Things you've done to simplify your life

[faithfulbird20]

Less laundry and drying will be mine for this year. I used to wash everything mostly after one wear. Especially my kids clothes. Just realised no wonder our clothes don't last and look dull really easily.

@Dogmum40

I’ve stopped ironing

I’ve stopped making pastry, the shop bought stuff is good enough in fact as well as pastry I’ve stopped making complicated meals

Online shopping for everything except clothes

Cordless vacuum cleaner

Sounds crazy but one spray cleaner that does everything in every room, instead of various sprays, it’s cheaper and I think quicker as I’m not faffing around trying to find the right one anymore (I still use bleach in the loos though and separate cloths)

I’ve bought silicon baking tins and sheets! Nothing ever sticks to them, it’s a game changer 😆

Decluttering everything in our home and to be fair if the husband sits for long enough he’s going on vinted too

My list isn’t that exciting but they’ve all made life a little easier

The husband going on Vinted had me howling

I also don't "get" meal planning. I have a quarterly meat order that fills up the freezer. Tesco orders top up fresh dairy and veg. Slow cooker batches some ready meals when the meat order arrives.

The idea of spending time choosing a menu for a week doesn't fly with me. We either have time to pick a meal to make from the available options or we don't and we have a freezer meal or takeaway. Haven't starved yet

I only have black socks now. I like different coloured socks but unfortunately they are a nightmare, always going missing, needing to be paired up, more trouble than they are worth so about 5 years ago I just changed over to black only and it's made things a lot simpler.

Also:
No ironing
Only clean with washing up liquid
No junk mail (in a different country so have a special sticker on my letter box to refuse it)
One in, one out rule
Do a large shop in Aldi and the Boots equivalent here once every two months and that's it - very occasional top ups needed from the local supermarket.

And the most important things:
I've learned to say no to anyone trying to unload their unwanted stuff on me. People were constantly giving me things crap they didn't want anymore and I would feel bad about refusing them so just took everything off them. Now it's a no to everything and after a while people stop offering things like that. It was all stuff I didn't really want or need anyway and more importantly, stuff they didn't want any more which probably should have been tipped but due to the high cost of tipping stuff here they obviously didn't want to pay to tip

And learning to say no, that doesn't work for me. Also, switching phone off when I need a break from the constant requests. During the last lockdown (in November) not one single person phoned me just for a chat. Every call was someone wanting me to do something for them - and I know they won't repay the favour.
So, people can fuck off. The phone is going off when I don't want to be disturbed and I won't be doing stuff for piles of randoms any more.

Plus I am going to audit my leisure time activities in the coming weeks and dump anything that is not bringing me joy. I belong to a couple of amateur music groups which fit into that category and I'm torn as there isn't really an alternative to one of them so if I leave I wouldn't have another one to go to. However, I think I shouldn't be wasting an evening a week on something that doesn't make me happy.

If it doesn't bring joy (whether an item or an activity) it goes in the bin.

I thought of some more.

I don't iron anymore. DH does his own work clothes.

Uniform gets tumble dried or in summer line dried then a quick blast in tumbler so no ironing needed.

Each child of has a certain type of socks I got sick of trying to work out whose socks were whose. So now it's one child only has striped socks one only has dinosaurs one has coloured toe ones.

Never go up the stairs empty handed.

@ArabellaScott are tru earth laundry strips good? When I was single I always used laundry liquid/ pods, but that is useless for my DHs farm clothes which are covered in engine oil, grease and muck! Nothing I've used bar old fashioned laundry detergent works but I'd like to try someone more eco friendly. (He can use a washing machine and frequently does, I just tend to do the shopping)

I just keep on lowering my standards!

Declutter regularly, we moved 6 years ago and the amount of shit we got rid of was obsene so now keep on top of that regularly.
Only buy one of everything (ie toiletries, cleaning products)
Never iron (only very occasionally if needed but most of my clothes don't need to be ironed)
Try and clean/tidy as I go so its not all left as one big job at the weekend.
Stopped buying presents for adults (much to the annoyance of my sis in law who thinks we should still be buying presents for her precious dds who are 21+ fuck that, we don't get as much as a card from any of them even though they are all in full time jobs)
This year im trying to tackle getting better with meal planning and food shopping, we spend far too much on takeaways and that definitely needs to stop.

Yikes, I'm all for a simpler life but some of these seem pretty hardcore like never sending birthday cards or letting your children take part in non-uniform day.

My tips are far from ground-breaking, but the things that have really helped me are:
Gousto delivery weekly
Cleaner 3 hrs weekly
Online food order every Thursday, topped up the night before with alerts on phone so I don't forget
Every single communication from school goes straight into my work digital diary otherwise it falls off the radar immediately
Set alerts for a few weeks before all my insurances run out so I have time to shop around
Beginning of each month, I check to see any birthdays coming up and sort cards/gifts in one burst
Carve up working days into themes where I can - admin/client meetings or emails/writing/scheduling/strategy so my days get hijacked a little less
Keep a spare raincoat, umbrella, dog bowl, bottle of water, bags for life, face masks, painkillers, lipstick and hairbrush in the car
Use the self-scan for any supermarket trips and pack things into bags as you walk round
When cooking, walking the dog, on school run, I listen to an audiobook so it's more enjoyable
Store sets of bedding together
I love Mel Robbins for her five second rule to stop me procrastinating. just count down from 5 to 0 and then do the thing. It stops you wavering and putting it off again and again.

Shamelessly place marking
My life is a mess 🙈

Oooh one more - never leave a repeat appointment without booking the next such as hair or nails.

