Your mum/life hacks?

[Emlou07]

Aibu to want alllllll the 'hacks' for an easy life

Please share

I make up a big bag of soffritto - 2:1:1 mix of onion, carrot and celery as the base for sauces, soups etc - in the food processor straight after we get home from the supermarket. It goes into a few freezer bags and then I just have to break off chunks as required.

Bananas nearing the end also go in the freezer for milkshakes and smoothies.

Give small children Wipes while you're cleaning and get them to do the skirting boards/doors!

We have a basket each for shoes near the front door - they go straight in on arrival home.

I clean the bathroom and pluck my eyebrows while ds is in the bath.

Keep a bag of nappies, wipes, rain suits, wellies, towels and talc for the beach etc in the car and you're never stuck.

@Bigfatpicnic, keys in the fridge with lunch is genius, but so simple!! This will save me so much money

@PineappleExpress
It sure is. Has saved me a fortune and reduced my own self induced frustration!.
Winner winner chicken dinner and all that!

Brilliant ideas here!

Has taken a while to do and pretty sure this is nearer ‘bonkers’ end of spectrum, but I cook mostly from scratch and use around 30 recipes from various cookbooks. I have written out my regularly used recipes (you could also photocopy) and laminated them. Then keep in a concertina file; Soup, Puddings, Mains, Sides & Slow Cooker sections.
No losing the place or books falling off the side (we have a small kitchen). I have also got rid of some cookbooks this way.

Also I knot together kids clothes in outfits using the sleeves or legs, so kids grab a bundle each morning- obv wouldn’t suit everyone, but I don’t rate ironing very highly 😬

I love these threads. My first tip is that I save the link for these brilliant mumsnet threads into Google Keep under a note entitled 'Helpful Mumsnet Threads' !!

Okay here are my tips (apologies long post):

1. I have three teens now, but from a young age I taught them all to lightly pair their socks before placing into the laundry basket paired up (ie the top cuff of one rolled over the other). In this way, socks are washed together, hung up together, re-paired together.

2. We hated sorting underwear so I bought a foldup/spring out laundry basket form Ikea. All clean underwear goes in there and everyone has to go and find theirs. Even very little ones can do this.

3. I blue tack a piece of paper inside a cupboard with a wedge of blue tack next to it to hold a pen. Everyone writes down things that are needed on this list. I then take photo of it before shopping, or use it for online grocery shop.

4. I have a drop folder in my filing drawer for each DC. Paperwork for them goes in there and is cleared and shredded once every six months when no longer needed.

5. I run my life by Gmail which links with the google calendar. Every appointment gets put straight into google calendar and I then set up to receive a reminder by email as often as I want a reminder. So for 'dentist' appt I will set it to remind me 2 weeks before, 1 week before and 1 day before (I need lots of reminders!). This honestly keeps me sane. I love that you can colour code everything, so I have different colours for each person in the family.

6. Added to this I set up a separate birthday Gmail calendar which merges with my main calendar so I don't have to forget anyone's birthday.

7. When my kids were babies, I set them up Gmail accounts and then emailed them all sorts of memory notes and photos. When they were old enough to manage an email account themselves I gave them their password. Their Google calendar with me, which means that I can put appointments (eg school trips, sports matches etc) into their calendars and then I set up an email reminder (as I described above).
   the email reminder then goes to them AND to me - it's fab.

8. When I get an email from school about a school trip, it usually has instructions about what to wear, what to bring, whether a packed lunch is required etc. I copy all of that text and when I enter the event into google calendar there is a space for notes and I paste all that info into there. I usually also note the date of the original email so that if necessary I can go back and find it. Otherwise all the info is right there in google calendar.

9. A brilliant tip from MN a while back was about cleaning toilets. Get some anti-bac and spray on all surfaces of the toilet, seat up and seat down etc. Use toilet paper to wipe. Throw toilet paper down loo, squirt some bleach, close lid - flush and wash hands. Takes less than a minute. Show your DCs how to do this once they are old enough!

