Boring tips and tricks which have made your life easier.

[NoEffingWay]

Inspired by the purchase of a flat mop thing from wilkos with removable washable pads, and some method spray and mop bottle. No longer am I wrestling with a dirty looking mop, a kettle and a mop bucket. It took 5 minutes, the house smells like rhubarb (!) and the floor is shiny as.

Any more time-saving, life changing tips for me? I seriously hate mopping so this has made me a lot happier and life's most boring jobs!

[quote VioletLemon]@cardoon brilliant idea with the pillowcase, my inability to make decisions can see me faff and get frustrated picking out the correct pillowcases for covers! I will start this.[/quote]
This is one tip I've never understood. Just tuck the folded pillowcases inside a fold of the duvet cover, or put them on top. Much quicker than putting duvet covers and the other pillowcases inside a pillowcase and then taking them all out again.

Mine would be to do present wrapping on an ironing board, use scissors to cut pizza, bacon etc and never move an item more than once. DH is a bugger for moving things in stages to where they needs to go, if a cup is dirty it goes straight in the dishwasher, not 'on the side' to go in later. That saves me more time than any other tip - it's amazing how many steps things take to get from one place to where they actually need to be.

Just buy frozen soffrito - diced onions, carrots and celery - also called vegetable base. £1 for 600g at Tesco, also at Asda, Waitrose.

If you have a not quite square king-size duvet, which has no obvious way of telling top and bottom from the sides, get a Sharpie out and write on it. This saves me much frustration when changing the cover.

Also, store duvet covers inside out. When you put a new cover on the duvet, run your hands up inside to the cover corners and grab them, then grab the corners of the duvet and shake vigorously a few times. Gets it most of the way, if not the whole way, on.

Have a fixed day for watering the houseplants. Saves much plant misery.

@Tanith

E cards. They're more interesting, don't waste card and you can set them ahead of time so no forgotten birthdays, or scrabbling for cards at the last minute.

More than once I’ve found that recipients never opened them. (If you send Jacquie Lawson ones, they tell you when the card is opened.)

ohhhh no i would hate that, i like to sort the washing and house stuff

See now I've heard it all! I cannot imagine a universe where I reject DH doing his share of the housework. If I had to do it all myself after work I would literally never get to bed. Dh and I wfh has given us so much time back that we desperately needed, I'm going to really miss it if he has to return to the office.

Oops wrong thread

@StCharlotte, each to her own.
I will confess to ironing pillowcases occasionally, but only for guests. The duvet cover will just have to do.
Pleased to say though that at least one of our guest bed duvet covers just doesn’t show creases - a dark blue William Morris pattern, The Strawberry Thief. It’s king size so I’d never iron it anyway.
Pillowcases are plain dark blue, though.

A new one I've found is to get a sharpie and write the expiry date on the side of okastic thing in the fridge, ie yogurt pots, filled pasta, ready meals. Its much easier to see when those dates are coming around so the food doesn't go to waste. Do it when coming gone from supermarket and the writing surfaces are less condensationy and easier to write on!

I used to clean the bathrooms all in one big job on the weekend ( or realistically maybe every other weekend as I dreaded the task).

Now I have about 6 bathroom ecloths and always have one in the bathroom. After I shower, I spend maybe 3-4 minutes wiping everything down: shower screen, tiles, chrome, taps, sink, mirror, radiator all with the same cloth. Then I use a wipe ( Sainsbury's do plastic free) to wipe the toilet and a squirt of bleach.

Every second or third day, I get a new ecloth and before I put the old in the wash, I wipe down everything in my bedroom: dressing table, side tables, shutters, picture frames, lights. Takes about 3-4 minutes.

Once a month or so I clean the shower properly but it only takes a short time with hardly any scrubbing because I've been cleaning with the microfibre cloth every day already.

Then my bathroom and bedroom is always clean. It feels lovely to use a clean bathroom every time and not having that chore hanging over my head. I just have to mop the floor in the weekend and that's it.

Maybe it doesn't save time, but it breaks an onerous task up into something that is easy and quick.

If it’s to go upstairs, put it on a step and take it next time you go.
Unfortunately, after years of explaining, I’m still the only person in the house who understands the concept.

@TheLovleyChebbyMcGee yes- also, use a strip of sellotape to write on with sharpie for glass items or containers - easier to write on or wipe off and replace as need.

I do this with Mason jars for left overs.

Storing containers with their lids on.

You clearly have far fewer containers than I do! I’d need way more cupboard space to do this.

Take one old piece of food / out of date veg out the fridge every time you go in for something else. Keeps it clean and tidy without having to do a big fridge chuck out!

Or, don’t buy way more food than you need to avoid a big fridge chuck out. The other alternative is to use the freeze rather than the fridge. We package up left over meat and stick it in the freezer. We buy fresh veg, chop it and roast it all in a massive roasting tin then put the rest in the freezer and use it through the week. Thinks like baked beans if we use half a tin, the leftovers go in the freezer. We hardly ever chuck things out from the fridge now.

