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 have at least one pair of scissors in every room.

I have a radio in every room.

I have an upstairs and a downstairs hoover.

Thanks, I did worry about it but Royal Mail offered a stamp swap last years.

On a Sunday I cook a batch of leftover fridge veg curry or pasties. These get frozen for quick work lunches for DH and I and saves on food waste.
Cleaning kitchen down before bed and emptying dishwasher before school run.
Chuck a wash on in my lunch break.

This thread is everything 😆❤️

I never ever watch or listen to the news ever.

I have a WhatsApp group with just me in it called ‘things to keep’ and send everything in there that I think I might need again. (The receptionist at Harry Potter Studio showed me that and I was amazed.)

I don’t like packing cubes but LOVE vacuum bags for holidays, one for each person. Fill them up and suck the air out of them, absolutely brilliant. Then when we get there I just hand each person their bag, they sort it out and then use them for dirty clothes as the week goes on.

A folder with 31 favourite recipes. I use this to meal plan while I do my online shop. For instance, I'll get out the recipes for 10-17 and order the ingredients for next weeks meals. It means we never get into the rut of sausages every Tuesday.

I make a note in my calendar of how many boxes of Christmas stuff we put in the loft, so that DH knows how many to get down in December.

I put friends' DC's birthday and year of birth in my calendar with a yearly repeat. I can easily see if it's a special birthday eg 10 or 18 without having to try to work it out.

Well it might not be popular on here as it involves quite heavy tumble drying but with with 2 boys and lots of sports it's needed, so;

1. 5 laundry baskets, one for each person in bedrooms and one hanging on on the back of the utility room door. The last is for any clothes downstairs hanging around and saves me going upstairs to put dirty clothes in the upstairs baskets.

2. 4 large laundry bags with handles that can be thrown down stairs. Much quicker than a basket I have to carry.

3. Apart from towels, all laundry loads are by person. They go into the washing machine and then the tumble dryer ( or hung up in utility) then back into the bag and back to the persons room. Means minimal sorting. I don't sort socks all socks are black.

4. As pp have said, clothes not going in the dryer immediately on hangers so when dry they go straight into the wardrobe

I make sure I do at least one load everyday so it's spread through the week. Get a load on first thing then it's ready to go back up after work.

Then sheets, towels, etc get done on the weekend.

Following as need this!!

Every so often I buy black fabric dye and redye my black jeans, keeps them looking new for longer and means I don't have to go out and find new ones just because they've faded.

I have a WhatsApp group with just me in it which I use to draft heated WhatsApp messages it would be better not to send 😳

The 31 recipes idea is genius! I am stealing this one. Thank you 🙏🏼

Wardrobe is sorted by type and colour so all work dresses are together graded by colour and pattern. All jeans ranging from black to light blue. All long sleeved tops, skirts and jumpers the same. The jumper rail in my wardrobe starts at grey then black navy green pink yellow oatmeal etc. makes pairing things much simpler. Tights all neatly rolled and in a box.
Packing cubes for holidays and work trips. Wash bag for work trips always packed/topped up I just need to chuck make up and a comb in it!
I can be packed for a work trip, dressed for work and out the door in no time. Which is great for the early starts for longer work trips.
Like others lists for hols of different types in apple reminders
Lists of meals we like split by veggie and meat including where the recipe is if it's not something I know how to make off the top of my head
Items added to ocado shop as soon as I notice they are running out
Dog stuff (for dog activities) always packed in the car and including spare coats and wellies for all humans. Emergency dog food serving in the glove box just in case plus high viz, first aid kits etc
Washing is split by labelled boxes so no sorting, take a box stick it in the wash, everything in the box can be washed the same

As I get more menopausal I find my need for lists is increasing and I've started emailing myself from home to work to remind me to do things. It's a pain in the arse

Make a giant tray of lunch on Sunday, ready to quickly pack a portion each morning for work. Kind of like the mason jar salad trend, but I don't have room in my fridge for separate jars.

Ziplock bags in the freezer that I fill with diced red onion/diced brown onion/diced garlic/garlic paste/ginger paste. Then I just need to scoop out the amount I need and it cuts down cooking time when I’m in a rush.

Meal planning. We do Gousto on and off, and keep all the cards we like. Having the recipe cards laid out each week knowing we’ve got the ingredients (whether from the box, or because I’ve done a separate shop) really helps the mental load.

A little ziplock bag in a kitchen drawer containing spare batteries of all sizes, plus a mini screw driver for taking the backs off toys to put them in.

A “uniform” for when I’m in the office: white/cream tops/jumpers, blue/green trousers/skirts, neutral shoes/boots. I can then be confident that almost everything works together. I also look out my clothes (inc underwear) on Sundays for the week ahead. Plus my biggest lays out his clothes every night before school.

A load of washing a day. Never leave a room without an item for the room I’m going to. All washing up/vacuuming done every night; but we also have a cleaner so I only ever have to keep on top of things.

