Life hacks, day to day time saving tips, common sense to you but not to others?

[Namechange8123]

I've had a search and can only find (years) old threads along these lines, so I've started a fresh one.

What are your day to day life hacks that make things easier? Could be common sense to you, but others could benefit?

My contributions are freezing lemons and limes to double up with your ice in your gin, layer the cot sheets in DC cot with another sheet and bed mat so if they have an accident, you whip the top layer off and don't have to remake the bed, tin foil behind the radiators...

What do you have?

@ememem84 - Yep, I use the same batter as I would for a fluffy thick pancake, I double
It and pour into lined rectangle over trays.
I too them with various things before baking, chopped berries and nuts, little fudge pieces, chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles, little dollops of creamcheese and strawberries. The kids have them with a drizzle of honey and yoghurt or occasionally squirty cream and sprinkles 😀

I also do the bedding in the pillowcases thing but everyone has a maximum of 3 bedding sets and they're kept in their bedroom so I always know where that persons bedding is at any given time.

I keep a kit in the car with a full battery bank that I got cheap in Black Friday sale, it will fully charge my phone or iPad 7 times. I also keep a few snacks, a couple bottles of water. Some paracetamol, sick bags, wipes, £10 note and £5 in change and a tin fold away blanket and a book.

I'm often stuck between clients in the car for anywhere up to an hour so I also save all my emails and correspondence that can be done from my phone for them so I'm using up dead time.

Am absolutely making those pancakes tomorrow!!!

I keep an emergency £20 note in my phone case. It's come in handy for unexpected trips to the pub! (pre-lockdown)

@WelcomeToTheMountaintop

I use the iPhone reminders to make myriad lists, so I have ones for summer to winter holidays, plus exam necessities list, kids sports day, business trip, going out for the evening. Every item I might need right there!

I also like the feature to set reminders by proximity, so (pre lockdown) if I has a form to hand in, I set it that when I get within 100m of dc school it pings me a reminder. You can set them. For any location, plus getting in or out of the car. Love them.

This is genius.

I'm going to give those pancakes a try. I spend ages making pancakes for us all 3 at a time in the frying pan! How long do they bake them for and at what temp please? @TitsalinaBumSquash

@BuzzShitbagBobbly

My house isn't big enough to warrant it (and I am too slovenly anyway) , but if you have more rooms than me, consider getting a second vacuum cleaner for upstairs. People who have this say its amazing!

My mums house has 3 floors and she has a vacuum on each floor and raves about it, mainly cause it means no more carrying it up the stairs!

@SnugglySnerd - 200 degrees for about 15 mins. Then when you want to hear from frozen just ping for 20 secs in the microwave. It's a Mary Berry recipe if you want to google, there's also a Tasty video of them. 😃

If you have a struggle opening jars turn them upside down for 10 mins then right them up and try again ..how it works i have no idea but i promise you it does...one the few that it does work with pierce the top with a knife and let the air out that works then seal with clingfilm and add top on.

Alternatively, a firm thwack against the worktop edge also often works. Also frees stacker glasses stick together.
Watch out doing this my dd used this method and knocked a big lump out of the worktop lol only just had new kitchen fitted too. I have found that tapping the lid with a wooden spoon helps though.

If you want to chill a box of wine quickly, open the top and remove the bag. Put it in the freezer for five minutes, then replace in the bag and carry on as normal.

Duh! In the box, not in the bag....

If I make too much pasta (who doesn't?!) I freeze what is left into portions for my young son. It quickly defrosts in the microwave with a bit of water in a bowl. Great for helping make quick teas.

I have one of those shoe holder hangers (the type with pockets) on a peg on the coat rack. Each child has a winter pocket and a summer pocket. Summer pocket has sunglasses and sun hat, winter pocket has hat scarf and gloves. Train them into putting the things in their pocket when you come back into the house and saves buying 500 pairs of gloves each winter.

They also all have a pocket that contains swimming hat, goggles and swimsuit/shorts as well because I always remember about school swimming last minute, I also keep a couple of towels in swim bags (we have several generic swim bags marked with surname rather than one specific one each) in the hall cupboard for the last minute grab as well.

When the twins were tiny I used one of the shoe holders and made up each pocket with a nappy, vest and babygrow so I could just grab a complete change. I also cheated an used white vests and white babgrows (easy to wash) with nice cardigans for as long as I could get away with. It's much easier to wash a huge bundle of whites than try and work out through sleep deprivation if the lovely bright red sleepsuit should go in with the darks or whites.

Why have I never lined sick buckets before??

I freeze onions and if you cut the correctly they don’t make your eyes water so I’ll buy the net of three and chop, they cook from frozen. Ditto chillies and peppers so much faster for cooking. I also store all bedding in pillowcases as it means you aren’t missing any items when making the bed.

