11 clever time-saving products that'll turn you into efficient Ekta
A garlic peeler is just the tip of the list that’ll help you peel your trouble aways
Efficiency is key when you’re managing household chores, work, screaming kids wanting to know what’s for lunch and a leaking faucet in the bathroom that you can hear three rooms away. But even with 86,400 seconds in a day, I rarely manage to get through my task list.
No matter how much you plan, the universe will throw you a curveball that leaves your day in disarray. With increasing calamities, cases of anxiety nearly tripled last year. When everything seems out of control, you can get so overwhelmed that you’re unable to complete even the smallest of tasks. I stopped being able to distinguish the beeping of the microwave from my phone notifications. Eventually, I didn’t know if I was malfunctioning and if the beeps were in fact coming from me.
In our fast-paced lives, time is money. And the inventors of time-saving products realised that creating clever gadgets fill their wallets, and help us complete our tasks quickly and more efficiently. I streamlined my own life by finding these time-saving products to make things a little smoother.
Time-saving products, whether for prepping meals or for when you’re trying to look presentable for an impromptu office video conference, can make your day a whole lot easier. Taking the pressure off the seemingly menial tasks and leaving you with precious moments to spend on work, family or on hobbies that bring you joy.
For when your to-do list doesn’t seem to be coming to an end, these will be your saviours. If you’re hunting for time-saving products to be more productive or just looking for shortcuts to simplify daily routines, let me be your guide and let these sometimes absurd, but always useful time-saving products be the time-turners of your life.
An oven for when there’s a time crunch and rumbling stomachs One of the greatest investments you can make (other than medical insurance) is an oven. This is the MVP of time-saving products Have leftover sabzi that you just can’t eat for another day but don’t want to make didi angry? Mix it with rice, grate some cheese and set the timer so it can bake while you take a shower and plan what you’re going to stream during your meal. Want to impress your partner with a fancy meal but don’t know how to work a pressure cooker? Bake a chicken, potatoes, veggies – there’s nothing you can’t turn into a delicious meal in an oven without sweating over a stove with a high risk of burning even the simplest of dishes. ₹6,199
Get the perfect winged eyeliner without having to master it If you put together all the hours I’ve spent trying to get the perfect winged eyeliner I’d have enough time to read War and Peace, twice. If luck is on your side, you get one eye right, then comes the next challenge. Replicating that perfect flick on the other eye. Before you know it, the Zoom meeting has started without you. This eyeliner comes with a handy stencil that’s a part of the packaging itself. Just place and hold in place and fill in the gap and you’ve mastered the winged look without wasting time, money and a lot of tears (from all the makeup remover that has managed to get into your eyes).₹599 A handy garlic peeler to roll your troubles away No store-bought packet lives up to the flavours of a home-made adrak-lasun paste. But there’s nothing I hate more than having to peel garlic. No matter how many techniques my mother tries to teach me to make it simpler, bits of the peel always get stuck to fingers. Somehow it gets into your eyes and everywhere but the chopping board. And I end up slicing off more garlic than I peel, leaving little carved up lumps to cook up. This unassuming silicone tube makes cooking a lot easier. Pop in a pod, roll it about with slight pressure on the pod from outside and most of the peeling is done for you.₹219 For the in-between tile stains when you don’t have time to scrub If I had to get down on my knees and scrub through the tiles to get rid of that darkened grout then I’m pretty sure I’d lose all sensation in my lower body. You know what stains I’m talking about. When there are seven other things to get down on your house chores list, scrubbing in-between bathroom tiles can wait for another day. A grout pen is a quick fix to mask the discolouration. It’s not permanent, but an easy and affordable fix. Just make sure you’re picking the right colour grout pen to match your tiles. ₹599 A powder rinse for your washing machine Do you find your clothes coming out of the washing machine covered in lint and stains? It could be because of limescale at the bottom of the barrel washing up onto your