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

As a rule, only answer life admin type emails in the mornings.

If such emails arrive in the afternoon, mark them as unread and deal with them the following morning, unless time-dependent and needing a reply before COB that day.

In my view this (1) frees up my mental space (2) makes my replies more considered and less impulsive (3) makes me look busy and important.

I also disable notifications on all apps or as many as I can get way with.

I left Facebook.

Mini folding stepladder in my wardrobe for upstairs jobs like getting suitcases down, changing lightbulbs etc. Plastic folding stepstool in kitchen which is kept between recycling bins for getting things from high shelves.

Where did you get the Pyrex containers? This is what I need, can’t bear Tupperware!

IKEA do them at a reasonable cost in different sizes.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/ikea-365-food-container-with-lid-rectangular-plastic-70507963/

Decluttering. It’s built up again while I’ve been on maternity leave and incapacitated by rascal baby, leaving DP free to hoard/Amazon Prime endless shite we don’t need. But any time our drawers are basically empty of everything except things we actually regularly use, life is much easier.

Corralling everything. Eg. we have a chest of drawers under the TV: top drawer is wrapping paper, sellotape, ribbons, scissors. Second is Jiffy bags, parcel tape, envelopes, stamps. Bottom is presents and cards for birthday parties. Everything relevant goes in here as it comes in the house: boxes we can reuse for sending stuff, gift and party bags in good condition to reuse. A scale for weighing parcels and buying postage – otherwise DP steals the kitchen one and I can’t bake.

Three random shite baskets on a shelf, where the pointless tiny detritus things go: one for me, one for DP, one for the kids. When they’re full, the contents are redistributed to rightful homes. It’s quicker than endlessly putting tiny things away: just take the crayon, hairslide, apple headphones, gift card, single sock, etc, to the baskets.

Pantry cupboard.
Academic year wall calendar with all the school holidays marked up.
Meal plan on the fridge.
Kids’ pickup and activity schedule on the wall.
Designating a single landing spot for rainy coats etc and putting a dehumidifier there instead of scattering things.
List of what’s in the freezer.
Freeze everything! Even small things. Gravy from the roast, always make stock and freeze that, small amounts of mashed potato, leftover herbs (recipes are always “two basil stalks” and the packet is always “lots and lots”). There’s always a day when someone’s out, someone else has a play date, we just need a small kids’ meal and there’s a sausage, single mash and gravy ready in the freezer.

In general, designating a spot for stuff and having as little of that stuff as possible.

I’m saving up for an antique apothecary cabinet: the tiny drawers are, to me, ideal for batteries, lightbulbs, pens, bin bags, little umbrella, headphones, face masks, hair slides, all the small items that spill around a house and clutter it.

A pp has mentioned, put it in your Amazon basket right away.

I do this, I was looking for a pedestal fan, so each one that looked promising was put in the basket. Only then did I go look at reviews. let's be honest, one fan at 24.99 looks just like another fan at 24.99.

Same with food bags, woolly hats, chopping boards. Even mini food hampers that I bought for a birthday present. Add them all, then go look to see which is best for your needs. As an aside, I was looking for a silent fan, and reading the reviews of one that said yes the fan is silent, but for the loud beep it makes when you turn on/off/change speed. Who would want a silent fan to beep at you? Whats the actual point of a silent fan? To be whisper quiet? So why add a beep?

I have stopped listening to the news too and switch off the radio if the subject is something depressing . Unfortunately OH is a news junkie so we are often in conflict. I have accepted that all politicians are lying scum and the world is doomed. I try to live my life in a morally responsible way and focus on that. Keep my footprint as small as possible ecologically and do no harm.

Doing a massive de clutter which I repeat every 6 months or so and throwing away anything I don’t love or need.

Having a place for everything in the house.

Having a cleaning rota for each day of the week. This means I’m always on top of the cleaning and cleaning a room each day doesn’t take long as it’s not been that long since it was last done. Saves me from hours of cleaning in one go.

Tidying the house each night before bed.

Not going upstairs without taking the stuff on the stairs that needs to go up.

Making lunch’s for everyone while dinner cooks.

Making quick meals only on my working days.

A list of things we’ve run out of on the fridge.

A saved shopping list on Asda of all our regulars we use weekly so I can add the whole thing to my shop.

Buying a massive bulk buy of different cards so I’ve always got some in.

A pound in the car.

Cash in a drawer at home for when I might need it.

A charity bag on the go which gets moved to the car when it’s full.

I don’t understand this one, please explain more. Thanks

In December and June I buy cards for the next 6 months worth of birthdays and events online. Label them and then put them away. Also buy a few generic extras for kids parties that may come up.
when I’m with friends/ family and they make any comment about things they like/dislike I write it on my phone notes. Come their birthday I’ve normally got a good list of things they love and some quick present ideas

A laminated shopping list and whiteboard pen on the fridge so everyone just needs to tick what we need.

Shared Google calendars, I have loads of different calendars depending on what it's for and who needs to access it. Everything goes straight on it, party invites are replied to immediately and appointments are made at my last one and noted on the calendar.

A decent thermal label printer, great for parcels, letters and gift tags.

A big stock of stamps bought years ago for loads cheaper than they are now. I buy them in packs of 100x or 50x.

