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.

milk in the ice cube trays - that is genius - just genius. Am doing that right now - before I go to bed

1. Earn a fortune (see who earn £1k a day threads).
2. Pay someone else to do it
3. If 1 and 2 fail get your husband to do it and never ever ever see being female as meaning you do dull domestic stuff. Leave it to men and outsource it.

A woman's place is avoiding dull domestic stuff and reaching to the top of the career tree - much much more fun.

Join feminism threads and have the scales cast from your eyes.

I am a single mum so no man to mess up the place thankfully.

Oh and just thought of another; if I ever get a load of handwash items together usually the bits in the bottom of the wash basket then I keep the plug in after a bath and chuck them in with some Woolite or whatever and do them while I think of it using the same water. I also do the same with any soft toys with grime on

Best completly foolproof domestic godess tip; betty crocker devils food cake mix. Tastes better than any home made choc cake and makes great squidgy muffins. Available at all big supermarkets, whip up in 2 minutes and impress guests with home made muffins...

Not read whole thread so someone may have said this, but a great way to get rid of limescale AND mould round the bath is to make up a paste of thick bleach and bicarbonate of soda, and paint this onto limescale and mouldy bits last thing at night with an old toothbrush. Next morning, use the toothbrush to scrub it off while you're having a shower - it works wonders and is dirt (sorry for pun) cheap. I think however clean your bathroom is mouldy grouting will always make it look skanky.

lol at have put scented oil balls into my Henry today
I give uniforms etc with small stains, a quick wipe with fabric wipes - less laundry!

Thanks frustrated. Will try that one!

also,
once a week I use shake and vac, which makes hoovering anywhere for the rest of the week smell lovely

Just reading the number of disposable wipes people use on here makes me think there must be a disposable wipe mountain somewhere.

What is wrong with just using a microfibre cloth and water?

I use wipes for everything.

Foor wipes, surface wipes, loo wipes, antibac wipes, glass wipes, face wipes even dog bum wipes.

I might be responsible for the mountain..

*floor

Yes me too I am a wipeaholic

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.

wish I had known about this before. hate not having a window in bathroom

Hoping boots sell the oil.

This thread is brilliant, can I play? Teatree oil has antibacterial and antifungal properties, I make cleaning fluid in a spray bottle with 0.3 vinegar to 0.6 water with a few drops of tea tree. A few drops also go in the washing machine instead of fabric conditioner, everything smells great including the cloth nappies.

The life hacks are genius, but the thought of frozen sandwiches makes me feel a bit sick.

Don't sort or put away socks or undies for DCs -- keep them all in one basket and they can fish for them in the morning. Don't sort or pair socks, just toss in the basket when dry from dryer. Only buy white socks. Gives a whole new urgency to the concept 'first up best dressed'.

No ironing. Just folding straight from the dryer and then straight away with no interim stop. All DCs' hands on deck for this makes it go faster.

Train the DCs to clean and tidy and help out with cooking, table setting and clearing, dishwasher loading and emptying, and laundry. Mine have a room each that they are responsible for. I rotate the rooms.

All lunches packed and all homework put in bags and all necessary items for school in the kitchen and ready to go for the morning. All clothes laid out the night before too.

All sports items (shoes, kneepads, shinguards, uniforms, etc) kept in the car at all times except when being washed.

So I second no dcs, polish sprayed so it smells clean, hovering makes it look clean and never going upstairs empty handed.

Also do something whisk waiting for the kettle to boil, for example I can empty and refill the dishwasher in this time. Basically anytime you have doing something were you are waiting or have a hand free.

Think this came from fly lady to do a 15 blast then do something else. Basically put everything into 15 then have 45 off

Def agree about getting the kids to help. Good life skills. Dd1 is 4 and it's her job in the morning to make her bed. Admittedly I have to smooth it out after but she's learning [smi

Karcher windows vac is fab and makes short work of cleaning windows inside and out. Also fab on the shower door.

I tend to use baby wipes for instant cleaning because if I see something that needs a clean while I have them in my hand (using on grubby DC) then I'm likely to go and clean whatever it is.

If I have to go and locate a damp cloth I'm inevitably distracted by the kettle and some hobnobs and forget the cleaning. So having baby-wipes to hand means I'm much more likely actually to do the cleaning.

I used cloth nappies so I reckon we're still in credit on the debris mountain.

It's like bags of salad, I eat it because I don't have to spend time chopping the different varieties of stuff in the bag. If I bought all the different things in the bag separayely I'd find them liquifying in the bottom of the fridge a week later. (I wouldn't actually: the rabbit and piggies would eat them thinking about it, but I'm not feeding them an endless supply of gourmet leafage).

I have a basket in the front hall for all lost property. If the house starts to look a tip, I pick it up by that handle and put all rogue items in there. Then I make one of the kids put it all away in the right places.

Yes bunbaker (I agree with all your tips BTW)! I heard a frightening radio programme talking about the wipes which mostly do NOT degrade blocking the sewers by causing huge mountains of fat and wipes down there [anger]

I do something similar and give DC a basket each and send them around the house to pick up everything that belongs to them and then take it to their bedrooms and put it away. Anything that's left goes to the charity shop gets put in the garage and is never seen again.

In all my years on Mumsnet this is my favourite thread!

Ive learned a lot here. I use some of the tips already posted, but one that has really saved me time is buying ready grated cheeses. The dc get through a lot of cheese and I found myself grating some at least one a day, for a sauce/sandwich/salad/ sprinkled etc. A friend even buys in bulk and then grates the whole lot in one go and then freezes in batches, which works brilliantly too.

I bloody love mumsnet.

"This thread is brilliant, can I play? Teatree oil has antibacterial and antifungal properties, I make cleaning fluid in a spray bottle with 0.3 vinegar to 0.6 water with a few drops of tea tree. A few drops also go in the washing machine instead of fabric conditioner, everything smells great including the cloth nappies.2

I loathe the smell of tea tree oil. To me it has a bleachy detergent smell.

YY to ready grated cheese, i don't know how i ever survived without it