How to (actually) spend less time on housework

Keeping the house clean doesn't need to take over your life

One of my favorite time use statistics is that over the past 60 years or so, the amount of time that women spend on childcare has increased. This has happened even as the amount of time women spent on paid work has increased too. How is this possible? It turns out that work and childcare do not take 168 hours a week. Other categories have decreased. Most notably? Housework.

In 1965, married mothers spent 34.5 hours on household tasks. According to the most recent American Time Use Survey, these days mothers of children under age 18 spend just under 17 hours on household activities. While there may be some slight differences in how these numbers were calculated and who they are including, that suggests a fairly large decline.

Given that most people aren’t living in squalor now, this also suggests that perhaps not all the things filling people’s time in 1965 were necessary. I think many things filling people’s time now aren’t entirely necessary either! However much time you currently spend on housework, here are some ways to spend less.