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

They are meant to be environmentally unfriendly. I have no idea why. I had one in two consecutive houses and found them absolute game changers. I spend my life emptying the sink drainers now. I hate it.

I had a very similar thought!! 😂

For several roles I have, I email a family email address with kid stuff, rather than a parents personal one ([email protected]).
I don't know if this forwards to both parents email, or whether one parent checks it every day, but it seems like the way forward for any kids stuff!

I agree @twopencepetula , I’ve spent a couple of hours this morning disappearing down a wormhole of old physical photos, reliving fabulous memories…and it’s actually made me resolve to get more printed, not just save the physical ones digitally

My mum has a suitcase of old photos. We love killing an afternoon laughing and crying our way through them.

I’m even lazier and buy frozen ready chopped onion, butternut squash and spinach from Asda
Yes, yes, yes to pre-cooked rice!

I've just found bags of frozen pre-chopped garlic at the Asian supermarket.

It's loose in the bag, not in the big ice-cube chunks, so I can grab as much or little as I need for a meal. Fresh garlic is so ropey at this time of year, it's great to have a convenient alternative.

I do like the cubes of grated garlic or garlic & ginger for making curries, they speed things up so much.

I have two boil over protectors. They’re basically flower-shaped silicon lids with holes in the middle that you put over anything boiling on the hob. Also excellent for cooking rice in the microwave.

I decant dried goods into Kilmer jars and cut the label off the original packaging (e.g. the printed ‘wholemeal flour’ from the paper bag) and tape it to the top of the lid.

I also have children’s clothes and some shoes in the next size up ready to go when DS suddenly shoots up. Seasons here are more extreme than in the UK, but there are items of clothing he needs all year round (including for his sports clubs). As we buy a lot second hand, it means I can pick things up as I see them. As we don’t have school uniform here, I think he needs more clothes than I had as a child.

We have a whiteboard in the kitchen where things are written when they’ve run out/ low. I just snap a photo of the board before I go shopping.

I also buy heavily used stuff in bulk. Pasta in 10kg boxes, rice in 5kg bags, tonnes of tinned tomatoes, etc. It’s quite possible to live from our stock cupboard. Particularly as we have a lot of frozen veg, which is so convenient. Take a handful of whatever you fancy and steam it in the microwave.

When DS was smaller, I used to batch cook hidden veg sauce and freeze it in silicone muffin trays. It meant that we could quickly make him
pasta in sauce if we adults fancied eating something spicy.

Even younger, we used a lanyard to attach his dummy and cuddly toy to his pushchair/car seat. It meant that whenever he dropped either they didn’t land on the floor and get lost.

Got DH to do an equal share of housework.

Stopped worrying about what other people think so much.

ok maybe not small things 😂

just reflected on hoe revealing these responses are as to the extent mums worry about running a perfect household.

I write our names directly onto our passports with a white Jelly Roll gel pen.

If you want to use your passports for actually travelling, don’t do this.

Indeed
potentially it invalidates it as defaced

Love this! A lot of mine have been mentioned.

I would really appreciate label maker recommendations😊. I'll be using it for labels jars and storage boxes. Thank you

Potentially , I guess. 48 years of worldwide international travel with first name written on the back of mine in white chinagraph (wax pencil) suggests a lot of places aren't bothered.

Ok, just a note of caution but as you say 48 year travel no hiccups

I have a label maker and each shelf in freezer is labelled meat and meals, vegetables, fruit and desserts , miscellaneous. Saves so much time rooting about looking for the packet of peas im sure i bought....

@BeyondMyWits

Potentially , I guess. 48 years of worldwide international travel with first name written on the back of mine in white chinagraph (wax pencil) suggests a lot of places aren't bothered.

The trouble with that is that it only takes one airline/airport/border official to take a different view and you potentially can lose a flight, cost of trip and a lot of money. This was someone who was denied boarding because of a tiny peeling page which most people wouldnt think twice about

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/passport-damage-boarding-rules-how-to-guide-help-a8738491.html

Writing on your passport is technically defacement and all it takes is one irritable boarder official to run your holiday/business plans/visit. It's risk v reward isn't it? It's may be low risk but the damage if the risk eventuates is very high.
Is the benefit worth? it is the question and people will take different views.

Yes, this is why you shouldn’t write anything on your passport. Why take the chance. Good to warn people about it.

I watched Border Security Australia recently, and there was a man denied entering because of a peeling page. He had never thought it mattered. Expensive mistake.

We use an "easy peeling" label for putting our names on the covers of passports. If we come across a jobsworth airline/security staff, we can just very easily peel off the labels with no residue. But, in nearly 40 years of foreign travel, never happened yet!

After Christmas, I watch TV with a glass of wine in hand and check the Christmas cards we've received. I make a list of who's sent us cards and put it in the box of cards bought in the sales ready for next year. Next, I slug a mouthful of wine and cut the fronts off the cards to make gift tags. Then I have another sip of wine and make shopping list cards off the remains of the cards. All this while watching reruns of Frazier....

Love this thread!

I finally persuaded DH to use family online calendar (neither Google nor paper previously worked…). It also has space for to-do lists and shopping lists. Reduced a lot of arguing!

got a cleaner through the agency so it is much easier to rearrange/cancel/have coverage in case of sickness.

last year before we moved we also had a nanny doing nursery pick ups for DD, as we both work in high pressure jobs leaving for nursery pick up was very stressful. This way we could get home by 6-30/7 and one could even work till late if necessary

I have a similar ritual with my lovely new diary and a glass bottle of wine over Christmas.

@saturnspinkhoop
I was able to just live in reality again, not have to see the same toxic bullying behaviour i was tired of witnessing. It massively took the pressure off.