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.

@greenweepingwillow

One thing I do which really helps is I order all bday cards for family that I would normally send, in Jan and schedule delivery. I have used moonpig previously, using thortful this year. I dont send many, and this isn't the cheapest way to do it but I sit and do it at the start of Jan and then I dont have to think at all through the year! Yes, to having pet food on subsciption. I must get back to meal planning as well as that has fallen by the wayside a bit. And my bullet journal is a life changer. EVERYTHING is written in there - then I cant forget!

This.

I recommend Whistlefish ... currently doing x 10 cards for £9 and free delivery on £25+ which is easily done when stocking up.

Gorgeous cards made in the UK.

We have multiple cupboards within the eaves in the loft. We use the Ikea storage boxes for things we don't need year round - like winter clothes, and have used washable ink to label each box.

However, we've also used washable ink on the inside of the cupboard doors so we immediately know which cupboard unit hosts whatever it is we are looking for.

Fold bedding sets into one of the pillowcases from the set - that way it all stays together when you put it away.

One thing I do which really helps is I order all bday cards for family that I would normally send, in Jan and schedule delivery.

How do you do this on Whistlefish please @tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz ? I cannot see any options to send later or schedule for the year. Thank you

Some great ideas on these posts! Rather than repeat what others have said, I’ll add mine I’ve not spotted upthread.....

I buy children clothes 1-2 years bigger so I can tumble dry everything and allow for shrinkage
I wear only black socks, DH wears white. Saves getting mixed up.
I buy birthday/ occasion cards in bulk and store in a big box.
Buy Xmas wrapping paper in sale before New Year, store with Xmas decsloft.

Minimal Mom YouTube videos. Reduce the inventory. Less stuff. Bloody brilliant!

As well as de-cluttering, I am reducing my consumption, which I find much harder.

Use savings pots on Starling bank app as a way of building up sinking funds for everything that is not a monthly DD. Have normal current account with high street bank. Having the sinking funds/savings pots separate and adding to them every time we’re paid makes budgeting so much easier.

We can dip into the ‘day out’ fund or ‘garden’ fund anytime, without guilt. I used to feel super guilty spending money, and never had anything left at the end of the month. I’m not sure why this system works, but it does and makes purchasing decisions / budgeting a lot simpler!

@Ecosaurus

One thing I do which really helps is I order all bday cards for family that I would normally send, in Jan and schedule delivery.

How do you do this on Whistlefish please @tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz ? I cannot see any options to send later or schedule for the year. Thank you

Ahhh sorry Eco I speed read and missed the bit about scheduling delivery

Perhaps a lesson to self in manner of thread.

Yes to most of these.

Declutter, we're fairly minimalist now. No ornaments to dust.

Calendar; dates go straight into my online Google calendar that I share with DH. I have separated the calendars with their own colour eg, DH shift work, both kids school dates and activities. I keep a wall calendar too for quick reference.

Meal plan; stock take the freezer, fridge and cupboard to see what meals can be made and what we need. Meal plan after shopping to include everything we have, I can usually stretch to 3 weeks of meals. Add to calendar so I can remember to take stuff out of the freezer.

Keep 4-5 IKEA bags in the boot of the car, great for shopping.

@Minibea

I left my stressful and long hours job a few months ago in order to simplify our lives and to reduce stress on our whole family. Appreciate that it isn’t an option that would appeal to everyone but it has meant that the extra “job” of managing bought in services, the wrap around and emergency childcare, the dog walking etc etc has fallen away and life certainly feels simplified

Me too. 2 months in and I am still loving the extra family time and lots less stress. This was the first Xmas in 30 years I have had lots of family time and I genuinely don't know why it took so long to do this (formerly retail, now office)

Have multiple pairs of tights, hairbrushes, scissors, house keys and phone chargers. That way you've always got some to hand.