If it’s to go upstairs, put it on a step and take it next time you go.
Unfortunately, after years of explaining, I’m still the only person in the house who understands the concept.

Yep. I left three bottles of bleach there a few weeks back. They were there a fortnight before I had to move them for the cleaner.

new one I've found is to get a sharpie and write the expiry date on the side of okastic thing in the fridge, ie yogurt pots, filled pasta, ready meals. Its much easier to see when those dates are coming around so the food doesn't go to waste.

Also, when you open something that says “use within 3 days of opening”, write the day it has to be used by on in sharpie. Gets rid of the “when was this opened” and when looking for lunch you’re more likely to use that ham that you opened a couple of days ago if you see it’s use by today.

new one I've found is to get a sharpie and write the expiry date on the side of okastic thing in the fridge

Also do this with medicines as trying to find and read the dates is really hard!

I have bulk bought small plastic tubs on Amazon and find them useful for so many things. Kids stuff (Lego, small cars etc) can go in them and then stack easily under bed or in a drawer or cupboard. I use four stack in the kitchen junk drawer with labels on eg. One for food clips, one for random junk like string and window keys, one for mini tissue packs. It means the drawer is still full of random stuff but you can find it much more easily and it isn’t a mess. I have also used for things like toiletries (again used a label maker to divide different types up into skin care, nail varnish or whatever you might have). I think the main reason I like them is because when you open a cupboard/drawer you can find what you need and also it looks so much neater!

@Brunonononooo

I have bulk bought small plastic tubs on Amazon and find them useful for so many things. Kids stuff (Lego, small cars etc) can go in them and then stack easily under bed or in a drawer or cupboard. I use four stack in the kitchen junk drawer with labels on eg. One for food clips, one for random junk like string and window keys, one for mini tissue packs. It means the drawer is still full of random stuff but you can find it much more easily and it isn’t a mess. I have also used for things like toiletries (again used a label maker to divide different types up into skin care, nail varnish or whatever you might have). I think the main reason I like them is because when you open a cupboard/drawer you can find what you need and also it looks so much neater!

I bought a set of lovely turquoise tubs in lidl and gave them to the dds for their Lego for colour sorting. They use the big tub to sit their creations in. The little ones are all different colours. The bloody tubs actually match the living room!! I was dead happy with that

@BoredZelda

new one I've found is to get a sharpie and write the expiry date on the side of okastic thing in the fridge

Also do this with medicines as trying to find and read the dates is really hard!

This is genius

@Mambles

Dice celery, carrot and onion and freeze in sandwich bags as a base for bolognese, chilli, casseroles etc.

You can buy frozen chopped onion/carrot/celery from Sainsbury's - it makes this part of the cook much easier

I don't bulk buy cards I bulk buy card making stuff so blank cards in a rainbow and lots of stickers. The dds just get the box out and make whatever we need. They are quite crafty. I accept if you have teenage boys this isn't a goer. When all our friends were having babies we had a packet of little paper storks holding babies for those cards. They were all used!

... although having gone back to the thread I see several PP have already said that. Sorry!

This thread is amazing. I’m just posting so I can find it again.

I am currently doing the ‘throw one thing a day’ away. It’s making such a difference already. I have so much crap lying around that I’ll be at it til around 2027, but it’s a start!

If you take medication I have recently bought this -

AUVON Pill Organiser with Free Smartphone Reminder App, Pill Box 7 Day 2 Times A Day with 7 Colorful Attachable Tablet Box for Medicine, Medication, Vitamin, Supplement and Fish Oil https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HNBCWSX/ref=cmswwrcppapiglttiHVEM3JWC97J3YE7PS6RB??encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The little tubs have morning and night and they come out so you can just pop it in your bag. It's really a lovely product for £7 and really useful. It also helps me keep on top of when I need to reorder prescriptions.

On that note get all the family registered on the nhs app it's so much easier for repeat prescriptions etc

For Christmas, I buy sticky labels from Avery and then create a page of labels for each person I'm buying for.

Each page has 18 labels on it. I also insert a Christmas-appropriate little picture on the label (but you don't have to do that!).

Then I print off 1 sheet per person and keep them in a plastic folder. When I start buying Christmas presents each year, I check if I need more labels, and then just print a load more off.

Using sticky labels on presents is so much easier than having to write them out by hand.

Also, another thing I have done, is to buy different patterned/coloured Christmas paper per person - so DH gets one colour, DS1 another, etc. And wrap presents as I'm going along. Before I had easy labels to use, it was a good way to remember which present was for who. (I also cut a little square of the paper out and stuck it on a sheet of plain paper, and wrote next to it who it was for, just in case I forgot)

@Bornlazy

My tip is use a knife sharpener to keep knifes and scissors sharp. I only got one recently and didn't realise how blunt my knifes were until I'd sharpened them.

You can also sharpen pizza cutters with them. That was a bloody revelation with a pizza cutter I've had since 1999!!