Tell me at one or two small thing you've done to make your life easier

[listsandbudgets]

I've done 2 this year

1. I've unsubscribed / marked as spam from nearly all my mailing lists. Now my inbox is an oasis of calm and I don't spend what feels like hours every week wading through emails I don't want My spam file is brimming over!
2. I found a sharpie and (once I was sure they were the right way round!) labelled my double fitted sheets with side and top - wish I'd done this years ago not having to shuffle them about trying to work out which way up they go

I do similar but write it on a piece of paper held in a magnetic clip. Then, I can just put that paper in my purse as a shopping list, or take it to my laptop to do a grocery order.

We have a "house email" to which all bills, big purchases and nursery stuff goes to. We can both access it and we use the calendar (Gmail) to put family stuff in, even which bins which week! Renew car insurance, compare electricity etc.

I bulk buy socks for each of us so they all match.

Always make up pack lunch night before, I make and freeze soups for myself for lunch, they defrost in the morning at work.

I got so stressed with the news during lockdown that I started to read 'La Monde'... I still wanted to know roughly what was going on but only the main facts without added hysteria. As I only have a fairly basic grasp of French, this was ideal. I've also learnt a few new French words in the process!

Thank you, but I still don’t understand it.

google calender:
everything on there in different colours...
colour for each persons activities
a colour for meals
a colour for shopping deliverys
red for medical / important stuff
pink for birthdays / days to remember.

Then the reminders.... "pay my cleaner" "book after school club" "water my plants" "transfer money between bank accounts" "put drain cleaner down drains" "book MOT" "buy car insurance"etc etc. Stuff that I do weekly / monthly / 6 monthly / yearly all just tells me to do it and i dont click done until its done.
also stuff thats a one off, i add a reminder to make me do it "pay scout trip"

Meal plan for the month / half term ahead (and yes i can change it nearer the time if i need to) (stick these meals and a link to the recipie on google calender)
Then i know for half a term we have a wide range of meals

Always have 2 - 3 supermarket delivery slots booked for the month ahead
add to them as i need to
(reminder on google calender to check out again the night before)

I have lots of everything i use alot.... sharp knifes / peeler / kitchen scissors / cheese grater. If I need it and use regularly I have more than 1 so it doesnt matter if its in dishwasher.

Only buy stuff that goes in dishwasher (except for wooden boards everything in my kitchen goes in) Dishwasher on at least once a day, normally after dinner and unloaded before bed.

Smol for dishwasher tablets / laundry detergent / spray... it just orders itself and arrives when required
WCAG for loo roll.... only need to think about it every 6months ish and never run out

Fridge set at 3C. Everything lasts a little bit longer than the date

Im lucky enough to have a large pantry and a large kitchen. In my large kitchen cupboard i have the stuff i use.... flour, sugar, cereal, rice, pasta, bread etc etc.
In my pantry I have a spare of everything so i never run out of anything.

Anything i run out of... as i run out "Alexa, add XXX to shopping list"

Alexa for reminders including reminders of what to do set for 7.30 while we are eating breakfast "Put beef stew in aga" (Beef stew prepped in advance but in my fridge)

Children get their own things ready and in a pile ready to go the night before. Uniform / PE kit / swimming Kit / baking ingrediants (with an alexa reminder to add the fridge stuff to it) are always ready the night before

Supply of cards / wrapping paper / tape / stamps / sharpies / blue tack / stapler / paper etc in the cupboard under the stairs.

Name stamp with surname so my children can share it to stamp quickly every thing they take in scout residentials and school residentials.

Milkman... I never run out of milk, but keep 1 UHT milk in my pantry just in case

Filing cabinate well organised and all important paperwork goes in so can be easily found

Cleaner who comes each week and keeps my house just so (I think she knows this house better than DH)

a pile of pound coins for tooth fairy / charity days at school

a trolley coin attached to all the car keys and 2 attached to the swimming bags (in case we need 2 lockers)

swimming bags always packed and ready to go

Fully stocked first aid kit in each car, and in the house and then a smaller travel one on the back pack that we use on days out

Fully stocked medicine cabinate with a spare of everything

Google wallet with all the loyalty cards saved into it

A pair of glasses in each car that I drive

Phone chargers everywhere and all our phones have the same charger, and then spare in each car, and extra spare to take on holiday etc

I'm only on page one and everyone is a genius!

I can't believe I've never heard of Whistlefish. If anyone else was similarly clueless, there's a 20% off code if you sign up to the newsletter (send it to your junk email address per a poster!)

I've done the same, but with my aging eyesight, I was still having issues recognizing the colors when I put things away after laundering them, so I have cut small notches in the care tags of the navy ones.

I do have one, actually - I have a little set of plastic drawers (probably intended for craft storage) in DD's bedroom with days of the week on. I put all uniform for the week in there on a Sunday including any PE kit/swim kit/club kits needed, underwear, and even shoes for the Monday.

It's DELIGHTFUL not scrabbling around for uniform in the mornings or having to remember what day it is and what she needs.

any emails / app messages to or about my children i whatsapp to them

Non uniform at scouts and wear trainers

"your child is in a netball match and X school on this date at this time"

"Stem club is cancelled" etc etc

"ingrediants to buy for baking next week"

Screenshot and whatsapp to them..... so much easier to find and they have the information too.

Important emails I forward to DH and vice versa so he has them too

Same for all bookings / confirmations etc etc

Every weekend we cook for the week. It is a nice time in the kitchen - we listen to music, an audio book or have an old film on in the background etc. We light candles day or night - you get the idea!

The good bit is this - each dish is left in it's pot and put into the freezer. This elimiates so many steps on a busy evening.