threads. Instead of worrying about stain removal later, nip the issue in the bud with a washing cycling with a de-scaling powder. This one is multipurpose — works for the washing machine, coffee maker, steam irons, shower heads and even faucets. Fill up your empty washing machine with 1-2 litres of water and pour in a sachet of the de-scaling power and let the cycle run to competition. You’ll notice a massive difference in your clothes. ₹150 for a pack of 3 sachets Get a blowout at home without breaking your back I’ve seen a lot of at-home blow-out tutorials. Bought the brushes, rollers, hairpins and sprays. But trying to give yourself a salon-level blow dry on your own can turn into a strenuous arm workout. Skip turning into a pretzel with your arms and invest in a rotating Babyliss blowdry brush that will dry your hair while simultaneously styling it. Make sure to gently comb through your hair with a detangler first, apply a heat protecting serum and cut your hair styling time in half.₹6,469 Save time and your fingertips while chopping vegetables There’s a reason this box went viral. You can get one of these non-electric choppers with either two or three blades inside. Attached to it is a string you pull and it’ll chop your tomatoes, capsicum, potatoes in a matter of seconds. A favourite among our time-saving products, this may feel like a toy. Pulling a string to make it all work may give you flashbacks to spinning Beyblades but it effectively reduces your meal prep time. If you’ve been feeling foolish wearing sunglasses while cutting onions then you’ll love this chopper. My favourite part? It’s 1/3 the price of an electric food processor. Step aside Johnson’s baby shampoo. This device holds the true meaning of no more tears.₹288 Boost your Wi-Fi with this extender Through the lockdown, I probably made more calls to my Wi-Fi provider than my parents. When we all retreated indoors to run home offices and mess up our posture, wireless connections became more important than a morning meal. And the voice on the other end of the line always insisted that the speed is up to the mark. Instead of running through the routine of turning it off and on repeatedly in hopes of getting a better connection in the corner of the house where you’ve managed to create some privacy from the craziness of kids and spouses, invest in a booster. TP-Link is among the best-sellers in this space and it’s easy to set up on your own if you follow the instructional leaflet. Now I also have a perfect connection in my bathroom to stream my Spotify playlist while I shower.₹1,189 Strip the leaves with one swift move The moment when the oil is hot enough to drop in the kadhi patta without having them blacken and burn is very important for making any tadka. If you’re over-efficient than you would have plucked the leaves beforehand, but if you’re a cooking noob like myself who runs from corner to corner of the kitchen grabbing ingredients as the recipe calls for it then this little leaf-shaped tool will come super handy. Put the stem in one end and pull it through the other and voila! You could even use the edge to chop up your dhaniya finer for garnishing. “What’s the point, I can just do it with my hands?” Sure, but you won’t know how convenient this time-saving product is until you use it.₹349 Shave away the lint and pills This may look like a facial hair trimmer but keep it away from your partner. This little gadget shaves away lint and those annoying little pills that form on your socks, linens, sweatpants and even sofa and carpets, depending on the material. Plug it in, adjust the head height and slowly roll this over to see how quickly it’ll transform your drab and worn-out looking pants and sweatshirt. It’s easy to use, will de-fuzz whatever you need and all you need is to remove the detachable lint collector to clean it out. ₹469 Wrap it away for another day My cat has been very sad ever since I invested in Madhu Wraps. These reusable beeswax food wraps meant no more foil for her to play with. No more unsustainable cling film or aluminium wraps, opt for these eco-friendly sheets which you can mould and cover pretty much anything with. These have been super handy for the days my sister and I get enthusiastic about cooking, start chopping things up, only to get tired halfway through. We can abandon our gastro escapade with a little more dignity by wrapping everything in these and putting it in the fridge for didi to use the next day. Wrap up a sandwich for the road, cover up your half-eaten bowl of daliya and your meal prep to get an early start on cooking breakfast the next day. ₹499 for a set of 3 wraps
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