7. Run All Your Errands in One Place

I used to spend an inordinate amount of time doing my routine errands. Each week, without giving it a second thought, I drove all over town to my favorite little shops, which I patronized more out of habit than convenience. I would drive seven miles to one side of town for groceries, five miles back into town to the bank, two blocks away to the post office, another six miles to the opposite side of town for the dry cleaners, and then to a shopping center several miles beyond that, where I took care of almost everything else: video rental, hardware store, bookstore, and pet supplies. And, of course, don’t forget another short drive to stop at the fish market, the bakery, and the flower stall.

Now, fortunately, we live within one block of a shopping area where we can take care of everything in one stop, and also have the vet and the pet groomer, a photo lab, a pharmacy, and even a half dozen good restaurants we can walk to. It has cut at least an hour and a half off the time it takes to do our weekly errands.

If you don’t live in close proximity to a shopping center where you can take care of all your weekly shopping needs, find the one closest to you and drive there, even if it’s halfway across town, for the simplicity of one-stop shopping.

The automobile, like the washer and dryer (#8), is another convenience we tend to misuse. Because it’s so easy to hop in and drive away, we don’t think about all the extra time we spend doing things we wouldn’t do, and maybe don’t really need to do, if we didn’t have the car that makes it so “easy.”