what makes your life easier?

[4littleones]

we have a roomba and a scooba and they both make our house tidier and cleaner, If anything just to give us the motivation to clear the floors everyday so it doesn't build up into a big job like it used to.

What is your most useful possession? We have just had another baby and my goodness have I noticed it in the housework! I am aware spending time with the kids is more important so I am just trying to see if there is anything else I'm missing that will save me a bit of time.

I know clutter is the enemy and have been decluttering gradually but no time to do any at the moment.

Batch cooking and frozen meals.

I don't meal plan but we tend to have fish from market on Thursday and roast on Sunday so that's 2 meals we don't have to think about

A drawer of cash taken out once a month so I never have to nip to cash point to pay e.g. Window cleaner
Certain tasks on certain days so it doesn't. Build up

Monthly big shop for all tins, condiments, household and dry goods. Saves lots of little trips to shops and loads of money. 10 loaves of bread in freezer

Bulk buy meat from butchers at right time of year, so I tend to buy 25 chops and 100 or more sausages to freeze

I always have bbq stuff in freezer

Possession wise I think just having the right cleaning equipment and not trying to use one thing for every task.

Also wheelbarrow for carrying shopping to garage for storage!

A complete luxury, but a Dyson handheld, cordless vacuum. Now it's easy to clean the stairs, just whip it out and get on with it!
Downside, three hour charge for twenty minutes of action. Vacuuming is now little and often!

Marking my place as today I am on a sorting spree, love the wheelbarrow idea Suzie and will copy immediately - thanks!

In our entrance hall we have a piece of furniture with 2 drawers for random (but frequently used) stuff, and cubby holes for toddler's shoes/pram rain/sun covers. On the surface we have 3 letter intrays : 1 each for me and DH for our letters/keys/phones/wallets etc and 1 for paperwork which has been dealt with and needs filing. Means we can always find our stuff.

Washing bags - we all have one each where underwear/socks are put when dirty. I wash/dry the contents inside the bag. This saves me sorting everyone's underwear/socks - just hand the clean bag to relevant child/adult so they put their own stuff away.

wow charlieandlola I love that and am implementing as soon as I can buy waning bags!

or washing bags

Agree with you about ironing littleones - I think if people feel they are fighting a losing battle on that they could surrender and use the tumble dryer like I do
Am seriously thinking about getting a dish-washer to help when I start my new job with longer hours, or to have in place before-hand. The cost and difficulty of getting one installed puts me off. Are counter top ones any good? Or reassure me that a plumber could install one quite easily?

Hang on charlieandlola how do the contents dry? or do you just use the tumble dryer?

I love the idea of not ironing but just how can you not??!

I take the washing out of the machine as soon as it is done and either hang it on an airer (ie. DC's small t-shirts / shorts / vests etc) or on coat hangers (ie. DH's shirts, my tops, etc.) to dry - but hardly anything dries 'uncreased' and I just don't like the 'un-ironed' look!

I obviosuly don't iron certain items such as towels, sheets, tea towels, socks and underwear but all our clothes generally neded a good iron otherwise we'll all be walking around creased & unkempt!
Am I doing something wrong????!

I was put off for a short time by the plumbing Juggling , it turned out to be a really really easy job for the plumber, he did the plumbing and the man who delivered it connected it. Within days of making my mind up it was all done and I got my evenings back. Wonderful!

i havent ironed anything in years and years
and i work in the city

just dont buy stuff that needs ironing!
(and train the bloke to do his own)

Butterfly - you need to hang them up better if they are still looking creased. Shake/brush the creases out with your hands. And then hang in a way that it doesn't look creased and then it will dry like that. By the time they are being worn they really don't look like any difference.

I was painting, prior to letting our house, and noticed that a quick going over with a paintbrush covered all those scuffs and grotty bits that I had spent ages trying to remove with magic erasers, and miracle cleaning products. (I'm a sucker for those!)
Maybe it would be a good idea to keep a handy screw top "touch up" jar of paint around. It was a satisfyingly instant " fix".

I hang washing up on a ceiling airer or hangers and when they're 99% dry, stick them in te tumble dryer for ten mins. Soft and no creases!

• dishwasher
• cleaner
• no ironing
• breadmaker
• batch cook and freeze
• meal plan using magnetic wipe clean fridge thing. I write what needs done for next day in a different colour (defrost x, cook y etc)
• huge plastic playpen in which all baby's toys live. So no need to tidy away
• brilliant husband

Wish I could remember who told me that once you started ironing a garment, you had to continue, but items dried on hangers rarely needed ironing. It might explain why some items always look good but charity-shop purchases usually need an iron.

Good to hear that Vuvuzela - thanks for the encouragement

slow cooker - brilliant, I don't 'brown' anything except sausages either.If you want to be really lazy, you can use the 'packet' sauces as well such as the chicken chausseur, curry etc
frozen chopped onions
frozen mash - iceland or make your own and then freeze. I hate the mashing part so use an electric whisk which works just as well

Tumble dryer

Really need to declutter. DH is REALLY untidy and is a complete hoarder as well. Also need to get rid of about 50% of toys. How do you do that??

I do love the idea of washing socks and underwear in the bag but am also curious about drying them. We don't ever use our tumble drier so would it dry just being pegged on to the hi-dry?

Must get better at batch cooking and batch-prepping (chopping loads of onions in the processer then freezing, for example).

This to the posters who bung all colours together in the washing machine -

1. Do you wear white linen clothes?

1. If you do, do they come out really white? I know mine wouldn't

1. Which colour collector do you use?

Love the tips on here! I've started putting cheap paper table cloths under the highchair. When baby has finished eating, I can just scoop the whole thing up - no more scrabbling about picking up bits of food and sweeping/mopping floor three times a day!

Online shopping - we don't run out of food any more, and although I don't really meal plan, I only buy a week's worth of food so there isn't much to choose from.

Putting the dishwasher on over night religiously no matter how full it is.

I have never ironed, so not sure our creased clothes are making life any easier! I do use a Sheldon style tshirt folder for DH's tshirts, I can fit loads more in a drawer than I used to.

Please could the people who freeze home-made mash talk me through it? Do you defrost before re-heating? Do you add water to re-heat?

My top tip is: choose a cleaner carefully, and be prepared to change to a different one if they are driving you nuts.