I limit checking the news to only once a day
I have also put a 2 minute delay on my work emails for just general ability to change before it really goes.
At home - sharpies are great for bedlinen labelling, dating batch cooking etc. I also got a purpose built wrapping paper plastic box which keeps it tidy. I have a similar smaller box in bathroom cabinet for those odd small things.
We have limited gifts to £10 for adults in our family. For awkward gift recipients I have started to get charity/wildlife sponsor gifts. Hedgerow conservation has gone down well.
Bra extender straps off Amazon are fab for those comfy days!

Not Trello as a previous poster does, but I've outsourced my brain to Google. Email, calendar, tasks, notes and the shopping list feature in notes.

I treat the shopping list more like a to do list for when my hands are full by telling my car to eg 'add Ring Sarah to my shopping list'. If you set it up right, Gmail will autofill stuff like flights, hotels and trains into your calendar which is helpful.

My Tasks Include daily reminders like feed the animals (just in case!), weekly ones like do online supermarket shop and put out bins and annual ones for stuff like car insurance, plus lots of stuff I put in reactively like 'did joiner ring back' or 'book tickets for event'. It makes my calendar a Single Source of Truth on one screen for what's going on!

Notes has everything - packing lists, meal inspo, notes of what I can't get at my usual supermarket and where else sells it, a list of the gaps in my wardrobe I'm trying to fill, parcels that are due to arrive, everyone's medical info, spring cleaning jobs so I can tick one off if I've got a spare half hour, holiday and present ideas, an actual shopping list, you name it.

This is great!
the Structured app has been a game changer for me. It’s a visual timeline of my day and it made me realise just how much time I was wasting.

Was a little faff to set up at first but now it’s a dream, things like the school run are recurring and I can see exactly how much time I have left until x, y, or z. It has a focus timer for each task and I don’t put in each individual task but I put a block of time for ‘high street errands’ for example and then add everything I need to get done whilst I’m out as subtasks I tick off on the go. Each morning and night I do a quick review of the day and it makes me feel so much more ahead of life.

I used google calendar in the past but can’t explain why this has made it so much easier to stick with, it might be the way it’s visually set out and ease of input/editing.

Great thanks! I’m going to IKEA next week!

Oh and a Sharpie and a roll of masking tape in the kitchen. Makes labelling stuff going into the freezer (lots of little bits and meal prep as PPs above) a breeze and it comes off really easily afterwards.

Ooh! Forgot the corralling exception: when we moved into this house we used the linen cupboard for linen and kept all the bedding together. Except you don’t wash all bedding at once, four beds’ worth wouldn’t fit. So now each bed’s accompanying sheets, pillowcases, waterproof covers, winter duvets, blankets etc, are kept in the room with the bed they go on. No need to label them as each set is roughly a wash, so it gets washed, pegged, moved back to its home without ever encountering a differently sized set. (Not to mention DD has violently pink floral sheets and I have white, so we’re unlikely to get in a muddle…)

My list:
No notifications,
No spam email
Yes to batch cooking and planing meals
Yes to uniforms and clothes ready the night before.
Yes to have a stash of toilet paper, kitchen roll, dishwasher, toothpaste, gel, shampoo and non perishables, so most of my shoppings are quite quick and light.
No to follow ex in any SM or engage with him in his never ending look at me conversations.

Basically all had been said by PP

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I have a FItBit, which reminds you at 10 minutes to the hour if you've not done 250 steps that hour. I work from home the majority of the time and it's very easy to sit on my bum all day! However, I've really been trying recently to do the min 250 every hour so when I get the reminder I spend some time doing odds and ends round the house - folding laundry, coming downstairs and putting washing up away, walking round with a duster. It's only about 5mins every hour but it's amazing how much difference it makes to keeping the house in order and it get me moving and away from the screen regularly too.

Careful with the stamps from years ago- if they don’t have the bar code on them then you can’t use them any more.

We try to have an annual household declutter, which helps a lot. Then over the next 12 months the house mysteriously re-fills itself …

I’ve sorted the airing cupboard and put all the bedding in sets. Inside one pillowcase now is the matching duvet cover, three more pillow cases and a fitted sheet.

I bought sheets of my own address labels at Christmas from Etsy for Christmas cards to remind people of my new address but I’m now using them for the back of parcels to show who the parcel is from. I sell a lot of items on eBay & Vinted.

I also buy bulk birthday, occasion & Christmas cards & wrap from Whistlefish so I always have a card to hand for any purpose.

I buy birthday & Xmas gifts for 22 family & friends throughout the year. I downloaded an app called Gift List to keep track of what I’ve purchased for each person.

For family and friends who live far away, I try to think of quality gifts that can be delivered direct to them such as Betty’s tea room gifts, Piglet Pantry afternoon tea, Lily O’Brien Chocolates, Fortnum & Mason Xmas hamper, various companies that make and deliver home made cakes & brownies, floral & house / garden plant gifts, Hot Diamond jewellery etc

I live alone so when I cook, I make at least three portions and freeze the spares.

There’s probably something in this but my solution is a joint email address with my husband. All school, child, medical, admin related emails go to the joint one (and no spam/shopping stuff) so we can both access it. Joint email is used for online Tesco shop etc so it’s not all in my name. It’s made a big difference.

I think this is very true! It’s certainly the case in our household. I also can’t imagine a Mensnet with men swapping tips like “put away, not down”. The only people I know who put stuff on the bottom of stairs to go up, or leave the room with things to tidy away, or put things in the dishwasher rather than vaguely dishwasher adjacent, are women. We’re all outsourcing our brains to Google, Siri, etc, but I suspect a lot of men are outsourcing their brains to us…