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 ??

OH I'm glad. No-one enjoys stairs.

I bought one from Macy's. A Martha Stewart one. I have one in my sons room. I think they're brilliant. Enough to sleep under in the summer and weigh down the duvet in the winter.

Unpleasant bathroom aroma? Strike a match, it kills it dead without any nasty chemicals

Tip from my classroom cleaner, spare bin bags in the bottom of the bin - NOT the kitchen bin because of seepage but any other bin you line, pop the remaining bin roll in before you line the bin so that when you empty, the next bin liner is always at hand (also it meant I always knew where the find a black bag in my classroom 😉)

Love threads like these!

I do a few of the ones already mentioned. One thing I did a few years ago was have a small basket on the landing for recycling. It meant that paper rubbish from my office and plastic from the bathroom had somewhere to go instead of having to remember to carry it separately downstairs to the main recycling bin. Sounds really simple but was a game changer for me

Also the soffrito mix that people say you can buy - I hunted for this in every local supermarket for weeks then realised I had a mini chopper that did this work in seconds and meant I could just freeze bags of it for batch cooking. Also, definitely freeze meals like chilli in bags as they take up less room. And when you're filling them, put the open bag into a jug. Much easier than grappling with a bag one handed.

I've started doing a big shop at the beginning of the month to stock up on loo roll, kitchen roll, tins etc. makes it much more cost effective as then I just need to shop weekly for perishables which saves money.

Decluttering as you go is a game changer. I've always got a bag with stuff to go to the charity shop (dropping three bags off today as I've just sorted out my summer/winter wardrobe).

I love the tip about using a top sheet and changing the duvet less often!! Definitely going to do that.

The real secret here is that you tidy/put away by beforehand because "the cleaner is paid to clean not tidy"

It was having a cleaner that made me always have a tidy house-and despite no longer having her, the tidy habit stayed (thankfully 😂)

Yes absolutely every week is a mad dash around of tidying to get ready for the cleaner😂

Family of 5 here. Everyone has their own laundry box/bin. Dirty underwear goes in a separate old pillowcase. Each week the pillowcases (secured with hair elastics) are washed together with a colour catcher and then tumble dried. Everyone gets their own pillowcase back and it's up to them whether they pair their clean socks or not (they don't!). It saves a lot of time and hassle as everyone hated sorting through the clean underwear pile.

I like that pillow case idea

This may be a silly question! @TheDogsKnees but does the underwear wash properly in a pillowcase?

I think it sounds icky. Do the pants really get thoroughly soaked and clean??

They won't be really clean, you should use a mesh bag like for washing delicates.

@WeightLossGoal2024 yes. It's only a weeks worth of socks and knickers so not much in there. Machine is not full and the elastic goes at the top of the pillowcase to allow the underwear to move around as it would if it were loose. It all looks and smells as fresh and clean as it would if I'd washed them loose, and if I don't tumble dry then they are very definitely wet! However, on reflection I probably wouldn't recommend this for older boys & men! I only do DP's socks like this. His boxers are bigger and thicker so they go in with a regular load. Obviously I wouldn't use your thickest, highest thread count pillowcases either (I use old kids bedding ones as they're quite thin) but everything is definitely clean when it comes out. I have three DD's though, with small and almost non-existent in some cases 🙄knickers, so it works well.

But much lonelier for some.

So you have to tumble dry the equivalent of a duvet every week or fortnight?

@Sharptonguedwoman yes but it's light so it's not all that different from tumble drying the duvet cover.

Though I often end up washing the whole duvet anyway as we have a lot of bed wetting. (I have 1 duvet set and 3 comforter sets between 2 kids and definitely prefer the comforters).

My comforters are completely separate, get washed twice a year. We don't use them in the summer, but the weight of them in the winter is lovely.

Sorry, don’t understand. Are these like duvets or eiderdowns ? Used with a cover or a sheet?

Me too. Public transport is rubbish where I live and more so on Sundays so I’ve made Sunday my housework day.

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

Many Ikea Duvets are washable and dry fast. I was just letting the kids use their's naked and washing when I changed their sheets, but it does look bad when visitors see, so I got some dylon and dyed them!

On my bed, I sewed the duvet into the duvet cover (fluffy one I only use in winter) and wash that all in one go too.

Edit - mine are synthetic - I don't tumble them, just give them a good spin, and hang them over the sofa in the living room and they're dry by night-time - they come out of the washer all but dry anyway.

I like a bed made up with both a fitted and flat sheet, and then a heated blanket, topped by another king size flat sheet. Sort of the way hotels "triple sheet" their guest beds.

Just can't stand the faff of inserting duvets into covers and then washing, drying, etc. esp as I get older.

The electric blanket is plenty and it's so much easier to wash a fitted and flat sheet, and then reassemble the bed. I wash the outer sheet every other time now that I don't have dogs, as it doesn't get much in the way of handling or touching.

@Sharptonguedwoman it sounds like some people are using them as a heavy quilt. In the US they are used the way UK uses a duvet, often with a flat sheet underneath.

However as the single bed ones are small, light, and dry easily, I personally don't always bother with the flat sheet and just use them as a washable duvet.

My American friend calls them comforters. They're really heavy cotton reversible. I put mine over the duvet in colder weather and fold down in the summer. They fit in the washing machine.

Thanks, I was mystified. They wouldn't fit in my little 7 kg machine so not for us.