Best domestic cheats, please share.

[farmersdaugther]

Basically I need some tips on how to make me look like I'm an utter domestic goddess but without all the faffing about!

Don't get me wrong I'm fully capable of making my home lovely (clean and tidy etc) cooking and baking but I struggle with having a young family.

So what are your best domestic cheats?

I've started with a bread maker and a slow cooker.

Have a bag for every person for every activity. A cheapy drawstring bag will do. So if its football day, just grab the football bag for example.

MrsHoarder I do that with the dc. It means when kit is cleaned it cango straight in the bag again.

Helen Are you willing to share your beef pasties recipe {rubs tummy}

God yes, swimming and P.E things go straight into the bag. No point putting things away in a drawer and relying on chronically disorganised DD (12) to find and pack them.

Lunchboxes get packed with fruit, drink, crisps, cake or biscuits the night before and just the sandwich to go in from the freezer in the morning.

I make sandwiches from the last bits of the bread, leftover ham, cheese or tuna and freeze them. I don't need to buy freezer bags because I always find myself with too many of Tesco's free plastic bags when I am buying their overpriced vegetables

Put duvet-covers on by turning them inside out.

I use an airer so can't try washing socks ready-rolled

Just mine - might already have been posted:

Lunches - five plastic bags are put in fridge and filled with: drinks carton, pepperami stick or piece of cheese, Kipling cake, bunch of grapes or satsuma, etc. - in morning take a small crustless cheese or ham sarnie out of freezer and bung in the bag.

Post - open it on the day it arrives and reply and file it.

Ironing (yes I do - sorry) - iron five things every day (cleaner comes Sats to do the rest).

Portable electric charged hand held hoover thingy. Brill for car and small patches of muck. When the dc were smaller was super for getting the sand off the patio and back into the sand pit.

Old-fashioned feather duster.

The window cleaner can be persuaded to do indoors as well for an extra tenner occasisonally.

Bed linen - I don't bother with the MNet bale. Just strip - wash - tumble and put it straight back on the bed.

RubyGates where did you get those zipped boxes from in the picture you linked please? I'm looking for some for my DC's rooms.
Ta

On first glance I thought this said 'best benefit cheats'

I make huge batches of "mince base", whereby I fry up loads of minced beef, onions, grated carrot & some Marmite or oxo cubes, then freeze portions.

You can just take them out and add tomatoes & herbs for spaghetti Bol, mash on too for cottage pie etc etc.
This is particularly good if the mince is reduced to clear.

food tricks:

Buy frozen pastry. I make fantastic pastry but so do jus-rol.

Garlic puree in a tube. No more peeling, chopping and smell on your fingers. use it for all cooking including garlic bread, salad dressings. Go easy - it's strong.

Easiest domestic goddess cheat meal:
Heat oven
Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil, small squeeze of garlic puree, heaped teaspoon of dry of fresh chopped rosemary, zest of one lemon, salt and pepper in a roasting tin. Add 1 packet of thicken thighs and roll them around till coated in the mix. Add a glass of dry white wine and cook for 35 mins. They go sticky and bubbly, everyone thinks it smells and tastes great. It takes 5 mins max to prepare. Goes with oven chips (McCain Home) or fresh baguette and bagged salad if you are truly too knackered to cook, or with rice or spuds and steamed veg.

Make a massive vat of tomato based sauce; onions, garlic, courgettes, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, passata or tinned toms and herbs. Blitz half of it in the blender to thicken the sauce. Divide it into freezer bags or tubs. Use one for spag bol, one for chilli, one for lasagna, one for tomato and cheese pasta.

Bread mix and breadmaker. 65-80p for a big fresh loaf that scents the house all day.

Buy ziploc bags (the tougher sort from whsmiths) to put those wooden puzzles in. They're generally A4 sized anyway.

Likewise zippy bags for jigsaw puzzles. The boxes always fall apart or get lost.

Get some plastic freezer boxes with lids from 99p shop. Tip out everything in the drawer in the kitchen (you know, the one that everything gets shoved in to).

Sort into separate boxes. Write on lids with marker pen. And voila! A tidy drawer!

Doesn't sound much but it makes a huge difference

These are great, more please!

BOOKS are a big problem in our house. All my 3 dds are avid readers and read books by the pile. Hence we have piles of books everywhere, kitchen table, on the stairs, in the bathroom (!). Any tips??

