You can easily find yourself busy at work and behind on your to do list at home. Unfortunately for most, there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. However, by closely examining your current schedule and your priorities, you can start to make changes to your routine in order to free up more time in your day.

Remove or Consolidate Activities That Take Up Most of Your Time 

Consider rethinking the way you approach to do’s or activities that take up a large part of your day. Some examples include: time spent on your phone or the Internet, watching TV, checking email, and completing household chores.

Social media and TV

Checking Instagram, watching Netflix, or surfing the Internet is subjective and personal in terms of the value it provides. But it’s safe to assume that most of us are guilty of vegging out from time to time. In an effort to avoid wasting time, consider cutting your Internet and entertainment time in half or eliminating certain things (such as TV) altogether. There are even helpful apps and site blockers to help you set limits and kick the habit! In addition to helping gain more hours in your day, saying sayonara to excessive social media or TV watching may even make you healthier.

Repetitive Work Tasks

It’s easy to get caught up with work-related tasks, especially email. By dedicating certain times of the day to clear your inbox and refraining from checking it on your phone every time you receive an email, you should start to notice that you are wasting less time. A good place to start? Clear your email once in the morning and once around 2pm so your colleagues have time to take action on your responses.

Chores and errands

Maintaining a clean and functional house or apartment isn’t easy. There are just some chores you cannot skip such as washing the dishes and doing your laundry. By outsourcing household chores you will easily start to find more time in your daily schedule. Luckily for you, Rinse has got your dry cleaning and laundry covered, Handy connects you with local housekeepers and Taskrabbit is there to help you with everything else. It’s up to you to decide how valuable your time is, but services like these can give you some (or a lot) of it back if you’re willing to pay for some help!

Start Using Your Spare Time More Wisely

When you start to breakdown your day you’ll begin to notice periods of time that are not being utilized properly. We suggest thinking of ways to fill your downtime with more important things you may not have time for right now. Some of our suggestions include reading, learning, creating.

Instead of scrolling through your newsfeeds keep a book (or Kindle book) with you at all times. Rather than reaching for your phone to kill time try and sneak in some reading time here and there.

During your daily commute start listening to an audiobook or podcast. It’s a great way to learn something new or enjoy a form of entertainment without having to sacrifice anything else on schedule. Fill otherwise useless time with something constructive.

Making fundamental changes to your schedule and lifestyle will not be easy but if you’re serious about getting an extra 2 hours back in your day we highly suggest examining ways you can change.

By far the easiest way to get started is by outsourcing smaller tasks such as laundry or house cleaning. Alleviating these tasks from your to do list will accumulate and you’ll start to notice the difference rather quickly. In order to sustain the change, you’ll need to be disciplined in creating consistency and evaluate making bigger changes to your schedule such as waking up earlier, cutting back on or eliminating non-essential forms of entertainment, and being proactive rather than reactive.

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Extend the life of your clothes: know the difference between laundering and dry cleaning

When you have clothing that needs to look sharp, like a suit, dress, sweater, or dress shirt, chances are you take it to the dry cleaners. But many nice articles of clothing don’t actually need to be dry cleaned—often, having your clothing laundered and pressed is a better choice.

 

So, what is the difference?

The short answer - water.

Dry Cleaning: When your clothes are dry cleaned, non-water based solvents are used to remove stains, before they are crisply pressed. 

Launder & Press:  With laundered items, water and detergent are used. Your clothes are washed in a commercial-grade washing machine, emerge slightly damp, and then are individually pressed.

 

Why Launder & Press?

So what's the benefit of using Launder & Press?

• It's gentle on fabric: The chemicals used to dry clean your clothes can cause fabrics to deteriorate over time. Laundering, on the other hand, removes stains and everyday grime using water and gentler detergents.

• It's ideal for removing sweat, oils and dirt: Laundering is actually more effective than dry cleaning at removing sweat and oil from fabrics, so it is typically the best choice for dress shirts and cotton blouses. After clothes are laundered, they are pressed and hung for that crisp, fresh-from-the-cleaner look.

High-quality laundry services like Rinse read the care label on your clothing and make the call between chemical dry cleaning and laundering to maximize the life of your clothes. When you’re the one making the call, read the label: if it doesn’t say “Dry Clean Only,” ask for Launder & Press. Your clothes will thank you!

 

Why Dry Clean?

You may be thinking - Why on earth would anyone choose to dry clean when Launder & Press is just as effective (if not more in some cases) and gentler on fabrics? Well, the truth is, it really depends on the fabric and the piece. 

• It's ideal for clothing made of natural fibers, like silk or wool because water can have an adverse effect on the fabric. Water can cause the fibers in the fabric to become rigid and even cause the garment to shrink, fade, or lose its shape.

• It's often the only way to get out certain stains: When an item is dry cleaned, it also goes through the “pre-spotting” process where an experienced cleaner will examine each garment to locate stains and determine the source so that they can treat the stain with the appropriate non-aqueous solvent. It’s not uncommon for a pre-spotter to have decades of experience!