My mum does the card thing. She buys all her cards in January and writes them out, addresses and stamps them the stores them in order so when she checks the calendar she can post the card out.

We have a blackboard in the kitchen and apart from drawing amusing (to us) cartoons we wrote down anything that’s run out or is running low. I take a photo of it with my phone before going to the shop. We also put the bags for life back into the boot of the car after emptying so we always have them to hand.

Baking tip: rather than having to beat the butter and sugar together, stick it in a pan to melt. Cool then add rest of ingredients. Food processed banana, for example. This makes the best banana cake ever, it doesn’t go a funny colour like banana cake can sometimes turn. Makes a very fluffy cake.

We have two children who don't necessarily like the same food so rather than making two/three different meals I often make things like stir fry where DS doesn't like veg. so serve his first then add the veg after. When I make a casserole a pop a few sausages into it as DD isn't keen on red meat so she has everything but the sausages instead of the meat.

I've started going through the kitchen drawers and putting dividers into them. One drawer has meds, plasters, batteries etc. so easy to find things now.

I now have a great wee laundry bag to pop bras into for the washing machine after several accidents when things had been torn/caught in the wash.
I have a few extra pairs of pants/socks etc. in a drawer downstairs so no need to run up and down the stairs in case of an accident. I always keep a pack of wet wipes in the car and in different parts of the house.
A god send I have is a battery charger that charges up ordinary batteries. God knows how much money we will save.

Couple more things - I always buy 6 school shirts so I only have to wash them once a week and that doesn't have to be over a weekend if I only had 5!
When ordering name tags for school clothes. Only have the surname on it so easy to hand down to siblings.

I've found that you can get frozen chopped onions not much difference to fresh so not a lot of point in chopping and freezing.

When ordering name tags for school clothes. Only have the surname on it so easy to hand down to siblings.

.....but a nightmare when you've got 15 school polo shirts coming out the wash and you don't know whose is whose......

I have to say frozen diced onion has to be the best thing since sliced bread though.

@TitsalinaBumSquash Thank you

@BackforGood

When ordering name tags for school clothes. Only have the surname on it so easy to hand down to siblings.

.....but a nightmare when you've got 15 school polo shirts coming out the wash and you don't know whose is whose......

I have to say frozen diced onion has to be the best thing since sliced bread though.

I ordered them with child 1 initial, child 2 initial, surname, child 3 initial. E.g. A B Smith C Then cut off/fold as required. This only works because dc1's middle name happens to have the same initial as dc2's first name but it would work well if you had 2 kids and just put one initial at each end.

I have two in the same sized clothes (one is 6 and small, the other is 4 and tall) so I just buy a job lot of school uniform and put surnames on the labels.

Cheese on toast clarification: toast one side of the bread, turn it over and put cheese on the uncooked side, toast that side. If you cook one side twice the edges will be burned by the time the cheese is browned. If you don't want to burn the edges of the twice cooked side the cheese is just anaemic.

When you take the duvet cover off do it so it is inside out, wash it like that then when you go to put it back on it is easier. Also if you are storing in a pillow case then keep that inside out so it doesn't feel 'used'.

Colour coordinate bedding, eg red bedding for one bedroom, blue for another so you can easily find matching bed linen even if it isn't part of a set.

ave a 'work uniform', I'm possibly aspie so maybe this is the way my mind works. When doing my PGCE another student said she wished she had a uniform, I said I'd made my own, I had 5 pairs of black linen trousers and 6 tops that were the same blouse in different colours/patterns.

One from my mum, in the days of sending post cards from holiday, she got a roll of stickers and wrote names and addresses on them so when she sent a post card she used the sticker, it saved on carrying an address book and once the roll was empty she had sent everyone a card.

One I learned in Australia, if you have wine in a wine box, when it runs out take out the bag but don't squeeze it, instead blow it up like a balloon, you get more wine out.

When you have got all the wine out keep blowing it up and inhaling from the balloon, the vapour is quite, well it means you don't need to open a second box (I was young, it was a holiday, it was fun).

I put this on another thread, the council tax saving trick, if you find it hard to save.

When you get you council tax bill in April, set up a standing order to pay it, but over pay, so if your bill is £100 a month pay £125 or £150, when you have paid the council tax switch the SO to pay the same amount into a savings account, you don't notice that you are saving.

This is sort of lock down specific. I have one of those plastic cartons on wheels, If I know a delivery is on its way I put it outside the door so the delivery goes into the crate rather than on the floor and with the handle extended I don't need to bend down.

It can also be used if you would normally have your delivery in to the kitchen, the shopping can be loaded into the crate and taken easily to the kitchen.

I even bought one for my carer, he doesn't drive but can now easily get his slab of Dr Pepper home.

You could use on inside a supermarket trolley rather than shopping bags, although you would need to be careful with the weight.