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?

When cooking, rinse out pots etc as you finish with them. Makes it vastly easier to wash them up properly later.

I try and wash up every night but if I can't face it, then the next morning before the school run, I run the sink really hot and chuck in as many dishes as I can fit. Also pop a washload into the washing machine and get it going. By the time I'm back from school, the dishes just need a quick wipe and rinse off and the laundry is usually finished and ready to hang out. Obviously this won't work for everyone, but the principle does - try and use time well so you're not waiting for a wash to end, etc etc. Some (rare and lovely!) days I'm done and on the sofa with Netflix by 9.30am

Fold clothes straight off the line/airer. I never iron anything and we never look creased!

Those cleaning wipes are magic. I use them on everything - kitchen sides, inside microwave, high chair tray, bathroom surfaces etc and it takes 10 seconds to do a quick once-over and stretches out the time between deep-cleans.

I spend 10 minutes once the kids are in bed doing a whip-round the lounge. Much much nicer to sit down for the evening in a clean, tidy room and gives me less to do the next morning.

I've always done the inside-out duvet thing too. LOVE the pillowcase thing though, definitely doing that! Some great tips on this thread.

• lunch bags go in the washing mashine (at least) once a week. 20 min cycle with a drop of washing up liquid
• bio washing powder. gets clothes clean. makes carpets smelling nice. removes pee/vomit/poo smells from fabrics. removes foot smell from shoes...
• teach dc to tidy and clean and to make their own packed lunch as soon as reasonable
• don't iron/don't buy clothes that need ironing in the first place

Oh also, I have a big section of kitchen wall done in blackboard paint. Any deadlines/things to remember/things I need to buy go straight onto the wall, and wiped off again as soon as they're dealt with. Because I'm in and out of the kitchen all day it's impossible to forget anything as long as it's written up there!

hoover bag Ha ha! not had a 'hoover' that required a bag in over 10 years!

I wipe skirting boards with my feet (wearing socks) when on the phone. Whenever I plug something in or unplug it I wipe dust off the top of the plug socket with my finger.

Loving these!

We are a shoes off house so have got into habit of doing all outdoor stuff the minute I get in the door in evening. So, bins/recycling out, washing hung up, plants watered then I can take off shoes. Sounds like a small thing but before I would find once I was out of shoes and maybe in PJs later in the evening it would feel like too much effort to get dressed again to take bins out, then in morning before school too much of a rush and so the cycle and rubbish pile up continues...

I also clean bathroom while kids are in bath when I am not lazy and taking the opportunity to mumsnet and the bath while I am in it having a shower.

meal planning - saves tons of money and time

I've a few, probably well know... or even useless, but work for me!

Colour catchers are a biggie in my house. I manage to get a load done, with all sorts of colours at once!

If there's a chore you really hate, time yourself. Set yourself a challenge to get it done as quickly as possible.

Decluttering is a big one. I cut out much of my clutter. Found I still had two rooms full of shit that I don't use/had no use for. Got it down to almost nothing. Makes it he house so much easier to keep clean!

Also agree with the 5 minute rules, I try to spend five minutes in each room, each day. It usually keeps things looking pretty good!

WD40 is amazing as both a cleaner and shiner-upper of melamine kitchen counter tops

Oh like shiny - I have a schedule like that - I also test my smoke alarms on the 1st of the month! (and water my plants, check my oil and water and tyres on my car) and I have weekly jobs too - like check the cat for fleas...
I have things like the dates for worming and flea treatments on my calendar set to send me an email reminder the day before.
I have a 'to do' app called 'ticktick' that I add everything to. Those regular jobs are on there and set as recurring - so when I do them and tick them off it creates a new task for the following week/month/3 months whatever...

Someone else mentioned this - deal with things straight away.
I check school bags and activity bags every time they come home (the DCs have a 'bag' of some description for every activity and as soon as kit etc is washed it goes into the bag rather than a drawer - I also have more than one PE kit so I can put clean ones in straight away)
I deal with all paperwork straight away - enter dates on my calendar, add anything that needs doing (eg buy and wrap birthday present) to my tick tick, accept invites, sign permissions/pay for things etc and put things into the bag to go straight back.
Also all school/activity letters, birthday invites and hospital appts etc I scan/take a photo of and bin the paper copy - and I put the photos into Google keep - so it means I can view them from my laptop, tablet and phone.
I can still see them if I eg lost my phone and I can double check that eg I have the address or time etc right even on my way there....
No more scrabbling through piles of paper to find something...or having that huge pile that needs to be sorted out....
If whatever reason I do need to keep a paper copy I have an A4 ring binder with poly pockets in and I put it in there...then flick through it every week or so and get rid of what I can...there isn't a lot in there so it isn't daunting.

LDR - when we had a seemingly endless amount of shirts and not enough ironing time I used to have two off these on the back of the laundry door to hang shirts straight from the tumble...ended up saving a fair amount of space in the wardrobes! www.amazon.co.uk/Hangerworld-6-9-Inch-Plastic-Strong-Clothes/dp/B001VYUZZE/ref=sr_1_22?ie=UTF8&qid=1485042643&sr=8-22&keywords=over+the+door+hooks&tag=mumsnetforum-21

We also have a small bin in the car. One with a lid is preferable as they do tend to be kicked over by small feet. Useful for a quick tidy if you find yourself confronted with picking up anyone who doesn't appreciate the general mess of kids in a car or if you keep forgetting to clear it out like me.