A helpful tip to extend the life of your clothes: If you know the source of any stain on your garment, let your dry cleaner know. Be it ketchup, wine, or a splash from a puddle, your dry cleaner will use that information to choose the right solvent and minimize the risk of damage.

There’s a reason both dry cleaning and launder & press are offered today—each serves a different, valuable purpose. Both are aptly named and both keep you looking sharp!

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Learn more about How Dry Cleaning Works from our COO James. He grew up in dry cleaning! 

Or, read Our Guide For Which Clothes You Should And Shouldn't Dry Clean.

In this “temporary new normal,” it has become clear that the home is now where everything happens. Laundry rooms have become mission control for work from home operations and dining room tables have been turned into makeshift montessori schools. For many of us, it has been a challenge to make our limited amount of space function for everything we now require of it.

At Rinse, our mission is to make your life easier. As #laundrynerds, we’ve created the perfect system for taking care of your clothes, but given the new challenges we face at home, we went back to Brian Yetwin, one of LA’s best celebrity organization experts, to get his sage advice on organizing your space. Specifically, how should we set up (1) home school and (2) a home office.

Home School

Welp, life is a bit more complicated these days, but establishing and organizing a classroom at home doesn’t need to create stress. Here are some homestay hacks to bring the learnin’ home.

Study Central: When picking a good spot to help grow those brains, consider traffic, noise, and light. Less traffic and less noise means fewer distractions. Natural light supports productivity and wellness. Ideally your homestay classroom should be near wherever you spend most of your time so you can be available for questions.

Table Top: If you’re desktop is the kitchen table or another shared space, keep school supplies in a plastic shoebox to be packed up at the end of each day. A clutter-free table helps remind us that we are still masters of our organized, external world, which helps soothe the internal clutter that may be playing on our anxieties.

School Supplies: Focus on the essentials to avoid clutter, but the main goal is to eliminate excuses to walk away to find missing supplies. For younger students, their plastic shoebox bin can include: pencils with erasers, pencil sharpeners, crayons, washable markers, scissors, a glue stick, a notebook, blank and lined paper, and stickers for a job well done. If your littles or bigs have access to a laptop or tablet, make sure there’s an outlet near by, and for your sanity, invest in some headphones for plug-n-play activities and school work.

Inspriation and Decor: Give your kids some freedom to customize their workspace. Hang a pegboard or magnetic dry erase board for art, assignments, or items of inspiration. Designate a small space for a small plant, a stuffed animal, or whatever brings your student joy.

* Pro Tip: Stacked paper trays are a great tool for home school. They can be drying racks for art, an inbox and outbox for paper assignments, a place to put blank paper, textbooks, workbooks, and flat school supplies.

Above all, don’t stress. Your homeschooling area doesn’t need to be perfect. A flat surface, a good chair, good light, and space for storage will do the trick. Good enough can be great!

Home Office

You’re not alone. 1 in 3 people feel disorganized at work. That was before many of us found ourselves working from home with the opportunity to reinvent a home space as an office you can organize, use, and love. Need some tips for creating a happy homestay office? Read on:

Deticated Space: Where are you going to put your office? Evaluate how the space will be used and customize the area to meet your needs. Consider noise pollution and privacy. Using noise-canceling headphones, without music, keeps the silence in while signaling housemates that you’re focused on work and not to be bothered. Also, remind your brain that home is currently split into your office and your house. Keep your office work in your work space and avoid letting your work world sneak out beyond your workstation.

Gear: Speed, efficiency, and a strong WiFi signal are critical at home. Don't pay for equipment you won't use but it may be time to upgrade your computer, ear buds, modem, router, speakers, or printer.

Lighting: Ideally, you want natural light, but don’t always count on the sun to make an appearance. When used correctly, ambient light creates a relaxing environment. The right light captures soft curves of a room and allows your pupils to mellow out. Softer ambient lighting is proven to draw stress from the body. Chain hardware stores have light specialists that can help find the best light for you, even if your office is in the garage and you need to dump the fluorescents for some inexpensive, DIY can lights.

Chair: Invest in a good ergonomic chair to keep your back, pelvis, neck, and shoulders happy and healthy. A lot of business upgrade their furniture often, or overbuy, giving you a great opportunity to snatch up a second hand chair. To keep the blood flowing, ditch the chair and consider a standing desk with a cushioned mat under your feet.

Organize: A shoebox for documents, a mug for pens, and a charging station can do the trick, but consider upgrading to better suit your needs. Anything you need to organize your home office has likely been invented. Keep aesthetics in mind to create that perfect form + function combo.

Ultimately, you want to make your home office a place that reflects your personality while keeping you organized and efficient. Small touches can have big results. A memento, memorabilia, and photos, will enhance your productivity while putting a smile on your face. Work well, my friends!