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 ??

Quick question, do you buy the ordinary degreaser or the heavy-duty one? I've only used the smaller spray of the ordinary one.

For pet hair on furniture, bedding and clothing, this unlikely-looking small item has been a gamechanger for me:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09X3K11GW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Works on any fabric unless it's very nubbly, and removes 95% of even deeply-embedded cat hair. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, it's made living with a sheddy cat - who loves to sleep next to my face - so much easier.

Not for use on nubbly items (like boucle) though; it will catch and tear them.

On the theme of hair on carpets/ upholstery -just put on rubber gloves and wipe your hands over it

This is why I don't have pets. Ugh, the thought of having to clean up animal hairs every day makes me heave. Sorry all you pet owners out there, but you'd save a fortune in time and money if you were pet free like me!

Yeah but we’d miss out on sooooo much!

So you'd be alright cleaning up their poo then 😜

LOL, there's enough of that with human babies 😊

I use that for the edges of carpets and rugs, plus stairs for pet hairs, they do work. The lab hair is like arrows that burrows in bastard's

I have a lift away shark so only have to drag the very light collector on the stairs. I do use the wooden gadget on the edges

@justasking111 I also have a lift away shark but it seems so heavy and awkward to me.

Think it's a knack you have to practice. It's great for sucking up the spiders webs that collect in corners

@justasking111 what attachment do you use for stairs? Maybe I don't have the correct one!

This one came with the machine

"Shark Anti Hair Wrap Motorised Pet Tool - IZ400/420" https://sharkclean.co.uk/product/shark-anti-hair-wrap-motorised-pet-tool-iz400-420-zidXSKMHT400EUKT

Thanks @justasking111 I think I have an inferior shark model that doesn't really have this attachment 🤣 and certainly doesn't come with it! I just have two brushes and one tube.

I have found an attachment that looks like yours and claims to fit my model so will see if it improves things...

We have a rule that nothing touches the floors except rugs and furniture. So nothing stored behind the sofa, under the bed, by the door etc.... it's so quick to hoover or mop when you are constantly not moving stuff out of the way.

Having less stuff. Keeping flat surfaces clear, and immediately putting stuff to it's home rather than letting piles build up. Clutter attracts clutter.

@angela1952 I used the ordinary one...seems to work Ok for me. I haven't tried the heavy duty one yet.

I have thought of one another thing I do.

Sometimes I take a washing up bowl of hot water and detergent, plus a cloth, and just walk around the house wiping down doors, swiping over skirting boards and wet dusting the tops of pictures and doorframes, anything that sticks out, basically. I'll put a podcast or something on the Alexa and just wander about listening and wiping. Means that paintwork gets a wash down every now and then (I live in a VERY dusty old cottage and am sometimes horrified by the amount of collected dust and cobwebs that collect in corners).

My dog doesn’t cast…we had to be careful due to son having some allergies when he was younger

Not to mention having to change their litter trays every three days or they'll remind you by pooing in a corner; stepping in their vomit in the middle of the night and then realising in the morning that you've tracked it everywhere; having to install ugly furniture-protecting gear so sofas and chairs don't get shredded; having to put protective blankets over all the nice furniture so the humans can sit on it without getting covered in pet hair; dealing with the mice and other creatures they bring indoors as presents for you (and then having to let them in and out approximately 700 times a day as you're afraid to allow unfettered access in case they bring in more mice); not to mention the vet bills, especially for the one who wouldn't stop eating the razor-sharp ornamental grass (solution: rip it all out) and the one who wouldn't stop chewing on any kind of plastic packaging if you forgot and left it sitting out for even a few minutes... Gads, why do I still have a cat?!? 😂

If none of us had pets or children, how tidy our houses would be!

Me too!

To all those with jar opening issues, I watched a YouTube video recently which suggested putting the tip of a butter knife under the rim and using as a lever until you hear a slight "pop". It breaks the vacuum and then you can easily undo the lid. It works!

Keep a basket at the foot of the stairs. Fill it up with stuff that's found its way downstairs and bring it all up on your next trip.

Me too, I hate the damn thing 😵‍💫

@justasking111 thanks for the info about the attachment.

I wouldn't say I enjoy cleaning the stairs with the new attachment but it's an awful lot better!

If you have the space to store the spares , American style comforters for kids beds instead of duvets with covers.

A comforter is a light duvet with built in cover and you wash the whole thing.

Saves a lot of wrestling with duvet covers.