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

Shamelessly placemarking as I love these threads!

Jars of minced garlic and minced ginger. So much easier

I go to the gym at 05:30 so I get my clothes ready and pre workout prepped in the fridge.

I'm generally messy and not good at keeping on top of chores so will be using these tips!

You are right, it might not be ideal, but I try not to sweat the small stuff. I wouldn't be cross with myself if I lost a pen / hairclip etc, so I have that attitude with the dc. They take care of their instruments / tech / sports kit etc, but they know I'm not going to be annoyed if they've left a lunchbox at school, or lost a cheap hair elastic, it makes for a more harmonious life.

You sound very organised! Impressive!

Some brilliant ideas here.

My assumption - and I may well be wrong - is that all/most contributors to this thread are women. To me it shows how thinly spread we all are, and how we have to absolutely wring every bit of productivity and efficiency out of our time!

As a commuter (fairly long distance by train), I notice that many, many more men than women nap on the train. I always think that most women - especially working mothers - don't have time to sleep on trains because they're too busy using those precious minutes to meal plan/order online food shop/write out Christmas cards/catch up on billions of child-related WhatsApp groups!

In case of a car accident, I have printed off the details of our car, (reg, model), our name and address, phone number, insurance company name, policy number and their emergency helpline telephone number. It's kept in the glove box, ready to hand to the person involved in the accident.

In case I turn to jelly after an accident, I have also made another little form listing all the information I need to obtain from the other driver and a biro to write with. I can hand that to the driver to complete if necessary.
Both forms (including some spares) kept in a poly pocket.

• my robot hoover has honestly made my life easier, best investment ever. After a bit of testing now my downstairs magically cleans overnight with zero effort. I don't even have to remember do to anything other than emptying its bin once a week-ish. I programmed it to just switch on every night at exactly 1pm, which is the time we are all (very) fast asleep in bed and don't even notice the noise.
• I batch cook and prep as much as possible. Often it doesn't feel like much but the odd time we are unwell/in a rush/can't be bothered is just so satisfying having nice food ready.
• I get the slot for my supermarket deliveries booked automatically every week at same day and time from Ocado. The website even fills my trolley with suggestions based on my previous shopping history. I only normally edit some bits, but it covers 95% of our needs. So much time and mental energy saved!
• My DH and I put any events/occasions/appointment in our phones and share it, so we always know who does what and when. It makes organizing our days so much easier (i.e. we label them like 'Gym - User147' or 'Football - DH'). For instance if I am planning to go out with a friend, my calendar will tell me which nights are free or if DH has previous commitments and can't look after our son and the other way round.

Yes! My household motto is “never leave a room empty handed!” It has made such a big difference to keeping on top of things.

Using 2 dishwasher tablets - everything comes out 100% clean (cheapo not very good dishwasher).

Milk delivery. That's all I get. It's about 10p a pint more than the supermarket but I no longer run out, think I'll pop to a shop for milk, and then come out with a bunch of stuff.

Bought duplicates of things that were always in the dishwasher - peeler, kitchen scissors, favourite knife.

Have a pound jar for school £1/£2 requests, tooth fairy, bake sales etc. When it gets low I go to the bank and change a £20.

I have a “needs eating” shelf in the fridge where any older veg etc and odds and ends that need finishing get put before unloading the new shop. Especially helpful now that supermarkets have stopped doing use by dates so you can’t see which food is older.

Library app to reserve books. And Libby for ebooks/audiobooks.

Photos of passports so I always have the details if I need them while on the go.

Frozen herbs - the Picard ones are really really good.

Batch cooking, and label using sharpie on a strip of masking or parcel tape. Can make the strip bigger if I need to write cooking instructions.

Given in to the tumble dryer.

Automatic cat feeder. Bloody love it.

Agree. Some fantastic ideas I'm stealing (especially the passport labels!!) but agree it will be mostly women thinking constantly about ways to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Mine are that I painted a wall in the kitchen with blackboard paint. Divided into three marked Food Shop, To Do and Important Dates. Family are trained to write on the top part as soon as they use something up, to do is dull things like renew pet insurance but having it on the board means I see it daily til I do it and Important dates is upcoming birthdays or events.

