How to practise self care when you work from home

Tags

9 to 5, afternoon, bad habits, balance, bills, biscuit tin, boost, boundaries, break, calls, chair, chocolate bar, clear, clients, coffee, computer, designated office space, desk, DIY, eight hours of sleep a night, energy, evening, exercise, Eyes, fresh air, fresh fruit, Friday, friends, headaches, Headspace, healthy snacks, HIT session, home, homemade flapjacks, job, lighting, living room, meal, meditate, mind, motivated, motivation levels, nuts, oil fish, perk, pitta with feta and egg, PJs, postman, return, routine, salad with oily fish, sensible, set of goals, shops, showered, Skype, soups, stews, team meeting, tidy, tip, unwind., VA, walk, weekend, work, work and personal life, working from home, working hours, yoga, yoga pants, zone

When you work from home, self-care is vital and it is important to make a clear distinction between your work and personal life, ensuring you take time for yourself.

We have some sensible, but easy ways you can get a better balance when it comes to working from home.

Set Boundaries
When you work from home, it is really easy to slip into bad habits like working late into the evening and at the weekend. To maintain a healthy balance between work and home, set your work hours and stick to them. Maybe it is the traditional 9 to 5 that works for you, 10 until 6 is better for some people, a half day on Friday can be a perk of the job. Decide it, do it and stick to it.

Have a place to work
If you can, create a designated office space with a desk and upright chair that supports your back. If you have a whole room or can renovate the loft or the garage, this will give you a great working area and get you in the zone. Lighting is important as this will help you not to strain your eyes or cause headaches. Having a tidy workspace will help to keep your mind clear, and turning off the computer at the end of the day will help you maintain your working hours.

Start the day the right way
You might not have a team meeting to go to, but starting your day with a new list and set of goals, will keep you on track and motivated. You don’t have to do this at your desk, you can have a walk, a coffee after the school drop off or even speak to your VA and make sure you are both on the same page.

Walk away
Making time for some exercise during your day will boost motivation levels and increase productivity. Whether you go for a park run, walk the dog, do a HIT session, or practise yoga in your living room, doing something will give you a break and more energy.

Take a lunch break
We know many people don’t take have an official lunch break, but if you can make time to walk away from your desk and head outside for fresh air, this will set you up for the afternoon ahead. Packing up a salad with oily fish, filling up on soups and stews or having a pitta with feta and egg is a good way to fuel up and afternoon smoothies or homemade flapjacks are good too.

Do not do chores
Putting on the washing, going to the shops, visiting friends or doing a little DIY might be on your list of jobs at home, but it isn’t your real work that will pay the bills. Find times when you can do this, but stick to your working times as above, or you will end up having a clean house and full fridge, but unhappy clients.

Have healthy snacks
It is easy to go for the biscuit tin or unwrap a chocolate bar when you are working at home, but having fresh fruit in a bowl and nuts and raisins in a pot on your desk means when you are peckish, you don’t overdo the rubbish.

Get Dressed
It might seem like a good idea to work in your PJs or yoga pants, but you wouldn’t go out to work this way, so don’t do it at home. Get up, get showered, put the coffee on and get dressed and this will give you a work ready feel, and save blushes with the postman or unexpected Skype calls from clients.

Meditate
We believe that if you take a little time to meditate during the working day, it will give you headspace to unwind so you will return to your computer feeling refreshed.

You still need to sleep
We all need to aim to get about eight hours of sleep a night, and this is the same when you work from home. Late nights and lie-ins might be tempting, but they won’t do your motivation or productivity levels any good. Get into a routine and if it means scheduling calls at 9am or booking a dance class at 6pm to keep to time, then do it.

Got a working at home tip? Send it our way as we would love to know what it is.

Team Pure Beauty

Get a clean home, faster

Tags

animals, bathroom, baths, beds, bins, bleach, book shelves, bugs, build-up, busy, carpets, cleaning, cream, cup of tea, cushions, dirt, disinfecting, door handles, draining board, dust, dustcart, efficient, environmentally sound protects, finger prints, Friday, glass, hands, handy, home, house, illnesses, ironing, kitchen, love, mess, microfibre cloth, mirrors, mobile devices, mop, nasty germs, once a day, Pat on the Back, polish, quick, roast, room, scrub, sinks, smudges, sparkles, Sunday, sunshine, system, throws, tip, toilet, washing, zone cleaning

Let’s face it, there are better things to do with our time than clean our homes, but it is a necessary evil unless you want to live in a mess, or have the cash to pay someone to do it for you.

One of the biggest mistake people make when they are cleaning is to do it room by room (aka ‘zone cleaning’) which is slow and you can do it much faster, and better, if you take a different approach.

Focussing on just one area, may mean doing a great job on your counters which will sparkle and shine, but the cooker will still be dirty and as for the bathroom, well you won’t get time to go there if you are too busy folding the ironing for the next morning.

The reality is, if you put a system in place that is quick and efficient, you will have more time to do the things you really love.

Pick a Day
It can be any day, but pick a day when you can really get on top of your cleaning and this will automatically take some of the pressure off. We know this sounds daft, but doing this will make the rest of your week so much easier and you can get your partner, flatmate or kids doing jobs too! Maybe go for Sunday morning and then you can reward yourself with a roast dinner (wiping up gravy of course), or a Friday afternoon before you go out and then you can really let your hair down knowing it is done.

