Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Let's start a thread of just random advise / hacks

358 replies

washingmachineslivelongerwithcalgon · 21/08/2023 17:19

No specific topic, just great advise you'd give.

Keep it simple.
(Apologies, I didn't know which other category to put this under that would gain traction)

I'll go first:

  • don't sweat the petty stuff, & don't pet the sweaty stuff.
  • if you can't open a food jar, pierce the top to get the air out and it opens right up!
  • drizzle a tablespoon of marmite into the cooking fat before you roast your potatoes (and drizzle some over the spuds)
  • if you don't have egg cups, use shot glasses
  • hair spray gets most things out of carpets. (Learnt this when staying at a boyfriends house as a teen and dropped lipstick. Blind panic and hairspray saved me!) used it ever since, in emergency situations.
OP posts:
Clarefromwork · 21/08/2023 22:46

Ignore them! I browsed on my phone loads when feeding, a lot of the time it kept me sane and from over thinking worries.

My tip is to roughly flatten out wet clothes with your hands when you pull them out the washing machine (I do it over my legs or on the couch arm)
Fold as you go and leave for 10 minutes in a pile before hanging out. Saves having to iron (really good with kids clothes!)

A midwife told my mum to do this when she was pregnant with me over 30 years ago!

nopuppiesallowed · 21/08/2023 22:47

Spare lemons? Chop them into quarters and freeze them. Use in gin and Tonic instead of ice cubes. Tastes lemony but doesn't dilute your G and T.
Mould along the sealant of your bath, shower or sink? Press a strip of loo roll along the mould, squirt Milton on it and squidge down firmly. Leave a few hours before taking loo roll away. Result? Beautiful, white sealant with no scrubbing.

ThunderSocks · 21/08/2023 22:47

Sugargliderwombat · 21/08/2023 20:21

Niche one for teachers. If a child uses permanent marker on a whiteboard. A whiteboard pen will rub it out.

Works on (freshly painted...) walls too

Thehop · 21/08/2023 22:49

Cantyouseeimanaubergine · 21/08/2023 22:16

What ratios?

Please don't do this, it just makes your house flammable

BettyBoopy · 21/08/2023 22:49

tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz · 21/08/2023 18:02

I love this

Is this code for something?

Thehop · 21/08/2023 22:54

You can dry and reuse disposable swim nappies, if they haven't been pood in.

ArthnoldManacatsaman · 21/08/2023 22:54

Notjustabrunette · 21/08/2023 22:45

If you don’t have shot glasses, use egg cups. As discovered on. Center parks stay in my 20’s.

My egg cups seem to have a hole in the bottom for the leftover water/condensation to run out of, I’d have to do my shots very fast to get anything from them!

takealettermsjones · 21/08/2023 22:56

If your baby is crying and you have no idea why, check for hairs wrapped around their fingers/toes, stuck in nappy, etc.

Take hot water bottles camping. Useful both in the tent and to put behind your back when sitting round the camp fire (you know, when your front is boiling but your back/butt is freezing 🤣).

To get a proper breeze from a window, you need two windows open. Applies to cars as well as houses.

If you need to add syrup, honey, treacle etc to dry ingredients and don't want to get your measuring spoon all sticky, use the measuring spoon to make the right size indent in the dry stuff (e.g. flour/sugar/oats), then pour the sticky stuff directly into the little hole you've made.

Pretty much all leftovers can be made into at least one of the following: soup, curry, fajitas, cocktails.

nopuppiesallowed · 21/08/2023 22:58

If you have night sweats (menopause - I'm looking at you) use 2 pillows on your bed. Sleep on one and lean the other vertically behind it against the headboard. When you wake in the night, swap them over so you always have a cool pillow to rest your head on.

Summertiempo · 21/08/2023 23:02

ApocalypseNowt · 21/08/2023 18:00

Don't wrestle with pigs.

You'll both get dirty and the pig likes it.

My favourite tip 😄

IdaPrentice · 21/08/2023 23:02

I want to thank whoever posted this one on the last MN 'tips' thread - it worked brilliantly:
If your kitchen sink is a bit grubby / manky, put the plug in, half fill with hot water and add a dishwasher tablet. Leave for about 30 minutes then drain. Wipe away the dirt and as if by magic your sink is shiny and lovely!
I would add, wear rubber gloves as that stuff is harsh!

