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?

Tights - I have 3 x DC all in different sizes who fought over tights every morning!! When I buy them, I put a couple of coloured stitches in the waistband of each pair corresponding to each child. Game Changer! Now when I sort the clean washing I put the correct tights in the correct DC pile!

Microchip cat flap, stops other cats coming in.

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

That's what I do when I put stuff on on hangers.

Then peg the hanger on.

I just hang the hangers directly on the line and use pegs to separate the items If necessary; makes life and ironing so much easier.

The hanger slides up and down the line and can come unhooked in a breeze.

I do but I need to add a peg beside each one to stop them moving. It's not much of an issue if you only have a few things, but with lots of laundry the weight of it means everything slides towards the middle. Unless your washing line is like a tightrope I s'pose.
Putting your laundry on hangers means you can fit more onto the line too. Obviously works best on warm dry days when you don't need everything opened out to dry effectively.

@GonnaGetGoingReturns very true about the risk of them bringing dead or live animals through the cat flap, though our cats are elderly now so their hunting days are done. We've never had an issue with other cats coming through their cat flap. That would be true of our old house in zone 2 London and the village where we live now. Next door's cat very sweetly used to come to the cat flap in the morning and look in while our two had their breakfast waiting for them to come out to play but he never attempted to come in himself. Of course you can always put the flap on out only if you are worried about what might come back in.

Thank you!
I was sure there was a sensible answer, I just couldn't work it out :)

@WhyCantPeopleBeNice and others - the trouble with putting hangers directly on to the line is that they tend to all slide together and don't dry well .
Great idea about pegging the hanger though .
But I bet many,like me, are dreaming of having a washing line .

My mum always used a knife to peel apples.
Veg peeler for potatoes and carrots, but a knife for apples so I always did the same.
When it dawned on me I could use the veg peeler on the apple it was a revelation.

I agree. It takes literally 3 minutes to unpack a dishwasher. Why would you do this? It's just laziness.

And to the PP throwing all the laundry into the machine until there's a full load, this doesn't make sense and probably won't work for most people. I don't want to inflict my stinky workclothes full of animal hair on anyone else's laundry (yes I know it gets washed...) but still, no. Or am I misunderstanding the post?

@Sarahtm35 I 100% agree. My mum taught us that too, was a big help.

I failed with my cats though, can't lock them out of the room...at least I don't need an alarm clock I guess.

@Farmageddon

I remember trying to get my mum to downsize when she moved. She was not that mobile (the reason for the move plus she was a widow) but my God! Apparently the five Yes five! broken hoovers in the damp summerhouse were all needed. As were the various drinking glasses (no complete sets left). Also do not even whisper the word cardigan to me. She had thick ones, thin ones, ones my Aunt knitted her. Several the same colour. Thankfully because she was immobile and was in hospital during the move she did not get to see what I chucked away.

I was quite sad by all the wool plonked in the summerhouse that I chucked out because it was all damp smelling.

Hypocrite? Yep! I am a horder and trying to sort myself out!

You and your DH have the same size feet?

All my socks, pants and gym gear are black. Makes washing VERY easy.

Or you can buy these: https://www.lakeland.co.uk/53287/lakeland-12-hanger-hook-ups

I actually use pegs 😁

My cat hates a closed door so that wouldn’t wash in this house!

My recent revelation which I haven’t actioned yet - we have a few big bbqs every summer and always ask BIL to bring extra cutlery. This year I thought why not just buy an extra set?!

We have two laundry baskets with covers, one for whites and one for everything else. Each holds about a full load. Everyone chucks their dirty clothes in the right basket so it's already sorted, when full it goes in machine.

This won't work for you as you are using the outside of the doors, but you could also take the doors off for easier access and it doesn't matter if a coat is bulky and stops the doors shutting as there are no doors.

My DS is mildly autistic and we haven't put the door on his new wardrobe in his bedroom. If the door is shut he basically forgets what's in there and will wear the same stuff day after day unless I scoop it up while he is asleep. Having no door and his clothes in plain sight has helped.

I have size 8 feet and my husband has 8.5 so we share socks and sometimes shoes!

The wind blows them off. At least, it does in my garden.

😂

I have never pegged a hanger on the line but do what my mother did, which is to use old tights withe the body bit coming through the neck hole and pegged to the line and the legs down the sleeves with feet pegged on. It takes a lot of line space but the clothes dry well.

<suspects that @Astrabees mother is probably an unrecognised genius>

Definitely going to try this.

But don't take it too far!

My late DP and his brother grew up with a father who was obsessively tidy and bordered on tyrannical about it. As soon as they left home, they rejoiced in being able to leave stuff lying wherever it happened to get left and were both really messy.

@Jonnycat
I did similar - each DD had blobs of nail varnish to distinguish tights.