Each morning a pot is taken out of the freezer and left to defrost over the course of the day on the cooker. When we come home the only thing we have to do is heat it up. Literally - turn the knob.

Dinner is on the table by the time coats are hung up and hands washed!

No clean up, no faff, delicious food.

Agree! I've just been on the Whistlefish site and signed up too - the 20% discount code is good. There are some lovely cards on there, and I like to have a supply of cards in.

We have a Kallax unit that has a dedicated cube for each of the kids' hobbies. All relevant kit is kept in that cube, and if it needs washed it will go straight back into the cube once clean. The swimming cube has swim bags, costumes, goggles, shampoo, towels etc. for example. Kids can now easily locate and organise what they need for each club and we don't have that last minute panic of trying to locate their kit.

I also have a shoe cabinet by the front door with seasonal items. In winter it has a section each for gloves, hats, scarves etc and in summer it has caps, sunglasses and sunscreen.

The trick for both of the above is to train everyone in the household to put these items into their dedicated storage, I am having mixed results but improving as the kids get older!

Wow, FFSNHS, I'm in awe of your organisation with all those medical commitments!

Sending good wishes.·

Some great ideas on here, some of which I already do (after years of mistakes! 😊).
2 meals a week are always the same: Monday is egg chips and beans. Friday is steak.
Not earth shattering but I only have to plan 5 other meals.

I write people’s birth dates on the notes section of their contact details.
I have family WhatsApp groups ie one for food shopping so my teens can add items they need and I can check in shop

I do the same with stamps. Saves a lot of stress, especially when you are sending last minute birthday cards. 😊

I also buy cards in bulk and love Whistlefish. Started doing it when I had my planned c-section with DD 7 years ago just before all our family birthdays hit. I bought myself a concertina folder and labelled it with the months of the year, now whenever I buy cards they go straight into my concertina folder in the relevant month which lives on top of my wrapping paper organiser. I also have slots in there for congratulations cards, new baby, anniversary, etc etc.

Like others have mentioned we have a joint family calendar and if it’s not in the calendar then it doesn’t exist. We all have our own colours and EVERYTHING goes in it - dressing up days for school, special things that need taking in, play dates, birthday parties, annual leave, vet appointments, etc etc. Nothing gets agreed to without checking the calendar.

My husband and I will also message each other important things like if we change the wifi password/passwords for accounts we share so we can search for them later.

I have an ongoing note on my phone about Christmas and what went well and what didn’t/what recipes we used in years gone by/what not to bother with again/what we already have so I know not to buy it in the pre-Christmas rush next year. I also use the Santa’s Bag app to track all my gift purchases and it automatically keeps your old information on there so I can check budgets and purchases from past years.

We use Monzo for banking so make notes on all our purchases of what we’ve bought and if it’s something I think we may need to return I take a picture of the receipt and attach it to Monzo so I know I’ve got it.

I'm paranoid about missing a birthday, so made a Word document showing each month of the year, with the names and dates of birthday in chronological order under each appropriate month. The printout is on noticeboard in the kitchen....now all I have to do is make sure I look at it well in advance!

Like PPs, bulk buy generic presents for a whole year all in one go. Not in the UK, but there's a big toy shop near me that will periodically do 60% off sales and I just go hog-wild.

Lay outfits for both children out the night before and pack school/nursery bags as much as possible the night before. I feel like this is obvious, but I started really comitting to it in January as a kind of loose New Year's Resolution and it's been lifechanging.

Signed up to our vet’s reminder service, I get texts for vaccinations and when flea treatments are due.

something my DH does is always tidies the kitchen at night, so you come down to a clean space. Even if we’ve had people over, it’s always tidy in the morning. Starts the day off well. He’s like a house elf.

a pack of labels with our address on for sending stuff back.

You’re right. I always have a flat sheet under the duvet. The flat sheet is changed once a week. The duvet cover only needs changing once a month. I couldn’t bear to wash, change, iron a duvet every week.

You've blown my mind with the Me WhatsApp group idea I've just gone and done that! I'm going to use it to send pics to myself as visual reminders for when I can't add an item to my list, so for example I've just taken a photo of the car windscreen wiper which is dragging? To remind me to add this task to my list.

The each evening before putting my diary to bed () I'll check my own chat for things needing to be added.

Oh I also dons having a beautiful paper diary )I'm a Luddite) means I keep on top of my to do list. Using a lovely one from Papier this year which was a bit pricey but I'm really enjoying using it and it makes me keep it neat

(--Have a referral code if anyone wants it)

@erinaceus that is an excellent way to use said chat group!

Yes! I swear one minute's work the night before saves ten in the morning! Why is that??

I love this thread, I've just spent £20 at Whistlefish. BTW top tip for anybody placing their first order, scroll the bottom of the homepage first and get the 20% off code.

The one thing that makes my life exponentially easier is something I do each night when I put my daughter to bed. I get everything I need for the next morning and put it altogether in one place - within reach of where I get her dressed: Outfit, pants, socks, hair bobble, hair clip, hair brush on top of her towel. Then she's straight on the towel, dressed and hair done - then off she can go and play before nursery. It means I'm not up down up down up down and looking for things, which she always takes as an opportunity to dash off to play with something so I have to coax/manhandle her back where I want her, repeat x3 times!

Makes getting ready for nursery a doddle. She's 4 now but I still do it!

The other thing is a note on my phone for what we're having for dinner this week, complete with link to the recipe if online or book name/page number if in a cookbook. This was out of necessity due to the amount of times I've ordered an online shop and then managed to forget what I'd ordered and why...

Last thing - if I'm listing a load of stuff on Vinted, keep everything together in a big lidded tub with any packaging I've hoarded to reuse, scissors, a pen, tape. And death to anyone who touches it!