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?

I put onion, carrot and celery in a food processor , whizz it up split it up and bag it in the freezer.Then when making soup, spag bol, lasagne that's most of the prep already done.

@FuckyouCovid21

I haven't RTFT so hopefully this hasn't been mentioned but I'd be interested to know if you can turn whites back to white? My now ex put a load of darks in with some brand new white T shirts and sports bras and they are now dirty grey looking :-(

Bleach

Don't get married. Don't have kids. You will be broke and living in a mess....

You can either have nice sofas or cats - not both at the same time.

Don't have anything which eats hay, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses (well don't have these anyway. You will end up supporting the local vets singlehanded...) The hay will get everywhere, and it will all tangle up in your hoover and every now and then you'll have to detangle it..

Don't go up the stairs emptyhanded.

Deal with paperwork / letters as soon as they come into the house. Then recycle / throw away.

Put stuff away each evening, even if you do seem to be chasing children round the house, as fast as you put things away they will get things out...

Do the washing /drying regularly. Don't let it build up - as soon as you have a washing machine full, put it on. Have enough white school shirts so you only need to do one whites wash per week (unless of course you have a lot of whites...)

Train your children how to put clothes away, put clothes in dirty clothes basket, hoover, wash up, load dishwasher, empty dishwasher etc from as soon as you think that they can. Don't let them get away with not doing anything round the house.

Outsource if you can. Windows, cleaning etc. Put stuff away if you have a cleaner so that they spend their time actually cleaning, not tidying. Having a cleaner means you will tidy up on a regular basis.

Everything should have a place, even if it's in the 'junk drawer' - then you will know where it lives and where to find it.

Have a charity shop bag on the go. As soon as children grow out of clothes decide whether to sell, rags or charity, and then once the bag is full, do something with it. Same with toys.

Only iron what actually needs ironing. I do 3-4 shirts per week, and that's it.

@TheSandman

Sticky label residue dissolves in veg oil.

Really!? Ooh must try. Does olive oil work?

@flametrees

Put a penny into your vase of tulips. The tulips will stand up straight and not wilt.

This definitely works! So much better than the other tips I've heard for preventing tulip drooping, like using lemonade / bleach / aspirin etc in the water!

@muminabun
Marry a tradesman

This absolutely 100%

@OccultGnuAsWell

If a household task takes less than five minutes do it as soon as you see it.

Unfortunately my brain has translated this into - if a job takes more than five minutes you can ignore it as long as you like.

But the principle is sound.

😂 this is definitely me

Buy Alexa and set her up on your phone, when one of the inmates says we need more bread, milk, insert as appropriate.........

I reply don't tell me, tell Alexa, then when I come to do the Tesco shop it is all there, and if it is not there tuffski, shitski.

A 3 or 4 section laundry bag so you split up whites, darks and mixed at source (we use the 4th section for flannels). So much easier to grab a bag of already sorted dirty laundry.
Do not fold clean laundry when handing back out to DH or teen child. They seem to think a fairy empties the clean laundry. This fairy no longer folds or pairs socks for other people.
Robot hoover. Might not get into corners but does a good enough job for me.

I was enjoying this thread, and giving the bathroom a quick clean, struggling to clear bath drain, when I suddenly thought..why not try an effervescent Vit C tablet, and some boiling water......Magic. it works! but don’t take my word, in case it also removes the enamel! So far, so good!

Napisan is good for whitening clothes that have gone grey.

Two steradent down the toilet overnight, bleeding magic.

You can get the white back to white if they are all pure white with no colours by putting them all in the wash with whites only and add a cup of bleach to the laundry drawer.

I haven't read the whole thread so sorry if this has already been done. For scratches on wooden furniture break a walnut half in half IFYSWIM and rub raw edge on the scratch. It's magic.

Noone has mentioned Walnuts so far Dogs so thanks for that one 👍

Frozen chopped onion. And garlic. And ginger.

Infact frozen veg in genera does the job well.

If you are thinking of changing a wall colour and buying tester pots, 2 bits of A4 can be sellotaped together then you can paint the paper. You can then move it about the room to see how the light falls.

If I'm decorating in clothes I might want to keep and wear, I turn em inside out. If all the paint doesn't come out on a hot wash, you can still wear the item. Guess what I'm doing at the moment, home strait on the living room.

Oh and just to say, there is a thing called Thompson's UPVc Restorer and I was pretty thrilled how well it worked. Usually wonder products are such a let-down. I'm looking at you Cillit Bang.

@MrsPsmalls

Don't change your bedding as often as people on Mumsnet recommend. It won't smell and it won't look visibly dirty if you leave it for... heck... even two weeks!

This doesn't apply if you sleep with a small pack of farty spaniels . . . (as I do )

The best sticky label remover in the world is WD40

@81Byerley Those are great! One tip from Peg Bracken I will always remember is if you've been out or unable to start dinner until late, immediately start frying some onions. She said it creates a delicious smell in the house, so the other inhabitants are reassured dinner is on its way, and almost every meal needs fried onions, so it's a win-win.

fresh bedding smell and feel great. Sometimes it's not about what things "look like", we are not on a tv show.

@Firstruleofsoupover
Snap with the decorating! For the first time painting walls, doing DD's room so that's helpful!

Sorry to hijack but just posted on DIY but not had a reply yet - going to fill some nail holes with filler but as some are quite deep would you suggest plugging with newspaper for most of the depth and then applying filler nearer the surface?

[quote MrsBobDylan]@SchadenfreudePersonified please accept my apologies 

I think @Lostlittlelady has nailed it. Marriage, children and dogs have thus far forced my standards to somewhere just shy of a squat.[/quote]
Apology accepted

Also - agree with @Lostlittlelady and your good self regarding lowered standards.

That "Ah - buggerit!" squat is the only exercise I get most days.

dont live with boys. they wee on the toilet seat.

@LemonSwan

Forget a white sauce made from roux. Just use veggie stock, a tad of water, whatever fat or oil you have in the pan - boil it together then stir through creme fraiche on low heat.

Works a treat everytime without any of the faff.

Endlessly versatile

This I MUST try!