Does it feel like you spend your life emptying the dishwasher? On one hand, American households devote less time to chores than they used to. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center, in two-parent households the total number of housework hours has fallen from 36 per week in 1965 to 28 in 2011. But 28 hours per week--4 hours per day--is still a lot. With a few simple tweaks to the routine, you can buy back several of those hours for whatever else you want to do, be it work, exercise, or quality time with the kids. Some ideas:
