Life simplification hacks please!

[ShineyGreen]

I'm a single parent, 3 dc, work full time and have a relatively straightforward life. Always looking to simplify what I already have though.

I have a routine that works ok for laundry and dishwashing (1 load washing goes in washing machine whilst doing dinner, then when finished straight to tumble drier/airer depending on weather, dishwasher gets turned on at bedtime).

Other things that help are my new robot lawnmower and robot hoover. And my airfryer which I just use as a mini oven, I thought it was just for "brown" food before but recently have used it much more extensively and love it now.

I love automating things- e.g. my robots, and Alexa for creating grocery shopping list. (Used to be able to add things straight into my Tesco shopping basket using ITTT but alas no more and have fallen out of love with online shopping since that, a quick whip round Aldi on the way back from the school run takes 40 mins max because it's so small, and doing online food shopping seemed to take forever when I had to select each item rather than Alexa populating it for me. Direct debits set up for regular stuff, Amazon subscriptions for some bits and bobs.

What else could I be doing? Looking for ideas that take the hassle out of life admin please

Don’t get a dog!

@Gundogday this made me smile :) Our lives are infinitely cleaner and tidier without our lovely beagle who died last summer, but we would have her back with hair and stinkiness and all if we could 😍

What robot Hoover do yku have? I’ve been contemplating one for a while

During a tv programme, go on your phone and ‘unsubscribe’ any subscriptions that you may have - clothes stores, holiday companies etc. Even if you do ten a day. Then when you check your emails, you’ll only receive the ‘good’ emails, and won’t have to scroll through the rubbish. You can always rejoin these companies if you want to buy from them again. You also won’t be tempted by sales and special offers.

Sorry for your loss. They do bring joy, but add to the chaos as well.

Dog tax paid.

A basic Eufy model. This one:

eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 30C MAX Robot Vacuum Cleaner, Wi-Fi, Super-Thin, 2000Pa Suction, Boundary Strips Included, Quiet, Self-Charging Robotic Vacuum Cleaner, Cleans Hard Floors to Medium-Pile Carpets : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

It's more expensive now than when I bought it!

It's just so helpful, it trundles about on a schedule and does a full whip round downstairs of our small 4 bed every morning. Hard floor and carpet. I love him. I only have to get the big hoover out now if there is a Major Incident (e.g. cat bringing in a bird and loads of feathers to deal with, or a split beanbag <side eye at you, ds3>)

You sound amazingly well organised already. I'm guessing you have meal planning down to a fine art.

A birthday box! Multipack of generic cards, a few items around your children’s age (books/toys etc) that tend to get given as gift, all the wrap and ribbon in one place. I’ve gone from past minute gift galore to just replenishing the birthday box every now and then and it’s a GODSEND.

You do sound well organised! I'll add some things I do to make life easier:

Pay for DDs to have school dinners. No faffing with packed lunches, I book them on the app weeks in advance so they are sorted and it's a five minute job once a month.

Cleaner that comes for two hours every two weeks. We've got a four bedroom house so it still needs keeping on top of but she does a deep clean of the kitchen and bathrooms plus dusts and does a quick hoover. It means it never builds up into a big job for us and we can just do a quick whip round in-between.

House jobs are scheduled in my phone as repeating tasks that I tick off when done. E.g change bedding on a Monday, wash towels on a Tuesday, water house plants on a Wednesday, clean the fridge and car out once a month etc.

I have a list of very quick and easy meals for dinners so I can have it all on the table in under 30 minutes...often less. We eat a lot of stir fries, fajitas and pasta dishes! Anything more involved e.g. a lasagne I'll do at the weekend and make two so one can go in the freezer for heating up another day.

We would rather eat simply than have ready meals. We've got clubs for DDs four nights a week so often we need something very quick when we come in. Jacket potatoes (cooked in bulk in the oven, wrapped up and frozen and then microwaved to heat up) feature heavily those nights with tuna mayo and some salad = 5 mins of work. Or fried eggs and beans on toast = also 5 mins.

Amazon subscriptions for lots of the random household bits I often forget about otherwise e.g dishwasher cleaner, washing machine cleaner, toilet gel stickers, vitamins for DDs and I etc.

