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?

Baby wipes are your friend
I use on everything with a drop of zoflora. House smells fantastic. Leave on raditiators to dry out. Smells like you have been cleaning all day

@MadMadMadamMim

Absolutely it does, amazingly well!!

@Janaih

If you are the type to worry that you've left your hair straighteners on/left the door unlocked/packed your passport (ha!) etc take a photo of the thing in question for your reference. You can send photo to someone else for extra peace of mind.

I don’t want to alarm you Janaih, but this practice is full on OCD and if you do this, you will eventually worry that you took the photo before you turned the item back on, or it could be yesterday’s photo etc!

The scented tumble dryer fabric conditioner sheets are great for using to clean glass surfaces.

To make the world's best icecream topping, melt a couple of mars bars with a little milk in the microwave. Pour over vanilla icecream (in a tall glass if you are into trying to impress). Delicious!

Thanks @SilverFish78

I'll have a go!

@redcandlelight

ironing is overated.

True. I only iron for weddings and funerals. My employer accepts my creased look (yes with a tie!) because she respects it as a wholesome eco-friendly choice.

Ironing, frequent use of hair curlers and other unnecessary items should be banned. They waste so much energy and are serious health and safety hazards.

I always carry three video cameras just for that reason. I set them up so each one points at the other two in a triangle, and the date/time stamp is permanently on. It means I can switch one off to view the footage, while leaving the other two running. That way, I can always find convincing evidence that I locked the door 5 times as required.

Best life hack: disable as much social media as possible. Then get out and LIVE!

When your children want to draw, give them felt tips that are a similar colour to the clothes they are wearing.

If you have a George Foreman grill clean it by placing wet kitchen towel between plates turn it on and leave for a minute or two, the steam will loosen any left over particles and can be wiped clean. I also use a piece of baking paper between plates if I'm going to grill chicken.

Teach your children how to mix a first-class gin and tonic.

Teach your children how to cook a full English Breakfast.

Don't have a credit card.

When making a toasty in a toasty maker, put the sandwich inside a folded over piece of grease proof paper and it will stop the cheese/fillings from oozing out and having to be cleaned off afterwards. Cooks perfectly well

@LetTheCatIn

Please don't use baby wipes for routine cleaning unless they are fully compostable So many wipes contain plastic and of course the packaging is nearly always plastic. A cloth is fine. It's depressing to see so much single use plastic in the cleaning aisle.

I agree with this. They are terrible for the environment. Even if they don’t contain plastic, they can’t be recycled and just add tons and tons to landfill!

Kids paper invites- you know, the ones you find crumpled at the bottom of their school bag....

Take a photo of it. Then when you are en route to party venue/birthday child's house etc, you can check time, address etc. esp useful if you are out and about on other errands before the party and can't quite remember if it was a 2nor 2.30 start etc.

And I know you can put things like this into your phone calendar but this reduces the risk of mistyping it into said calendar!

Also handy to email/text photo to DH when he is dispatched to take kid to party and phones a minute before it starts to ask "where is the trampoline centre again?"

@TheSandman

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

Great for leaving scratches all over your new plastic bathtub. I only made that mistake once! Spraying with vinegar 10 minutes before cleaning and then using a soft cloth and dish soap does a very good job.

@Totaldogsbody

If you have a George Foreman grill clean it by placing wet kitchen towel between plates turn it on and leave for a minute or two, the steam will loosen any left over particles and can be wiped clean. I also use a piece of baking paper between plates if I'm going to grill chicken.

This works fantastically well!

@BustyDusty

Teach your children how to mix a first-class gin and tonic.

Teach your children how to cook a full English Breakfast.

Don't have a credit card.

G&T Makes me think of "Mame". Little Patrick Dennis sweetly mixes a perfect martini for a visitor, including the bit where he sloshes vermouth into the glass and then flicks it back out with a flourish. Then says: "Olive? Auntie Mame says they take up too much room in such a little glass."

For me it’s the rubber broom hype. Bought one. Tried it. Returned to Amazon. Back to vacuuming!

I always find that putting dirty clothes in my washing machine with a little washing powder ( I use Surf but any brand helps) and switching it on whilst I have a fag and read Womans' Weekly does the trick. I tries just hanging them on the line but none of stains shifted.

90% of being an adult is putting things away.

The other 10% is standing in front of a cupboard or fridge trying to remember what you were just about to take out.

This is depressingly accurate . . .

"I have a plastic boxes in the fridge.
All ingredients needed for tea, mon/fri go in the boxes on the day the shopping arrives.
Saves messing about on a busy week night.

Set breakfast things out before bed .

Basket on the stairs for anything needed to go up and take it up and empty regular"

[quote Mummyyyyyyyyyy]@Shosha1

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.

I tried this but no one ever emptied it, just got bigger & bigger basket. [/quote]
Same here.

No-one emptied their basket.

No-one cared that I was the only person to put any of the cr*p in the basket in the hope that other people would empty them.

Everyone was quite happy to live out of their basket for the rest of their lives . . . And why not? Everything was in there, and when they emptied it out it magically found it's way back.

Don't have more than one child. Teach that one child to make its own breakfast and good tea/coffee asap.

@Janaih

That's a great idea, I have a similar issue with forgetting where I have put things down. So now I take a picture of the item on my phone (my phone is on a lanyard to minimise the possibility of me mislaying it), you need to be far enough away so that you can see the context of its location.

It's great it's like having a Google Street Map of the inside of your own home, you can Zoom in etc. and everything. Now when I think "where did I put the iron" I only have to flick through 3 or 400 thumbnail pictures to find it. It's a real time saver for me.