When you’re in a new environment, everything normal in your daily life seems harder. Even something as simple as cleaning tasks can seem impossible as you try to adjust to your new surroundings.

For those who’ve recently moved to a new place, you may be wondering how to make household chores easier at home. You likely have a lot on your plate with making friends, getting used to the culture, adjusting to a new job, getting familiar with your new area, etc.

Wandering how to do chores when you don’t want to? Here are some practical and innovative tips for how to make chores easier as an expat living in Singapore. With these tips, you can make the actual cleaning easier and more manageable, before that pile of dishes in the sink get bigger.

Table of Contents

• • • • How to Make Chores Easier—5 Easy Tips
        • 1. Create an Efficient Cleaning Kit
        • 2. Establish a Cleaning Routine
        • 3. Utilise Modern Appliances and Gadgets
        • 4. Turning Chores into Games
        • 5. Consider Professional Cleaning Services
      • MetroResidences Singapore Serviced Apartments—Your Home Base for Travels Beyond

How to Make Chores Easier—5 Easy Tips

1. Create an Efficient Cleaning Kit

Sometimes when we have a few minutes to clean something, we waste time looking for or gathering cleaning supplies, or oftentimes we don’t have the right cleaning tools and must either give up or spend the time we had going to buy the right supplies.

You don’t need a heavy-duty cleaning kit to start; you’re not a professional cleaner, after all. An efficient cleaning kit can save you a lot of time and make cleaning hassle-free. These kits should have versatile supplies that can be used in many different ways for different chores.

Here’s a list of must-have supplies you should keep on hand in your cleaning kit:

• Vacuum cleaner
• Spray bottle
• Bucket
• Rags
• Mop
• Broom
• Rubber gloves
• All-purpose cleaner
• Scrubbing sponges
• Microfiber cloths
• Steel wool
• Paper towels
• Oven cleaner
• Dishwashing soap
• Baking soda
• White vinegar
• Toilet brush and holder
• Glass cleaner
• Tile cleaner
• Duster

This is a good basic list to get you started. You may need specialized products for specific things in your home (e.g. stainless steel cleaner for stainless steel appliances). After all, the last thing you want is to damage the hardwood floor or the white goods of your apartment rental in Singapore.

Stay organized with this kit and always put the products in the same place when you’re done so you don’t have to wonder where you left them.

2. Establish a Cleaning Routine

With everything else you likely have going on, you may be wondering how to make cleaning easier for adults with busy schedules. You’re probably thinking, “I just don’t have time to clean.” A cleaning routine can help with this. Because when you’re in the habit of cleaning regularly, you’ll be able to spend a short amount of time on it. That way, the tasks won’t pile up to be insurmountable.

Your cleaning routine will need to fit your lifestyle and preferences. If you’re a morning person, perhaps you can get up a bit earlier and tidy up the house before work. On the other hand, if you’re a night owl, consider giving your living spaces a once-over before you go to bed.

Daily cleaning breaks up the chores into manageable bites. You don’t have to clean your whole home every day, but you can focus on one area, such as the kitchen or bathroom, and spend 15 or 20 minutes on it. Then the next day, you can choose a different area, taking comfort in the fact that you just cleaned the first space.

But perhaps you’re the kind of person who can’t stand the thought of spending 20 minutes every day doing cleaning chores. Perhaps for you, the best thing to do would be to set aside more time each week for cleaning. You could establish a habit of cleaning on a specific day of the week in the evening after work. Or you could dedicate time on the weekends to it.

Experiment with different methods and find what works best for you and your inclinations. With that, you can start coming up with a daily chore list, or a weekly task list to start.

3. Utilise Modern Appliances and Gadgets

In our modern society, there are tons of gadgets to make housework easier, including some that literally do the work for you. These appliances and devices can be your secret weapon when it comes to getting the chores done.

One such product is a robot vacuum. These can save you so much time, especially with their settings. You can adjust these settings to put the robot on an automatic schedule. You can set it up to vacuum every day while you’re at work or every night while you’re asleep.

Another product you could try is a power scrubber. Power scrubbers have oscillating heads that allow you to scrub faster than you ever could without them. They’re great for deep cleaning and hard-to-reach places in your house.

4. Turning Chores into Games

Talk about a total game-changer. Some people just don’t like cleaning no matter how easy or quick it is, and sometimes chores just aren’t fun. However, who says you can’t make them fun?

Start turning your tasks into games. Perhaps you can time yourself on how long it takes to do a chore and try to beat your time every time you do it.

If you live with others, you can have a contest to see who can do a task the fastest, keeping score over time. Or you can compete to see who can clean their room the fastest. These can work especially well with children, and diffuse tension around what can seem like arbitrary household rules.

Or you can simply make cleaning more enjoyable by listening to music, a podcast, or an audiobook. These can help you take your mind off the monotony of the job itself and allow you to pass the time quickly. Upbeat music can get you moving faster too.

5. Consider Professional Cleaning Services

If none of the above works for you, if you’re just too busy or overwhelmed, you may want to consider hiring professionals. Professional cleaning services can take the load off your shoulders as you adjust to your life as an expat. And you may find yourself keeping them for a longer period after you’ve transitioned because it’s nice to not have to worry about it.

With professional cleaning services or domestic helpers, you can come home from a long day and relax without clutter or grime adding to your stress. They can be a great support for you in managing your household.

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Looking for your home away from home? Our Singapore apartment rentals and serviced apartments are perfect for a longer period of stay. We have properties in luxury developments across Singapore’s most coveted addresses: Bugis, Bukit Timah, Shenton Way, and Novena.

And, you can rest easy at any of our properties. We adhere to our strict Property Standards that account for the comfort and cleanliness of all our serviced apartments. Our fully-furnished apartments come with amenities like wi-fi, air conditioners, and a fully-equipped kitchen.