10. When peeling a hard-boiled egg, after first cracking the shell, use a spoon to get the shell off. It is the same curved shape as the egg and once it gets under the shell it takes it off so easily.

11. When setting up a password, put a Pound sign £ in it somewhere. Only UK keyboards have this and it cuts down the amount of people who can potentially hack into your accounts. Unfortunately US sites won't allow it (eg Google, Ebay), but lots of sites do. Log every password into a password app!

12. If you like baking cakes then buy some Wilton Cake Release. It lasts for ages. Soften the bottle in the microwave - 20 secs, then squirt it into your pan, smear it round using kitchen towel. You will never, ever need to line a cake tin again - genius.

13. Bullet Journal for all planning. Am now into my third year. Discovered it on MN!

If wearing fishnet tights with boots put a pair of sports socks on under the fishnets. Doesn't look sexy but makes it a lot comfier for dancing.

Sorry for the highly piggidyness pics were taken during mad time :) @catpants

Keep a bag of sliced bread in the freezer. Pop a slice in the toaster when you need it, this way you will always have fresh bread that will never go stale.

This really helped us, bobbles around a chrome/wooden/ceramic bathroom lightpull. Anyone turning of our bathroom light would make such a clatter as it swung onto the tiled wall and wake up the younger kids.

Pastry -
I use a potato masher to work the butter into the flour.

Use washing powder which allows you to wash all coloured clothes together at once. Buy clothes that don't need ironing or dry cleaning. Buy reduced price food and freeze. Have a box of generic cards and presents and wrapping paper. Put the black silicone sheets into the bottom of the oven to catch spills and it is reusable and wipes clean. Buy birthday and Xmas presents in sales or whilst travelling during the year, so that you don't have one huge expense at the end of the year. January put all key dates into your diary like birthdays, bills, insurance, holidays, appointments. Basket for odd socks. When making certain food, cook extra and eat the extra next day for packed lunch. Declutter, reuse, recycle, donate. Look for useful things at car boot sales or charity shops or free cycle at bargain prices. Have boxes of same things so that you don't spend a long time looking for things like medicine, things to take on holiday, gloves, hats, scarves. Do a couple of small tidying jobs each day, it's easier than one massive tidy up once a week and helps you feel that you are keeping on top of things.

The word " hack" is an American word for "tip". We are slowly but surely being Americanised 😳

MurmersShow - I discovered that potato masher trick when making crumble recently - it's bloody brilliant!

Always leave a room like you'd want to find it.

So at the end of the evening I always spend 2 minutes straightening sofa cushions, magazines, books, and throws, and take used mugs/glasses to dishwasher.

And every morning I always air our bed before making it, and make sure all clothes either hung up or in washing basket. Can't abide getting into an unmade bed!

Our school has the same amount of non uniform days each school year, has the same dress up days and has the same rota for the Christmas fair.

To make things easier, in August I put in the amount of £1 coins needed for the non uniform days, the £2.50 needed for the 3 discos and get the Chocolate, the pocket money toy and the bottle for the Christmas fair so it's all there ready and no scrabbling about for a £1 for non uniform.

Bedding sets kept inside the pillowcase

Every time someone goes up and down the stairs, they have to take something to put away.

If I'm boiling the kettle, I can get the kitchen work surfaces and cupboard fronts cleaned.

Clean the bathroom while the bath is running

Wear tshirts under jumpers in the colder months so that the jumper can be worn again and only the t-shirt needs washing (easier to dry than a jumper)

We've recently got an outside storage shed and started bulk buying and store it there. Things like cleaning products, tinned food etc.

In January I buy a year's worth of birthday cards for the family and friends and then write them. Their birthdays are marked on the calender and they get posted a week before.

I also buy the family Christmas cards for the following year. This year's family Christmas cards have a sticker total of £30 odd pound but I got them all for a tenner in the sales.

