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.

Regarding ironing: I broke the back of this by ironing whenever I watch telly. Takes the guilt out and the basket empties!

Mesh underwear sock bag for the wash.

I also freeze sandwiches.

And be ruthless with clutter.

Abitwobblynow I agree with you in general about flushing things, I only flush these wipes because like toilet paper they are designed to be flushed and to degrade. Take a look at the link I posted above.

Dancergirl- buy them Kindles/Kobos

a nice smelling house is half the battle, so open your windows as much as you possibly can as it will help keep your house smelling fresh, and drops of zoflora on your lightbulbs / behind radiators

also, train the dcs from a very early age to help you tidy and clean, (this has the added benefit of them not growing up with the mindset of mum does everything)

Flushable wipes flush-down the toilet. However they cause chaos in drains. Please don't flush them ever. My mums elderly next door neighbour had a garden full of sewage because her neighbour's children used 'flushable' wipes.

It amazes me that people would ever flush things like sanitary items or wipes - common sense surely?

ooh for ironing I have a lakeland tabletop ironing sheet. Stops us from procrastinating about getting the old and cumbersome ironing board out.

My dining room table is too low for me to iron on. I have the ironing board at its highest level.

Save the faff of peeling potatoes for mash. Just bake whole potatoes cut them in half and push through a potato ricer.

Buy your favourite sausages, squidge out the innards and make fantastic meatballs from the sausage meat. Fry them off then chuck a tin of tomatoes or passata over them and bubble for a few minutes.

Get the type of dish scrubber that you can pour washing up liquid into the handle then fill with half white vinegar and half fairy liquid. give the shower glass a quick scrub while you're in there.

Use Ecover Ocean Fresh toilet cleaner, a quick squirt makes the whole bathroom smell amazing.

Keep Eucalyptus essential oil in bathrooms and toilets. A quick drop down the loo before you or anyone has a poo completely negates any smell. When you have guests keep a lit candle in the loo to keep everything fresh smelling.

Dab fabric softener on radiators, they smell fab as they warm up.

Air the bed for at least an hour a day, remaking it within minutes of getting up just lets the moisture stay trapped and fester within the fabric.

Thought this thread would be about making canapes out of old croissants and a tin of mushroom soup, or cocktails with store cupboard ingredients ( mix multi vit juice with vodka and lime), or presenting your puddings in tall glasses, and matching napkins and professionaly blowdried hair that you can make last longer with the help of talcum powder, and turning yesterdays' roast into a Thai Beef salad for starters the next day.

You all make being a domestic godess sound so boring. Icame here looking for inspiration!

Like: for unexpected visitors, quickly defrost lunchbox sandwiches in the microwave and cut into triangles. Sprinkle with oregano. Serve with a large glass of frozen vodka. Shout: bottoms up! Rinse and repeat.

Or: if the neighbours in your semi are having a fight during ypur dinner party, put on some loud pop music and initiate a game of musical chairs.

"Just bake whole potatoes cut them in half and push through a potato ricer."

I think that is more of a faff, not to mention the time it takes to bake potatoes as opposed to boiling them.

I agree with your other comments though AlOuise

Really? It saves peeling them and saves a saucepan, just rice straight into the serving bowl.

I'm not selling it to you am I.

8 mins to bake potatoes in our combi microwave, then mash and eat the crisp skins yourself. Perfect.

Just put the potatoes (either small ones or in chunks) in the slow cooker, put a spoon or two of oil over them (I have garlic cloves in olive oil so I put some of those in) and leave them for six hours on high. Works with carrots and parsnips too.
For mash, just boil the buggers with the skin on, it comes off mostly and is left behind when you drain them, and the odd bit left in the tatie is good for you, that's where the vitamins are
AS for squishing sausages for meatballs, just go to ALDI and buy meatballs, you get 25 for about £2.50 and they are lovely. Just chop and onion, carton of passata (aldi 27p) and the meatballs in the slow cooker and four hours on high later, Bob's your uncle

With the frozen sandwiches do you include salad etc? Probably a silly question

get a basket by the side of the sofa.
put in it pen, pencil, cheque book, stamps envelopes, diary.

when the post comes / you bring letters home from school, put it in your basket.
when you sit down at night, open the post, write the responses put them by the door for posting.

once a month file the paperwork in your basket.

I do like your name, NeverKnowinglyUnderstood. I have such a basket by the sofa.

When a mate turns up just as you let them in, say loudly oooh ouch then say remember when I had just given birth and you asked if there was anything you could do and I said we're okay thanks, well there is now ..... then reel off oven needs cleaning, hedge needs cutting etc
Then when other people come round everywhere will be spick and span and you'll only have looked scruffy to one mate.
I have a 29 and a 10 year old and this has always usually worked...

Re freezing sandwiches, does the bread not become soggy?

Baking potatoes takes ten minutes though in a microwave. Much quicker Nd saves energy.

Agree on flush able wipes - they are a marketing ploy
We had to spend several hundred pounds unblocking our drains because of these little beauties
FLUSHABLE WIPES ARE FAIRY TALE CHARACTERS
Ask any plumber

Make up lots of cake mixture and freeze in muffin cases. Then when you know someone is popping round just whack a couple in the oven and you have freshly baked muffins in ten minutes.

I set an alarm for 15 mins and just do 15 mins of housework.

I read about doing that on MN and thought "what the fuck can you get done in 15 mins?!" as it turns out, quite a lot!

I do it twice (sometimes 3 times) a day. And my house has never looked cleaner.

I also meal plan so i dont have to faff around thinking "what can i make for tea?" and also it saves me money as i only buy exactly what i need rather than spend a fortune on stuff that wont get eaten.

I always read these threads and wonder how big everyone's freezer must be! I am yearning for a chest freezer atm as I only have 2 drawers (one I use for veg/ice cream and other for meat/fish fingers etc) so not much room for extra meals/muffin trays sadly. I hear freezing ice cube trays of milk can be handy for tea if you run out of milk too.

I use baby wipes on my skirting boards (only usually do about once a month) and backs of kitchen chairs/bannisters and any other bits I pass.. I find I get quite carried away once I start! The bathroom floor/around the edge of the outside of the shower is an easier job this way.

Someone was saying about using the lint from the tumble for stuffing toys or whatever. I haven't tried it yet but seemed quite a good idea.

I bought the cheap Flash bathroom cleaner for £1 and quickly sprayed it around my shower glass in the morning the other day. Was very happy to come back and find house smelled lovely and the shower was clean and got even better when I showered the next morning as all of the residue washed off to get sparkle and therefore the house continued to smell lovely for 3 days

Have put scented oil balls into my Henry today so looking forward to using it now!