Your mum/life hacks?

[Emlou07]

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

Please share

You don't need to make an effort for a birthday party until they are about 4. Until then you can get away with max 3 of your friends kids, a few games like pass the parcel and a cake. Am always baffled by anyone making a big effort for a pre-schooler. Save your energy and ££ because in primary school yes parties are a massive deal and you will be an empty husk at the end of them.

Also classes for babies and toddlers. Do them if you want to for you but it makes no odds to the babies and toddlers.

Kids stacking their plates in dishwasher as soon as they are able.

For those with teens. When you do multi buys on crisps, snacks and drinks, just leave them in the boot. It saves you feeding all your kids friends. Esp if you take said car to work with you.

If you buy the packs of fresh chilli peppers from the supermarket, store them in the freezer in a small lidded plastic tub, and then just use one or two when needed.

There's no need to defrost them either; run them under the tap to wash and job done.

Or don't bother defrosting them and use a microplane to grate them into whatever you're using them for - no chopping required, no chilli-covered knife and board and no lumps of chilli popping up and surprising you as you eat.

Post-Holiday Laundry Hack here - dump all the laundry in a blue Ikea Bag. Take to Launderette for a service wash. Pick up the next day.

Yes it is £20-30 (depending on holiday/amount) but god it preserves the back-from-holiday relaxation feel. And prevents the sick feeling of seeing the washing mountain in front of the machine.

It is now part of our holiday budget!

Each family member chooses a different colour, then all their towels and socks are purchased in this colour. Makes laundry and identifying your own soggy towel in bathroom much easier.

Plastic bin by front door for each child that their own gloves, coat, hats, winter socks etc can go in. School bag sits on top. Even better if you have a cupboard to hide the bins in.

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Get your DCs setting/clearing the table and unloading/loading the dishwasher as soon as physically able. Our DDs can't really remember a time when this wasn't their daily chore, so have always accepted it fairly happily.

We don't have a dryer so use clothes airers to dry clothes. I hang the clothes on coat hangers and hang the hangers on the airer. I can get more on the airer, it's quicker than faffing around hanging clothes on each rail, and it means when the clothes are dry I can grab the coat hangers and shove them straight in the wardrobe.

Also, get a dehumidifier. Clothes dry overnight with a dehumidifier!

Slow cooker. Meal plan.. Saves time and money too.
I keep a memo board even for small things as I have a brain like a sieve!
School bags prepped night before as well as lunch for dp.

I also have one of them wicker basket storage things in hall for winter warmers for each dc. A drawer for things like goalie gloves and shin pads. And a random one for high vis jacket and waterproof bottoms for bikes

Love the diff sock idea as my teenage sons socks etc are similar dps. And often I get.. We've got the wrong ones lol.

Don't bother with floor wipes. I make dusters out of old t-shirts etc. If you must use wipes, baby wipes clean most things (not glass and wouldn't recommend them on electronic goods).
Even old tights can be used for dusting.

Move toddlers and small children to where you want them to be by turning off the lights where you don’t want them to be. They’re like moths - will always follow the light.