Any important dates go straight onto the calender and in my phone and the letter binned.

File away paperwork when dealt with. I keep a concertina file which is relevant for the year. E.g. a section is DH pension stuff. When the stuff for 2018 comes in, 2017 gets taken out of the file, put in an envelope and marked up and put in a storage box.

Paintings and pictures and models etc made by DS get photographed and stored on our portable hard drive and the originals binned. Last Christmas one of my presents of DH and DS was a photo book of all the cards DS has made me (front of and writing inside) all in one book. This sits on my bookshelf and takes up less space than keeping all the cards and drawings etc.

Keep a list of previous presents etc you've given to people so you can refer back and not buy again. I buy Christmas presents starting January and through the year of things that I know are always needed. DS always has new PJ's at Christmas so things like that, to spread the cost. I also save £25/30 a month into an envelope to buy family presents with so it's not a huge shock, the money is there.

I don’t understand ‘left-over wine’ either, but I think the freezing of it is a good idea

I once saw an old Nigella program where she waited until after her dinner party and nabbed all the glasses to tip the dregs into a freezer bag. Now that is too far!

I shop for human food in the Aldi and M&S that I pass on the way home from work, but for petfood (we have 4 cats and also foster rescues) I order in bulk from Zooplus, so we get an enormous box delivered every few weeks.

Cheaper and better selection than supermarkets (they are fed on a combination of Carny, Felix AGAIL and Harringtons dry food).

M

Another thing I thought of - I put out kids toys on a rotation. We have 4 bags of toys, 1 for each week of the month. Every week we put a different bag out. Saves the kids getting bored and minimises how much mess they can make

Live in a flat. None of this remembering to take stuff up and down the stairs. Most stuff that needs to be re-located can just be flung towards the right room, next time you go in that room it gets put away. Hoovering the whole gaff takes about 10 minutes.

Also, just have less stuff. You will then have more space for to keep the stuff worth keeping in good order and easy to find. It might take years to get to a good place with this, but God is it worth it.

Put a child in charge of feeding a pet. (obvs you don't let pet starve, you tell the child to feed the pet when the pet is weaving between your legs and you have a million other things to do).

We have neither a tumble drier nor a de-humidifier and most clothes dry overnight on an overhead rack. Most don't need ironing either. Those that do don't get worn very often.

What is left over Pesto? Do you all buy giant jars? Mine are tiny and I use it all to cover pasta for us 5.

The pound sign is on non Qwerty keyboards....

Totally agree with having less stuff and a place for everything. We have a cleaner and it's made me a lot tidier - basically everything that comes into the flat has at most a week to be found a place. So that when the cleaner comes the flat is tidy. Has really helped!

My thing this year was clearing out enough stuff so I have somewhere to temporarily hide Christmas presents... which means for the rest of the year I'll have nice empty shelves

These are amazing. Thank you all! The pillowcases one will change my life.

I have two (apologies if I’m repeating - I’m only halfway through thread and realise I’m late to the party anyway).

Keep a changing mat with nappies and wipes on it under the sofa for easy slide out and back nappy changes.

Spinach (frozen or fresh from a washed bag) is essentially undetectable whizzed up in a toddler smoothie with frozen berries / banana / milk / apple juice / whatever.

Bulk buy from Costco and freeze (if food) - I do this with their chicken breast and pesto etc - and store in garage (if household items) like kitchen and loo roll

Great ideas here!!
My only additions are folding clothes in drawers Konmari style (see youtube). Childrens clothes especially are so uch easier to see and grab rather than piles or all jumbled up.
Go minimalist on toys - they can always play with the plastic monstrosities at someone else's house. Takes 2 minutes to tidy the childrens bedroom because they don't have ridiculous amounts of toys.
Any crap from party bags, small packs of crayons, tiny notepads etc goes straight in their little rucksack then if we're going out for a meal or on a long car journey I just grab the bag and it's all stuff they haven't seen for ages