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?

@Farmageddon

You need to tell her about this

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/organizing/a43826147/swedish-death-cleaning/

😁

@Createausername1970 I agree - though I read (in my 20s - so long ago!) just buy blue and white crockery and I have stuck to that - mix and match and enjoy the bit of colour 😉

on a Swedish death clean atm- don’t won’t the kids to have to worry about anything other than selling the house and getting some cash!

My (recently late) MIL did a sort-of "Swedish death clean" about a decade ago, and most of it is cluttering up my home. I think I need to follow her example.

And I'm quoting this because it really resonates for me:

Don't get overly sentimental about stuff. Otherwise you end up with boxes of Christmas/birthday cards, school projects etc. I don't have any of that stuff from when I was a child and it hasn't been an issue. Ever.

Line your crisper drawer in the fridge with paper towel. It helps balance the humidity, it catches any fallen celery leaves, or such, and it makes cleaning it a breeze if something goes squishy

Mine was to buy a tidy bloody tin opener. Wrestled with a rubbish one for years!

Each person has their own dirty laundry basket and their laundry gets washed on its own - no tedious separating of clean stuff into each person's pile.

Everything that needs to be cleaned can go into the machine and wait in there until there is enough of it to wash.

That's great if you only ever do mixed washes. It went brilliantly for me until a new purple t-shirt turned all my whites pink. I'm now back to using a laundry basket and sorting the laundry on the kitchen floor in front of the machine.

Paving the rooms with office-type carpet tiles instead of noisy laminate or fitted carpets. When the cat pukes, I lift up the carpet tile and wash it in the shower. It's dry and ready to re-lay within 24 hours and the rest of the floor is unaffected.

Getting a robot vacuum cleaner.

Getting a dishwasher.

Yes and similarly line your kitchen bin with a thick layer of kitchen roll.

I have a cooker where the grill is also a small oven. You can't use it as an oven with the grill pan in.

After 10 years of finding places to put it I realised I could just put it in the big oven.

As a teenager I was in Mensa.

I've just bought a new coffee table with drawers so I can keep things I use regularly to hand but not on display so remote controls, cork screw, tissues.

Love this topic.

For ten years there’s been nowhere to store my vacuum as both the kitchen closet and hall closet which backed one another were made into a powder room by the previous owners, which we appreciate but resulting in no storage space.

They did however build in a pantry and on one side of the pantry is a small coat closet where I would try to stuff the vacuum and on the other a utility closet in which a cabinet of shallow shelves were hinged and could swing out. Those shallow shelves were so annoying and useless as storage.

Well last week I got the idea to REMOVE those shelves by taking out the long hinge. The whole thing came out and left a tall empty storage cabinet. Now I have a broom closet! It only took ten years to figure that out!!!

I probably have more examples and will post again when I think of them. Loving reading all the posts here!

Excellent!

DH had one side of the double rail wardrobe, I had the other side. Only I always struggled to reach the top rail easily as I'm a bit short. For many many years!
Until, I realised one day that I could have the bottom rails on both sides, and DH can have both top rails that aren't a problem for him to reach.
So now I can reach my clothes easily.
Not sure why I didn't organise it this way originally! 🤦‍♀️

To make sure you don't end up with spare/ unpaired socks when sorting the laundry, get a net laundry bag. Sock go in in pairs only.

Line the grill pan with foil. You’ll never need to clean it again. I’ve also got mismatched white crockery for everyday.

Love this! Have you a link please @Mabelface

DS has food allergies. Combined with my poor memory/organisation skills, making sandwiches for three of us each morning could result in me using all 8 knives (eg, I make his first, then ours, but then remember he wants fruit so that's another knife and oops I've put that on top of the one used for cheese so now I need another, because he wants extra toast for breakfast etc etc).

If I run out then they have to be washed properly before reusing, I can't just rinse them, so it can be a pain in the arse some mornings.

So a month ago I bought an extra set of knives. Can't believe how much simpler making the breakfast and lunches is!

I’ve recently bought all my kids different coloured bedding each. The full kit for each bed- sheets, extra pillowcases etc. now I know exactly which should go where, no fannying around looking for extras or what’s missing. A revelation.

I wish I had cared less about what others thought about me. I wasted so much precious time and energy worrying about it in my 20s/30s. Most people are so wrapped up in themsleves their focus isnt on you all the time. I dont care so much now but I wish I had realised that earlier. Not any more.

😂

Thank you, this has helped me, good timing.

My real-life Swedish mother-in-law did a Swedish death clean last year. Now all the stuff that she hadn’t touched for decades is cluttering my flat and I can’t get rid of it because it belonged to her grandma.

My cat would tear the door to shreds, cry in her high pitch wail, wake us up and the neighbours if I did that. You have a thoroughly good cat!

I thought the whole point of Swedish cleaning is to prevent relatives from having to deal with the clutter! But you and another poster are saying you were saddled with all the clutter. I don’t get it!