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 😂

https://amzn.eu/d/00rh6uqg
They are a tight fit, once they are on, they don't go anywhere.
The other thing that I have done that has made my whole summer; I bought netting and double sided tape. I cut it to fit and put it over all my windows...no flies!! At all!! Bit of a bugger cos you have to undo it to open/close the windows...but, no flies!!

Similar to this we brought magnetic fly screens on Amazon for our balcony doors and the living room windows- they have been brilliant and keeping the flies out and also what we brought them for which was keeping hornets out after we had a run of them coming in.

Six months ago I turned the hangers the wrong way around to check out what I was wearing....if I keep putting off wearing something, I get rid of it.

I use hangers the wrong way round for an item which has been worn once and isn't yet going in the wash or on "the chair". For example a smart jacket or a cardigan.

OP I really enjoyed your post! I went through a similar excercise between jobs and loved it! still feel i reap the rewards now. Tbh my main ones were just ruthlessly decluttering in every room, including every kitchen unit, with lots of trips to the charity shop. Also storage solution a big one.. getting a unit where my kids can put away and reach all of their uniform and clothes and pack away easily has honestly improved my day to day life!!

In the spare room, I use one of these beauties, cheap and cheerful over the door storage. Can see everything at a glance and great for small items like spare toiletries, holiday stuff, spare hair clips/bobbles, spare meds, chargers, EU plug adaptors, and anything fiddly that you might need now and again. Saves rooting in drawers. I use another inside one of the wardrobe doors (half the size linked) for my socks, and other bits and pieces. Easy to find things now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AUAUY-Storage-Organiser-Pockets-Wardrobe/dp/B0DFXT3BK3/ref=sr_1_8?sr=8-8

Another vote for three (yes three) vacuums. Upstairs, downstairs and then the stairs. I have a Miele for upstairs corded and bloody powerful, all carpets up there. A Shark handheld for the stairs, it's a pet thing for hairs but I don't have pets! Does a great job in minutes. And a cordless cheap thing I got in Aldi three years ago for downstairs wooden/laminate flooring, it is surprisingly good with 40 minute battery life. Don't know what I'll do when it goes. Buy another similar obviously!

I don't have a tumble drier but the spare room is storage and laundry drying, so I have a Meaco dehumidifier with laundry setting in there. Works great, stuff dry after a few hours. I then put the accumulated water in the steam iron (when I remember, before I tip the water down the sink!).

I do most of the other things mentioned here, but not all of course, so there are some great ideas already. Great thread!

Changed the pull cord in the bathroom to something sturdier. Previously it felt quite flimsy and was always thinking it would snap

I just put my whole duvet inside my mashing machine with the cover on. Only have a double these days so it works just fine. Impossible with the Superking I used to have though!

Kallax unit in my coat and shoe cupboard rather than a pile of shoes just thrown in

A pack of 10 ROUND Tupperware containers from B&M - replacing the various square containers with the million lids

Bars of soap instead of half bottles of shower gel cluttering up the bathroom

Replaced the all white bedding for each bed with patterned / coloured covers and sheets - used to drive me crazy trying to find the right size bed sheet / cover when everything was white!

Storing bedding in the pillowcases

Phone chargers in each room

I bought 5 small grey tubs from the supermarkets - they can be used to store toys, as wash baskets, to move stuff from one room to another.

I use this to track the contents of my freezer:

https://freezerlist.co.uk/login.asp?login=0

For me old school filing cabinet for important documents. I am now organised!

A bedside caddy. I put in my remote control, my tablet and e-reader, the fly swat, my snacks if I need them for taking meds in the night. I had a bigger one with a tissue holder but I had to swap for one that went over the drawer rather than under the mattress.

I bought a rack type thing to stand all my baking trays and pie dishes and cooling racks upright in the under counter cupbard. It was one where you could adjust the sections. I think it was a Joseph Joseph one?

I listened to a decluttering podcast where they talked about filing not piling, and it was a lightbulb moment :) now I can slide a single tray out of the cupboard rack as opposed to removing the contents of the cupboard and balancing them on my knees whilst crouching to get to a tray at the bottom. And I can fit more in the cupboard! I’m now using this principle with paper work too and other storage. It brings me a little tiny bit of happiness every time I use it

On the back of this thread I have just tightened 2 kitchen cupboard doors. They annoyed me everytime I opened them as they didn’t shut quite right. No idea why I didn’t do it before - took me less than a minute 🙈 Have also oiled my squeaky bedroom door. Again, no idea why I lived with it for so long!

You can get different togs - see Nightlark, Argos and m&S (I'm not the PP).

Some amazing stuff here - thanks all!

Mine - prob sounds v simple but for me it's a revelation!

My kids have small rooms with v limited storage and after 3 years of fraught mornings trying to locate various school items for DD every morning, I have now invested in 2 Ikea trofast units - one for Dd1 and second for Dd2, who just started school - placed in our second reception room/playroom. Each unit has 3 small trays for socks/pants/tights etc, one big tub for shirts/cardigans/jumpers, one for skirts/dresses and one for PE kit.
So easy to find everything and kids can do themselves each morning!
Also put in extra coat hanger/shoe bench in room so they can keep their own coats and bags tidilly away from our teeny tiny hall mess! (Room is right next to hallway)

I used to, but it was getting a bit full; so I invested in one of these.https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HR5Y8WL?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

Haha! He’s definitely handy. But then again if I had a millionaire instead I could just pay a tradesman 🙈 so maybe it’s not all roses?! 🤣

Ooh @changedusernameforthis1what is the steam cleaner and do you use it for carpet stains??

I really wish spice and herb jars would put labels on the lid - if they did I would buy them even if they were a bit more expensive!

Impressed! I am feeling overly proud that I've inadvertently inspired a few odd jobs today.

Another thing I did this week was sort my spices alphabetically. I felt a bit pathetic doing it but I just know future me will thank me for being so anal. I was always rootling before and fml-ing.

@IAmKerplunk both Sainsburys and M&S label their spices and herbs on the lids - perfect if you keep them in a drawer.

Tesco own brand ones do have this

Ooh what's the steam cleaner you've got? Can it be used to improve bathroom cleaning?

I think I love you! Thank you!