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.

Okay. So far I've leant that I need to invest in tumble dryer, some form of dustbuster and a 2nd freezer. Seriously how big are your freezers? DH will be delighted

Absolutely love the idea of pre making muffins or biscuits etc and freezing them. And the pancake mix.

Flylady..genius. What a difference

Lavender in the hoover bag, as above.

Milton in bath water to clean bath, slipmat and toys. Will give this a shot when DD is at nursery.

This afternoon i'm attacking the junk drawers....

porkster which wipes do you recommend? Need some to tide elderly DMIL over in between us going over to do deep cleans.

love the idea of pancake mix. Might do the same with a basic muffin mix.

My top tip is to cook mostly one pot meals or one oven tray meals.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/search.do?keywords=one+pot&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=&filterItem=

Scones can be baked and frozen and then reheated quickly to refresh them. I always make a double batch.

There are also freezer cookie recipes where you make the dough and roll it into a log shape and cover with cling film. When you want cookies you just run a knife under a hot tap and slice off however many cookies you want, top them with chocolate chips or crystallised ginger etc and then bake them.

I keep a box in the freezer for leftover veg. When it's full I fry an onion and add the defrosted veg, some stock and a can each of tomatoes and kidney beans in chilli sauce and simmer then blitz. Instant cheap homemade soup!

Wrt cleaning bath toys: If you find the little animal type bath toys (duckies, etc) start growing blackish mould inside, take some superglue after cleaning them with bleach or milton and squirt it into the hole in the bottom to seal them.

That link to Bbc website for one pot meals is brilliant- thanks Jahan for linking it.

OP- when the thread has died down a bit and dropped out of active convos, do you think it should be moved to classics for posterity?! I would hate to lose it, others must feel the same. (please other people feel the same, say its not just me [saddo emoticon])

Stopstuffing> I feel the same

I never sit down to eat a meal till everything is in the dishwasher and all the worktops and hob is clean. I don't go to bed until everything is tidied up. At night I sort out a wash, ie light or dark or coloured so that in the morning I just stick it in the machine. Anything that lives upstairs is left on the stairs till I need to go up and then it is put away immediately. Before I come down in the morning I make sure the bedroom is tidy and everything is put away or hung up. Even the dog has a box for his toys. In one of the kitchen drawers I have a plastic box in which I put pens, small screwdriver, buttons, in fact anything that you will need again. I have another in the dining room drawer and another in the hall in which everyone puts their car keys. The thing is I consider myself to be a bit lazy because I'm not constantly cleaning. I do Hoover most days. I don't like clutter, if I am walking along the road i look at houses and I think to myself I would have a skip in there to get rid of all that rubbish. If you get rid of one thing every day that you dont need or use over the space of one year you will have got rid of 365 things.

Loving all the tips. We have a charity shop box in the hall into which go suitable toys, books or clothes. Then when it's full take to shop or put in one of the many collection bags we get put through the door.

Use baskets or bowls to store stuff - somehow makes things look tidier

You can clean the marks left by bath toys in baths by using a bit of toothpaste if the usual bathroom cleaners don't work.

I use fairy gel direct on stains - works a treat; even on 40 degrees.
Strong believer in every one doing their fair share and not making others' chores more difficult (own clothes in washing basket, towels on banister to dry, dirty pots rinsed after use etc)

I am loving this thread. You are prodding my nesting instinct into action!

re grated cheese - we have a rotary grater thing for grating the odd ends of cheese, but yy to supermarket bags. They are expensive but some days a life saver. If you blw then a tiny sprinkle of cheese isn't worth dirtying a grater for, and a bag lasts all week.

This might be sniffed at but use a tin of Campbell's celery soup as a stock base for 'homemade' soup, especially cream of vegetable.

Hang washed curtains up wet and they dry as if they are ironed.

Keep coat hangers beside the tumble drier and hang clothes as soon as they come out.

Ok it official! I've turned into my nana after reading this thread it got me looking at my routine (not much of one) this weekend I've not stopped! I now have dates written on the calendar of things I need to remember, the DC's sandwiches are made up and in the freezer, my washing is up to date and will stay that way, drawers are all organised, if my baby is contented I think 'right what could I get done' instead of sitting on FB......the list goes on.

I bought plastic a4 folders this wkend for the wooden puzzles my toddler has got! great tip, thanks!

A tin of oxtail soup is a great base for mince. In fact tins of soup are great bases for all sorts of dishes.

Great thread.

I buy Sainsburys frozen fruit - blueberries, strawberries, tropical mix, mango, raspberries etc. Very good value for money, convenient, no wastage from them going off, and apparently just as nutritious vitamin-wise.

Saves a lot of time washing, peeling and chopping. Great for a quick yogurt milkshake or smoothie too.

I once had a tradesman unexpectedly say he was coming to give a quote in 20 mins time and I swear I managed a week's worth of housework rushing round clearing up before he arrived. I've learned to give myself short deadlines to get things done.

I knew I'd read another thread similar to this recently. I put it on 'watched' purely for the microwave cheese sauce idea alone! :)

Don't flush wipes - any wipe, no matter what they say.

Your water bills are increasing because of the cost of fixing blocked sewers and the wreckage they create.

If you flush a wipe, you have no right to complain about water bills.

DH is Ops Manager at a Water Company. The stuff he tells me would curl your hair!

Yes I read that those wipes that say they re flushable are lying

I keep linking to this thread every time something like this comes up - it really helped me
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1373827-to-ask-how-you-become-organised-and-together-Seriously-how
This is also a good one
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/1451448-LITTLE-things-that-help-keep-you-organised
Both very long but definitely worth a look.

Re: grated cheese...

...my brother worked at a cheese factory one summer during Uni and has never eaten cheese since and told me that grated cheese sold in the supermarket is cheese 'sweepings' plus any mouldy cheese, reconstituted and tidied up a bit, then grated into bags.

I've always walked a bit quicker past the grated cheese section since hearing that particular anecdote

g'ah! yuck!

That's bollocks about cheese being mouldy. Illegal too. How would they hide the smell of mould, let alone the look of it? (FIL works for a cheese producers/suppliers)

And the volume of grated cheese they produce is huge, so how are they supposed to "sweep" that amount off the floor?

Factories have gigantic vessels in which they cut/process cheese - unless it's magical cheese that can fly onto the floor, I'm afraid that doesn't make sense.

The only difference in grated cheese and blocks is that they add potato flour to the gratings so they don't clump together.