3 top things that make life a bit easier!

[VAM24]

Full time working mum to a toddler and just interested in little things that have made your lives a bit more convenient in getting every day jobs done that I can start doing too! (in the absence of being able to afford a full time cook/cleaner/gardener!). Could be something you've bought/ something you do etc.

For example (and this is mega basic) but getting my DDs nursery outfits for the whole week sorted on a Sunday makes my mornings much less frantic and I am considering getting a hive connected to our boiler so I can more easily control our hot water and heating around our lives.

Looking for inspiration! X

This is very very smart. I should do this. I spend a LOT of time routing through the freezer!!!

Some great tips here! So glad I'm not the only one feeling overwhelmed by work / family life!

My tips are:

• limit the amount of toys / books my toddler has at any one time. The more toys she has access to the more get thrown all over the house and the more to tidy. She's happier playing with just a few toys at a time anyway.

• batch cooking and portioning food once a week, casseroles / curry / bolognese etc. so I only have to cook pasta or rice. And on the subject of rice - the 39p packets of microwave rice from Lidl have been a game changer!!

• I bought a load of cheap second hand clothes from Vinted for nursery, that I just wash every week and have it all together in a drawer. I don't put nice outfits for nursery as they never use bibs for food OR craft. So it means zero planning or thought for nursery clothes.

• Online weekly food shop, saves so much time.

Clothes for me and DD sorted for the week! Online shop done arriving tomorrow, kettle full ready for the morning ☺️

Thanks for all the tips and tricks, I am feeling good about this week now and will keep incorporating them! Xx

I'm inspired to go fill my kettle and sort my clothes now 😂

DH, DS,DD (both adults) and me

I have two washing baskets in the upstairs hall , a Dri-Soon , small heated area and some rails to hang clothes over the stairwell

I seperate washing into White/Light Colout/Dark Colour/Black/My Scrubs
Socks (for each person) go in a laundry net bag , anything delicate , jumpers , in bags
Tops and trousers on hangers , either outside on hooks that can hold 12 hangers and those peg hangers for smalls .
Dry , hang up till ready to go away .

Costco for loo roll , binbags , kitcen bin bags ,soya milk

Fridge freezer indoors and 2 small chest freezers in the garage (suitable for outbuildings) and we take a photo of the contents before each shopping trip .

I don;t mealplan, I don't want to know exactly what I;m eating that night , but we do a list of meals and DH ( WFH and finishes earlier than I get home) starts the meal.

Lightweight vacuum downstairs I use for the hall carpet and the hard floors .
Bigger vacuum upstairs for more thorough cleaning

Basket upstairs and bin in kitchen for recyclables .

Soup Maker to use up any vegetables and tomatoes , left over roast potatoes get frozen to go in soup.

Chop 5-6 big onions finely and roast when the oven is on, freeze in small tubs

Rice Cooker - amazing little thing , goes in the microwave , perfect rice

Tumble dryer - only got one with the third child and I should have got it years ago! Heat pump so doesn't use too much electricity.

Dishwasher - and run it every night whether I think it's full or not - 90% of the time, I think "I'd better run around and find bits to put in it" and it magically gets filled up anyway. The rare nights it's not 100% full I run it anyway as it throws the routine off if not. Game changing.

Rice cooker - sounds silly but it's a whole new carb that goes with so many things or they can just eat a plate of plain rice (or rice cooked in stock with peas in) - it's a million times easier than faffing around with pans of water and is distraction-proof. (Honourary mention also for slow cooker, for relocating meal prep from the chaotic hours to the calmer mornings, and air fryer for prepping individual beige dinners and part-bake rolls etc more quickly and less dangerously than the oven.)

small heated area = airer (Aldi bargain)

A partner who does their share.
Getting everyone to take off shoes and coats at the porch and leave them in there.
Having one place where keys go when we come in the house
Online food shopping
Not stressing too much if the house is not clean

Ohhhh yes I totally agree to generic card/present stock! That's a very UK tip though it doesn't work here in Germany. Children don't give birthday cards to each other (good!!) and parents give a gift list for parties (I hate this )

I have no tips but need to do all of the above.
Although currently in bed debating whether to run down and fill the kettle!

