What ingenious little life hacks would you like to share?

[Rainbunny]

Apparently I have vastly improved the quality of a friend's life by sharing my method of storing (for disposal) used tampons. It's probably not original but simple and easy. I throw them into scented biodegradable doggy poop bags (I buy the them in bulk anyway so they're really cheap). Then they can be thrown into the kitchen trash without any unpleasant sights or smells. Very useful when we're staying as guests at other's homes. My friend is preparing to temporarily move in with her inlaws and has actually been a little worried about this since her inlaws are maniacally houseproud and any reminder of human presence is frowned upon . Just wondered what other little things people do to make life easier?

Sadmother - I do hope you're taking the piss.

If I need to grate cheese/chocolate/butter, I put them in the freezer first. It takes a bit longer for it to melt or go mushy before I'm finished with it.

For a really good, authentic pasta sauce if using chopped tomatoes, mash them with a potato masher first. Chopped tomatoes are too chunky here and the cans of finer chopped tomatoes are crazy money! My Italian Nan has always done this and there is no better sauce to be found anywhere!

She also uses a chicken stock cube rather than salt and pepper to season the sauce.

Bleach does terrible things to the environment so I'm in camp loo brush

How do you clean the brush?

Ears up juice! It has been a brilliant life hack - saved so so so many messes in the car, out on picnics, in pram, in shops etc. Even at 18 months old my wee one understood "take it by the ears!!"

You can wash carrier bags.

Bear with me - I'n not that bad.

If your little one ever comes out of school/nursery with borrowed clothes and a carrier containing wet clothes just stick the carrier with the clothes still in in the washer. The washing action will pull the clothes out and wash them and the bag will be fine to reuse.

I also use biodegradable dog poo bags for the scoopings from the cat tray....again, means you can put them in the bin with no smell.

I have a drawer where I put books once I've read them and once I've got a few I can sell them on Ziffit.com

I use old Yankee candle jars around the house for kitchen jar storage, to keep cotton pads in the bathroom and for making gifts. If you put the jars in the freezer once you're done with them the wax is easy to get out once it's frozen as it shrinks away from the sides in the cold and practically slips out.

I freeze any leftover wine in ice cubes trays and then once frozen pop them into a freezer bag as I can then add it to cooking.

Similar with fresh herbs...any left over get chopped up and frozen.

You clean the loo brush by bleaching the toilet, leaving the brush so the bristles are in the water and the holding it there while you do the flush. The flushing water cleans it.

YY to no loo brushes!

I used to have one and then accidentally knocked the damn thing over and was grossed out by the nasty slime that lives at the bottom

Worse than bin juice

Just put some bleach down the loo and problem with skids is solved with no loo brush.

Skids under the water will not disappear with just bleach. In our house scrubbing is needed.

To clean a decanter just pop a false teeth denture tablet in (2 if really bad) and top up with warm water. Leave for an hour or two and rinse. It will come out sparkling. Perfect when dh has left the dregs of red wine in there and left it overnight.

You clean the loo brush by bleaching the toilet

So, with Evil Bleach.

Another toilet brush thread???

I'm guessing you haven't actually read the thread then.

Baking soda removes hard grease from the oven door without any effort.

Store an entire bed change linen (matching pillow cases sheet and duvet cover) in one pillow case. So much easier when it comes to changing the bed as all together

I keep my all of my daily makeup supplies in one makeup bag. If I am leaving the house and need to take my makeup with me all I have to do is put my makeup bag into my handbag.

Champaign does not go flat so quickly if you stick a spoon into the bottle (handle down).

A capsule of fish liver oil (natural source if vitamin A) consumed daily keeps my skin clear of acne.

How to create high security easy to remember passwords: pick a phrase you can easily remember (a line from a song etc), take the first letter from every word. Then replace some letters with symbols - $ instead of S, @ instead of A - your password is ready.

Keep ginger in the freezer. It grates and slices really easily and keeps for months.

I have a dog tag with my mobile phone number on and keep it on my car keys. (Not home address, pp, but that was a true Twop Tip a la Viz).

I actually lost my keys in Primark once and they rang me up. So it works!

Wash it first

Take a photo on your phone of any party invitations your children get. Then, when you're on your way to the party and can't find the venue, you've got the address/ postcode to Google.

The dog poop bags reminds me I got cleaning spray for pet accidents. Handy for potty training accidents too and I haven't seen any human equivalent which gets rid of wee smells and sanitises in supermarkets.

In case anyone reading missed the "how to put a duvet cover on" post a week or so ago, I tried this technique today and it is a life changing hack. Amazed my 17yo dd with my prowess search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=youtube+duvet&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

oops wrong link above

All very mundane I am afraid.

Find the 'dead time' in your life and repurpose it. Commuting, online shop. Waiting for kettle to boil, clean kitchen or dig out DC clothes for tomorrow. Waiting for bath to fill, clean the rest of the bathroom.

When unloading washing machine on to a rack, load by category and in pairs if appropriate. So much quicker to unload.

When you buy fresh herbs, once you have used the amount you need, put the rest in the freezer. Works fine for most recipes and means you actually get to use the whole packet.

suzietwo what a brilliant idea. You know when someone says something and you think oh my god why have I never thought about that before? Well that. I am alwatys pulling stuff out the airing cupboard trying to get the right sheets/matching pillowcases etc. Thanks!!!!!

If you have a huge bunch of metal keys and have trouble finding the one you need use nail varnish to customise. My front door one is blue, back door is pink and next doors is green.