Home Maintenance or Leisure Activities? Reinvesting Precious Time
It does not take long before the initial 'pink cloud' elation of homeownership gives way to the hard realities of life. Your home was supposed to set you free - has it turned into a millstone round your neck instead? Let's look at how a typical week pans out for a young working couple in India today. A young working mother of one child below age 10 often spends as much as 10 hours a week cleaning the flat, despite having a maid to do the basic cleaning. If we take into account that running a household includes cooking and doing the laundry, these tasks easily take up at least another 10 hours a week regardless of whether the home is run by a single working individual or a young working couple. This, in a day and age when technology and a well-paid job (or two jobs, in the case of dual-income households) were supposed to have made our lives easier. The fact is that while a good household income and technological advancements do give us access to the means for a more enjoyable life, spare time to access leisure activities is almost non-existent. Apart from work pressures, even the most modern and pricey homes consume a major chunk of available time. If the time spent on cooking and cleaning alone were saved, as much as 20 hours a week could be used for leisure activities. This is where careful selection of a home can make a big difference. Thanks to unique innovations in home concepts that are now available on the market, one is no longer constrained to opt for the old, time-consuming apartment formats. Today, even a young married couple or single working individuals can access the luxury of fully-managed homes which save them the time usually spent on day-to-day tasks like cooking and cleaning. This new concept in time-efficient has been adapted from the much more expensive category of luxury housing projects with round-the-clock facilities management teams and concierge services. However, this concept does not only brings such services to homebuyers at much more affordable rates - it also improves on it by addressing the specific needs of time-constrained working couples, individuals and even retirees. While individual units are cleaned and maintained by in-house facilities management teams, tasks such as cooking and laundry are also eliminated by the availability of 24-hour food courts that also deliver home. A concierge desk will take care of hotel and travel reservations, book doctor's appointments, take care of the shopping and arrange for home repair services even during the occupants' absence. 100% 'smart' home security gives homeowners peace of mind while they're at work or traveling. In-house gymnasiums, spas and salons negate the time invariably spent on traveling to and from such facilities. The affordability factor is vested in the smaller size of such apartments. By keeping the flat sizes within a specific range, a developer and the specialist agency which delivers this housing model on the ground are able to offer units at the same prices that normal apartments sell for. Such projects, which are now being introduced in many Indian cities, are revolutionizing the way people live and work. With significant chunks of time saved each week, they are set free to pursue an active, vibrant lifestyle that would otherwise not have been possible.
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