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.

I have seen that cheap slow cooker in Argos at 10for the small one.
( I have a thread up about slow cookers soI read with interest).

To Op, my life easier gadgets are my AirRam, because its light and does the house floors up beautifully. My steam mop for the kitchen ( an ordinary one cost 25 from B and M stores). Cleaning bathroom and kitchen floors is a breeze now and my dishwasher.

narries - can you link me to your thread please?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/good_housekeeping/2131767-Slow-Cookers

Hope that works.

I do the bags under the bag in use in the bin thing. Makes emptying them really quick and easy.

Mini declutter regularly, and then big 'deep' cleans when I have the energy. Currently working my way through the house as DC4 is last one so loads to get rid of. What I would really like for my birthday is a skip on the drive for a fortnight, but DH not going for that yet!

I do a load of laundry every day, it goes on before I leave on the school run and then gets hung out whenever I get back. Wipe down the kitchen table and sides whenever I wash up (3 times daily min).

Each day has a 'big' task assigned to it, eg Monday change beds, Tuesday clean bathrooms, Wednesday clean kitchen... Means that nothing is ever really dirty and I don't have to do the whole lot at once. I reckon on a 'big' task taking 45 mins or so and I can normally engineer that much time into a day.

Replied on it

I admit I didn't know what a Scooba and a roomba were after a quick Google I WANT THEM especially the scooba,floors in my house do not get mopped enough
OP, is scooba any good?

Not so much an item but a few strategies that make my life easier (DC 5, 3, 4 months):

• Using bathtime to put away DC's washing (I sort it into person piles downstairs whilst DC are playing)

• Making sure I load/unload dishwasher/washing machine each time I put the kettle on

• Making too much food at a lot of evening meals & putting it in the freezer in individual portions for DC's dinners.

• Getting DC to tidy up their toys every night

Also:

• Have finally got round to decluttering our playroom (upstairs) so DC can play in it while I put away washing, clean bathroom etc

• Having a downstairs toilet & a utility room is amazing. We didn't have these in our last house (been here under a year) & I don't know how I coped without them!

I plan for 6 evening meals a week, lunches too at weekend, list meal plus recipe page ref. I plan a mixture of more complicated meals and simple ones (like gnocchi and sauce). Do the shop on-line. When we get in we look at list and if it's a difficult day choose the easy ones. Saves having to think. The last day of the week we get creative with all the leftovers/scraps.

Freeze left overs to use on 'panic nights'.

Also a stock of good quality 'ready meals' - in the SW 2 chefs called Cavendish Cooks sells proper meals in all the farm shops. They are really good, and just need a light salad to go with them.

Shopping list on fridge where I am training DH to list anything we run out of. Which he doesn't do and then gets annoyed when we run out...

A good cleaner - as someone else said, be prepared to get rid of a bad one. She does the ironing too, but we only do shirts and linen trousers etc.

Frozen sliced onions, peppers, med. vegetables etc make making sauces, curries etc much easier.

Bulk buy loo roll, washing lq etc when on sale and stock in utility.

Work from home lots so instead of chatting to colleagues whilst the kettle is on I put on a wash, it takes the same time.

Am looking with interest at the Dyson hand held, the roomba and those steam ironing machines... And yes, unfortunately, most of these tips require a certain amount of income and space. The food shop/planning has massively reduced our costs though and the fridge is almost literally bare by the end of the week.

I clean a little bit often rather than save up for a big clean, which helps keep on top of it. For example one day with be bathroom day, so whenever I go in to use it I'll take a couple of minutes to clean something, then repeat throughout the day. Another day I'll do the same in the kitchen etc. It makes the house always feel cleaner without feeling like I have done much cleaning. I also do the day of the week thing someone mentioned above.

Also there's a song I put on when things are messy - Muse Uprising - which is loud, fast and over 4 mins long, and tell myself I'll clean like a maniac while it's on. It's amazing how much can get done if you move quickly - I do it about once a day.

And DS isn't allowed to watch TV unless his toys are away. It's an amazing motivator ...

I have a Dyson handheld and it is great for little and often. I have a toddler who trails crumbs everywhere, even when sitting down so a quick vac 3 times a day to clear up his mess (or just before MIL is due) makes it bearable. It also empties with a nifty click straight into the bin, so no festering food smells lingering in the drum. If you had a huge house and wanted to do a weekly vac everywhere I'd probably have a mains vac instead.

Another vote for slow cooker and weekly/fortnightly meal plans.
Frozen veg.
Invest in freezer boxes which will hold two/four portions of stuff to have with rice/pasta/jacket spuds. Then take home ready meals out of the freezer before you go to work ready to re-heat in the micro.
Keep a running shopping list in the kitchen, get everyone to write down stuff as stocks get low.
Ten minute blitz in one room a day to keep the clutter down works better for me than doing the whole place in one go.
The opportunity cost of having a cleaner was the same an extra holiday a year for us, a fact I successfully use to motivate dds to tidy their rooms!

