Household tips that aren't shit.

[EIsbethTascioni]

I've been getting hugely into decluttering and keeping tidy since the new year. I've been looking on websites and in magazines for tips advice and most of it is unmitigated tripe that makes life harder rather than easier.

So I'm turning to you vipers for your non-crap tips for keeping on top of shit.

I've got three to start us off.

Clean the shower while you're in it. Gamechanger. Saves masses of time.

Storing duvet sets inside their pillow case. I was sceptical about this one but with four beds in the house it has a)made my linen cupboard tidier and b)means no more rummaging.

Using the big IKEA bags as laundry bags. They are just the right size for a load of washing in a standard machine and you can fold them up and put them away tidily instead of having plastic baskets hanging around.

Aibu to think you lot will have loads more?

Mike- I've got one big plastic recycling box per child - it's got all their 'special' stuff from pregnancy to now - all are bulging at the seams so do need a bit of a sort but works well.

Mike, ikea have 'treasure chest' storage boxes- they are great for storing artwork in

Newtssuitcase I've never had an issue with it - I wonder if it depends on type of pot? Cast iron etc?

For children's art work...get clear plastic display folders or ones with poly pockets in and have one per child. They put their 'best' art work in it - when it is full they have to choose whether to replace one with the new one or not...
The old one gets scanned (and usually discreetly) binned..same for most of the other special things -like birthday cards they have made you. Only keep really really special things in paper - and any models etc -take a photo.
(Something I regret - DD1 then about 6 made a mosque with a friend at school out of cardboard boxes -it wasn't finished - half painted - and it was huge (and really ugly!!!). I could get rid of it for ages because they had arranged DD1 would have it first and then the other friend would get it - whose parent seemed extremely happy with that plan ...and I didn't want to get caught out having disposed of it. I had it for a year - kept moving it round, eventually moved out of sight etc ...then I flattened it a bit and eventually it made it into the recycling bin... a bit later DD's friend moved away. She has just moved back - after nearly 10 yrs...and DD asked me where their mosque was ...she was fine about me binning it etc and it has become a bit of a standing joke -but I do wish I'd taken a photo of it ...)

Never heard about a wooden spoon stopping a pot boiling over - but if you find one that is about to move the pan off the ring and drop something metal in it - like a spoon... what you drop in should just take enough heat out of it to stop it going over and putting it on a colder surface will help too - even gas rings retain some heat when you turn them off...

If the kids want porridge in the morning but you've forgotten to presoak it the night before, just cover oats with boiling water (in a cereal bowl)while you have a cuppa. Then nuke it for a minute top up with cold water and stir through milk powder, evap or coffee creamer. We often don't have enough milk fr 2 bowls when they both decide they want it.

1. Light/bright coloured electrical tape and a permanent marker for labelling home-made jams and chutneys. The tape pulls off the glass jar cleanly and, if you use several colours, it can make the contents of your jars easier to identify.
2. Use white electrical tape and a permanent marker to label plastic lids and boxes. Labels don’t wash off or fade in the dishwasher.
3. I use cheap nappy bags loosely within small bathroom bins already lined with a bin liner. The small bag is ideal for removing and replacing once a day. Knot it and dispose in kitchen bin. It means that you rarely need to replace the main bin liner. You can do the same thing in the kitchen bin using thin carrier bags (or loo roll bags). It means that you don’t get a build up of smelly waste and, if you have a carrier bag split, there is always the main bag – which you might need to replace once a week – to contain the spills.
4. I line kitchen cupboards containing baking tins / saucepans with a tea towel. The tins invariably leave marks and instead of staining the shelves, I can wash the tea towel. This also works well in the under sink cupboard, to absorb any minor leaks.
5. While cleaning the rest of the bathroom, pour bleach around rim of toilet and leave the toilet brush in the loo, to clean it.
6. “Where things are”: Take a photograph of the contents of each box or bag of stuff you store in the loft. Paste within an online document called “Where things are”. You can do the same for under bed drawers, for example, and other harder to reach storage. You can even extend it for storage of, eg light bulbs, paint pots and include details of sizes / colours needed and where to buy them.
7. I keep a file online called “Major purchases”. Each time I buy something new (eg white goods, stereo, computer stuff, phones etc etc), note the price, where bought and guarantee period with expiry date.
8. I keep a notebook by my phone / computer and note down anything I need to remember, eg gist of phone conversations, especially involving services. I always write down the name of the person to whom I am talking. I date each entry. A notebook works better for me than a diary as the entries are not regularly spaced. This system has proved invaluable many times. I also keep a notebook in my handbag and use it in the same way.

Another suggestion for the piles of kids' drawings - scan them in and make the best into photo books so you don't have loads of bits of paper hanging around and the pictures are presented nicely.

Can't remember if anyone has suggested this yet, but a few drops of washing-up liquid rubbed over the bathroom mirror stops it fogging up so you can admire your lobster-pink backside as you wobble out of the suds

Put newspaper on the tops of your kitchen cupboards after you've cleaned them so you never need to scrub the oil/dirt/dust off again- just lift the paper and replace every few months.
Cillit bang grease and sparkle will get the grease off everything in the kitchen.

Gigi if I followed point 6 in your list - 'where things are' - then no one in my family would ever need to speak to me. Knowing where everything is seems to be my primary function in this house.....!

For a bit of frugality when Brexit makes us all poor lol....

Treat yourself to a very naice handwash in a lovely bottle. Then refill it with any old crap with a nice fragrance. No one will ever know or ask.

