A Lazy Housewives Guide to Having an Easier Life!

[SEWannabe]

Hi
I am just wondering what lazy (but handy) tips you all use in the home, to make your life easier?
I thought it may be nice to share some with each other, as I am sick of feeling really un-organized!

My main one is REALLY lazy:

When making a roast dinner, I always use those throw away foil trays to roast the meat and potatoes in . I HATE scrubbing roasting tins, so now I make sure I don't have to!

Another one is that I used to always run around in the mornings like a headless chicken, finding uniforms for school, and pants and socks for the children. Now, I have a 'Uniform bag' in the upstairs hallway, in which I keep all school uniform, PE kit, and 5 pairs of pants/socks/boxers per child.
As soon as the Uniform is all washed (normally a Saturday), it goes straight into this bag, so I don't have to worry about where to find it on Monday morning.

What are your lazy but genius ideas? Please share, I don't want to feel like the only lazy one here

[motherinferior]

Feminism. It takes so much of the strain out of domestic duties, I find.

[DragonsAreReal]

Being organised. I am so so lazy but I find i have so much more time to be lazy (read books no cleaning every day) if I do little things.

I am stealing the uniform bag idea!

My dc are very good at doing a lot for themselves, some might say I'm lazy some might say teaching independence

[LowLevelWhinging]

my top tip is don't buy clothes that need ironing :D

[SEWannabe]

I wish I can a Mr 'Wannabe'..but alas, I will have to train my children to use the hoover instead.

[SEWannabe]

Sorry, meant to say 'I wish I HAD a Mr 'Wannabe'.

[OneHandFlapping]

Having low standards is great help, I find.

[mrspaddy]

I make a lot of dinners over the course of a Saturday morning from time to time. Then use disposable containers to freeze and viola... some cooking free nights.

Also I buy the disposable wipes from Aldi and leave them in the toilet/bathroom and whizz around as needed.

Main one - trained DH how to iron for himself

Really love this thread though.. need new ideas!!

[motherinferior]

In that case, I am very sorry I made such an arse of myself upthread and hope you will accept my apology

[TheCrackFox]

The uniform bag idea is genius.

I only iron my clothes (most don't need ironing) and the occasional thing for the DCs. DH does his own.

Organising the pack lunches the night before really makes a huge difference.

[SEWannabe]

motherinferior..my children are boys..they will learn

What is this 'Ironing' that everyone speaks of??

[nananaps]

i dry duvet covers over the bannister, fold & put away. keeps them relatively crinkle free.

OVEN PRIDE awsome stuff. leave overninght and rinses clean in the morning. fab fab fab.

slow cooker cooking is also brill, chuck everything in raw, rough chopped. Done!

[cq]

Cook double of everything and freeze half for easy supper.

Have to intervene fast with the first lot so that it doesn't all get troughed though

Ironing lady - worth every penny and helping local employment.

[RandomMess]

If you have the space get 2 dishwashers

[Mum2Fergus]

I batch cook whenever possible, slow cooker handy for weekends too. Best investment I made was an electric sweeper! It comes out for a few minutes each day to keep the place presentable...rather than a full blown hoover session

[HoneyStepMummy]

I use disposable foil tins too. If I'm cooking something heavy like a roast or a turkey I put the foil tin in the regular pan like a liner. This way if the foil tin leaks I'm just washing a pan, not the whole oven. All other pans I line with foil, again to avoid the dreaded scrubbing. I always have a stash of paper plates on hand for those nights I can't face dishwashing. Crackers, fruit, toast, waffles etc. can be eaten off a piece of kitchen roll on extra busy school mornings.
I make everyone take their shoes off when they step into the house. This not only saves the carpets, but saves you a lot of time of vacuuming, sweeping and mopping.
Very lazy crafty way to wash dishes: rinse/scrape off plate etc. Place in sink or washing up bowl. Boil the kettle, pour into sink with with a generous squirt of washing up liquid. Leave this while you go off and do something else- the person who taught me this would go off to work for the day! By the time you get back empty out the water, boil another kettle and pour hot water over dishes to rinse. Put on rack to dry, due to the hot water they dry really quickly.
If you are a 'clean' grown up you don't need to wash skirts, trousers or jeans after every use. If you are airdrying something that will be hung in the closet dry it on a hanger. As soon as it's dry you can put in straight in the closet. This saves time with the whole folding and laundry basket thing and saves you from having to iron (shudder).

[HoneyStepMummy]

...and one more thing- invest in a tumble dryer. Worth every single penny.

[DragonsAreReal]

Oh you have just reminded me honey I always line the bottom of my oven with foil so if anything spills over you just chuck the foil away and no having to clean your oven!

[MinimalistMommi]

Both my DC takes packed lunches, I make a big batch of homemade rolls so I can make them the exact size I know they will eat (big rolls for my older DC, tiny ones for my picky eater youngest DC) split, butter, fill with grated cheese or cheese/marmite, put in small individual freezer food bags and pop into freezer. My recipe makes enough for both DC for six days of packed lunches. Wake up in morning at 7 am, grab roll for each DC from icebox and pop in lunches boxes with fruit, pudding type thing and lunch sorted by 8.30 am when we leave it is defrosted and I pop an iceblock into the lunch box to keep it all fresh until lunchtime.

Doing this had made my mornings SO MUCH EASIER, I'm no longer slicing bread, grating cheese, wrapping sandwiches/rolls, washing up all the stuff....which I was doing MONDAY TO FRIDAY and it was stressing me out as I'm quite slow to feel fully awake in the morning! Basically I hated preparing packed lunches and this has transformed mornings for me.

[MinimalistMommi]

Also using non stick baking parchment to ay beneath baking things like biscuits, scones, homemade pizza etc. It all just slides off the tray.

[MarianForrester]

Vacuum tv/tv stand/mantel/shelves, etc with the little brush attachment.

Friend told me this, and it's brilliant!

[LaurieFairyCake]

Don't iron

Cook only when you want to - otherwise have healthy snacky tapasy type food - bread/hoummous/olives/ham/beetroot/salad

Do the washing one day a week - wash on the shortest 'good' wash possible - mines is 48 minutes - tumble, pile in ikea bags in front room - force everyone to take their own clothes out and put it away

If other people leave shit lying round your house put it on their bed - dd's bed has a book/bag/hair accessories on it plus a random pair of shoes today

Throw out other people's shit when their not looking NB: this only really works with younger children, if you have a DH he will complain like an arsehole if you throw out his favourite holey socks

[LaurieFairyCake]

they're

[RobotElephant]

Marry someone who likes cleaning the bathroom and doing the hoovering

Be organised. Extra uber organised. Its a fine line between efficient and lazy.
We have uniform drawer - everything goes in there on a Sunday night in piles for each day.

Never iron.

Ovenu

Batch cooking

Stockpile toiletries. if you have evough toothbrushes, deoderant, shampoo etc to last you a year you almost never run out.

Cleaning the microwave - bowl with a big glug of vinegar. Put on for a couple of minutes, all the dirt will fall off.

[RobotElephant]

Use the laundry basket for whites only. Everything else goes straight in the machine and washed every morning. Saves sorting. Whites get done on Saturday morning.

[MinimalistMommi]

Robot, even jeans and light colours together?