Never ironing.
Having a dishwasher.
Good storage - hooks, boxes, tubs, containers etc.
Having a DH who sees domestic chores as a shared responsibility, and does his fair share (more, actually) to lighten the load - and nothing to add to it.
Oh, and Kitchen Roll.

I believe the fire services recommend not having your washing machine or dishwasher on overnight or when you're out as it can be a fire hazard. Worth considering

Fantastic ideas. Should really think about meal planning!

Plan meals ahead for the week. And every week must must have at least two meals which last two evenings (soup, curry, lasagna split into two medium dishes not one large one) so you only cook 3-4 timesaver week.

Dc must be taught to do their bed, fold away pjs and tidy room in morning before brushing teeth. This takes max 3 minutes and when you explain it takes so little time they don't mind doing it. I tidy in
The morning but do one big clean of the kitchen after dinne time. So dishes during day get put in dishwasher but after dinner everything gets wiped, dried, washed, put away, clothes, floors mopped etc. lids just have small snack before bed so the kitchen stays clean until dinner the next day with any breakfast dishes straight in the dishwasher and kids all at school.

Also newspapers rolled up are best to clean windows mirrors with vinegar. Soda crystals for everything: toilets, tiles, washing clothes.

OneOfEach
They're Christmas storage boxes without the gubbins inside.
I got them from Home bargains for 3.99 each.

They're surprisingly sturdy and have zips all the way round at both ends. Also, you could use the dividers that come with them (a layer's-worth at least) for tiny lego brick storage.

www.amazon.co.uk/CHRISTMAS-BAUBLE-DECORATIONS-STORAGE-BRAND/dp/B0064N3680

Library books keep in a bag, then you don't go round hunting for them. Our library sells a little hessian bag, just the right size :)

Agree with what everyone else said, don't walk around empty handed.

I have a laundry basket for upstairs and one downstairs, it goes on at night, the tumble dryer in the morning and it goes upstairs with assorted crap that shouldn't be downstairs piled on it in the morning after the school run.

In the morning while the DC are eating their breakfast I sort washing out, put dryer on and new load in, empty diswasher so things get stacked straight in it during the day, wipe down worksufaces and hoover the bits off the kitchen floor.

On return from school I whip round the living room with the hoover, and the baby gets given a wipe to clean the sofa for me, and a cloth to dust the surfaces she can reach (it's FUN obv :))

The crap that need to go upstairs gets slung on the laundry basket and taken up.

Then I sit down and entertain the baby MN.

Dinner on a work day is done in the slow cooker (don't brown meat first, it's a PITA and makes it no better IMHO) stew or bolognaise or recently I did stroganoff, I'm branching out :) or 'oven dinner' that doesn't need to be crap, can make an extra fish/ cottage pie and freeze it for busy days. Also sausages or chicken bits cook in 30 mins so not really a bother. On 15 mins dinner days we have pasta/ bacon/ veg/ dairylea cheese sauce concoction quite often.

After dinner, let DC watch telly, clean up all the crap, stack dishwasher and wipe down kitchen, 10 mins job. Make DC tidy toys while bath is running.

Clean bathroom while they are in bath, toilet, sink etc.

Change beds while they are fannying about choosing story in bedroom.

Everything stays clean and you only have to 'find time' to do floor mopping/ shower screen cleaning type jobs.

And online food shop. Just do it. You'll save money, and once you've got it down it can be done in 30 mins while you have a at work

Fuck that was long

Sorry I feel a bit of a dick now, I obviously enjoy my housework regime

Use a slow cooker, obvious but so nice to come home to.
Method make bathroom wipes that degrade and are designed to be flushed away.
Lakeland make clip things for socks-will hang on washing line or airer and I put them straight back in the drawer like that www.lakeland.co.uk/22897/20-Lakeland-Sock-Mates

I clean the bathroom whilst the DD's are in the bath.

Washing goes on in afternoon (when I finish work) soon as I get in.

Beds get changed first thing on a Sunday morning and washed.

Washing goes in dryer so I don't have to iron I despise ironing

When I wipe kitchen surfaces down instead of a cloth I use cif anti-bacterial spray and kitchen roll. Job done.

Slow cook most meals if I can.

DD1 washes up dishes.

I put Hoover through once the DD's are in bed every night. Then sit down!

I love to clean tho!

We sleep with our bedroom window open every night for fresh air and the lounge and girls windows get opened for at least half hr every day.

I also have a glade sense n spray air freshener thingy in every room. £4 in tesco at mo normally £10. Refills £3 at mo normally £6 each. So I had a fab shop