What small household fixes have made everyday life noticeably easier?

[HardyPinkPanda]

I’m between jobs at the moment and have decided to use some of the time to basically snag my own house.

I’m going through every room and making a note of all the little things that have mildly irritated me for YEARS, but which I’ve somehow just accepted as part of life. You know the sort of thing - not actual problems, just things you regularly curse under your breath and then continue living with for another five years.

So far I have:

1. Ruthlessly slimmed down the kitchen cupboards so I could lose one cupboard and fit a tumble dryer. Every winter I normally spend approximately 46% of my waking hours hanging damp clothes around the house and rotating them like prize livestock, so I’m disproportionately excited about this.

2. Reorganised the Tupperware so every container now lives WITH ITS OWN LID. No more rummaging through 17 lids while slowly losing the will to live.

3. Thrown out about 12 random, ancient, slightly raggedy towels that had been granted permanent residency in the airing cupboard. It now has SPACE. Things are FOLDED.

4. Replaced the sieve that hasn’t had a handle since approximately 2020. Why did I just... live like that?

5. Put bigger shoe storage by the door, so we no longer have the traditional hallway shoe landslide.

6. Rewired a switch so it finally works the way you instinctively expect it to work rather than requiring a tiny moment of irritation every single time.

Honestly, none of this is exactly world peace, but the cumulative improvement to my quality of life is ridiculous. I keep thinking, WHY DID I PUT UP WITH THIS FOR SO LONG?

So humour me: what tiny, boring, seemingly insignificant thing have you changed/fixed/bought/reorganised in your house that has made you disproportionately happy?

I want the really mundane ones. The things nobody is putting on Grand Designs but which have genuinely made your day-to-day life better.

Basically, tell me what else I should be wandering around my house looking for 😂

I've chucked out everything nonstick. Stainless steel is not difficult to clean. I might buy a new nonstick pan for St Pancake's Day, but probably not Teflon. We were getting through about one pan per year.

This thread is showcasing the very best of Mumsnet! I love it!

We're in the middle stages of an old 1930s semi renovation project. We've done the worst bits, run out of money, and are saving for a new kitchen but in the meantime these are some small wins:

1. 2 Dunelm cute, stripey under bed storage bags to go under the sofa to hold DDs dressing up clothes and her toys. It makes tidying up so much quicker

2. Trimming IKEA shelves to size for the alcoves. Once painted it looks just like bespoke shelving but for a fraction of the cost and Zinser BIN is an Ikea up-cyclers best friend.

3. Securing wine glass racks to the wall above the kitchen sink and small plastic shelves for regular glasses. It saves cupboard space in our tiny kitchen and everything is always in reach

4. Using picture shelves as plate/chopping board shelves in a funny bit of wall space by our backdoor. I don't think they'll last very long, but they were cheap and easy to install and again, save cupboard space in a kitchen that really belongs in a NYC studio apartment, not a family house!

5. Investing in proper wool chimney stops for our fireplaces. The drafts/little bits of soot were bonkers and I can't believe it took us over a year to invest in proper thick wool pads that were the right size for the space. All we had to do was shove them up! It took minutes!

6. Another vote for baskets under the console table in the hall. Hats, gloves, sunglasses, suncream, buffs - they all go in the baskets. One shared between me and DP, and one for DD (3) which also has things that I'm not sure whether they are done with or treasured possessions (conkers, acorns, a smooth pebble) I routinely go through and anything that doesn't belong gets tidied or chucked!

St Pancake's Day I love it. I want a St Pancake candle or medallion.

I used a Sharpie to write top/bottom on the top and bottom of our Super king size duvet - it brings such joys every time change the bed that we don't have to try and work out what way round it goes!

When we got a new wifi router, changed the SSID and password to be the same as the old one, instead of having to remember how to connect the eleventy billion smart devices to a new wifi network.

Respect to u, particularly for the Tupperware!!!!!

Oops just seen this has already been suggested. Sorry!
Get one of the rechargeable motion activated ones that stick on anywhere with a strong magnet that comes with them. I have loads that i bought cheap on temu but they are available from other places too if you dont like the cheap Chinese sites.

Such a good idea! 👏.

Someone mentioned label makers! We love ours, even DH can be found labelling everything. We started to help elderly parent who was confused and forgetful but we've kept going, a definite winner!