@GameOfJones I love the jacket spuds tip- thank you!

This is a great thread. Thank you.
I will try to think of things to add…

@GameOfJones how do you do the repeating lists on your phone? This is exactly what I want but I couldn’t find an app. They all wanted overly complicated routines.

speaking of phones, I have mine set to only allow a certain amount of social media a day. It stops the doomscrolling…
I also put out an outfit the night before. And I don’t iron. If anything has creases I steam it when I get it out of the wardrobe to wear.

@DonkeyFacedCunt I def need to stop the social media/phone as well.

Not an ironer here either. Tumble, flick and fold whilst still hot works for me (even if it's been dried on the line and so it's stiff as a board, a quick 5 min tumble with a barely damp flannel in the drum as well works brilliantly)

When you say steam, have you got a special machine that you'd recommend?

Sweepy app its fab. List the tasks n how often want to do it

Make your children do chores. Even toddlers can put toys away. Older kids can change bedding, hang up washing, empty the dishwasher, feed pets, take out bins etc. When I get home from work at 6pm I cook dinner and they have to help with other stuff.
Don't buy clothes that need ironing. Cook extra portions of bolognese sauce etc and freeze. Every time you leave a room bring something with you that needs moving. Put clean washing in a basket on the landing, everyone helps themselves.

Love this thread!
I use an app called Tody to schedule repeating tasks at whatever interval I tell it. I use it to keep track of weekly/monthly/6 monthly housework, (my DH has it synced on his phone too so we can both see what needs doing, it lightens my mental load a lot!) I also use it to remind me to do my life admin like my tax return, apts etc. And also use it to hold myself accountable to my self care like eating well, exercise, not drinking alcohol too often etc.

We have a meal planning app that's also synced on both our phones. That one's called Meal. It's very simple, just spend some upfront time inputing all the dishes you cook, categorised by meat/fish/veg etc and then each week drop them into its calendar. Nothing fancy but it works for us. Takes all the thinking out of it

Thank you! Will have a look

Yes I have a small hand held steamer. They’re not very expensive and I just plus it in, it heats up and steam anything that needs it while it’s still on the hanger. Also does a great jobs on refreshing wool etc.

I add jobs into my phone calendar as repeating events rather use a separate app- use different colours for work, jobs and events- the best productivity tip I was given was 'don't have a to do list, have a schedule'- so I slot jobs into times when I am free

Have a strict schedule of when the children do their homework and tidy their rooms. It sounds unkind but I find this cuts out me nagging as it’s so much part of their routine. So both of mine get out their homework Thursday night and Saturday morning without any fuss and tend to keep their rooms tidy ahead of me saying please tidy your rooms on Sunday night!

My children have different instruments/kits that need on different days so I’ve stopped putting it by the door in the morning and started putting it in the car the night before.

No food in the lounge -except for you on your own

@DonkeyFacedCunt I use the tasks feature in my Google calendar on my phone so it's all in one place. But I've used the Sweepy app before and that's good too!

It really helps take the mental load out of those random jobs. For example once a month I get a task pops up that says "run a hot cleaning cycle on the washing machine" and I just do it and tick it off. It means I don't have to think about it in-between.

They are way nicer done that way compared to just microwaving them. It's the same thing as those frozen, microwavable jacket potatoes you can buy in the supermarket but a fraction of the price. You can also do jacket potatoes in the air fryer so it's easy to fill it up with spuds, bake them all then wrap in foil when cool and put in the freezer.

Then unwrap, microwave for 3 mins or so and they're all done another day.

Lists, lots of lists. On my phone

I have a shopping list that gets updated the moment we run out of something.

A gift list. When the kids want a toy in a shop that knows they can't have it usually so we say 'we'll put it on the list' for their birthday. Then before Christmas/birthdays I have a long list of ideas to filter through.

I have a gift list for myself too that I make all year.

I have a 'trip list'. More vital when the kids were younger but having a static list before we went away. Things like washing powder and brown sauce would always get forgotten and we had to buy a whole new pack.

Spreadsheets for everything.

Christmas/birthday presents
Holiday packing
Renovation jobs
Everything.

Oh, and meal planning and food shopping