@Nutsabouttopic

Buy a set of drawers for each of your children. Seven drawers per set. One drawer for each school/nursery day, one for shoes and one for extra activities gear. On a Sunday sort out the drawers. Put full uniform and underwear in Monday's, underwear and clean shirt if needed in Tuesdays etc. Shoes in their own drawer. Sports kit in whichever day it is needed. Have school jacket hats and gloves on special hanger. Sort your own clothes for the week on a Sunday too onto hangers. Put shoes underneath the hanger. Add underwear, tights and jewellery to hanger. Clean out schoolbags every day so that no important notes are missed. Plan packed lunches for the week. It saves that running around in the morning panic.

Wow this seems like more work to me and potentially facilitating a lack of self management in the long run.

I just ask my primary age child to get dressed herself (I’m still dressing her little sister). She knows what she has to do and is developing independence skills by remembering what she needs to take for activities. But I can understand why you’d do this for SEN children or multiples.

@HandlebarLadyTash

Declutter Robot Hoover upstairs & downstairs Give the kids more jobs Not encourage play dates (sorry DC they wear me out) have purchased online gaming as a sort of replacement Plan meals make double & frees half when I can

Swapping play dates for gaming though? Surely this isn’t any sort of positive alternative

I have decided to split the week and spend three days a week living each day like its my last... and I've found that staying in bed has really helped me reduce my travel costs, heating bills, spending too much on clothes, doing laundry, etc.

DH setting up system where lights and heating turn on/off when you enter/leave a room
Relocated to an area where everything is within a 15 min commute of house - park, schools, city, woods etc

Be antisocial. Never invite anyone round. No worries then

I changed my email. I know it sounds silly but over the years so much signing up left me swamped with crap day in day out and it’s takes up time even glancing at it. Started again changed over the important stuff, opted out of updates and just the essential communication. It’s great!

I’ve completely decluttered the house, completely cleared all the clutter. I gave a lot to charity, sold some and binned a lot. I know think about purchases 1. Do I need it 2. Where is it going to live? 3. Is it worth the money?

I buy for Christmas all year round. So if I see something generally on sale that I know someone would use/love/want I get it. Put it away. Not only does it take the stress out of running around in November/December but it spreads the cost.
I’ve already got all Christmas cards/bags and wrap for next year. Got them all 70% off only spent £13 and I have a huge family!

I shop at Aldi and Lidl. It’s not only cheaper it’s sooo much quicker!! Shop is smaller less choice and I get round in 25 mins instead of 1.5 hours in Asda up and down.

If I have a big task to do or something I need to accomplish I.e. re doing a room or sorting something out I do a step by step list in order of what I need to do to complete it. I do each thing 1 at a time and move on once done. It sounds simple but it works! Really well!!

Excellent thread. Tons of tips.

One in, one out rule helps me with clutter, especially toys!

Thought of some more things I do, which are so automatic they didn’t even occur to me:

• keep commonly used items where they will be used and buy multiples if needed eg cleaning products in kitchen and both bathrooms/ toilets, along with cleaning clothes (diff colours for bathroom). Also things like scissors in kitchen, with wrapping paper, craft stuff etc. Saves forever looking for a pair.
• well stocked pantry. We have lots of staples, dried goods etc plus a well stocked freezer. Meant that when the panic buying hit the other year we were able to avoid going to the shops for almost 6 weeks and were able to eat very well in the meantime. Dried goods go in labelled glass jars which means when writing a shopping list I just add the fresh stuff and quickly scan which jars are looking a little low, instead of thinking do we have enough pasta/ rice/ nuts etc
• good cookery skills: means I can always produce healthy, tasty meals from store cupboard staples when needed. Can also make my own bread and a range of delicious cakes, cookies etc
• an ‘emergency’ box for both cars. This has saved us on a couple of occasions. Includes an old blanket and few other tatty outdoor clothes for an emergency eg old coat/ hat. I also keep first aid kit, a couple of bottles of water, some money (few coins for parking plus £20 incase I need petrol/ buy a few bits and am without my purse). After a horrid situation last winter I also added a few snacks and a book of short stories I can read if waiting for a while. Waiting for hours in a freezing car with nothing to occupy yourself is pretty miserable. Also in my car I have a rechargeable battery pack and a few basic bits of make up/ deodorant/ hairbrush: I check the battery pack is fully charged when I remember
• I go away to family/ weekend breaks etc fairly often and keep a general packing list on my phone as I found it stressful working out what to pack/ hoping I didn’t forget anything. Most items are the same each time and I keep it fairly vague eg book, 3 jumpers, 5 pairs pants
• lists for everything! I am obsessed with lists and find it easy to write things down as that gets them out of my head
• everything has a specific place in our house which means we don’t have to go looking for things
• this last one wouldn’t fit many lifestyles but my DH works 3 days and I am self employed so it works for us: we have our main meal at lunchtime (unless DH working). It feels like a lovely break in the day but also frees up the afternoon/ evening of prep. I hate a kitchen full of pots but often in the evening we would both feel too tired to do them.this way we do them straight after lunch and the kitchen looks so much nicer. By having our main meal early it also means I am much less likely to snack in the afternoon, as I am not hungry.