Those posters who say make your bed straight away when you get up - GRIM and gross. Fold your duvet back, open your window and AIR it. And yes of course I still change the bed linen every week.

I loathe making school lunches, but it isnt so much of a chore if I do it while cooking dinner the night before. I am in the kitchen anyway and in the time between putting the pasta/spuds or whatever on and it coming to the boil or in the ten minutes before dishing up time, I make the sandwiches and put them in the friedge for the next day. Somehow it doesnt feel like such a waste of time if I am in the kitchen anyway.

Buy the same sort of socks for everyone. Black ones from Asda here, but the point is that if all the socks in the house are the same then you will always find a pair and the ones that lose their pair will end up making a new pair. You just need to size them up and not match them up by pattern etc. YOu also dont end up with a bag of odd ones in case their pair turns up. Also we dont put socks or pants away. We have a pants bag and a sock bag, they all go in there and when they are needed you sort out what you want.

When I'm watching a programme in the evening, whenever a break comes on I go off and do a little job.
Wipes are my best friend,I use them on hard floors also.
Vinegar soaked tissue wrapped around taps to remove limescale.
Cheap/ losing its fizz coke tipped around rim and down the toilet and left for a short while to clean.

Put a shower curtain under baby's highchair when starting to wean, much easier to clear up bits of food that have been thrown about.
Iron clothes when still slightly damp- so much less effort.
Also do the IKEA laundry bag thing, take pictures of letters etc as I'm not good with keeping bits of paper safe, and bulk buying socks to avoid mountains of missing socks.
Batch cook as much as much as possible, even so far as chopping peppers and onions (get a good airtight container!) and blanching broccoli/kale/carrots - saves a lot of prep time midweek and massively reduces the risk of finding mouldy veg in the fridge and having to clean the whole thing out (never had to do that before, honest 😬)

I love all of these ideas!

Shamelessly placemarking with a few fairly obvious tips I swear by:

Own less stuff! Since I had the mother of all clear outs, it takes far less time to do everything - clean, tidy, sort. Make sure everything has a home - I call this getting back to zero so I can focus on a bigger, more ad-hoc job - say, cleaning down the radiators.I also totally agree with the JFDI approach Teach DC to tidy as a matter of course, not just for rewards. Wash clothes less often. Iron less or if you're me, hardly ever. Clean bathroom/wash face/do other useful things while DC are in the bath. Own a cordless vacuum - total game-changer. Spend 5-10 minutes before bed tidying around - mornings are always so much better when the house is as it should be. Own a capsule wardrobe, not endless piles of cheap disposable fashion - less choice = more time .

Also do the 3/4 bin liners one - love it.

Loving this thread.

I haven't read through the thread and I'm not really one to talk as I need a lot of help myself with housework, but a few things I find helps me is to use 'dead time' to get things done, like when I'm boiling a kettle to wash up; to give my 18 month old finger food as much as possible so that during that time I can do things in the kitchen; to make tidying up a game for my 18 month old, so that she helps me to tidy away her toys.

If you have a 'crap drawer', empty it into a box then, when you need something, use it and replace it in the drawer.

If, after a period of time, say 6 months, there are items left in the box, bin them.

Do same with make up, accessories, etc

To get rid of scum on the shower doors, use Brillo pads. Test a corner if you are nervous, but they are brilliant for this. Same for ceramic hobs.

My shower glass and ceramic hobs are still here after 12 years of doing this.

Love threads like these.
Mine are using cheapo coke in the toilet especially around the rim.Then leaving it overnight to flush,or use cheapo denture tabs.
For getting hobs clean sprinkle with bicarb,table salt & white vinegar to make a paste,leave for 30 mins then scrub off,even the most grotty of hobs will look better.
A small open container of bicarb in the fridge keeps it smelling fresh.
Equal amounts of white vinegar/water to descale kettle.
Hot cycle through the washing machine/dishwasher with only white vinegar in.
Save all the wrinkly knackered looking veg to add to add to your roast,it helps to make lovely gravy.
Leftover or stale bread turn into bread crumbs & freeze.This is especially useful if you have any leftovers of garlic bread as it makes a lovely topping for a pasta bake.

Dead time is definitely a real waste if you dont use it, which is why I make the school sandwiches while I am waiting for dinner to cook but there have been so many other "dead time" tips on here so thank you for that!

Just place marking here!

Read a post about timing appliances to run while you are out.

BIG TIP.........Do this only if you can afford for your insurance to not pay out. This happened to the son of a friend of mums. Dishwasher went up in flames and took most of the contents of the house with it. Insurance didnt pay out as part of the T&Cs was that all appliances should be suitably supervised. That doesnt mean standing over it, you wouldnt lose out if you were putting the washing out for example, but turning it on and going out could well mean no pay out. Replacing just the absolute basics wiped out their savings and put them into debt.

I am uber careful about this now, I wont leave anything on even if I am just popping to the shop 5 minutes away.