HootyMcBooby76 · 21/08/2023 23:02

Be careful with the dishwasher tablet to clean glass oven door tip.
I tried this and totally wrecked my glass door and it ended up scratched to bits. Some of those tablets are actually abrasive to glass.

My tip is to use baby oil on stainless steel, I got out some horrible marks that no amount of elbow grease or fancy steel cleaners could remove. Leaves it shiny and perfectly streak free after buffing.

Zoommeout · 21/08/2023 23:03

@TheInseparables in what way is it the best? (sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, I am a bit dim :/

Mindovermatter247 · 21/08/2023 23:06

When having a blood test, never use one of the batons they give you to hold, use your own fist, it’s your own strength. Also watch them do it, it goes so much quicker than closing your eyes and hoping for the best. I’ve been having blood test every 6 months since I was born so I’m kinda a pro.

3moons · 21/08/2023 23:09

Following

IdaPrentice · 21/08/2023 23:11

For oven trays or pans with burnt on greasy food - don't do what I did for many years and faff about soaking overnight or using chemicals. What works really surprisingly well is to put the tray or pan on the hob, add water and turn on the heat, let it bubble for a few minutes (maybe 5 or 10), then pour away the water, the grease and dirt will pour away with the boiling water. Then just give it a quick wash as normal with washing up liquid.

Silentmama2 · 21/08/2023 23:11

Gatehouse77 · 21/08/2023 18:26

When making instant hot chocolate add a splash of milk and stir into a paste. When you add the hot water it makes it frothy and a little bit more creamy tasting 😋

You can do the same with instant coffee - makes for a far nicer cup

nutbrownhare15 · 21/08/2023 23:14

Toothpaste gets felt tip out of wood.

Repurposing · 21/08/2023 23:15

NeverDropYourMooncup · 21/08/2023 19:33

If you lose things like keys, bag, phone, bank cards between coming home in the evening and trying to leave in the morning, plan your entry;

You open the door. As your keys are now in your hand, they go straight to a dedicated place immediately. I suggest at face level because they will be easily visible, you have to learn a lifting up motion for muscle memory and if they fall down, you will hear them from a height of five foot. It's useful to have your work pass/fob/tags attached by carabiner so they also go onto the same place and will increase both the size for visual impact and noise for falling down.

You take your coat off. It goes onto a peg within a few steps of the door. Your bag has a similar place where if you've forgotten anything, it will be in either your bag or the coat pocket.

You take your shoes off. Put the shoe rack/storage where you take them off. It stops a trail of shoes, muddy feet and losing one of them somewhere between there and the wardrobe or bedroom floor.

By the time you are sitting down/in the kitchen/bathroom, everything has a location you have automatically put it in. As a result, when something is missing, you can follow your coming in routine either physically or in your head/accompanied by actions and it will take you to where it was left.

And plan your exit - you close the front door by pulling the handle shut ONLY with the keys in the same hand. It's a bit clunky sometimes, but you won't ever close the door and then think SHIT, MY KEYS because you have them in the hand - not having them will feel wrong and you're likely to stop and check for your keys before closing the door.

Repeat the entering and leaving routine - and do the same for the kids and their detritus - muscle memory kicks in after a while and you won't even know you're doing it, but it will work, especially for some of the more ND of us who can't afford to trust our conscious brains with something so essential. Trust me, it's helped 2 adults, 4 kids and even the cats know the routines enough to stop and look at you if you haven't followed it right.

Read the instruction booklet, including installation instructions and keep it nearby. It doesn't help when you're trying to work out why the dishwasher isn't cleaning properly to have to then rip the house apart searching for the instruction booklet somewhere in the loft. Whilst you're at it, as you read it, write the serial number, model number and date of purchase (maybe even staple the receipt) onto the front of the booklet. That way, if you need to source a part or claim under guarantee, you've got the details right in front of you, instead of not knowing or looking at a now blank label where the details have rubbed off. And I don't think you'll appreciate how it feels to try and get an engineer out for your tumble dryer that's not working after three months, only to find that you didn't empty the water tray (cue 'I didn't know I had to do that') and that's why you're getting an error code and wet clothes after 4 hours.

