Keeping your HDB flat or condo in Singapore clean doesn’t have to be a huge task that needs a whole weekend just to do. Doing this can not only make the cleaning feel more stressful, but it can also take longer to actually get done.

Instead, try doing the cleaning, dusting, and even de-cluttering piecemeal. This way, sections of your home are not only easier to clean, but you also make it much less stressful for yourself. Here are a few tips and tricks you can use to keep your home cleaner for a longer:

1.  Make cleaning a habit

Big cleaning weekends can be stressful, but you can keep the next cleaning session stress-free by starting with the simple things. These can be vacuuming, putting things away when you don’t need them, or even wiping down a dusty surface every now and then.

While there’s no need to really be a neat freak, it does help when you assign places for your cleaning tools in various areas in your home, which makes cleaning faster and more convenient.

2.  Hide your clutter in plain sight

“Clutter” in your home isn’t always clutter – it’s usually the things in your home that you use frequently, but don’t have the right space or home for them.

This is where you can put a little creativity. For instance, finding the right crevices and corners and adding shelves to them are an easy way to keep things from being clutter, and sometimes even turn them into décor.

3.  Do a load of laundry often

One reason why laundry days can be such a hassle is because there’s a lot of clothes that you need to clean, which sometimes takes up hours if not the whole day.

The good news is there’s a fix for that: you can keep your dirty clothes from piling up by making it a habit to clean a few shirts every few days. This way, when you finally have to do your weekly laundry, it won’t be as big or as time-consuming as you expect.

4.  Sweep at least once a day

Just like clutter, dust can accumulate in your home – but only if you let it.

The simplest way to start keeping your home clean is to sweep every area at least once a day, especially when it gets dusty easily, you live with many people who pass through different areas, or simply when you have plenty of things.

When sweeping the floor, don’t just focus on the high-traffic areas: you should also be on the lookout for tight corners and spaces beneath furniture, since these are areas most likely to accumulate dust.

Every year graduates flock from different school, each one seeking for jobs. If you are a fresh graduate or maybe just wanting some fresh perspective from another job, looking through ads has a slim chance of finding a good one.

Nowadays, it’s a normal trend to find competition among job seekers a bit higher than they did a few years back. But keep a positive outlook in life since there are still effective ways to land a good one. Start updating your curriculum vitae and don’t forget to indicate what makes you special. After that, you’re good to go for the job hunt.

1. Attend job fairs and events
If you have written your resume and profile with extra care, there are chances that you may be hired on the spot. Big companies attend these kinds of events as well as charities and professional organizations. Prepare a generous number of copies of your CV and during the event, hand it over to employers whom you think will consider hiring you depending on your qualifications.

2. Connect with alumni
Join meetings or gatherings in your area or region. Having a common vision, the same values, the same hobbies or having gone to the same school is a solid approach or even better if these are in your industry.

3. Enlarge your network
Meet people. Have an activity. Everybody knows somebody. Touch base with these people. Connect with old buddies and friends. You may want to buy them a cup of coffee sometime and just brainstorm. They may know somebody that you might want to meet later. Identify a number of most influential people in your network and meet with them. Ask for referrals. In a week, meet with three new referred friends of your circle.

4. Check job bulletins
In most government offices for example, they do display their vacancies either outside their offices in a board or at their websites. Define the top job openings for your skills, talents and qualifications. Update your resume. Indicate your skill and specialty.

5. Get references
If you happen to know somebody in a high ranking position in a good company or even your head of school if you are a fresh graduate, it is wise to ask them to refer you to a company of your choice where you intend to apply. Whether we accept it or not, sometimes whom we know makes a difference nowadays plus of course the skills we have.
These are but a few ways to help you get ahead of your job-hunting game. It’s always best to prepare yourself for the tedious job-hunting process but don’t fret; there’s always a good company just waiting for your application.

Finding a good place to live in Singapore is difficult. Nothing is “cheap” – space is at a premium, which means you can forget about looking for an affordable place to live. Instead, focus on the benefits that make paying a high price worth it.

Here are some of the things you need to do when looking for an apartment:

1. Consider the distance between places that you frequent
How far is it from your work? Can you plan your daily commute to make it easier? Do you have easy access to the MRT? Is there a convenience store nearby? What about a bus stop? A market when you need to buy food?

The best place to rent is when everything is not too far away from you. If “affordable” is out of the picture, the next best thing to do is to find a place with as much benefits and nearby amenities as possible.

2. Observe the neighbourhood
There are many websites and agencies as well as property guides that are more than willing to provide helpful details about the environment that you’re planning to move into, but it helps that you check it out in person.

Go there once during daytime, and once at night. This lets you get a feel as to what the place would be like if you stayed there. Better yet, converse with the people already renting near your unit to get a better answer for the question, “What’s it like to live there?”

3. Watch out for the security deposit
Renting a unit means that you have to put down a security deposit. Most apartment leases require you to deposit at least one month’s worth of rent, and this is usually returned when your lease ends. Leases with weird security deposit deals are something to look out for.

If you’re an expat, watch out for the expat clause. This lets you cancel your lease without having to part with your security deposit, provided that you notify your landlord two months in advance. This is great if you have to move back in case your contract gets cancelled.

Ask your landlord to point out where the clause appears in your contract. If you hear “I overlooked it” and “Don’t worry, I’m not going to cheat you” in the same sentence, make run for it and rent somewhere else.

