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How many ways can you save time?
Here are some idea-starters
By Countryside Staff
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- Carrying water to livestock can be a time-consuming chore, especially in winter. Piping water to the animals, with a frostproof hydrant in cold climates, can save a great deal of time and work.
- If you use ball-point rabbit water bottles, have extras on hand for freezing weather. Then instead of spending time thawing out the bottles to refill, give the rabbits the replacement bottles while letting the others thaw by themselves in a warm place. The same can apply to crocks, bowls, and poultry water fountains.
- Or remove watering devices at night. Let them thaw in a heated area, and set them out again in the morning.
- Chipping ice out of stock tanks and fountains can be avoided with various heating devices, which might pay for themselves not only in decreased labor but also by ensuring that your stock always has fresh water.
- Washing dishes immediately after meals, before food becomes caked and dried, saves time and water.
- Have extra basic essentials and spare parts on hand to avoid unnecessary trips to town. And then, when you use the last spark plug, special light bulb, or reserve box of baking soda, put that item on your list to be replaced on the next shopping trip.
- Plan ahead. Surprises - in the kitchen, the workshop, or the barn - often mean delays while replacing or working around materials or ingredients not on hand.
- Be organized. Minutes spent looking for a tool or utensil that isn't where it's supposed to be can add up quickly. Frequently used tools (and other things) should be more accessible than those used only at intervals.
- Practice preventive maintenance. Checking a vehicle's battery, cleaning off corrosion and adding distilled water if necessary, takes a little time. . . but not as much time as being stranded with a dead battery in the middle of nowhere. Repairing a fence or gate takes less time than chasing animals. . . and then making the repair anyway. Sharpening cutting tools of any kind not only saves time and effort: you'll do a better job, and work more safely. Repairing the wheelbarrow tire is less time-consuming in the long run than inflating it every time you use the wheelbarrow.
- Watch for those "little" time wasters that can be easily remedied. Instead of constantly untangling hoses and extension cords, put them on reels that keep them neat and accessible. Instead of struggling with the henhouse door every time you open it, make it work properly. If spending five minutes on repairs today saves five seconds a day for the next year, you're 25 minutes ahead.
- Keep your chimney clean: Checking it periodically and running a brush through it if needed takes less time than cleaning up after a fire! But also eliminate creosote buildup and the need for frequent cleaning by burning dry hardwood, at a high enough temperature to reduce the problem.
- Read the directions first, before all else fails.
- Eliminate the time (and gas expense and pollution) of lawn mowing by keeping your grassy area to a reasonable minimum. Consider natural landscaping, or ground covers.
- Reduce the time spent on cleaning animal housing. Use all-wire cages for rabbits, perhaps with worm beds (rather than dropping pans) underneath. Use deep bedding for goats and chickens: you might reduce pen cleaning to spring and fall. Consider moveable pens for poultry, rabbits and even hogs. Move the pens daily and the poultry and rabbits will mow your lawn, while the pig will till your garden. Eliminate leaking water pipes or troughs that create problem wet spots.
- Wear rubber boots in manure and mud. You'll save time oiling your leather ones, as well as time spent earning money to buy the new ones you'll need after they're ruined by barnyard acids.
- Eliminate unnecessary steps by having everything as close to where it will be used as possible. Can you store some of your food supply in a pantry close to the kitchen, rather than in a far corner of the basement or a remote root cellar? Restock it by the basketful, rather than making many trips. Plant a small kitchen garden as close to the back door as possible, to avoid traipsing out to the main garden for a sprig of parsley or some chives while preparing a meal. Think of convenience and efficiency when planning and furnishing your barn, shop and kitchen. Is the compost bin located between the animals and the garden? Would it be worth the investment to have extra tools or supplies in strategic locations, so when a light bulb burns out in the barn or workshop you don't have to run to the house for a replacement?
- Pay close attention to what you do regularly and how you do it. Have you fallen into a rut, putting up with some inefficient method or condition just because "that's how it's always been"? Save just a minute a day and you'll gain an extra six hours a year!
- There are hundreds of ways to save time in the garden: How many are you making use of? Sow seeds (such as carrots, radishes and lettuce) far enough apart to reduce or eliminate time-consuming thinning. Mulch, to reduce or avoid weeding and watering. Remove weeds this year before they go to seed, and greatly reduce time spent weeding next year. Plant crops such as beans in rows 4-6 inches apart; they'll quickly shade the bare ground and retard weed growth. Practice companion planting and crop rotations to eliminate time spent coping with pests. Knowing the life cycles of pests and timing your planting to avoid them can also help.
- When you bake cookies or pies, or make soup or many other dishes, make a double batch and freeze the extras. It takes very little extra time, and later you'll have "instant."
- Learn how to speed read.
- Economize. Saving food, money, or anything else, will save you the time of having to make or get more.
- Don't let your time and money investment in your garden. . . the tilling, weeding, watering, fertilizing. . . go to waste by letting weeds or pests or diseases reduce your crop, or by not preserving that bounty.
- Don't "overdo." Planting more zucchini (or anything else) than you can possibly make use of, or having more animals than you need, wastes your time and other valuable resources.
- Before you start any project, have everything you'll need, close at hand.
- What do you do that doesn't need doing at all? Granted, some people like to dust the furniture every morning or to iron the dish towels, but maybe it isn't essential. Over decades, a man can save hours by not shaving!
- Get rid of the tv.
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