Single again, or recently widowed? It’s time to start taking charge of your domestic situation. It can be tricky to adjust to cooking for one again, or doing whatever part of the household chores were never yours. So here’s a quick and easy guide to finding the washing machine and eating meals healthier than tinned spaghetti on toast…
Healthy food is a must for all of us. The male body needs around 2,500 calories per day to keep functioning mentally and physically. So if you want to get out and about more you need to start by fuelling yourself from the inside.
Holland and Barrett is the go-to company for healthy foods plus a range of natural supplements designed to keep you fit as a fiddle. Echinacea extract through the winter can help reduce the risk of colds; and a routine of taking Milk Thistle for some months out of every year can help you metabolise alcohol better and get rid of the toxins it contains.
The Good Food Guide continues bringing out great recipe ideas too, which you can make quickly and cheaply without resorting to beans.
If you don’t want to go to the effort of cooking single portions (it’s always impossible, you either cook too much or not enough), then consider making one opt meals instead, which you can add to for a few days or freeze to eat as you need. Chili, curry and casserole are all good options- and with autumn on the way it’s a good time to start thinking about comfort food!
We all get the nesting urge in the autumn – but if we haven’t been used to running a home on our own for a while things can get a bit confusing. Don’t worry. A simple noticeboard can save your life: just draw up a list of daily and weekly chores and stick it on the board. Or get a simple calendar and colour code it – red means change the bed, blue is washing day or the monthly trip to the hairdresser.
Changing a bed on your own can be pretty tricky. Particularly the duvet, which either ejects countless socks from last time it was washed, or engulfs you like some kind of huge amoeba. One simple trick is to change the duvet cover using the end corners only. This was taught me by a nurse, who also showed me how to do hospital corners: you get the two corners of your duvet, one in each hand. Then you roll up the duvet cover until you have just the corresponding corners ready. Put the duvet corners into the corners of the cover; grab hold of the lot and stand up, shaking the duvet cover down over the duvet as you do.
Working the dishwasher can be a pretty key skill as well – particularly when you’re cooking and eating for one. Let’s face it, no-one likes coming home to a sink full of crusty dishes but you will if you use one per night and think “I’ll get round to it tomorrow”! So start as you mean to go on – fill the dishwasher over a few days rather than filling the sink, then do a full load when you’re ready…
For more tips on coping with single living, you can have a look at Ask Granny, the online resource for grandparents and senior citizens.