4. Determine your budget and negotiate
Lastly, don’t look at just one place. You should take the time to look for at least three different locations that you can compare to see which one offers the best deal.

Once you have that considered, take a look at their rent prices to see if they fall within the budget that you have allotted. You can negotiate with your landlord on your lease, but remember not to drive too hard a bargain. There are also agents that can help you out with that.

Sleep is an important part of our body’s routine – not only do we function less effectively when we don’t get enough of it, but it’s also a key period of time that allows our body to clear its own build-up of waste from cells and recuperate from the stresses of day-to-day activities.

However, there are times when we need to stay up late or even all night. Whether it’s to work a late shift or to finish a project in a hurry, we’ve all experienced this at least once in our lives, only to make us feel really groggy and sluggish when daylight finally comes.

To keep the “zombie mode” at bay until you get the chance to catch up on your now-interrupted sleep schedule, here are four effective tips you can follow:

1. Ease up on the caffeine.
You may think that drinking enough caffeine or loading up on energy drinks will keep the sleepiness on hold until you’ve done what you need to do – but only up to a certain point. In fact, many studies have shown that coffee can actually make the energy crash even worse.

While caffeine still holds up to its promise of a quick energy boost (and you should totally drink it), limit yourself to two or three cups at different intervals throughout the day. After three in the afternoon, you shouldn’t drink any at all.

2. Keep your meals small.
The stress of staying awake for more than twelve hours straight is almost guaranteed for you to want to binge-eat to replenish that lost energy. But in fact, it will only make you feel sleepier.

A large meal will make you more likely to fall asleep, partly because of a food coma. To combat this, keep your portions smaller to give your body enough time to process the food and keep going. As much as possible, stick to salads and leafy greens instead of fat- and protein-rich meals.

3. Drink more water.
The lack of sleep will make you feel dehydrated. Drinking more water, however, solves the “lack-of-energy” problem in two ways: the first way is that it will make you feel more awake and alert throughout the day.

The second way that it solves the sleeplessness issue is that all that water will make you use the restroom more, which is a simple way to get your blood moving and avoid falling asleep at your desk or in class.

4. Move around.
A workout or even a few stretching exercises is a great way to wake your sleeping cells up. A moderate amount of physical activity will boost energy and adrenaline levels, which will not only keep you awake throughout the day, but will help you sleep better when you finally get home at night.

(Disclaimer: This list is compiled in no particular order.)

Got some 15 minutes to spare? Then why not make a week-long list of activities that you can do during your free time?  Setting small, achievable goals actually aids in making our mind sharper and our day a lot more purposeful. So if you’re up to it, then here’s the list of week-long activities that you may want to try to accomplish.

1. MONDAY: Be Crafty

If you have enough time to spare during your first day at work, then you can do your own nail art using a quick-dry nail polish. With this, you can already go straight to work wearing those cute nail art.

2. TUESDAY: Adopt an Animal

Planning to leave office early? Then spend some time visiting a shelter for stray pets. Well, who knows? You might get to meet the fluffiest love of your life. If you’re allergic to animals, or is simply not fond of them, buy a small potted plant instead. That way, you get to learn to be responsible by taking care of these living things.

3. WEDNESDAY: Go Window Shopping

What better way to relieve all your stress at work than indulging in an after-work window shopping at a nearby mall. Not only is this a cheap way to unwind, you also get to check on some items that you may buy on your next payday.

4. THURSDAY: Try a New Route to Work

If you’re about an hour early for work, then try taking a new route to your work. Doing this will help take your mind off all your stresses and worries at work, and keep you focused on what’s really happening in the present.

5. FRIDAY: Sell Your Stuff Online

Since you’re not too busy, try selling some of your old toy collections online, and be creative in writing your description and RFS (Reason for Selling) to entice your potential customers.

6. SATURDAY: Send a Feedback to an Editor

Read some fine article lately? Then take a few minutes to write down a feedback about it and send it to your favourite magazine or website. You might even get to see your name on their next issue, as a bonus.

7. SUNDAY: Hide or Bury Your Time Capsule

One good throwback is to keep some memorabilia this year and stow it away. If you find burying a little too dramatic, tape it up under your bed and vow to never open it until after a couple of years.

Instead of just sitting and blankly staring on the wall during your free time, do any of these activities and be productive even as you chill out.

There are so many things that could happen inside the train and the most common scenario that would take place is the misunderstanding of the passengers which would also make the other commuters get angry. Moreover, there are calm passengers that do not care about anything that might happen inside the train.

1. The Genius – He may not be a weirdo with a glasses on his eyes but he is a person that you might see studying. Sometimes, they might wear headphones and listen to music. They might not annoy you but when the time they murmur words from their mouth, that will be the time that you will be displeased.

2. The Model – They are called “the model” because they are doing makeover every hour of the day. They are the type of passenger that do not care about anyone as long as they perfect their make-up.

3. The Manager – It seems like a manager has taken the train seat rather than riding in his own or company vehicle. This passenger maybe a manager because he’s a talking loudly on his phone like he’s on his office. Annoying isn’t it?

4. The Talker – Who knows about the talker? Probably, you’ll think that this is the one that talks a lot on the train. Yes, it’s correct. Sometimes, they are funny but most of the time they are disturbing. Imagine your trip with someone who talks much. Can you concentrate?