Got rid of the ex husband

Great ideas on here!

I’ll be washing my family’s clothes separately from now on, it makes so much sense.

You can simplifying too much though - it should be prioritising things meaningful to you and cutting out the rest. Some posts sound a bit closer to not bothering with life because it’s effort, which is more like avoidance & depression. Been there!

Think of life like a video game - you get your character to explore the terrain, try the activities, talk to the people, get coins, exchange them for items that make their experience better / easier, or a new look, for fun. You wouldn’t just sit them in their little hut doing nothing with nothing

Back to the question, some ways I’ve simplified:

• Drawer dividers! I enjoy putting socks away now!

• A metal square thing with many pegs from Amazon to pin paired socks and other underwear on to dry

• upgraded to a larger clothes airer - more space between clothes now so they dry faster

• realised I don’t do anything “formal” anymore so no more storing clothes for such occasions just in case

• worked out the types, cuts and colours of clothes I like to wear and now set my searches accordingly, only looking at what’s in my size.

• wrote a wish-list of perfect basics to look out for and buy multiples of

• junk mail goes straight to the recycling, mail opened and dealt with straight away, filed or disposed of

• a filing folder with sections close to hand - keep important letters, birth certificates, passports, instruction manuals..

• go paperless wherever possible (bank, utilities)

• say no to favours, never ask favours yourself (let’s all deal with our own shit)

(This doesn’t include my kids, or giving anyone advice, emotional support, etc. But I won’t wrap your Xmas gifts because you proclaim to be “rubbish at it” (practice!) / learn to drive so all the CFs around us can use me for lifts. Ahem.)

• Areas of floor. I just love them. I got rid of things that have no use, plus the furniture it was on and now those areas get a quick vacuum instead of 30 minutes with the brush attachment. (So much room for activities!)

• No social media. Just Wattsapp and genuine relationships only.

• Looking at a calendar of the whole year and plotting in nice things to break it up, taking into account school holidays and birthdays.

@StellaGibson118

Be antisocial. Never invite anyone round. No worries then

@StellaGibson118 love it

My game changers have been a quick tidy before bed so that I always wake to a tidy house. Cordless hoover and a quick whizz around with that before work so that I come home to a clean house.
Frozen garlic and onion, weirdly saves so much chopping time.

Reading through some of these & writing a list of things I need to do. I'm fed up with living in a rush because I'm too disorganised.

Echo keeping things where you use them: sellotape with the wrapping paper, small bin bags in the bathroom for upstairs bins rather than under the sink etc

List on my phone for gift ideas throughout the year

Just bought all birthday cards for the year, I'd like to pre write them but what if I want to make reference to something in 10 months time!? Always have lots of stamps, you can add them to your supermarket online shop.

Just trialling putting individual (clean!) nappies in nappy sacks for the changing bag as its a pain wrestling the baby in public loos trying to find things

Make lists of things that need doing and lists of what needs taking, i.e., on holiday, for school, work etc. I’d be nothing without my lists.