Freezer organised into breakfast stuff and frozen fruit, proteins/meals, frozen veg and carbs. Makes it easy to see what we are short of.

Packets of pre-cooked rice. Takes ages otherwise, plus I’m shit at cooking it for some reason.

The App Recipe Keeper - so so good. It easily imports online recipes (and also functions to scan etc.) - so you have all favourite recipes in one place. When it imports them it also formats the recipe so that ingredients show on left and method on right all within view. It takes out all the 'filler' you don't need.

Also an audible subscription - listen to audio books when doing mundane tasks like hanging up washing, cleaning etc. When I have a great book going I actually start looking forward to 'tasks' as it is time to listen to the book (or pod cast). Books read by their authors - or often famous actors really come to life.

Why they don’t come with that info I can’t understand, but some time ago I added to the label of each rolled up duvet, Summer DBL, winter KS, etc. Have to make sure they’re rolled up with the label showing though.

I have done this too and it has really improved my stress levels. If I accidentally catch a potentially upsetting or stressful headline I don’t read the article. I don’t open any MN threads that look potentially disturbing/upsetting. It may be burying my head in the sand but it’s that or sleepless, disturbed nights.

I’m taking away some great tips from here.

I don't have small children anymore but:

No one EVER leaves things lying around downstairs.

Bedrooms are your own space. As long as dishes are brought down, you may live in your own shit. Floor must be clear for the cleaner to vacuum.

Dishwasher on before I go to work or before bed.

All washing in laundry basket, or it doesn't get washed. No clean socks - oh well!

If you need toiletries, toothpaste, soap, toilet roll, etc, tell me to add to the online shopping, or we will run out

I have this organiser with essential items, sewing kit, school supplies, stamps etc on an under stairs table so no need for crap draw. Absolute godsend!

What do you mean "tuck in a top sheet every morning". It is tucked in at the bottom, where else does it need to be tucked in? And how is not having a top sheet snugglier? It gets cold here in winter, and we don't heat our bedrooms - I couldn't be snugglier. I really don't get how constantly taking a duvet cover off and putting another one on - or the same one once washed - is anything but time consuming/wasting.

I’m finding reading this thread quite stressful, anyone else?

This thread is wonderful. I feel as though I am getting advice from the expert Domestic Goddesses (the term is gender neutral).

On a similar note, the minute the DC decide they like a new meal, I add it to the meals list on the fridge and ensure it’s in the mix over the next fortnight to bed in. I don’t have the recipes written out – I long for the time! – but do have a big master list broken down into salads, one pot, one roasting tray, pastas, and running order meals: this is like, roast chicken is always followed by leftovers chicken pie then tomato soup (with the stock I made alongside the roast, and crème fraiche) and cheddar toasties. Then twice-baked potatoes because those use crème fraiche and cheddar, which I opened for soup and toasties night. Or Jamie’s sausage pasta is always on a grown-ups only night, because spicy, and hot dogs the next day to use the rest of the pack.

Took a bit of trial and error and note-taking but massively cut our food waste by making not just a plan but a specific-to-us plan.

When freezing batch cooks like chilli, soup, bolognaise, don’t use Tupperware or wodge it into bags: flatten out the bags and freeze flat then when frozen, file them upright like paper folders in an old-fashioned swing file cabinet. You can get so much more in and it freezes more quickly. I also flat freeze shepherd’s pie filling and potato separately like this – again you can fit in way more pies than assembling them and freezing.

My list - some repeating already mentioned, many things that most people do already but mentioning for those who don't;

I used to stand waiting for the kettle to boil, but it's amazing how much you can do in those couple of minutes (wiping work surfaces/putting stuff away off the draining board etc)

If there is someone else who can help you, two people emptying the dishwasher is more than twice as quick as doing it yourself.

Meal planning: makes shopping & food prep so much more efficient and less waste. You can still be flexible if you see something on offer in the supermarket

I write my supermarket list with a column for each area in the supermarket (Fruit & veg; grocery; chilled; frozen; drinks etc) - throwback to lockdown's one way system when it was a nightmare if you had missed something. I've kept on with that as shop at a very large supermarket & much more efficient.

If we have people round for dinner, I keep track of what we served them a) so I don't repeat the same thing for the same guests and b) so I can repeat successful dishes for other guests.

Keep thinking I should do the same with family meals.

Definitely agree with shopping for multiple birthday cards at once, even a few months ahead.

I have a 'master planning list' for holiday packing, so I don't have to think about it from scratch each time, just adapt it for that particular holiday. I update it after a holiday if there's something I realised I hadn't packed that would have been useful.

I also have a master planning list for Christmas, ie checklist for things like cards, wrapping paper, candles etc etc, again so don't have to think from scratch each time.

As you can see, I'm a bit of a list maker! Pre smart phone, I used to keep master lists on the computer. Now on my phone. That said I love an old fashioned paper list so have a nice notebook which has my to do list at the front, and I start at the back for other lists (I have a page for TV/film to watch - ideas I've picked up off friends/ MN/magazines etc; ditto books to read; recipes to try.