We have famcal and like pp you can't agree to anything til you check it and the person that has gets first dibs.

I have a laundry system that is beyond anal but I won't bore people with it.

I work ft, absolutely couldn't cope without multiple systems like this in place.

Put my tumble dryer in the (upstairs) bathroom

I ordered us all a lot of clothes hangers. A lot! So I never need to think again where to find a spare one or whether smth needs to go on a shelf instead of a rail. Same for the kids clothes.
I have stick on washable stickers for kids belongings at hand. And I stick them generously on everything. Gloves, hats, boots. Increases the chances of retrieving lost things.
A roll of bin liners in every bin (not kitchen in case it leaks). No need to look for a new liner ever again.
Never buy same colour sheets for different size beds.
Always add stuff to Amazon basket straight away.
Phone charges in every room and the car.

Great thread

• Agree with frozen garlic, ginger, onion and peppers. Pad out slow cook curries and casseroles with frozen spinach and green beans
• White board in inside of tall kitchen cupboard
• Batch cook when I can - less mess, less prep time, have ovens and slow cookers (have 2) on at same time.
• 3 of us but usually cook for 4 (as mince packs, chicken bags, etc are more likely to feed 4 as standard) and decant 4th portion into a freezable container and label, therefore always have a stack of "ready meals" to hand when we are running low on groceries, short of time or on hols and need to leave stuff for son.
• Put hangers in garage (where my washing machine is) and hang up stuff to dry - then easy to hang in wardrobes, cutting out folding (got that one on MN!)

Love this thread

LOVE this thread.

i have a (some-what) aesthetic catch-all basket in every room and on the stairs/landing.

imagine a seagrass, or cotton rope one and you get 2 points if it has a lid/cover!

This has massively helped my sensory overload when my 3 kids and husband are leaving shit all over the house!

so when you tidy up, things that don’t belong in that room or hasn’t got a place yet can go in the catch-all. Means it’s out of sight, out of mind and then when you’re up to it, you just tidy one basket at a time!

For holidays: packing cubes.

Please can you explain how these work. I have a brain issue. Can't compute.

This would be very useful if you had an accident. Isn't it a bit of a security risk to keep all those details in your car when it's unoccupied though? I would worry about what a thief could do with all those personal details.

Keep hi vis vests for everyone in the boot of your car. Breaking down in the dark is bad enough. If you need to get the kids out of the car, the last thing you want is for them to be invisible on the side of the road.

On a completely different note, label laptop cables.

I use an app called recipe keeper which is really easy to import recipes into, from that on a good week I can meal plan and create a shopping list in the app itself, on a bad week it's a go to place for meals I know I can make and will get eaten.

I use Evernote for absolutely everything and I have everyone's details (passport numbers, NHS numbers etc) on it. I'm generally the one doing things like chasing hospital appointments so it makes it easy. I also have a list called "where is it?" that I note anytime I put something somewhere and we're not going to need for years (like the car seat insert that DS1 has outgrown and DS2 will eventually need).

I have phone charging cables in every room.

I’ve been trying to deal with emails from school as soon as they arrive rather than planning to come back to them and forgetting….

I divorced both my husbands 😅.

Thanks to pp who recommended whistle fish , using that idea

carrier bags in boot of car instead of at home

work 6 weeks ahead , so buy bday presents approx 6 weeks before the date
it means you get something ‘ current’ but don’t have last minute running around

card box with cards (and stamps ! )

make notes on what worked for Xmas / Easter / bbq ( and what didn’t ) to refer back to for the next time

Have a charity shop bag on the go for stuff to be donated

Regularly go around the house with a bin bag and just bin all the junk that accumulates

Today I downloaded a calendar template in Word for our summer holiday plans. That way we know what is going on each week, rather than me searching my Gmail for reservations to check that's going on