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?

Also- Vicks vapour rub on soles of feet then socks on top helps a child manage a snuffly nose during a cold

It really does!

People will argue that it can't possibly be effective, but I can promise you that Netaporter is right.

@minipie

Sticky label residue dissolves in veg oil.

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

Yep. just leave it soak for a bit and the residue goes jellylike and comes off easily. If I'm trying to get a label off something non- absorbent I just soak the label overnight before trying to remove it and it just peels off.

We use Ikea blue bags for laundry bags and for packing for self catering holidays when driving.

@ShirleyPhallus

Especially in summer, keep any scraps of meat or fish waste, chicken bones, etc. in a bag in the freezer until the night before the bin men come. Saves a lot of smelliness and bluebottles buzzing around, not to mention maggots. I so agree! Never had a maggot incident .

Ok this is the kinda thing I’m talking about. I put my waste meat etc in the normal bin and I’ve never had a maggot incident either. Why would you go to the faff of freezing scraps of leftover dinner?!

I have had occasional maggot problems - I scraped them off the bin and dumped them in our (tiny) goldfish pond. Goldilocks and Swimmy went bananas with delight, and scoffed the lot!

If you have one of the newer style showers, pull up the plug once a week and stick some dishwasher tablets down there, they will slowly melt and deal with any muck.

I do this but instead of a dishwasher tablet I put the plastic net from supermarket onions in there. Next week pull it out bin it and replace - basically reusing something that would have gone straight into the bin like a disposable filter.

@ShirleyPhallus
Why would you question the poster's experience of maggots? She's had the problem and that's how she's dealt with it which some may find useful. If you've not had the problem then ignore

Don't marry a tradesman....
There is a good saying in Spanish " En casa del herrero cuchillo de palo" which roughly translates as "in the blacksmith's house, you'll find a wooden spoon".

Here in the NE we say "The cobbler's bairns are always the worst shod".

Get water marks from drinks glasses out of wooden furniture with a hairdryer. This one actually works.

Obviously using coasters would prevent the issue in the first place...

Re the council tax and buying cleaning products I have a CT saving plan.

When I get my CT bill instead of paying the monthly amount advised I over pay so if the payment is £50 I pay £80, once the CT is paid off I change the standing order to pay into a savings account. It doesn't feel like you are saving because the same amount goes out every month.

DoingItMyself

So did my DH when he saw the cupboard filled with products

FelicityPike

Will give that a go

The best way to prepare the kids at the end of school holidays is to get them bored as humanly possible. The last 3 days of the Easter break we did absolutely fuck all! No meals out, no "fun" stuff. They were bored of their ipads, bored of watching Pokémon and Avatar, bored, bored,bored.

They were so excited to go back to school and not be bored that they don't complain! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@pumpkinpie01

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.

@pumpkinpie01 I like this idea a lot!

if carpet is marked where furniture has been (squashed) ice cubes sort it out

Bicarb is your answer to most cleaning issues

I love the little pink stuff pot - again many uses and cheap as chips

I too love tangerine method cleaner

Ironing is overated for everyday clothes - obv excludes special occasions and stuff

Having a Gardener and Cleaner is underated - just got a gardner to help and its marvellous. I still Garden but I tiddle no big digging and knackered backs and hips for days afterwards. Am treating myself this month to half a day each week to break the back of the donkey work then dropping to 2hrs a week then 3 hrs every two weeks and I might leave it at that certainly for spring/summer and aurumn this year - I have failed for 10 yrs to get ontop of our large garden so for me this is BIG

Train kids to put washing in baskets and also sort and put a wash on. I should also have got her to do more chores - she is perfectly capable but i haven't insisted and at 15 she should be sharing the load a bit more I think.

Keep a record of quick teas everyone will eat - we tend to get stuck in rutts and I forget what people will eat or even that I have tried new recipes and stored those. I intended it to be a recipe book to pass to my daughter as I have some handwritten recipes from my Gran and Mum - when she goes to college (so easy but filling basics that will win friends and nfluence people - lol) not sure she wants to go now but will still pass it over at some point.

Buy sachets of yeast unless you do masses of breadmaking - stays fresh and bread rises fine.

Always have a reserve basics cupboard - so stock cubes, gravy, flour (keep bagged in sealed bag or container avoid mites) sugar, tea bags, soups, tinned toms and some herbs etc. I keep this sep to main cupboard and as we are 5 miles from nearest decent shop its saved us a few times.

Teach your kids to make their own breakfast from a young age. One less chore / the chance of a weekend lie in! By the time they were pre teens, breakfast and lunch were help yourself (I just made sure we always had cereal / cereal bars / bread / fruit / yogurts / sandwich fillings / toast toppings etc) and then I made the dinner. I actually enjoy cooking, but more when I only do it once a day!
Online grocery shopping.

@Strokethefurrywall

The best way to prepare the kids at the end of school holidays is to get them bored as humanly possible. The last 3 days of the Easter break we did absolutely fuck all! No meals out, no "fun" stuff. They were bored of their ipads, bored of watching Pokémon and Avatar, bored, bored,bored.

They were so excited to go back to school and not be bored that they don't complain! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

please tell me you are being sarcastic, sounds horrendous at the best of time, but just mean in the middle of a pandemic.

These things are made for washing up dishes but they are brilliant for cleaning baths.

[quote maggiethecat]@ShirleyPhallus
Why would you question the poster's experience of maggots? She's had the problem and that's how she's dealt with it which some may find useful. If you've not had the problem then ignore [/quote]
Ummmm my post responded to the person who said she was “proud” of not having a maggot issue because of freezing scraps. I pointed out that I have never had a maggot issue despite never freezing scraps.

If you don’t find my post useful then ignore

@EatTheRich, here you go. The stencil was from dizzyduckdesigns.

Two things which have transformed my life, a water softener as we have really hard water. Can’t believe the amount of effort saved in cleaning now. And a robot vacuum, I now use it every day instead of dragging the big vacuum out once a week. With two dogs, this has been life changing. My house has never been so clean.

@ShirleyPhallus
"Why would you go to the faff of freezing scraps of leftover dinner?!"

Because it's a problem for her? and to other people it seems?

Hi Maggiethecat,

I think if the holes are very deep I would get a bag of builder's mortar and fill in the inner - its cheap from B&Q. Remember to seal with a bit of pvc glue watered down to make sure it sticks and leave a little room for the Polyfilla which can then go over the top (I reseal with the glue first, needs to be a little bit tacky before you apply the polyfilla. Hadn't heard of the newspaper thing, not sure what it would add so I wouldn't choose to do that I don't think. Good luck, Youtube is your friend as it is mine for these jobs!

I was talking about brick walls there, I have little experience of filling holes in partition type inner walls. I hope you can get more appropriate advice on the DIY site in time if that's what you are faced with Maggiethecat.

Mine would be " do it NOW", not in a minute, later , tomorrow but right now . That way there's no build up or massive jobs to hide from .
My ex would drive me mad, " I'll do washing up later, it will only take 5 mins "
Well if it only takes 5 minutes just DO IT NOW

@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 :-(

I used to use Napisan to restore whites a lot. It does give a slightly blue white look though.