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?

I got my DD a bean bag cover to store her teddies in, wish I'd got it years ago! Instead of an annoying heap on the bed and scattered over her floor, they're a cosy seat for reading on. She's happy and I'm happy!

My gran had something on her fridge which read:

At 20 I worried about what others thought of me.
At 40 I didn’t care what others thought of me.
At 60 I realised they mostly hadn’t been thinking of me at all.

If you have a kitchen utensil that you use a lot and it's always in the dirty and in the dishwasher when you need it get another one. For me that was the cheese grater and the veg peeler.

I'm sure there are better ones than this, but the one that came to my mind was realising I don't need to wear or own a dressing gown. They flap around your legs, come undone at bad moments and generally make you hot and cross. They also take up masses of space in the washing machine. So now I just put a jumper or hoodie on over my PJs to come down in the morning and if there's a knock at the door I almost look dressed.

Surely you are joking? What a waste of water and energy.

totally agree. I binned all the other and only now wear a certain type of black M&S pants. It is so easy to find the pants I want to wear and they don't discolour.

I don’t separate my washing into light and darks. All clothes get washed together at 30 and at that low temp the colours don’t run.

Loving this thread! I realised a few years back that if there was something we use loads on a daily basis and were always having to wash up, I could just buy a second one - eg. the flippy spatula we use for pancakes, taking things off oven trays etc. A bit niche but I also bought a double of the guinea pigs' heat pad so that I wouldn't have to go out to the shed and collect it and bring it in to microwave on cold nights.

And your compost caddy. I use compostable bags, but inevitably something drips or the bag breaks. You can just lob it all, kitchen roll and veggie scraps and bags into your outside composter. Saved me a lot of cleaning.

Great to see that @WonderingWanda had the same realisation about kitchen duplicates!

My sister goes away a lot and her cat needed feeding twice a day so she got a double timed feeder.
One side you put fresh in and the other you put a FROZEN pouch which defrosts in the feeder so you only need to go once a day and they food doesn’t go off.

Shut your cats away, not yourself. When we first had ours they woke us up at night so we shut our door, but then they scratched at the door. So instead we made a room for them downstairs and shut them away at night.

That was 13 years ago, and sadly only one is with us still, but he likes sleeping in there and takes himself off to bed - he likes the routine. The only exception is if it’s too hot in there or he’s poorly.

yep in my amazon basket

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!

I'm so badly organised with socks I'm not sure my DD realises that socks are supposed to match!

I thought I had early arthritis. Turns out the tin opener was really stiff and it was painful trying to use it. I bought a new one. Life changing.

Felt a bit stupid.

Can we have some links for premium sellotape dispensers please? Heavyweight automatic super ones? I’m excited about how this is going to change my life!

As a teen, we always had a huge basket of ironing to do.
As an adult I only brought an iron 2 years ago and have used it about 5 times. I iron nothing.
Don't pair socks, I purposely mismatch mine so everyone's socks are left unpaired. DSD pairs her own, DP just digs til a semi matching one appears and the other children don't care what socks they wear.
When you have a baby, buy Tena pants. Don't bother with maternity pads and giant pants, just the disposable Tena ones.
Greaseproof paper over baking trays - makes them much easier to clean and stops things sticking and falling apart.

My dog has always had the run of the house and sleeps where ever she wants. For ten years I’ve had her getting me up during the night because she wants to go to the toilet, or she’s seen a cat through the window etc. I recently bought her a doughnut shaped dog bed and she sleeps solidly in it all night! Ten years I’ve wasted on interrupted sleep when a £20 dog bed could have sorted it 🥴

My dd has only grey and black socks for school (grey skirts) because I was so sick of how filthy the white ones came home.

We now have only grey for us or coloured for the kids bed linen for the same reason.

The stuff thing is fairly true and I hadn't thought of this,
I don't have any of this stuff
Drawings or exercise books etc and hasn't bothered me - but I am keeping currently for my kids

Do those who do have them from their childhood want them??

Why do we keep them do we think?

We had a round washing line for years, the kind that spins. I never liked it, I hated having to work out what went on the inside, what fits on each section. One day realised I could just get one washing line that fits between 2 outbuildings. I now have 2, so there's no fighting for the best position, I can use hangers etc.

Also greaseproof papers on everything- my MIL uses it in frying pans for things like bacon.

I bought clingfilm and used it all the time, but hated how it clings and gets stuck to itself. so now I buy foil and my blood pressure is lower.

We have 4 kids, all girls under 5. Colour coding, labelling and laundry baskets for each child has saved my life.

Yes!! Why can't we put clothes that have been worn back in the drawers???

Oh absolutely. I have letters between my grandparents written during WW2 and a rent book from the house where other grandparents lived when they were first married. I could never throw them away.

I did throw out a box file full of my school newsletters a few years ago. I kept one or two but the other 70+ were recycled. That felt good! Why I thought I’d need to read about the debate about grant maintained status or school trips I wasn’t part of…

My revelation has been realising we get sold a lie by places like IKEA that if we just bought enough storage units and storage baskets and vacuum packs we could live in a decluttered calm oasis. After a certain point, it’s not the amount of storage you have, it’s the amount of stuff. Get rid of what you don’t need/use and don’t buy loads more to fill the space you freed up either. People’s cellars, garages and attics are full to the brim of old rubbish. Out of sight, out of mind.

You can, but they slide! These keep the hanger in place.