A few years ago I really streamlined my life. Declutter and gradually reduce the amount of stuff you have in your home. Saves on tidying up and searching for lost stuff. Everything has a home.

Weekly meal plan and online food shop. Bulk cook if you can and never have an empty freezer. Have enough in your cupboards to make a couple of meals out of nothing.

Dishwasher on every night. Washing machine on in the morning if there is a loadful. Part of the going to bed/ getting up routine.

Online calendar that absolutely everything goes into, including alarms and reminders set for enough time to actually prepare for them (to put the bins out- reminder night before bin day/ put repeat prescriptions in- 2 days before it's due/ birthdays- reminder a few days before to pick up and post a card/ pay for school trips on time, the list goes on!) This has single handedly been a game changer for me. It also allows me to see how busy weeks are in advance and plan easy meals for the more chaotic days.

Finally, don't feel bad asking for help if you can. Nobody gets any prizes for muddling through and struggling alone!

Im another batch cooker, but i also buy frozen pre chopped onions to save prep time, and I cook loads of bacon and chicken breasts and freezer them, they can be easily mixed with lots of different things

Shoes live by the door we leave from in a basket. Then you can always find them when you are heading out

An extra set of toothbrushes and hair brush etc in the downstairs loo for the mornings. My DC always get dressed before leaving their rooms in the morning on school days, so once they are downstairs, they are not going back up

Never start something with small DC you dont want to keep doing for the next 5 years (sleeping in your bed/drinking cola/not holding your hand crossing the road). Its really really difficult to reset expectations and habits…hmm this isnt a thing, but still useful!

Top three that have helped me:

1. Loads of extra children's pants, socks, hats, scarves and gloves. That way you can always find some when you need them instead of ripping up the house when it's minus five outside and the only toddler hat has disappeared, or you've got behind on the laundry and there are no clean pants after they've wet themselves again.

1. Cordless vacuum

1. Separate laundry baskets for however many different types of wash you do (I have four though ideally would have five!). That way it's just grab the basket and take to the machine whenever one is full. No sorting required.

I use Lollipop to do my meal planning and online shop.

It's a free app and it's like ordering a Gusto/Hello Fresh box, but buying products from Sainsbury's.

It takes me about 20 minutes per week to do a meal plan and put the online shopping order through, and I'm saving money as I'm not buying random stuff. It's a fantastic time saver!

I also have a calendar (old fashioned, paper) which is a life saver. I have the meal plan on there, also a shopping list section, and I've trained everyone in the house to use it. If it's not on written on the shopping list, I don't buy it, and first thing written on the calendar events wise takes precedent. It took a while to get the rest of the family trained, but they've got it now. "Muuuuum, did you buy me xxxxx?" "I did if you put it on the shopping list". End of discussion.

Best advice for making life easier...

Not

Having

Kids

But that's already too late for me, so my next three tips would be:

Meal plan - I have a monthly plan stuck on my kitchen cupboard that saves me having to think every week about what to make. I don't stick rigidly to it, but it saves so much time and gives me "dinspiration" when I'm lacking ideas.

Declutter - we downsized house 2 years ago and I had to get rid of so much stuff. Wasn't easy, as we've 4 kids, but I was ruthless. Don't miss any of it. Less you have, less to tidy. I now get rid of stuff much quicker - as soon as the kids grow out of clothing it goes into a charity bag. If they stop playing with a certain toy that they've grown beyond I hide it for a couple of months and if they don't notice then it goes too (told you I was ruthless...)

Get the kids to do their bit - they all have age-appropriate chores that help out round the house (emptying dishwasher, setting table, tidying up the shoes etc.) This also helps them understand how much work is involved in running a busy house and they are more aware about not adding to that unnecessarily (e.g. they are less likely to leave their shoes lying all over the place if they are the one having to tidy them all up later).

