What is ONE item that changed dramatically and surprisingly your home life for the better

[Bookbooks]

Looking for inspiration to start the process of tidying up (all aspects of) my life.
I already posted another thread related to this.
As an individual, I am very organised and perfectionist. I love order, cleanliness and tidiness. BUT, my house/ life rarely looks the part. I want to sort out my life once and for all so that it is always either spick and span or easily back on track.

On this thread I'd like to ask you what is ONE item (big or small/ expensive or cheap) that, when you acquired, changed your home life for the better so dramatically and surprisingly that you honestly wonder how you were able to cope before it graced your life.

I have a whiteboard on the fridge door with all meal plan/batch cooked dinners written on it.

I no longer tolerate the conversation that goes
Me: what do you want for dinner?
DH: what have we got?
Me: reels off all the options from memory whilst he very visibly stops listening
DH: dunno

This, but presumably that doesn't help with the research.

But as you asked, my woodburning stove.

A freestanding larder cupboard from Etsy. Now I can see all my tins, cereals etc easily so I always know what I have and never run out. I got 2 in the end, look beautiful too.

Bullet diary. Great way to brain dump and still locate everything when you need it.

@Shivermytimber please could you share a link?

Annoyingly the alexas. I’m not keen on the concept in general but being able to use the as intercoms around the house has taken away the shouting upstairs, I use it as a timer for cooking, we turn the lamps on and off with them including when we are not at home for the evening and want to use it as security, we use them as speakers, we can check on elderly parents who can also use it in emergencies if they have a fall or something and can’t get to the phone, we add the shopping list to it and birthday reminders etc etc

My magnetic shopping list and pen holder. It lives on the fridge and people add to it as we run out of items then I just tear off the page and take it shopping with me. The magnetic pen holder means I'm never scrabbling round for the pen.

I agree with having the same socks. Luckily DDs are a similar size so they both just wear grey school socks. Mine are all black and DHs are all navy. Makes sorting and pairing socks so much easier and I just bought a bulk lot of them for each person.

More than one bin in our bedroom.

Understairs fitted drawers

A few apps, done, structured and Sweepy.

Also gusto and my workout app.

A "where stuff is" spreadsheet.
We have a large boarded over loft and a too small kitchen, so I keep rarely used kitchen stuff in the loft in several boxes. I know exactly where everything is.

I also keep a spreadsheet of freezer contents and another one with household admin stuff.

These little clips that go on th washing line so you can hang hangers on them so I can hang tops on hangers rather than pegging
rarely need to iron now

Dishwasher, I wouldn't be without. Also cordless Dyson means my floors are vacuumed on a more regular basis.

I found the Decree Nisi helped.

also a steam mop.

Taking our ironing to the local ironing shop. Well worth the money because ironing kills my back. I don't take everything, just stuff that takes a while to iron.

Fireplace for your Home, a one hour programme on Netflix which is just that, a fireplace with some burning logs.

Friends laugh when I tell them that the three versions now available of Netflix are by far our most ‘watched’ programmes on the service.

I think I played ‘birchwood edition’ three or four times yesterday while I sat in my front room either reading or researching holidays on my laptop.

We don’t have a real fire and although this obviously is a pale imitation of the really thing it transforms the big black ugly rectangle of the tv into something that brings calm and comfort into the room. The flickering light and soundtrack brings me immediate calm. So SO weird, I know it is, but I love it.

dh prefers The Witcher fireplace as I suspect he likes to imagine himself sitting alongside some warriors wearing an ace or something 😂

Groceries delivered online.
Subscribe & save with Amazon.
Cordless vacuum.
Matching black socks and white socks for everyone so no more trying to match up socks every week.
Airfryer.
Dishwasher.
Tumble dryer.
And most importantly I say no to things that I don't want to do. I no longer people please.

I know you said you don’t have carpets, me either but I still love my robot hoover. Mine even has a mop attachment!

For those that mention robot hoover- can you give recommendations please?

Robot hoover/mop and our robot lawnmower. I would replace both instantly if they broke, regardless of cost.

Air fryer is used just about every day too, I would find it hard to go back to our big oven for everyday stuff now as it takes so long.

Trofast storage for playroom with picture labels of what's inside. DD1 can easily find what she wants to play with and is more likely to tidy away when everything has a set place!

BlocOut blinds for kids' rooms. No more faffing about with stick-on blackout stuff or light seeping in the sides during summer months.

We have a basic Eufy (15C I think) upstairs. It doesn't have many smart features so it just bimbles around bashing into stuff but does a good job.

We have a fancier Deebot N8+ downstairs that hoovers and mops and maps your house so it cleans methodically and you can set it to clean specific areas. It also has a self-emptying function so you don't have to empty the dust bin every time; it docks at a station and empties into a bigger one you only have to empty once a month or so.

We started with just the Eufy and used it for about 18 months before deciding we wanted a fancier one for downstairs. With two young kids, a dog, cat, and lots of coming and going from garden into kitchen, our Deebot (Nessie) is out at least twice a day! Our Eufy (Gus) goes out every couple of days upstairs.

Shame they haven’t invented a robot vacuum that can do the stairs.

This sounds lovely and I had no idea these were on Netflix. <lunges for remote>

I’ve got a combo air fryer/pressure cooker that does about 90% of the cooking now. Very handy. Although I wish the ceramic stuff they make the cook pots out of was tougher; they all seem to chip and flake after a while.

Love this!