With working from home the new normal, switching off at the end of the day can be hard. But unscheduled downtime – where your time is our own and you’re free to spend it how you please, without ticking off your to-do lists – has been found to help you destress from work-related tasks, and even combat anxiety.
In fact, research indicates that two hours of downtime per day can make a significant impact on your wellbeing. An easy win to get more time for self-care is to cut down on time spent cleaning your home. This can be one of the easiest ways to free up some time for more enjoyable pursuits.
To reduce cleaning time and still get the great results you want, you’ll need the right tools. The new Dyson Omni-glide is designed for versatile, quick cleaning anywhere in the home. It is a brand new way to clean hard floors with the first omni-directional fluffy cleaner head to pick up large debris and fine dust – both when moving forward and backwards. The power button allows you to swap hands while navigating obstacles, making cleaning that bit easier.
“I think there’s a bit of a trend right now with people who want to do those bits in between,” says Natalie Reilly, national training manager at Dyson. “I have two cats and a toddler and I’m forever saying, ‘where did that ball of cat hair come from?’. With the Omni-glide you can grab it and do those bits as opposed to the whole house. I can do a little bit after dinner and not feel guilty.”
From unwinding with a herbal tea in the kitchen to chilling with the latest hit on Netflix, all you have to do next is figure out how to spend all that newfound free time the Omni-glide can give you back. We’ve got some suggestions.
Make yours very berry
From cloud bread to feta pasta, right now is undoubtedly the time of the viral TikTok recipe, so if you’re on the hunt for the next big food trend to try, look no further than the trending Nature’s Cereal.
Created by the TikTok user @natures_food, his colourful creation has amassed more than one million likes and a public endorsement by Lizzo, but the best bit is that it takes less than two minutes to make.
The recipe for what is essentially a healthy and tasty fruit salad is foolproof: combine blackberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds in a bowl before topping them off with coconut water. Bonus: it’ll look great on your Instagram feed too.
Exercising the grand stretch
Restrictions have forced many of us to permanently re-evaluate our lifestyle choices, including how we exercise. One of the more positive outcomes of lockdown is the increasing availability of online fitness classes we can beam into our living rooms to elevate our endorphins, and save time in the process. One such example is the CoreState Method, devised by Dingle native Audrey O’Connor.
Classes are a fusion of Pilates, strength and conditioning, yoga and barre, and subscribers can access live classes (which frequently feature bonus cameo appearances by Audrey’s Ragdoll cat, Meowsles) recordings, meditations and mobility stretches too.
Box clever with ones to watch
Starring Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman, The Woman in the Window, now streaming on Netflix, is a psychological thriller and lesson in the perils of curtain twitching that sees Adams play an agoraphobic psychologist who gets herself into trouble after her seemingly innocuous habit of spying on her neighbours turns nasty.
Over on Amazon Prime, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins has teamed up with author Colson Whitehead to bring his 2016 novel The Underground Railway to life. Charting the escape of a young plantation slave Cora (played by Thuso Mbedu) and her metaphoric and literal journey to freedom on the underground railway track that spans much of the south, all 10 episodes of the first series are now available to stream.
The new hot page-turners
Dubbed “the hottest fiction of 2021”, Careless by Kirsty Capes is a coming-of-age novel that celebrates female friendship, while also exploring the experience of a teenage girl growing up in the care system in the UK. A former student of Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, Capes is perfect for fans of Sally Rooney who have been waiting impatiently for something of this ilk since Normal People was released in 2018.
Or if you’re looking for some encouragement to limit screen time, Bella Younger’s The Accidental Influencer: How My Need To Get Likes Nearly Ruined My Life is a telling and funny commentary on social media, and details Younger’s accidental success when her parody alter ego Deliciously Stella took off.
Your need-to-knows on the new Dyson Omni-glide
The Omni-glide has a power button instead of the classic Dyson trigger function. “We want you to have that freedom to move your hand around,” Natalie Reilly, national training manager at Dyson says.
Engineered to glide in all directions – forwards, backwards and even sideways – the Dyson Omni-glide features a double fluffy cleaner head for maximum impact. “It can swivel around chair legs and goes in any direction you want,” Natalie Reilly explains, adding “it has the two rollers, backwards and forwards, that can go in literally any direction.”
I can do my big clean with my other vacuum but this is for the in-between cleans
Featuring a handle that can be held any way and in any direction, the Omni-glide has a power button instead of the classic Dyson trigger function. “We want you to have that freedom to move your hand around,” Reilly says. “You wouldn’t be able to swivel it the way you can if you had to hold the button down.”
Weighing in at just 1.9kg, the Omni-glide is one of the most lightweight of any of the Dyson machines.
Coming with four attachments, it includes a clever light pipe crevice tool to show you where you’re cleaning, even in dark spaces. “It looks like a traditional crevice tool you’d traditionally stick down the side of your couch but it has an LED light that runs along the top and bottom. It’s great in the kitchen to see in those narrow gaps in between the cooker and the countertop,” Reilly says.
Compact and cord-free, the Dyson Omni-glide has a runtime of up to 20 minutes* and delivers a brand new way to clean hard floors. “I can do my big clean with my other vacuum but this is for the in-between cleans – the kitchen, the living room, the high traffic areas that get messier,” she shares. “There’s a place for it in different homes.”
[ Discover the new Dyson Omni-glide at dyson.ieOpens in new window ]
*Applied in Eco mode when using a non-motorised tool. Up to 18 minute runtime in eco-mode for full product with motorised tool. Run time may vary depending on usage and floor type.