Start by Dusting
Dust each room, including the tops of all your furniture, the undersides of shelves and the books, as well as picture frames, TV screens and the bits and pieces we all collect that don’t really have a home. The best way to do this is to dust dry, when things are wet is so much harder. If you want to get rid of smudges and finger prints then use a clean microfibre cloth and good quality polish.

Clean Fabrics
Putting on the washing as you clean will make the most of your time and it will feel like everything is clean in your home, for a little while at least. Strip and remake the bed beds, tidy cushions and put throws back onto sofas neatly, vacuum your curtains and clean animal beds out too.

Clean Mirrors and Glass
Wipe down all the mirrors and windows in your home as they pick up a lot of dust and when the sun shines, it will show up and look like you haven’t cleaned for ages. One handy tip is to use one wet and one dry microfiber cloth as this will clean away dust and dirt but won’t leave behind lines and streaks.

Clean your Surfaces
Wipe down all the surfaces and counters in your home in one go. Move from room to room, disinfecting if necessary, and make sure you clean door handles, light switches, TV remotes, mobile devices and phones as these are full of nasty germs. If you have any illness or bugs in the home, make sure you do this at least once a day to stop anything spreading! Also leave cleaning items in bathrooms so you can wash during the week and prevent a massive build up of dirt to tackle on cleaning day. If you can, use environmentally sound protects, wear gloves to protect your hands, and always apply cream when you are done.

Get to Grips with the Bathroom and Kitchen
Walk through your bathroom and kitchen, spraying cleaner on your baths, sinks and toilets as you go – not on the carpets or floors of course. Then return and clean the bathroom and wash shower curtains and towels once the bedding is done. When it comes to the kitchen, wipe down the inside of the microwave, as well as cabinet and appliance doors before getting to work on the sink and table tops. Empty and bleach the bins so they are really clean and make sure everything sparkles, including the draining board.

Next to the Floors
Sweep, then mop or scrub the bathroom and kitchen floors, making sure you really get to those hard to clean areas as this is where nasties can hide and bacteria can hide.

Get the Vacuum Out
Last of all, vacuum the carpers in your bedrooms, down the stairs, through the living room and into the hallway, moving furniture so you get rid of the dust that can make you cough.

Now, put the kettle on and admire your hard work as you enjoy a cup of tea.

Team Pure-Beauty

Clean up your make-up act

Tags

Baby shampoo, bag, bar, base, bathroom, beauty staples, bin, brushes, change colour, clear, cool, cream-based foundations, crumble, dark, day, die, dry, dry naturally, dry up, evening, eye, eye infection, formula, G&T, game over, gentle liquid soap, good to go, life is busy, light reflecting particles, lip liners, lipstick, make-up bag, Mascara, mix, nail varnish, prone to clumping, Pure Beauty, re-infection, replaced, shake, share, sheer, smell, smoothly, SPF, synthetic, tip, winter

We use our make-up bags every day, often more than once, but how often do you clean it and clear it out?

Made you think, didn’t we?

The reality is, life is busy, time is short and with a G&T with your name on it at the bar, you don’t want to spend your time sorting out old mascaras, but you need to.

Today we are looking at just how long you should keep your beauty staples, before throwing them in the bin and replacing them with something shiny and new.

First things first, take everything out of your bag, clean and dry it and if it has seen better days, buy a new one. This is also the perfect time to wash your brushes. Baby shampoo is brilliant for natural hair brushes and a gentle liquid soap does the job for the synthetic ones. Brushes really can be a breeding ground for germs, so wash them once a week to be safe. Rather than storing them in the bottom of your bag, keep brushes tip up in pot and allow them to dry naturally.

Next, sort out the products in front of you and anything that you haven’t used for a while, that is past its best or has had the top left off, should be replaced. It is also worth noting, if you’ve had an eye infection it’s a good idea to throw out make-up that could cause a re-infection. Oh, and if you want your stuff to last, don’t store it in the bathroom but somewhere cool, dark and dry.

The shelf life for foundation changes depending on the formula, but generally cream-based foundations last between six months to a year, and if there’s an SPF it tends to be less. Always pay attention to how your foundation looks and feels on your skin and if you notice that is starts to change colour or smell, it is time to ditch it. Also remember, as we head towards winter, you might want to swap your lighter sheer foundation for a stronger base but go for a product with light reflecting particles.

Ideally a mascara is good to go for around four months. After this time, they tend to become dry and prone to clumping, and using the same brush over and over can increase the risk of eye infections.

We all tend to have a different lipstick in every bag, ones for day, others for evening and ones we never even wear. This is totally fine but just make sure you keep them clean and if you come across one that is past it’s best, chuck it away and use another one. Oh, and don’t share them!

Eye and lip liners can last up to three years but it is likely you will use them before that, or they will dry up and crumble. Again, don’t pass these around on a night out and at the first sign of dehydration, bin and buy a new one.

Nail varnish is one of those products that never seems to die, but shake it and if the colour doesn’t completely mix or the varnish is too sticky to apply smoothly, it’s game over.

Got a tip we have missed, then get in touch and let us know.

Team Pure Beauty