I've colour coded my dc there's 7 of them so we need to be organised they each have their own coloured hanger document wallet and a pe bag and we have even got plates dishes and cups colour coded so I can check who's eaten in morning quickly and see who I have to change up. There's 2 document wallets per dc 1 for homework and 1 for letters they are kept in the kitchen. The pe bag contains shower/bath items so they can just grab and go. All clothes are sorted into outfits Inc school clothes so they can grab and go.
Everything is sorted from the night before and we have checklists of what's needed in everyone's bag and snackbags.
Everyone here has a number and we have a job list stuck on fridge. Each job is worth anywhere from 10p to £1 if they do a job they write their number down next to it and it's all totalled once a week and that's how they get their pocket money.
I use an organiser and in the diary I use stickers for dc appointments and use the same colours as their hangers then I just write down time and where it is. We have visual timetables up in the kitchen as I have 2 with sn but I also have a written routine up so everyone can see what needs to be done and where people need to be on the day.
I have 2 baby boxes 1 upstairs for 5month dd3 it has nappies spare bedding and a change of clothes it's at bottom of her cot so it's easy to reach incase of an emergency change in night. ( she's had reflux and regularly projected in the middle of the night).
I have a box downstairs that keeps a change of clothes for me dd3 and ds4 plus their nappies wipes so if there is an accident I can have it all to hand.
Birth certificates and other documents are kept in a doc box in a drawer in the bedroom it also has spare keys change and emergency money incase of a fire and we have to grab and run.
I keep snacks in a tub in the fridge of chopped fruit or veg for 2yr ds4 then if we have to go out i can grab the box and just put it straight in the bag and if I know we have a busy day next day I make him a lunchbox up so he can have it on the go while out or I can pass it to him and he can have a picnic at home.
To teach little ones to help tidy we play house bingo I collect stuff that needs putting away and split it into piles and pass them to the dc. The 1st to put the pile away shouts bingo wins.

Box by the door per child to dump school shoes/ bag/ hat and scarf/ reading books/ homework. Saves time spent searching the house and the mad before school panic!

Lostmyemailaddress I'm in awe of you!

Don’t think anyone’s mentioned Amazon Prime subscriptions - you can set up recurring deliveries for household cleaners & toileteries and if you have 5 items being delivered every month it’s 15% off the cost of the whole delivery.

We use it for bulk buying large 5L plus containers of washing up liquid, detergent etc.

If going to a theme park / soft play - dress your dc in very bright clothing.
Easy to keep track of them and if they go missing - easy to spot in a crowd.

Re post holiday laundry
I pay the hotel to do it
It’s wonderful. No need to go to a launderette when back in uk or spend the day doing it yourself
Just unpack it already and folded beautifully

I feel the pesto tip will actually change my life!
Also love the 10 minute family tidy up and after holiday washing ideas.
Following for more!

After each wash load, do a second cycle on 'drain and spin' only, it reduces drying time dramatically.

We don't have a tumble dryer, so I feel like I'm constantly washing. The last few weeks I have taken the washing and airers upstairs, which has a) reduced the amount of washing everywhere and b) reduced the number of times it needs sorted/folded/handled. I just put it on the landing, open the bathroom window and forget about it!

You are welcome 😀

Repack sports bags, swimming bags etc as soon as the kit the clean and dry again.

Not at 5 past the time you should have left and yay can't find the nose clip.

Keep a Sharpie and roll of sellotape to hand at all times. Also, get sticky labels printed with your DC's name and your phone number on. Stick them on everything.

We have a A3 size magnetic whiteboard on the fridge. It has days of week and a space for shopping list. On Saturday morning we meal and write under each day, plus add anything that might interfere with dinner, eg one parent out, late doctor appointment, parents eve. Then I know to put easy or slow cooker meals on those days.
All through the week we mostly me because OH is not very organised write on the shopping list side items as soon as we finish them or realise we are running low, which means shopping list is half done already come Saturday morning and just need to add ingredients for planned meals.
It has made life much easier as before Oh constantly finished stuff and didn't tell
Me so I'd be halfway through cooking and realise we had run out of a crucial ingredient.

Do a week's worth of sandwiches (ham usually) for DCs packed lunches and freeze. Just take out in a morning. Defrosted by lunchtime.

Keep a packet of anti bacterial wipes in bathroom / ensuite sinks. Wipe sink and bath / shower as you clean teeth.

Basket per family member. Straight from dryer / off line into basket. That family member has to put away.

Also for fresh ginger, if you have some left peel and chop into thumb size pieces (because this is always the required size in recipes). You can then freeze in, and grate in frozen straight into a recipe.

Do up the leg poppers on a babygro before you put it on the baby. Took me three dc to work this out but was life changing!!!

Take photos of all newsletters, party invitations etc on your phone so they are always to hand.