When you're fitting things into your kitchen, write the measurements of each space on the wall behind where the appliance is going and the direction & distance of the power supply and water/gas/etc. You'll always forget the size of the space. Include the depth of the space.

Label your chargers and the leads for everything. That way, you won't have to keep 20 that you think might fit something but you can't remember what.

Separate colour charging cables for each person also helps - no, DP, that's not your USB-C lead, it's mine, so give it back and order your own replacement.

Put a sticky label on the back of furniture with the name, model, colourway and dimensions.

Every woman needs a toolkit of her own. None of it gets borrowed, lifted into a man's toolbox, collection or heap of stuff because it will never return and will most likely evaporate into thin air exactly when you need it. If you need a particular tool for something, label it with the size of bolt/screw/socket/consumables so you can always get more parts and know it will fit all 10mm bolts, for example. I'd suggest a lock on it that only you have keys to, as otherwise the end of any relationship results in your tools disappearing because men think all tools belong to them.

Also label any spare parts and accessories - that random big knobby lid thing is for the dishwasher spray when you're washing big pans and that weird cage thing under the sink goes into the tumbledryer for when you're drying trainers, for example.

If in doubt put it on charge. Saves things dying on you just when you don't want them to - toothbrushes, waterpiks, shavers, phones, laptops, earbuds.

Have indoor earbuds and outdoor ones. This works because when you go to the gym, you've got your outdoor ones in your bag and when you come home, your indoor ones are where they belong instead of disappearing somewhere between the gym and upstairs. Have a different coloured case so you can tell in a instant that you've just found your indoor ones under the sofa.

Buy and fit a mattress and pillow protectors before you sleep on them. Trust me, it's the only way to guarantee that you won't have the puking child/cat/period from hell come 3 weeks early.

Make the bed the moment the sheets are ready. Don't leave it for later, do it as you strip the current ones off or the moment the freshly washed ones are ready. Your 10.30pm self will thank you for it.

And the hardest one of all for most of us is have separate savings. They're not for a treat, they're not for standard shopping, they're for when the shit truly hits the fan and you have nothing else. It might be that they're a running away fund, they could be the fuck this job and all who sail in her fund, they could be the lifethreatening accident, the broken front tooth, husband fucking off with the new admin, they could be the roof falling in or the worrying symptoms that carry a waiting list of 17 months for a first appointment. If you can save even a fiver a month, just over a pound a week and keep it separate and unmentioned, it's going to be fifty quid soon enough - which will feed you for a week. It's unmentioned not just to stop anybody else having it, it's unmentioned because then it'll disappear off into the back of your mind until you truly need it.

This coming in the house routine could actually work and and bears repeating. Thanks, Mooncup!

coodawoodashooda · 21/08/2023 23:16

Always write a thank you card immediately after whatever nice thing happened.

Fifireee · 21/08/2023 23:17

You can unblock sinks, showers etc with a plunger. You don’t need nasty chemicals.

Geogaddi · 21/08/2023 23:18

Use nail polish remover to get rid if sticky masking tape marks on windows. It works a treat.

When boiling a kettle for tea put the extra hot water in a thermal flask so you can have another tea later without reboiling the kettle.

Summertiempo · 21/08/2023 23:26

Mix equal amount of dishwashung liquid and banking soda, use a wet sponge to spread it on the bath tub, leave it on for 15 mins, use wet sponge to scrub gently and with hand shower wash it off. Easiest way to clean the tub in my experience.

Pour drinking soda to take off fresh food stains.

Coconut oil to remove make up.

While making Indian chickpea curry, use one tea bag of any black tea. Pour hot water in a mug over the tea bag, after 5 mins, discard the tea bag and use the water for the curry sauce. Authentic Indian tip

BlueBlubbaWhale · 21/08/2023 23:26

Have ants but no ant powder? Pretty much any powder works I've used talc and wash powder.

Talc is also excellent for getting sand off your feet at the beach.

Summertiempo · 21/08/2023 23:27

Toothpaste for minor burns