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!

Do any of you who use the duvet corner clips keep them on once the duvet cover is on?

I'm on the hunt for something to keep one of dd2's favourites actually on her duvet...it's that stupid slidey material & the duvet's always in a ball at the end when we get up & it's me who has to stand up on the bed to shake it out 🙄

List on the side of the freezer. Every time a freeze leftovers, add something or use something I update it. It much more likely to be used if I know it’s in there!

@branflakebrain sorry, I know my comment was very stereotypical in it’s delivery - I had just had a particularly manic day . But I do think women tend to carry more of this ‘mental load’. Anyway, your partner (if you have one) must love you

There are duvet clips on Amazon that purport to be for keeping a duvet on while in use.

I am totally with you with drying clothes upstairs! I have just moved my dryer from downstairs to upstairs and its sooo much better!

Also...A table top iron board is a must! have put a small, compact iron board in my dressing table and I now iron things as and when I need to rather than having to put up the 'big' iron board for an ironing session and it is a total game changer! Xx

[quote Wexone]@mg2397 sorry i cant do that, one of the 1st things i do in morning is make my bed. It takes 2 mins to make your bed. It kicks start my day, plus makes my room look a lot tidier so for me reduces my stress levels. Far nicer to get into bed in the eve that's made ( even better with clean sheets ) than a messy bed. Doesn't have to be military perfect but made . Also, when bedding is left unmade, it traps warmth and moisture, providing an environment in which dust mites will thrive.[/quote]
Don’t make your bed! Best thing is to fold the duvet back to the end of the bed. Plump up the pillows. Then go about your day. When you go to bed, just pull the duvet over into position.

Leaving the bed to air is much better. What you’ve described is just as bad as leaving the bed “unmade”.

I second what has been said earlier re baskets for kitchen cupboards (to put jars, packets etc in). It makes it so much easier to pull them out - both to search through and also for cleaning the cupboard.

I’ve combined that with organiser shelves (got mine ages ago, can’t remember where from - and mine has more depth), so you can double stack in a cupboard)

www.wilko.com/wilko-telescopic-stand-cupboard-organiser/p/0435939gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0NT07v_k9QIVQertCh2z6QtCEAQYAyABEgL3NPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Again, as said before, if your household has pets or people with longer hair, then a rubber broom is brilliant for carpets/rugs. There is not much effort needed to go over the area - and it saves wear and tear in the long-term on your hoover (which all seem to cost a fortune nowadays). I don’t mean don’t vacuum those areas, but using the broom first does the heavy lifting.

And definitely what I think I saw earlier if you have a dog or cat. Just buy packs of nappy sacks rather than specific animal poo bags. Nappy sacks are just as effective for picking up dog poo, or for using daily to scoop out waste from litter tray. They cost less than the “animal” version.

When decorating, if you’re filling in fine gaps between, say, wall and door frame - slightly wet a cotton bud and use that to smooth it down.

When it comes to time vs money spent - I will always go for the money option when it comes to cleaning my car. Granted, I will eke out the time between cleans, so it is well worth the money to get it done by the team at my local garage - £25 every few months is worth it’s weight in gold vs wrestling with hose/pressure washer + vacuum and wiping the inside!

Those things are extremely hazardous and should always be securely stored in their original container. You are effectively storing yours in an insecure place. You only have to leave the washing machine door open briefly and a child or pet could access one.

Chuck a large, clean, dry towel in the tumble drier with each load to absorb some of the moisture and speed up drying.

Place marking

@lucysmam
Upthread I said that I use small safety pins to pin the two top corners of the duvet and cover when I'm changing the bedding and you could just leave those in place to save the cover slipping? No need to buy special clips off Amazon.

@Alfixn

One of my last favourite things is meal planning.

A tip I love is to write a list of favourite dinners numbered 1 - 31. They don't all have to be unique; you could put, for example, chili con carne on the list in 2 or 3 different places if you want.

If it's 1st of the month, you make number 1, if it's the 15th you make number 15, etc etc.

It's much less predictable/repetitive than having a set meal on a set weekday, and you can have a much greater variety of dinners on there too.

I love this idea 👌🏻

@CatsnCoffee

Chuck a large, clean, dry towel in the tumble drier with each load to absorb some of the moisture and speed up drying.