Same here. After a couple of weeks of a major clearout (mainly shed and kitchen), we're only trying to sell two things – one on eBay and one at a traditional auction house. We've done five trips to the dump, six or seven to charity shops, and left a bunch of stuff out on the pavement, announced on neighbourhood WhatsApp groups. We're still trying to shift two petrol cans, some spring clamps, and an ammonia fridge. But now I can actually see the shed floor.

When we saw quite how much junk we were keeping for sentimental reasons, we realised that we're actually not that sentimental after all.

The water is also better than tap for citrus and carnivorous plants.

Taught my DC to to their own laundry. Each one had a day and half to get all theirs done. If not done in the allocated time evertyhing wold be taken out of the laundry room and dumped in their room in whatever state it was in. If they missed their slot (due to laziness) then they would have to make do. II would step in if the could do it for a pre-agreed valid reason.

It took a few weeks and some tough love to get into the swing of it but it was a total game changer. They were 14 & 16 when I did it.

@AlwaysExtraHot the bathroom extractor was imho one of my biggest wastes of money - it's crap, we keep the window open instead, and the noise it makes 🤐Ditto the motion sensor lights on the landing, brilliant.

My husband recently fitted a motion sensor light strip thing to the bathroom cabinet so no more risking waking the kids up with the loud bathroom light/fan, and no more going to the loo/brushing teeth in the dark!

This is truly genius! I'm going to do this the next spare day I have 🙏🏼🙂

Would an occassional dylon machine dye fix that?

Thank you - I've been looking at similar ones for similar prices. Is the quality good? One I was keen on turns out to be made of pine and plywood....

It might do but I found that the problem with only buying black socks is that even if two look like a pair, they usually aren't and one will be shorter or tighter than the other. That's even more annoying than slightly different shades.

Yeah it seems to be, very solid and the drawers aren’t flimsy like many I saw. It took a reassuringly long time to be made and delivered!!

The cupboard in the hall.

About chest height and about 1.5 metres long, it sits at the side of our hall. It has an A4 basket on top for each family member. DS‘ includes name stickers so anything new can be labelled before he takes it out of the house. We‘ve installed hooks facing the front door for keys and lanyards- the most commonly used do at the top at grab height.

We‘ve removed most of the shelves inside and put two of those top hanging rotating multihooks in (like at the gym) for DS‘ coats. We then made cubbies out of those songmics slotting shelves for his shoes, with baskets for - depending on the season - hats, sunglasses, gloves etc. Now 9, he still uses it and has never had an excuse for not putting away his outdoor wear (made it at 18 months). We kept 2 shelves in at the top for my shoes.

Name labels with my mobile number. Put on things taken out of the house to a place we‘re not known (football kit for an away game is one). If DS leaves something somewhere, it gets back to us eventually.

There are more…

I bought some grey hooks for the washing line. They have holes in. You put the shirt on a hanger and then hang it on the line. No creases, no ironing, straight into the wardrobe. It's been a life changer!

Im
here for
tips!

Unfortunately my bathroom doesn’t have a window, so we need the fan.

I thought this was going to be DIY stuff that I couldn't do but it's very useful stuff.
Every winter I normally spend approximately 46% of my waking hours hanging damp clothes around the house and rotating them like prize livestock, so I’m disproportionately excited about this.
While I love the idea I couldn't justify using a tumble dryer routinely. Mine is used occasionally instead of an iron.
Tupperware - threw it all out and bought all the same.
Storage containers in cupboards. You lift it out instead of rummaging.
I put hooks in the overhead beams next to the cooker. Just reach up for a pan or whisk.
Cleaning items upstairs and down. It's not more expensive, you don't use more but it saves time.
I have a lot of cupboards in kitchen, utility and elsewhere but they are best when not full so I'm ruthless about throwing stuff out.

This is a makeshift idea but after discovering the joy of packing cubes on holiday I now have them in drawers. Pants and socks sorted by colour.
When DC were little and different sizes I bought one lot of socks in grey and one in black.

My top bedding tips.
When I bought a super king bed it's almost but not quite square. I've written on the bottom sheets in marker pen Top and Side.
All duvets and pillows have the date written in marker pen when they were last washed or were new.

I have nothing useful to add but I'm shamelessly here for the tips.

Your number 2 is a bane of my life. I'll add that I'm also scared of that cupboard. Alongside rooting for a damn lid that fits, all the containers and the non fitting lids usually fall out on floor. I jam them back in for the cycle to start the next time I open the cupboard.

IKEA Kallax in the hall, everyone has their own box for shoes, then a box for bike helmets, a box for waterproof trousers etc and a box for scarves and gloves. No more pissing about looking for one random glove or someone's football boots!