by using online ordering. Many grocery store chains have the option to create a grocery store online and then place your order. All you have to do it add items to the list as you run out of them or make your meal plan for the week, pull up to the front of the store, and let them load your order into your car. It's really that easy. Today, you can even have those groceries delivered straight to your door too!
You can even use this same service to get household objects from Target and Walmart, cancelling out two errands with one click!
Have your assistant do the vacuuming
If you have pets, you are among the many people fighting the pet hair on their floor on a daily basis. Even if you have a regular cleaning company coming to your home, pet hair builds up within a day. Invest in a Roomba. It will take the stress off of you as you watch it eagerly move about your home sucking up pet hair and dirt you don't have the energy to attack at the end of a long day. And, as an added bonus, you can video your cat riding around on it for several thousand likes on Facebook!
OR, since they can be pricey, get a Swiffer and pay one of your kids to use it's magic to get all the pet hair.
Have your assistant get your food ready.
There are literally hundreds of apps, from Door Dash to individual restaurants that will take your order and deliver it right to your door. Spend more time with your family instead of dealing with meal preparations. Pick up that coffee and breakfast on the way to work when there's no time to prepare it at home. Have a healthy lunch delivered so you can continue working on that project and get home earlier.
Bonus: You can also enroll in programs that pre-measure and deliver meal kits to your door so you can spend some quality time together as a family cooking :0).
I hope you start to take advantage of these amazing tools available to all of us.
Are there more assistants out there I haven't thought of?
Let me know about them in the comments!