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?

Never write anything, to anyone, that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of a newspaper

Train your partner to share the mental load.
Have a shared calendar (digital or paper) and train the entire family to use it.
Almost always, 'done 'is better than 'perfect'.

[quote Dandelion78]@HollowTalk No, but I'm sure my kids would happily reject it along with most other things I make for them [/quote]
That's a shame - it's delicious!

@Bungalowlady

Don't spend a fortune on cleaning products for a textured wet room floor. Nothing bloody works

Sorry, I laughed.

Defrost meat for the next days meal in the fridge overnight rather than using the microwave defrost function. Saves time because when you go to cook it’s ready to go and electricity because it impacts the temperature in your fridge so your fridge doesn’t need to work as hard

Buy two lunchboxes and water bottles per kid for school. Then one set can go straight in the dishwasher after school, and the other can be prepared for the next day whilst making dinner. Saved me lots of time washing out a lunchbox every night before making the next day's lunch.

@thebillyotea

Wash hair in fairy liquid. It takes off build up of shampoo/ conditioner/hairspray and stops it looking dull.

don't do that.

No - don't do this.

It strips of all the natural oil - hair will be like straw (voice of bitter experience . . . )

Hi @AcornAutumn, how's things with you?

My husband married a tradeswoman (upholstery) and we have the shittest sofas and chairs of anyone I know. All the nice upholstered one's get flogged.

Don't marry anyone would be my advice

Keep a big box in the car boot for muddy shoes, footballs, etc.
Clean shower doors twice a week with dish soap and use a squeegee after every shower to prevent lime scale build-up
Wrap chicken bones and meat leftovers in newspaper before putting them in the outside bin to prevent maggots
Make a bit more pancake batter than you need on Sunday mornings and stretch the leftover batter with some milk for some lovely crêpes for Monday night's pudding

@Chicchicchicchiclana

For hair in plug holes you need those bendy long wire things with a little brush on the end. Put it down as far as it will go, wiggle it around in a spiral motion and pull it out. Gross but satisfying but much better and cheaper than pouring acid into the water system.

I used the plunger and thought I'd caught a rat!

Don't marry anyone would be my advice

Why didn't;t you tell me this 43 years ago?

@MadMadMadamMim

Two small children?

Have a large box behind the sofa/in the living room. When you come downstairs from putting small children to bed pick up old apple cores, discarded clothes, toys, bits of lego, books, and every other thing that is scattered in your living room.

Throw into box and shove behind sofa out of sight.

Sit down. That's you done for the day.

@MadMadMadamMim. I like your style. This is me tonight, shoved all the kids stuff in the corner and now I'm on the sofa, watching Outlander and working my way through a box of Milk Tray

Life is too short to clean the inside of the oven. Apart from wiping the glass door if it has one, just don't bother.

Leftover chip shop chips freeze well, and only take 5 minutes in the oven when you reheat them from frozen.

Cut the ends of sad and floppy veg (carrots, broccoli etc) and leave in cold water for an hour or so. Stiffens up a treat. Droopy celery can either be stood in a pint glass of water in the fridge door to revive, or chopped up and frozen to be added to casseroles.

Save Chinese takeaway plastic boxes with lids - ideal for freezing chilli etc and you can write on the lid with a Sharpie.

Keep your knives sharp.

Push a whole vanilla pod into your caster sugar. It makes the sugar taste lovely and one pod lasts for years.

@Thereoncewasababy

Baking soda mixed with toothpaste to make a paste, leave a few minutes then scrub off- cleans permanent marker off laminate flooring and biro off painted wood.

Also good for cleaning the grout in tiles with a bit of a scrub.

@Dandelion78

I had 3 under 3s...

(A long time ago!)

If the living room was reasonably tidy I could relax for the evening.

Clean your shower cubicle while you’re in it and wipe around your toilet and sink every other day. So much better than having to do a ‘big’ clean every week.

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!

“If you are not good at household paperwork, get a box by the front door. Put everything you need to keep in that box as it comes in. At the end of the year, tie it up in string and put it away. If you need something relating to that year, it will be in there. After six years, shred it all and bring the box back into circulation.”

This is an amazing idea! Now if you could just tell me what bits of paper I need to keep, please?! 🤣

Always buy identical socks - no matching or loosing one sort of problems.

@1forAll74

If you have some boxes to rip up for recycling as in cat food boxes or cereal boxes, just make the boxes flat,and put them in the washing up bowl with some soapy hot water, maybe after washing up, after a minute or two, you can just roll or fold the boxes up into a small piece, and not fill your bin up with a load of boxes.. I have three cats, and it gets on my nerves to be ripping up cat food boxes every day,

That has got to be the opposite of a tip surely

Why would you faff about with that when you can simply flatten by opening up the bottom of the box? How can you recycle soggy cardboard?

I like a tip as much as the next person but I really don't get this one

Cheap fizzy lemonade gets limescale off glass vases.

My Little Friend pet cage disinfectant smells nice and is brilliant for getting rid of the ingrained whiff inside a plastic kitchen bin or food waste caddy.

To clean mould off grout or bath sealant:

Put some bleach in a jug, soak kitchen towel in the bleach and then place (swish) over the the sealant/grout. Leave overnight. Peal off and the black mould in sealant or grout will have disappeared and look like new.

(Your bathroom will smell like the swimming baths though!!)

Condoms