Simple things that I should have done years ago to make life easier

[malificent7]

My lovely cat has been waking us up at 5/6am for 6 years.
Last night I had the genius idea of closing the lounge door so she couldn't come to our room.
Hence we slept longer. Why did I not think of this earlier? I love cat snuggles but love a lie in more.

Am I thick or does anyone have similar stories?

@MonumentalLentil

sometimes I put stuff in a bag and then into a box to freeze, when solid, remove from the box and you have a bag of rectangluar frozen stuff which you can stack on other similar bags,
oh I'm liking this!!!

@Season0fTheWitch if you keep your cling film in the fridge (unboxed ) it's much easier to handle .

@Whatsthescory - I'm happy to iron and I'm not sure your method would save me much effort but something about your "hand ironing" really appeals to me!

I hate ironing but have developed a new technique which I have coined 'hand ironing'. I have a clothes horse on my balcony rather than I line in my garden, so this may not work for everyone. Basically, I sit in front of the TV with a basket of wet washing, put a cushion on my knee and flatten everything with my hand and fold it. Then I pop everything onto the clothes horse and it dries as if its been ironed. I find it really satisfying and it's just so much more enjoyable that actual ironing.

Could I have a link to the ikea thing please?

Lightbulb moment - I bought a second tube of toothpaste, spare toothbrush (I use electric at home but don't usually take it away), spare deodorant etc. As soon as I get back from a trip I refill travel-size shower gel, shampoo and other stuff and the bag is always ready to pack.

In addition to that, pack a spare travel bag of all your chargers, cables and an universal adapter. Not fun to discover you're missing your phone charger when you arrive somewhere in the middle of the night or you brought only EU adapter to Switzerland.

Rainblowshit we use Sortera https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/sortera-waste-sorting-bin-with-lid-white-70255899/

Yes. Wouldn't want to waste water and energy.

Always do that, makes such a difference. We get a veg box each week and I put new kitchen roll in to line it when I refill it.

Agree. I don't only have no white underwear, I have no white clothes for the same reason, they never stay white.

Ours does that too.

@Mabelface Well, that's a complete revelation! I've been drying washing on coat hangers on my washing line for years but I had no idea that specific 'pegs' existed to help keep them in place (I've broken so many normal pegs trying to keep the hangers secured). Thanks so much for this, I'm off to buy some right now 😀

What are these marvellous things ?
Where do I get them please ?

I don't understand what is meant here. I think I need a diagram :)

Do they use different plugs in Switzerland to the EU? I didn't know that. I did stay in Switzerland years ago but it was pre mobile phones (or at least smartphones) and I don't use a hair dryer or straighteners so I didn't need to plug anything in.

@lieselotte yes they do. My H goes to Switzerland a fair bit with work and carries one in his toilet bag. Hotels charge you something like £12 to borrow one!

Amazon. There's a link higher up. 😊

I used to feel guilty about throwing out my children’s’ artwork until I had a brilliant idea.

I bought a mini da Vinci frame for each of my children - it holds up to 50 pieces of their ‘artwork’ from nursery/school. We display each piece on our kitchen wall and then keep it in the frame until the next piece comes home.

At the end of the year we photograph all the artwork, throw the originals away and make a photobook of the whole years’ artwork for each of them. It means we avoid clutter but have a memento of every picture they have ever drawn/painted and stored on their bedroom bookshelves.

Thank you @Mabelface

When I stopped using a filofax (showing my age) ten years ago, I typed all of my address book into a word document set up for address labels. It gets updated every Christmas, or if we get a change of address notice, and I email it to myself at my gmail when it's updated. Then if I'm out and about, I can just search for my friend's name in my gmail and it will always bring up their full address for birthday cards etc. At Christmas, we print it on labels and write the cards - takes half the time it used to.

I do the kids' thank you cards on Touchnote - we have a big family so we usually have about 20 to do. It's not cheap, but it is so fast. I pick a nice photo and use it for all of them, the addresses are already in there from previous times and the kids dictate or type in a few sentences per card and I hit send. I can do 20 in half an hour.

Some of these suggestions may revolutionise my life!!
My contributions:
I keep old socks, put them on my hand and dust. Then just throw them in the wash with towels (not a wash with other socks!) & keep them in a separate bag ready for nest time.

Last Christmas I bought a weighted Sellotape dispenser, it made wrapping present so much quicker as I didn't waste time trying to locate the roll of tape under masses of rubbish & I never had to find the end of the tape either.
I keep my baking ingredients / decorations etc on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard but I've now put everything in clear kitchen storage boxes. That way I can just take the whole box down from the top shelf instead of having to move everything to get to the something that's hidden at the back.

DS & DD can't reach the coat hooks in the downstairs toilet so we attached another row of hooks much further down that they can reach.

Buy a decent can opener. After years of struggling to open anything with the useless bit of metal masquerading as a tin opener, I begrudgingly paid £8 for an OXO opener. Oh my goodness! I've had it couple of year now and it still brings me joy when I have to use it (yes, I am that sad!!) 😅

My washing line hooks that I ordered off amazon yesterday after reading this are 5 stops away so I'm off to put a wash on

And a tub of Vaseline and sudocreme. You never know when you’ll need it but when you do, you really do.

Which online shopping list do you use?

I second people saying buy a good tin opener and I would add to that a good peeler. I splashed out on Joseph Joseph for both. They are amazing. They give me disproportionate joy.

OMG I love this thread. Mine are

I got two little stylish coat stands for DH and I, for the bedroom for clothes that are "worn but not dirty" which avoids the whole chair of doom debacle.

Keep cleaning stuff where you use it, so in each kids room there are bin bags, a duster and antic spray, in the shower there is shower cleaner, each loo has its own supply.

I'm rubbish at watering plants so I have a couple of large disposable water bottles that I fill with water and keep behind the front door so on the way in/ out/ passing I will see them and remember to water the pots out in the front garden, which then prompts me to do the house ones too.

Don't sort the socks once they are dry, shove them all in a big bag and deal with it once a week/month.

Be a total saddo and buy xmas cards in the jan sales and put them away in storage with all the decorations.

Agree about people who don't bother with curtains, we have shutters in all the rooms and they are fab. PP said they were dust gatherers but they are not, they are just flat wood, not the louvre ones.

Create a "uniform" for work, I have two pairs of trousers and four tops and I just mix and match them every day, so I never have to think about it.

I no longer keep clothes that I try on and think "that will be nice if I put a cardi over it, that will be nice if I wear a certain bra with it". If it doesn't make me feel great immediately with no modifications or conditions I send it back.