Housekeeping life hacks that changed your life

[Newmumburnout]

A bit dramatic of a title 😂. Wanted to start a new thread for great ideas we can share where something easy and small has made your life so much easier ! having a 1 year old and 3 pets and it's a chore to keep on top of everything. Even if it's not housekeeping please share !
Mine are:
Getting as much as possible delivered on a schedule. One being hand wash. I use the brand raindrop they supply a lovely bottle and send tablets to refill so you don't have to keep buying plastic hand wash bottles and they are always full.
Making chicken and rice bowls in one pot. When I cook dinner I will make a few lunch pots, you add rice, chicken, stick , veg etc with whatever spices and cook for 30 mins in one glass tupperware pot. That's it, eat from the.same container after warming up !

Anyone else ??

Definitely a simple one but I've started prechopping fruit and vegetables for lunchboxes at the start of the week and storing in old washed out glass jars. They keep well and means I only have to chop every few days instead of every night.

I'm a big fan of drying lunchboxes and boxes with fiddly bits on the radiator instead of driving myself mad trying to do it with tea towel.

I keep a bottle of bleach in each of the bathrooms and it makes it much easier to clean the loo as the stuff is just there!

I scrape pet hair out of the carpet with my trainer

Use the oven cleaner that you paint on with a little plastic brush but use cling film to keep it in place while it works. But put the shelves in the dishwasher if you have one.

Following. I have no housekeeping hacks and need some!

Two or more bin bags in every bin, that way when you empty them the next one is already in and ready to go. Also means if one leaks it's caught by the next one down. Put kitchen bin out jn the rain with lid up/off then quickly wipe down with paper towels once every 6 months to stop smells.
Laminated photos of "this is what it looks like tidy/ "for the children" everywhere so every family member can tidy up their own crap I mean stuff.

Bought some metal lint roller things to get hair out of the stairs carpet. It looks so much better now ( not sure if it's a hack though) also, use paper baking cases as liners in air fryer

If line drying, hang socks next to their partner so can pair up as taking jn.
One colour per person in family saves kn tights/socks sorting. R.g. I'm just navy blue, dd1 black dd2 brown dd3 white dh multicoloured.

Oh yeah and line the grill with tin foil every time

Batch chop and fry a base mix of celery, onion, carrot. Freeze in small containers and defrost for start of everything you cook.

Doing at least one load of washing every day, and dealing with it when it’s dry…the difference that not having piles of laundry about the house is life changing

This is more a lifestyle choice than a hack as such, but I’ve gone back to old fashioned methods for most of my cleaning and laundry, I follow Nancy Birtwhistle and use all her potions for cleaning-it saves a FORTUNE, and also gives me a slightly clearer environmental conscience (I’m far from an eco warrior, but see it as doing what I can to fit in with my family and our lifestyle)

Take towels and bedding to a service wash. Saved me from going insane. Especially in winter / wet weather. (Big family.)

I do all clothes laundry on one day a week. Get back from work, everyone (family of four) brings their laundry baskets downstairs. I sort into three loads, occasionally four. We do use the full capacity of the machine without overfilling, but I also find that only washing once a week encourages people to rewear clothes that aren't actually dirty or smelly. Otherwise the kids would get in from school, put on a clean hoodie, wear it for two hours and dump it in the laundry

Then I probably hang up the equivalent of one load, and then two tumble dryer loads. Admittedly this might not work so well in winter without a dryer. Everything is folded and put back into the now empty laundry baskets, and we have a pretty strict system where the clothes are put away the next day. I'd far rather do the putting away in one go than little piles of laundry being sent up to bedrooms where they merge in with dirty stuff lying around.

Anyway, it works for us! I never feel like the laundry is getting on top of me, because even when the basket fills up I know it's going to get done.

(Gym/running/swimming stuff gets put on separate sports washes as sports occur. And bedding and towels also done separately)

For pet hair (or long hair) you need a rubber broom for the carpet. The cleaner at our preschool told me about it and it’s a game changer.

In our house, it’s running and unloading the dishwasher before bed so the morning is as seamless as possible.

Wash every day. It’s so much less daunting to put away 1 outfit than a whole stack

Great idea OP ☺️

• use boxes for everything where there's a group of stuff to keep together, e.g. random chargers = all in one box, vitamins all in one box in the cupboard. I use the sort of mesh plastic boxes from home bargains
• likewise for kids toys in trofast boxes, so they can take out a box and then you/they can chuck it all back in at the end and stuff is roughly grouped together
• the pink stuff miracle paste for cleaning
• a dehumidifier for drying indoors
• at least one load of washing per day
• making stuff like muffins, scones in batches and freezing in small portions for snacks / lunch boxes
• making soup and freezing in those baby freezer cubes (bigger than ice cube size). Then I can defrost as required for the kids or use more if for adults.
• a robot vacuum!

I adopted a just do it mentality so instead of thinking oh, that side is a but messy it needs sorting, I just do it.
I have to remind myself from time to time but so much of "keeping house" is a multitude of tiny little jobs that take less than 5 minutes.

Ive also recently started using wipes (from Costco) and cleaning the loos a lot more often - I know they're not great environmentally but its saving me tonnnes of time as it takes seconds to have a quick wipe around and bin the wipe

I keep a bottle of bleach in each of the bathrooms and it makes it much easier to clean the loo as the stuff is just there!

Isn't this what everyone does?

Not sure if this counts as housekeeping, but pretty sure I picked this up from a similar thread.
Buy the same socks for the dc & much simpler life when it comes to washing & pairing them. I got mine blue bamboo ones from sock shop, easy to reorder more of the same.

Waitrose (other supermarkets are available) actually sell this ready chopped in their freezer section

Having a cleaner come every week.

Put things away. Not down. Not in a pile to deal with later. Just put it where it goes.

If it doesn’t have a home make one, or it leaves the house via the bin, the recycling or the charity shop.

I have a Henry hoover - I bought an extra long hose so I can do the whole staircase with it sitting on the bottom. Game changer for me!

DH has helpfully suggested that we have a central point for all cleaning products. We currently have the relevant products in the relevant rooms and I’m refusing to let him try his way.