Roomba is truly amazing. Mine would do well. House is massive and it does a great job.....although I've currently lost it as it wanders between rooms and must have run out of energy under a sofa or something....know the feeling!
Scooba - i want, but the reviews aren't great for reliability and uneven floors like mine. I bought a stream mop but it turns out you have to push the fecker around the floor..... so that doesn't come out often.

We have a housekeeper (part-time) and she and we train the kids to do plenty of little chores that make everyone´s life easier. My favourite "gadget" is the dishwasher.

Happy36, rather shocked at myself for asking this, but where do you find a part-time housekeeper - I didn't know such a job existed. I want one! Especially for helping me train the dc. Where can I find ads for one?

I am serious. I've looked in The Lady before now for such people and could only find butlers , keepers of the silver, and the like.

We don't have silver, but we do have untrained dc.

So funny, first time I have read this thread and saw the title. I was just about to comment saying my Roomba 880! Also named GlaDOS. It is SO SO SO much easier not having to vacuum very often!

Oh I should add we have a dyson handheld and an upright full one, I do use the handheld on the sofa and areas which get bits accumulating around them.

Hello MrsRTea, well we live abroad where it is much more popular than in the UK to have a "housekeeper". The literal translation of her job is "caretaker" as she looks after the children as well as doing the cooking, cleaning, laundry, ironing, dusting, vacuuming, tidying, packing suitcases for holiday, etc. So I suppose some people would call that a "cleaner" although cleaners don´t cook meals or do laundry, usually. However in England I think sometimes older people have someone who comes in to do these kinds of chores for a couple of hours every day or so.

I would suggest asking around and also putting up a card in the newsagents, supermarket, community centre, etc. Good luck!

Our cleaners. Not only because they clean, but the fact of their cleaning motivates me to motivate the DC to tidy and declutter. We were cleanerless for a few months, and the house was depressing me more and more. Since the new cleaners have started, it's not immaculate by any means but I can honestly say that it is better each week than it was the week before and my mood lifts accordingly.

I would bloody love a housekeeper. Someone to motivate and support the DC to tidy their rooms, clear out the fridge and write lists, prep food and generally do some of the endless trudging round the house putting things back where they belong.

I live my low cooker and pressure cooker. I always make double of everything, stews, chilli, lasagne, soups, casseroles etc nd freeze the extras.

I always buy bigger joint than we need and cut and slice the meat and smother In gravy and freeze. Just need to add veg and potatoes for a full roast dinner. I freeze Yorkshire puddings.

When I make salad I chop enough for a couple of nights.

Washing - we have enough work / school clothes to go 10 days if needed so don't need to wash all the time. Buy a bigger load washer so you don't need to wash as often.

DS has plain black socks so don't need to worry about pairs - they all match !

Stealthsquiggle, well, our old housekeeper/nanny certainly trained the kids well, she has her own, older children and knew exactly how to get them picking things up off of the floor, laying the table, putting things back where they came from, fetching their own things (e.g. we´re going swimming - get your bag, a towel, costume and goggles), etc.

However sometimes I feel a tinge of something, as I´m not from a background that had, effectively, "servants", and see my children growing up with their clothes perfectly ironed and put away neatly in the cupboard, sitting down to delicious meals, etc.

What´s worse is the way their friends (who also have housekeepers/nannies) treat ours. e.g. "(Name of hk/n) - WATER!" !! I would be livid if I saw my own children behave that way and I speak to them firmly about it before they visit other homes where I know that the "help" is treated with what I deem inadequate respect by the other family.

A small thing that has made life a little easier here is that we all have a different coloured tub into which the washing is sorted. There are 5 of us, so five coloured tubs, into which i toss stuff that isn't ironed and then folded ironed stuff on top. Theory is that each person then takes their own tub upstairs and puts away. Doesn't always work but at least I'm only sorting the washing once!
Also, a tip I picked up on here years ago is to store complete sets of bedding inside one of the pillow cases, so when you need to change a bed everything is there together.
I've given in on cleaning and cleaner starts tomorrow so hoping she makes my life easier!

Happy, neither am I (from a background that had "staff") and yes, a lot of my DC's friends are, and have similar attitudes to those that you describe, but many others have a SAHP and no "help" at all. I do have friends who have a nanny who has morphed into a housekeeper/nanny as their DC have got older, and the DC treat her with at least as much respect as they do their parents, and certainly do as they are told and are better trained at tidying etc than my DC are, because they have someone spending more time with them to teach them to do it properly instead of such tidying as gets done it all happening when they are in bed because there is never time between after school clubs and bedtime. Our cleaners are great, but someone who felt more ownership of the household, IYSWIM, would (I think) make life a lot easier. However, given that we live in the middle of nowhere, I am unlikely to find anyone who would be interested in doing the hours that I can afford, so it remains a pipe dream.

I can't honestly imagine having 'help'. I'd love to, but could never afford it. The nearest I ever got was sending my clothes to be ironed in my pre children days.

OpiesOldLady To maintain our current home and lifestyle (it´s not very stylish!) we couldn´t afford for me not to work full-time. It is much cheaper for us to have part-time help than for either of us to not work. However, everyone´s circumstances are different.

Gosh, don't feel you have to justify it to me - you family, your decisions - you do whatever works for you