Batch cooking
Dog walker
Cheese on toast

Online shop and - especially with fussy toddlers - a meal plan.

Dishwasher. The day we bit the bullet and removed a cupboard to put one in my life changed for the better, no joke!

Tumble dryer.

Love this!! Single mum to a 3 year old working full time alongside trying to set up a small business. My resolution for this year is to streamline our lives to make day-to-day things easier. Things that are working best so far:

• Nursery bag is full to the brim and stays at nursery, with a spare coat and wellies. Not having to remember anything in the morning saves so much faffing!
• It’s not for everyone but I absolutely swear by Gousto. Meal planning/shopping/prepping felt like a huge part of the mental load for me. Freezer is also full of batch cooked meals for when I don’t fancy cooking.
• Ingoing and outgoing boxes by the front door. Stick important post in it when it arrives to review that evening. Anything that needs to be taken out (post to be delivered, letters for nursery, cards) in the out box to pick up on the way out.
• Laundry baskets everywhere. Have one in the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. Had such a habit of leaving clothes everywhere! Also a large basket I put clean clothes in for when I don’t have time to put them away, so they aren’t out and cluttering the rooms and I know where to look if I need something.
• Filofax. Love of my life. Contains everything. Diary with everything visually (and I write down everything, incl work shifts and nursery days even though they’re always the same, so that it’s clear to see when we’re in the house and when we’re out). Budgeting, to-do lists, shopping lists, everything goes in the Filofax so I know where it is.
• DDs corner. Love the idea of toy rotation but have no where to store the things that are out of rotation. DD has a corner of the living room where all toys have a visually labelled place. Part of her bed time routine is putting everything in her corner so it’s already out of the way for me when I start tidying. She has learned that she needs to keep it tidy if she wants to find her toys when she wants them!

Havent read the full thread so all of this has probably been said, going to sit down with a cuppa and see everyone’s suggestions now!

Oh also - I love a subscription! Who Gives A Crap for toilet paper. Smol for detergent and dishwasher tablets. Nuud for deodorant. Ocean saver for cleaning products. Never run out of anything!

Crockpot
Cleaner if and when you can afford
Good planning

I don't have a dishwasher so every night before going to bed I empty the drying rack and either put things away or leave them out for the morning.

My kids (3 and 1yo) tidy up their toys before bedtime. I play a tidy up song and once they are done I put on another song for us to dance to.

I have a chest of drawers upstairs with bigger sized kids clothes or things that are out of season (gifts, hand me downs or sale bargains). Each size is in a labelled section so when the kids need a bigger size of something I can go pull it out immediately.

Don't iron. Anything. Ever.

2 kids and 2 adults in our house. If it needs ironing we don't buy it. De crease as things come out of the washing machine and hang very carefully.

I gave up ironing when mine were 1 and 2.

Batch cooking, but when you're cooking anyway! We have a few of those pyrex freeze and cook things, and they're genius! Had spaghetti and meatballs the other week, and turned half into a pasta bake and froze it, now on a busy day, I just need to take it out the freezer in the morning, and when we get in shove some cheese on the top and in the oven.

I put my washing machine on timer, so it comes on early morning, and then it's ready for me to either put in the dryer in the morning before I leave the house. It just makes washing a bit of a non job.

I never found online food shopping worked for us, as I usually had to go to the supermarket anyway for something they had substituted. But a big monthly shop around payday worked, portioned up and froze lots of bits, and then I only need a small shop each week, that doesn't take anywhere near as long.

Cordless hoover! Makes doing a quick whip round a 5 minute job rather than a 20 minute one!

Click & collect shopping every Sunday.
Slow cooker- an absolute godsend.
Tumble dryer

Additionally, we have very few clothes that need ironing. Husband works from home and only once in a blue moon he irons a shirt to wear with a suit for events. When I work, I wear dresses in fabrics that don't need ironed.

But above everything- minimalism. We try to own just what we need and no more. Keeping on top of housework is easiest if you don't have a house crammed with things you don't really need.