Our biggest gamechanger was to remove the laundry sorting bottleneck by switching to each person's laundry being done as a load. We don't separate out colours/whites and it makes no difference. Each person is responsible for doing their own, and when the kids were smaller, an adult made sure it got taken out and hung.

@NowEvenBetter

Highly recommend being childfree, for an easy and blissful life. Also, I don’t iron, don’t send bits of paper to people with ‘to blah blah, from me’ written inside, don’t buy gifts for anyone other than my husband, and don’t buy piles of tat that should be in landfill, and I don’t engage with any theatrics or shite from other people.

I was going to say, the best way to keep your life uncomplicated is to have only one child and no pets . May be a bit late for most MNers though!

I only buy presents for immediate family. I get the odd birthday present for a friend.

As for school dressing up days, I am not very creative so bought costumes on Amazon. Local FB groups are good too - someone posted in ours yesterday to say she needed a costume for today and had only just realised. Posted her daughter's size and what she needed and had borrowed something within hours! Make use of your local FB groups.

Can I ask, the people doing two online grocery shops a month...

How on earth do you have fresh fruit and veg throughout the month when you only shop twice?

I only have one bag and keep everything I need in it. It's a small rucksack. Makes everything much easier than when I was always transferring between bags.

This is a very small one - keys on a lanyard. Makes it easier shopping, going for a walk etc.

Also socks...we found some bamboo socks we really like and then just bought in bulk. DH now only has navy socks and I only have black socks. I'm seriously considering doing the same and having DC only wear grey socks (they already wear grey for school.) It's made laundry so much easier.

@MollysDolly

Can I ask, the people doing two online grocery shops a month...

How on earth do you have fresh fruit and veg throughout the month when you only shop twice?

I don't actually do this myself, but it should be quite easy.

Just buy enough for two weeks, then eat in the order of necessity. So bananas, courgettes, soft fruit first. Cabbage, apples, potatoes last etc.

[quote irishfarmer]@ArabellaScott are tru earth laundry strips good? When I was single I always used laundry liquid/ pods, but that is useless for my DHs farm clothes which are covered in engine oil, grease and muck! Nothing I've used bar old fashioned laundry detergent works but I'd like to try someone more eco friendly. (He can use a washing machine and frequently does, I just tend to do the shopping)[/quote]
They work great for me, but I don't really have oil & grease to contend with! You can buy a wee sample, I think?

My resolution for 2022 is to look at social media and see how much I can strip it back (I use it for work).

@Excitedforthefuture

Do you mean you just do something there and then? Or follow a set routine? Thanks

Same as others on here
I ironed 5 items at most last year.
Black socks
On a constant declutter[still some way to go]

What I am yet to work out is how to cut down on paperwork. Paperwork of anything and everything.

Oh, and I put my foot down with my husband.
Told him that as he wasnt going to be more like me, and he wasnt going to meet me half way, that I was going to be like him - more selfish, spend a bit more money like him, and do no more than 3 hours work per day[he is semi retired]. Seems to have done the trick!
He offered, with no prompting from me at all, to peel potatoes today. He has never offered before.

Just buy enough for two weeks, then eat in the order of necessity. So bananas, courgettes, soft fruit first. Cabbage, apples, potatoes last etc.

I get the idea of consume the most perishable first, but what kind of veg are people buying that's still good almost 2 weeks later, except some potatoes and onions? And no fruit in week two? Maybe oranges.

Once a week online shop makes sense. Once a fortnight would mean far too restrictive for us. Mainly the twin toddlers who have soft fruit daily. Which is a shame as it would be bloody brilliant.

Robot hoover set on a timer to go round twice a day.

Most clothes go in the washer dryer so they can be put away as soon as they're done. Also try to get a couple of wears out of things before they get washed but not always possible with messy kids.

Clean as I go and use any bits of downtime to get some cleaning or tidying done so it doesn't get overwhelming.

Batch cook as much as possible and have a large freezer so there's always something that can be pulled out for dinner.

Declutter and get rid of anything that's not needed as often as I can. Makes cleaning easier and feels better to have a clear space. Use digital formats for books, music, films etc so it's not physical stuff.

Get as much ready the night before as possible. Particularly for the kids, their uniform ready at the end of the bed, snacks and books ready in school bags, water bottles in the fridge so they can be put in the bags in the morning, DD's violin in the car so we can't forget it. Do the dishes the night before so it's easy to make breakfast in the morning. Also kids have school dinners so I don't have to think about packed lunches.

School events go straight on my phone calendar which shows on my home screen so I can easily see what's happening. Any dress up days I just count as non uniform and let them wear what they want, simply don't have the time or money to be sourcing costumes they'll wear once.

Use Monzo for banking and have a separate pot for each direct debit, means it's easy to budget and manage each bill.

Use an app to manage Xmas and birthday gifts and buy throughout the year. Don't bother with cards as they usually just go in the bin anyway.

Carrots, parsnips, cabbage, kale all last getting on for 2 weeks. Also tomatoes, cucumbers about10 days, courgettes, celery. Apples last months, oranges, satsumas, pears. We stretch bananas out in the fridge - they look black but perfect inside. Use of fridge helps with a lot.

We haven't shopped since 23rd Dec (never do over Xmas but have had covid too) and only run out of broccoli - it's the only one that goes past in about a week, oh and cauliflower. So yes, we're down to onions, red cabbage, white cabbage, spinach (am surprised it's lasted), parsnips, tomatoes, celery. Then we have some freezer veg if we really need (ooh might have somebroccoli there!).