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?

Anyone else totally just bought those washing hanger hooks…? Genius!

Save nothing for best.
Don't keep something because it might be handy one-day.
Don't be sentimental about gifts.
If it's broken , Chuck it.
Wear your best clothes.
Use that perfume.

Hoarding by proxy.

DS and I often wear mismatched socks. They are in trainers or boots etc., who sees them. Hubby can't cope with that one - yet!

Like the idea of a laundry basket for clean clothes for DS. That is definitely going to be implemented. 👍

Only White crockery is genius. I wish someone told me this years ago

Please help me understand how this helps...can you not put the hanger directly on the line?

Honestly, that's shocking. What a waste of money and water

Literally only in the last week have we started locking the cat in the kitchen overnight. No more polite knocking on the door by the cat at 5am for breakfast. He’s 14…. And we have a cat flap. Sleeping so much better.

we bought a Laundry hamper with 2 partitions, whites and darks. Don’t use a colour catcher as do towels and bedding at higher heat.

It amazes me that people let their cats roam free overnight!

I have had cats all my life and they are always shut out over night. When I say shut out, she is confined to the utility room, which has her bed and food in, and a cat flap to go outside. She is fed and let in the house in the morning.

If I didn't do this, she would be waking us up all night and there's always the possibility of coming downstairs to something dead or injured in the living room.

When I gave birth the hospital gave me tena pants to wear afterwards and I realised they're perfect for a period every month. None of your underwear gets stained, they never leak and they're actually super comfortable.

Regarding school stuff, I made the DC a photo book for their 21st birthdays with funny paintings, stories passing driving test cards etc in. All the “originals” could then be binned.

The mind boggles. In my house the washing would be hung up together, therefore rendering this method redundant. Also, what about whites and darks? One of my family members would wait 2-3 weeks before washing. Na one box for me, more efficient.

Husband and I have a communal
sock drawer filled with the same black socks, so we never have to match our socks again. I have some 'ornamental' socks I might wear on special occasions but day to day we just open the drawer and take out two socks and job's a good un.

Our DS only has black socks. Makes pairing up so much easier.
Bedding - full set goes inside a pillowcase, no more looking for the matching sheet etc.
Stock up on washing powder, toilet roll, shower gel, period stuff, etc.

Agree with a previous poster about not keeping stuff for best. Use it now! When my Nan died she had drawers full of nice clothing, silk scarves etc still in wrapping paper that she'd received as gifts and 'kept for best.' It was very sad 😥 that so much was unused.

My DPs did this years ago when I was a teenager and we got two kittens. Cats never seemed to mind.

Years later when I got a flat with 2 floors and stairs and kittens I spent 3 weeks having them wake me before I consigned them to one room!

With cats you need to lock them downstairs from the start so they get used to it. We have a bed for the cat in the utility room along with food, water and cat flap in the back door.

I wash a duvet, sheet and pillows together and fold them all up inside a pillow case. Used to spend ages trying to work out which were single sheets and which were small double sheets and try to match pillow cases to duvets. Classic MN tip.

Also have different coloured towels for each person. I used to buy a single type of sock for each person but made the mistake of telling mil who then continually bought DH and kids a range of different socks at every possible opportunity 🙄and now I’m back to scrabbling around trying to match socks.

Also get DC to empty the dishwasher washer each day and youngest to empty the recycling box each day in order to “earn” their pocket money along with tidying their rooms and stripping their beds every Saturday morning and bringing their washing down. To be fair there is a variable degree of compliance with thisand often a fair bit of threatening to withhold pocket money involved.

Sounds like my house is super organised which it 100% isn’t but these things help. I need more tips.

People saying only have black socks. It gets difficult when lots of people in the house have varying size feet?

For years and years my dogs have barked and stressed and wound each other up, and me, when something is posted through the door.

I barely get any actual real post so this pretty much stoped when I got a ‘no junk Mail’ sign.

I don’t know why I never thought of it before!

I imagine so but my husband and I can share and he's a size 11 and I'm a size 5! We just buy bigger ones and they fit me fine. DD1 has all grey socks.

Cat flaps are good for daytime but nighttime any old cat can come through it and also don’t forget the creatures the cat drags in through the cat flap. Fine if you want to see a dead rat before you eat your cornflakes.

Ah ok. We have a size 6, 6, 7, 9 so actually could probably all share

Black out blinds have been a lifesaver in our bedroom. I thought I was sleeping well but didn’t realise I would sleep so much better in darkness! Our room was bright enough at night (street lights) that we could go to the bathroom without turning lights on.

Why can't you hang clothes hangers directly on the line

We have a single wardrobe in the hallway for shoes and to hang up coats. But there isn't much room inside for the coats as it's not very deep so we still had multiple coats/winter jackets that needed hung up. After months, I realised I could stick the adhesive hooks on the front of the wardrobe door. There's three there now and all our coats and jackets have somewhere to live

Taught my kids to tidy up from young.
my mother was the person who always rallied round myself and my siblings so unfortunately I followed suit and now regret it as if I ask them to tidy up they look at me like I’ve punched them in the face. So please new mums put those kids to work asap! Or you’ll massively regret it!