For this week @ladiesofhive - Contest - Ladies of Hive Community Contest #135, here's my response.

The question is - ⏺ I want you to tell me about a life changing "hack" (a trick or shortcut that makes your life easier), the one that changed your life totally. Be inspiring to me and other readers. It can be any hack or change you made. It must be a thing YOU DID, YOURSELF! Tell me how it worked and what was needed. Did it cost you time, money, etc.? And how long did it last?

Till 20 years of my marriage I did not have much of home responsibility to take care of except for earning. I lived with my mother-in-law and she would not like anyone interfering in house matters. She would pay the bills, pay for services, buy groceries, manage the cooking, deal with the helpers and everything of the house. So me and hubby would give her the money and she would take care of running the house. I had helpers for her to make her life easy. But she was a lady who liked keeping things in her control, so it was best for me and hubby to not interfere in her matters.

When I shifted to Muscat, around same time she passed away, and my son decided to stay back in Mumbai by himself. That time he was only 18 and he did not have experience of handling a home all by himself and honestly nor did I have. I was feeling lost for some time, but then I had to take over. Since my mother-in-law was an old lady her way of doing things were different, she would write cheques or pay cash for bills and services. There was no way of doing things online for her.

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And then me moving to another country and leaving everything on my son was also not right. I was worried how he would be managing all by himself. I had to set him up in a way that he would not have to worry about any home related matters and he can carry on with his studies and work smoothly. Also at times he will work late hours and travel out of city for a couple of days. All of this lifestyle of his would leave me in jitters. There are lot of things that are required to be done in the house, like paying the bills, getting groceries, house cleaning, cooking and so much. For him he had never done anything, he was quite a pampered child.

So when I came here I had to think of arranging things in a manner that he would not have to bother and it would happen with ease. First of all I converted all the payments to online payments, so that I could manage it remotely from wherever I am. Before that I never used any online payment system. In India we still do a lot of cash and cheque transactions. So paying the home rent, all subscriptions, electricity bills, booking of gas cylinders, paying salaries to the helpers everything I converted to online payments, bookings and services and that made life very easy for me and him. The next was his food. When I shifted for the first 6 months I arranged a tiffin service for him. But that was becoming a challenge because at times he would not be home and the tiffin person would leave it outside and the food would get spoilt. I was in look out for a cook and thankfully I found one, but the challenge with her was that she would only cook whatever we would tell her and never do anything by herself. If my son would not be around she would go away without cooking and then when he would return there would be no food. So I made a day wise cooking calendar for her where I noted down 30 different type of dishes for the month along with other accompaniments. That made life easier for all of us, else everyday was some or the other chaos.

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It took me almost a year to get things smoothly running remotely but now it runs perfectly fine with very minimum intervention from my side. Routines are set of me ordering online grocery and other utilities for them at the beginning of the month. All the bills and services get paid online. Food menu is planned in advance for the month. Cleaning arrangements set in place. I am tension free now and my Son is also living hassle free by himself without having to bother about any misses.

I can say that my home is fully automated now...haha

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