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 😂

@JumpingJimny "Partner is a multi-tradesman so I can have pretty much anything I want."

This has made me want to track you down and kidnap him.

Went even better than this - when building our house we created a Laundry room upstairs - its in middle of all bedrooms, no more going up and down stairs with baskets, all carried quickly into one room, big clothes horse set ip can hang everything on it straight away and dries quickly, can close the door to it all, even have a small tv set up on the wall so i can watch TV while i iron ( Yes i iron :)) It has made life so much easier can keep on top of laundrey now and it doesnt pile up. 2 years in the house and its my favourite room as sad as that makes me now :(
People thought we were mad doing it, as took some space from the bedrooms, and cant understand why i dont hang out on the line ( even my mother is flabergasted :)) But it works for us

For each bed, duvet cover, bottom sheet, pillowcases except one, all stuffed into the other pillow case, so no hunting in our too-small airing cupboard.

Thanks, this is really useful to know. We've been looking to replace as much of our plastic for metal and I've looked at these Ikea ones. Do the lids stay on ok if you travel to work with the container in a bag?

Some of these are brilliant. I bulk buy birthday cards, write a year's worth for family birthdays and then leave them with DM as her house is the distribution centre for all family related items.

We are all very picky about socks in different ways so I themed by colour for each person. Means I don't have to pair them, just shove all the greys, blacks, stripes in different baskets.

I bought lots of plastic baskets for laundry so we can have one each for dirty laundry. They hold about a load so once one is full I wash, dry, fold and return for the owner to put away. I have extras for mixed loads so I can sort by person straight from the line or tumble dryer, saves a big mixed basket which used to drive me nuts. No ironing, ever.

Bedding I have themed by colour. Single bed everything is grey, double bed white sheets for me, yellow for DS to match his duvet.

I have previously tried storing food containers with lids on, or just having one sort, but can't get everyone else to comply so it all just gets shoved in a couple of pull out baskets and I sort it out every now and again.

I emptied,sorted out and tided my bedside table,it's so much better now it sounds awful but the drawers had become a dumping ground.
Now I can see exactly what I'm looking for straight away.
I emptied and organised my magazine rack in my bedroom,it's no longer over filled and I can find the books or magazine without having to unload it first.
I went through my underwear drawers and got rid of my old bras,knickers and socks and replaced them with the new one's I got for my birthday.
I've tidied and organised my vanity unit and found things I'd been looking for and things I forgot I had.

Boring,mundane things but they've made me very happy.

Screwed a hair dryer holder on the side of my dressing table for my hairdryer and straighteners to live in instead of them living on the floor or on the surface

This is genius, stealing this idea, thank you.

Has anyone got a cat fountain that's easy to clean and is sturdy? I've tried a few but either they were too fiddly to clean and/or my fluffy but demonic chonk ripped them to pieces.

Even quicker - I've written it on the corners of mine in indelible pen

My husband hung a few big hooks at the top of the stairs to the basement to hang the ironing board, brooms and mops and it made them so much easier to get and easier to put the hoover away in its cupboard because brooms and ironing board weren't in the way!

Funnily enough just after he did this I watched a tiktok from a creator whose videos are all about keeping on top of household clutter and she was saying how good hooks are for creating space or using for frequently used (and lost) things like scissors, as they can then easily be put back in the right place.

Another great tip from her was more small bins where rubbish builds up, and a small tray on bedside table to stop stuff rolling around all over the place and falling on the floor. I instituted that and it's made my bedside so much better.

I have a DH who deploys a lot so I use that time to declutter and get rid of everyone’s old unused clothes and shoes. It makes me feel I’ve achieved something whilst he’s away.
I put duvets and sheets into respective pillow cases so I don’t have to hunt through the cupboard finding it all.
I have storage tubs in the kitchen cupboards. One containing spices, another herbs, oils and such like. Saves me hunting through it all and I can stuff easier.
Cleaning products and cloths in every bathroom means I can quickly clean if I happen to have a free minute.
Everyone in the house has their own coloured towel, so I know exactly which person has left their towel on the floor whilst wet and drinking!
Colour coded iPhone chargers for downstairs so I can hunt down the charger thief.
…and my greatest, ALWAYS have a cold bottle of wine in the fridge for when needed quickly!

