If you could share one household tip/life hack, what would it be?

[Dandelion78]

Mine would definitely be that drying clothes in sunlight gets rid of tomato/sauce stains. Am weaning my second child and it's a bloody lifesaver. No more soaking things for hours that still come out with orange marks on them.

What other gems are there that I need to know?

Teach boys to wee sitting down

Employ a cleaner.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Don’t go to bed angry.
Don’t take your partner for granted.

@DrChrisWhitty

Don't peel carrots, mushrooms or potatoes. Wash and use.

After hoovering the floors, give your dog a quick once over with the hoover (as long as they're not terrified of it).

It's easier to repaint walls than wash them down. Buy a few tester pots when you buy your wall paint for future touch ups.

It's better to spend more money for a smaller selection of quality fruit and veg than buying a million things from Lidl or Aldi that turn into green sludge in 24 hours and taste like shit.

I seriously regret not training my dog to accept a quick hoover. Sadly she’s terrified of the vacuum and follows me around at a 3m distance to check I am ok whilst dropping copious amounts of long golden hairs.

Save time in the evenings and mornings by doing school lunches not a packed lunch 😀

tomato sauce on dogs who have rolled in fox poo,
also tomato sauce on burnt saucepans.

dont wash mushrooms, wipe with kitchen roll

@AbsolutelyPatsy

dont wash mushrooms, wipe with kitchen roll

It’s a myth that they absorb water

To clean a used frying pan, put a drop of fairy in with water and put on the hob. Heat until bubbling then empty and wipe over with a cloth. Always works a treat!

Store beach towels etc inside suitcases.

Prepare as much as possible the night before. While cooking dinner I'll do DS's packed lunch, check his bag, get uniform ready etc. Saves any stress in the morning.

After having a shower or bath, wipe everywhere dry with the towel before putting in the basket. Keeps the bathroom looking clean for a little longer. Also nappy bags make a good bin liner for small bathroom bins.

Use a dishmatic a couple of times a week to clean round the shower, squeegee the screen. Job done in 3 minutes. Do it after my shower.

I can’t imagine ever having hoovered our dog. She used to hide behind the sofa and bark whenever it dared to come near. I think she’d have liked to fight and kill it, but wasn’t brave enough.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

Instead of a kitchen bin have a standard sized plastic bucket in the cupboard under your sink and line it with small bin liners. We are a family of 4 mostly wfh and having most meals at home. Alongside the recycling and food waste bin we only need to empty this every 3 or 4 days and very rarely fill a small sized outside wheelie every fortnight. Kitchen bins waste floor space and look so ugly. The bucket doubles as the bucket needed for floor mopping (once per week).

I do similar to this - but with a small plastic bin, using waste paper basket (15l) liners.

Flatten all cardboard and plastic before putting it into the recycling bin.

Wipe down the shower door with a microfibre cloth after you shower/while it's still damp. You won't have to clean it again (Hard water area)

Keep a couple of trolley tokens and a bag for life in the car.

When painting ceilings, don't use normal white emulsion - use Magic Paint (Dulux) it goes on pink and dries white, but you can see where you've been. Genius!

When your dc starts school, get them in the habit of carrying either their book bag or pack lunch. It will save you ending up carrying everything and being a packhorse.

If it’s really one hack just one then mine is
Sort your shit out before it is too late for you and loved ones.
This includes pensions/ powers of attorney, living wills, paperwork, clutter, mending broken relationships where possible, etc.
Then get on with enjoying life. Lost both parents recently. One had done this the other hadn’t. Affected them both in their life, and for the family, in death.

Above was a bit heavy !
My household hack would be never leave a room empty handed.
There’s always something that needs to be rehomed/returned/chucked.

Not a tip that will help you as an individual but a kind thing to do. I also have not been to the supermarket for over a year.

When you are at the supermarket put the tins and heavy things closer the the person working the till and light things like cotton wool towards you so the cashier isn't straining their back.

In the days when I did go to the supermarket I would have a bag for different places so bag for fridge, bag for freezer, bag for bathroom etc

This was particularly useful as if I was shopping on my own I might not be able to bring all the bags in so I would bring in the fridge and freezer and other things could be left until later or the next day.

If you have to house share at any point, employ a cleaner for the communal areas once a fortnight. If you do it via the landlord and then add the cost onto the rent you won't notice the expense but you won't fight over whose turn it is to clean.

To be honest, many of these tips are more trouble than they’re worth! For me anyway.

Flash kitchen spray with Fairy is a godsend. Burnt pans, pencil on the wall, don't fancy scrubbing, need to clean your wheels? Does the job lot. Love it.

To not care about stains much and in 30 years of never separating laundry colours, except when something new will obviously run... I've only dyed one thing accidently!

If you have busy kids, sit with the husband every Sunday night and make a plan for who is driving, who is cooking, etc. Write it down in a way so that it is obvious if it isn't balanced.

The mental load is real. This reduces mental load and increases the chances of parity of household tasks

To quickly dry clothes inside
Place a dehumidifier in the same room or underneath your wet clothes.

Dehumidifiers cost pennies to run even 24 hours a day. Plus they keep the house feeling warmer (aka less damp) too. We run our 24 hours a day in winter and a few hours a day in summer and saw no noticable increase in electricity bills.

I dry all our laundry on hangers or IKEA small octopus hangers (for underwear) on a ceiling rack hung over our landing/stairs. I keep it permanently up high and use a clothes hook from my perching chair to put laundry up and take down.

A metal ceiling rack can take three large loads of standard clothes laundry. Or one load of towels. Or two loads of bedding.

Keep a folder with generic birthday cards and stamps in. Top it up every other month.

Start as you mean to go on. Get toddlers helping to pick up toys and put away before bedtime.

Keep spare tampons, knickers and wet wipes in the car dashboard also g with print out of car insurance and breakdown details.

@36degees, genius.

Install in your kids ( DH as well if needed) that you dont put things down you put them away.

A spoonful of sugar will stop bleeding from a cut lip/mouth - something to do with enzymes and clotting.

Never go yo bed with an untidy kitchen. Nothing worse than getting up and seeing last nights dishes.

Them that cooks, clears. Looking you DH who use to use ever dish and pan in the house until this rule came in.

Swim/PE kit washed dried and put straight back in bags, so no looking for missing bits.

Everyone has a basket in main room ( we have whicker ones) anything left lying around at night is slung in. Emptied after breakfast each day.

So many good ideas and hints here....I love being able to pick so many brains at the same time. My kids are still small, but lots of great ideas for school age stuff. I feel like some of the most organised minds in the country are on this thread