Buy non branded cereals and decant into the REAL boxes or a tupperware type container.

Same with many other branded goods.

In the kitchen, put the washing up liquid into an empty handwash bottle (and water it down a little) you will only use one or two squirts of the push down bit on the top rather than a mahoosive amount from the real bottle.

Make a space if you can in the airing cupboard to hang shirts/teeshirts etc. on hangers. Dry in an hour when the tank is heating up, and no ironing, sorry what's ironing again!

A lovely quick and easy dessert is (per person) eight after eights (huh), so lob some ice cream/vanilla cream or similar into a kind of square shape on the plate, arrange four after eights in a square around it. Top with a raspberry or strawberry, make two per person. A squeeze of chocolate sauce and a bit of icing sugar to garnish. They will be so impressed!

Or if there's no time you can't be arsed to do any cleaning at all, just plump up the cushions and squirt furniture polish in the air.

These

www.dunelm.com/product/utility-room-pack-of-2-microfibre-glass-cleaning-cloths-1000020237?searchTerm=window%20cloth

Best money I ever spent (on household stuff at least. Not including wine!!). Cleans glass so easily and no smears. Love love love.

Oh, and notepad on outside of fridge - write use by dates of the meat etc going in as we unpack shopping so we don't forget it and let it go off

I love no 6 on your lust, Gigi.
I also keep a pad on the fridge and write down anything that runs out so we know to buy it when we go shopping.

To clean a blender or food processor add a drop of washing up liquid and some water and switch it on. It does most of the work for you and you can just give it a quick rinse.

To clean a blender or food processor add a drop of washing up liquid and some water and switch it on.

• might get me juicing again!

Notepad on the fridge - we also use our fridge door for reminders but don't have a notepad.

I guess a disadvantage of mine is you have to transfer things to a shopping list you can't just take a page with you...what I have I got by accident...
DP decided to write things like that on the fridge door in white board marker - which was fine until he picked up a permanent marker by accident (which is why I wouldn't recommend marker DP's method !) He then took a green scourer to it to try and get it off - it was a hideous mess and I thought we were going to have to paint it ...but then I came across 'blackboard foil' in Tiger (but you can get similar elsewhere) - it is basically sticky back plastic that makes things into a blackboard -and it is really easy to use.
So in less than 10 mins our fridge door became a blackboard!
We had white chalks but they kept getting dropped and broken etc so we got some coloured blackboard pens.
And we have various magnets to stick the odd bit of paper on - and to keep the pens to hand I put magnetic tape on the back of the packet they came in and they sit on the side.
(Only problem with it is the DCs draw on it too and write rude messages to each other...like X is a bum - and X gets rubbed out and change to other DC name, then back again etc - no bad language and not too rude so I tend to ignore but did feel awkward when I noticed the dishwasher repair man reading it...)

Do not learn how your new dishwasher works. It is now DH responsibility as I have no idea .. (I do know where the handbook is, so in extremis...)

Use a large safety pin in the corner of any towel so that it works as a hand towel and doesn't fall off the hook.

Use magnetic tape with a sticky side on the bathroom wall to keep your bobby pins, nail clippers, tweezers etc in one place. This stuff is magic and can also be used for tools, knives, nails... Or to make random stuff stick to the fridge. Endless possibilities.

Buy a cheap blackboard and stick it to the fridge using the magnetic tape. Use this as a shopping list. Just take a photo of it so you remember what you need.

Serve food in dishes that come with some kind of a lid. It means you can wash up the pots directly and you can just shove it into the fridge.

Use a sharpie to label clothes pegs with the names of the months. Use these to organise receipts.

Buy the cheapest adult inconvenience sheet if you have a baby. It will spare your carpet the worst of the poonamis.

Unwrap presents carefully and reuse the paper. We've always done this in my family. Keep in a specific place.

extrabiotin- you have just reminded me of my DF, he used to melt the spout of a squeezy bottle and then pierce it with a needle so you could only squeeze out a small amount. When he died, a childhood friend wrote to me that we all laughed at him for doing that, but he was right all along. I'd completely forgotten about it, but he was very ahead of his time, always talking about saving energy and water.

Mike you need the Canvsly app - you can take a pic of their scribble art and you can even share it with others

To get permanent marker off fridge doors, you can scribble quite hard over the words with dry-wipe marker then wipe it all off.
Also hairspray gets permanent marker off surfaces. (Then you just have to get the hairspray off :-/)

Thanks Cheesy - someone told me about the permanent marker and dry board marker trick on another thread - really useful to know
I already knew alcohol/ethanol works - and hairspray ... DP didn't and attacked it with the scrubber before I knew he'd done it - he scratched the surface -so a mess anyway- and worse cos the marker kind of absorbed into the lower paint surface ...kind of like on paper I guess - so it was covered in grey/black smears and nothing would shift it...
I love my 'blackboard' though... and the chalk pens don't smear in the same way as marker if you rub against it by accident ...
When my fridge dies and I get a new one I think I'll do the same again...

Mostly marking place but I take the iPad around the house with me and catch up on shows dp doesn't like so I spend 40 minutes watching casualty tidying kids room and so on. Feels like less of a chore and more like some me time

I knew about the storing bedding in a pillowcase one, but yesterday realised that if I strip the dirty bedding off and put it all in one of the pillowcases it will keep it all together until I get around to washing it and be neater in the laundry basket. Probably everyone already does this, but my mind is blown!