Interesting - going to experiment with this

We grocery shop online, so although I meal plan I can never be sure which meals are for which days, until I have seen the use-by dates on the food.

So, we made up an A3 weekly meal planner. It has space for after school clubs/activities, use-by dates and meals. I think you can buy these, but we just printed it out and laminated it. We write on it in whiteboard pen (kept with a magnet holder on the fridge door) and then redo it every week.

When the shopping comes on a Monday, I write the use-by dates of all the perishables on the meal planner as I put them away. Then, I look at the clubs/activities we have that week, and plan which meals can go when, depending on when stuff goes off. And if we ever deviate from the plan for any reason, we can see what food will have to be transferred to the freezer before it goes off.

It's really helped us to reduce food waste - we meal planned before, but if we ever deviated we found that we would forget to check use by dates and had to throw stuff away.

I am so awful at food management and we chuck tons and tons of stuff. I think @AlbertCampionhas the key which is just constant monitoring
.. which does my head in!

I can't plan for the week but I have found taking a minute in the evening to write a note (or update yesterday's note) of what needs to be eaten asap has helped massively. It only takes me minute and we've just had dinner so it's fresh I'm my mind.
Neither me nor DH can sit and think numerous days ahead.

As soon as I notice we're out of something I ask Alexa to add it to my shopping list. Play my shopping list once a week when doing the Tesco list for online delivery. So much easier than writing it down.

I saw an idea for Christmas present buying on another thread which I'm doing this year to try out, and if it works,stick to it.

When buying birthday presents, buy a second gift for that person. By Christmas you'll have your presents for everyone, no mad last minute dash around the shops, or lists of gifts to order and hope they get there on time!

Bonus if you can wrap and tag the gift at the same time😁👍

23 pages of evidence of the mental load!

Brilliant thread though and it just keeps giving. I love the 1-31 meals idea and the handbag one.

Re meal planning I do mine in a note book, and when I buy or make extra (eg buying an extra pack of sausages on a deal, or batch cooking) I write those extra meals into future weeks straight away. Then when I get to next week's meal planning it's half done already.

Had large pile of shredding to do, but shredder only likes to do a few pages at once.
So, I keep the pile near the shredder and whenever I'm shredding a receipt, I put a few pages through from the pile!
Eventually, it will be done!

Great idea about putting washed clothes onto hangers, I've been doing that for years. Its surprising how many items don't actually need ironing if you do that!

I love my freezer:

• bags of grated cheese freeze
• so do blocks of butter (wrap them well in foil/cling first)
• M&S cooked garlicy prawns freeze & will defrost inside the freezer bag when you put it in warm water, perfect for a quick paella etc.
• I freeze the little bits of roast chicken when I pick the carcass clean for a quick lunchtime sandwich, fried rice etc.. If you shred the chicken and freeze it flat it defrosts really quickly
• you can buy and freeze chinese pancakes from M&S, Sainsburys or Waitrose for when there's not enough with your crispy duck. Split them up as for wraps below
• wraps freeze well, just split them into however many you'll need and put a sheet of greaseproof paper between them and the next batch, then bag up
• I don't like Bisto, so I make a big batch of gravy from semi-scratch to my taste, then freeze it in single-serve blocks using one of these. Just pop it in a pan to defrost while you cook the roast, then heat through at the last minute www.oxouk.com/products/beverage/ice-cube-trays/covered-silicone-ice-cube-tray-large-cube
• ditto for what's left of big jars of passata, pasta sauce etc.
• get one of those single-serve hotel jam jars and fill with water, freeze, put a penny on top and then close the lid and stand upright in the freezer. If you have a power cut while you're out, you'll know how much your frozen food defrosted before it refroze by how far the penny is down in the ice. This one might actually be from an old MN thread.
• some fresh milk freezes very happily left in the plastic bottle it comes in, but freeze just a pint first to see if your supermarket one does

Agreed noidea, I freeze Waitrose semi skimmed in their pint bottles. It's just enough for the one person in our house who uses milk. I used to buy the big bottles and tip into smaller containers - what a daft waste of time! It's not so much dearer to buy in small bottles, and there's no waste.

I need a label printer

Placemarking

We need this! How do you do it exactly? Is it an app?

@neverornow we just use the Notes app- just make a note then 'share' with your OH via email/message then both can update/edit