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 absolutely need to sort out my Tupperware though, it is a nightmare!

I do this. I have size 8 feet and buy men's socks for me. We ended up with the same white gym socks so mine now have a stitch in the toe.

I out my Tupperware tubs and lids into larger storage boxes - square/rectangular ones, round ones and small snack sized ones. Then you just lift the storage box out of the cupboard to find the one you want without risking an avalanche of tubs.

Minimising is something that always makes us feel better. Whether it's some toys that are no longer played with, duplicate items (kitchen, candles, colouring books, stickers) etc we try and reduce to one. I think generally having less stuff means what's left has a 'home' so tidying once the girls are in bed becomes a lot easier.

@ProcrastinatorsAnonymous "We book in a handyman once a year to whizz through a load of small jobs that build up - makes a huge difference. He can do in a day what would take us an entire bank holiday weekend and several arguments!" OMG, amazing idea!!!!!!!!!!! What kinds of things make this list?

Weak bathroom sink faucet, assumed sediment had collected so tried to clean aerator, no improvement. Tried replacing aerator, still didn't improve at all...until I removed the flow restrictor inside of it! Better than ever now and have proper flow, esp great when hand washing (clothing, not actual hands)! Why even have something called a flow restrictor? I've never encountered a faucet so forceful it power washed my skin off, and if so, just turn the valves half off. The youtuber I watched even said "and throw that sucker in the trash where it belongs!"...sooo right!

Shelves, putting up pictures, minor repairs, filling plaster cracks, anchoring bookcases with child safety straps, flatpack furniture… I keep a running list!

Is there enough room for each kind of item to have it's own stack so that there's no need to shuffle around for a specific item, or do you each have your own towels, etc?

With @ProcrastinatorsAnonymous all the way. There was a bit of an epiphany recently when a few things in our slightly decrepit house broke at the same time - the kitchen tap started to seriously leak (fortunately only into the sink, not anywhere else), the kitchen ceiling light gave up, the fridge door came off in my hand when I opened it 😬

Normally that would be DH's cue to sigh, plod down to the cellar, bring up a few tools (never enough or the right ones, strangely, so a running commentary of "Bring me the thingummy. No, not that one! Oh for heaven's sake" would start) and spend between two and six hours "fixing" it. Now we go on AirTasker or equivalent, and some capable person comes over and makes a much better and quicker job of it, with no insults, or cursing, or me needing to mindread which sodding tool he wasn't capable of choosing in the first place.

So my fix for small things like that is to get someone in that KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING and that you can complain to with redress if they fuck up.

(More of a DH problem, really. I do see that.)

I got some really nice boxes in tk max for our paper work

I just need a new house as ours is literally falling down. Once I've achieved that some shelves my toddler can't reach will make life easier as he grabs everything

Cordless hoover. So light and so quick to get out compared to a proper hoover. Now my baby is eating food it's so helpful to be able to quickly whiz round. Much easier to do the stairs.

Tumble dryer was a huge help

I want a dishwasher and electric mop next.

Yep, did the same here. It also means you don't have to care about missing socks because at some point the number of socks will revert to an even number, therefore sorting itself out!

The best thing that has made life so great is a mudroom. All the dirties off in their, come in clean, no horrible dirt and things in the house. Absolute bliss.

IKEA sent a wrong parcel to me once containing all 3 sizes of their steel food containers and corresponding lids. They let me keep them. They're amazing because they nest in a cupboard, you can make a lasagne in one, freeze it and recoil it in it's container. I also use the small ones for my son's salad for his packed lunch

I organized all of my jewelry. Bought very small plastic boxes within a bigger box for all of my earrings and larger ones for my necklaces/bracelets. No more trying to untangle necklaces if I want to wear them. It has made life nicer and I am quite proud of myself! :)