We recently moved so I went through every single cupboard/wardrobe and culled anything possible for charity or the tip. I’d already sold stuff on Vinted.

I chucked out any Tupperware I never use or without lids. Charity shopped wine glasses we never use. Asked our buyers what they wanted from a selection of stuff we didn’t want (garden table, kitchen table and chairs, lawnmower). It’s been very refreshing! I even charity shopped cutlery! We’d already done the loft. I made my DH go through the shed, his domain. It’s been amazing.

Inspired by this thread I have just ordered new decals for my Rangemaster dual fuel cooker. It’s really quite old and all the markings for the knobs have almost worn away.. I don’t know why, but it didn’t strike me that I would be able to replace them- but I can. I know automatically how to turn them but anyone else going to use the cooker is completely flummoxed.
I am disproportionately happy 😃

Bought a stainless steel washing up bowl from.Elephant Box (we don't have a double sink). Still looks good after three years and easy to
clean - doesn't go greasy and manky like plastic ones.

Wooden toast tongs with a magnet

I've got a small kitchen (I don't really cook, I just chuck things in and hope for the best) so there was no room for a washer and dryer. They are both in the integral garage. I've also got a dishwasher again. My god. This has vastly improved my life.

I went through (again) all our crockery, glassware and baking trays to slim it down. I'm never going to need it all so I only have what we use.

I've stopped buying stuff unless I need it and I can be arsed to keep it clean. So very little.

I'm in the middle of remodelling and the next room is the family bathroom which is going to be, I swear, like an empty hotel bathroom.

I keep my clingfilm in the fridge. Peels off easily so no more tantrums.

I get this. When I stayed in a rental house in Florida they had a washing machine and tumble drier in a big hall cupboard on the landing, laundry basket and drying rails too. They were huge machines obviously too it being America. To never take laundry downstairs / upstairs made me so happy. It was all done in one station, with minimal faff and was the epitome of efficiency. If I was designing a house I would 100% do this too!

I'm adding before rtft, but I have a hook on the back on the front door for the door keys - rental property, so it has a turn type lock on the inside.

I'm a postie and I've lost count of the number of times I've heard someone say 'just a minute, I can't find my keys!' from behind the front door while I'm waiting on the other side. What if there was a fire?!

I've also put hooks on the side of the stairs for car keys, etc.

I stuck lots of little hooks inside my wardrobe door to hang my necklaces on....
Also, I put an old cutlery box inside a drawer. Now I have individual areas for pens, elastic bands, safety pins, little balls of string etc. It all looks neat and I know where everything is.
I love this thread!

A relative was a fire fighter and gave me a lecture about locking the front door and putting the key somewhere else. Now I either leave the key in the lock or just leave it on the Yale lock only.

I 'get a man in' too. Many of the jobs he does are probably things I could do myself, but I'm not going to run to Screwfix and buy a three-eighths Gripley that I'm only ever going to need for this one job and then have to store, when I can get a man in who actually already owns a three-eighths Gripley* and will do a proper job.

*or similar tool.

Loving this thread, thanks OP. I put up curtain wire in rows on the inside of my wardrobe doors to hang scarves on. I can see what I have and easy to access.

@ChapmanFarm I've upgraded this one by taking the hangers out to the washing line when the clothes are dry, hanging them on there and delivering straight to the relevant wardrobe. I was doing the same as you then having a trauma at bed time when I'd forgotten to move them.

I love the pan lid one, and drying clothing already on the hangers outside!
I barely use my big oven so keep all trays and racks in there out of the way. Frees up my pan drawer.
I also keep my toaster in the cupboard, on a tray with handles for ease of lifting in/out. Saves it cluttering up the worktop. Now I want to make space in there for my air fryer too 😂

Do these cat water fountains (never heard of them until now) run on battery or mains power? My cat is always poking about and playing in water, and would probably blow all our sockets very quickly (and still prefer to drink rainwater from the top of the bin).