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 😂

Takung notes. My only one has really been is loving a lever arch file. Used to be to file all bills, most online now. I do have the instructions, guarantee and associated receipt in pocket then lever arch for appliances.

Bought vacuum bags to store out of season clothes that I twitch out twice a year. Saves overflowing drawers and cupboards.

i have two bedspreads (one lightweight, one heavier weight for winter) and only buy plain white bedding and pillowcases - don’t need to replace a whole set if one item is worn through, and duvet is her den under bedspreads.

Bought a cleaning caddy that I can carry around when doing housework.

i have a cupboard with a cheap shelving unit for boxes that have labels on so you know where everything is e.g. screwdrivers and small tools, useful items (luggage scales and suction thing for spotlights, tape measure etc.), spare lightbulbs, spare parts etc.

Have a decorative box in the living room on a shelf which has scissors, tape, pen, the bank authorisation thingy)

This year I fixed, sorted a completed project - once per month. It’s been things like fixing a broken window handle, washing all my cushion covers, decorating a room, touching up paintwork)

Bought small compact extension cables and used sticky Velcro to attach them discreetly to the side of bookcases etc. for charging plugs etc. in the place we need them

Stopped saving plates and tableware for best. Got rid of old / chipped items.

Christmas decorations are boxed by room (I go to town a bit, so have box for living room, tree, hallway, outdoors etc.)

Set aside a weekend right at the start of spring to tidy garden, clean patio, get bbq gas, replace plants etc. so garden is ready to enjoy the first sunny day we can.

put battery operated or rechargeable lights in dark cupboards so it’s easier to find stuff.

freezer drawers are labelled so no rummaging for whatever you’re looking for.

learned how to remove the glass on the oven doors to clean it properly.

Discovered ‘elbow grease’ spray which works on a ton of things.

Bought a sonic glasses cleaner which I can use for jewellery, make up brushes and other bits and pieces.

Now I had a great hack for this one from when DC were small. I used to “multi-layer” the bed so fitted sheet and waterproof mattress protector…but the same again underneath. So if an accident happened just used to whip off top 2 layers and no middle of night bed changes!

Two washing baskets lights and darks (one’s beige and one’s black)

Butter knives - so small but make a huge difference

A wicker basket by my sofa containing make up remover, cotton pads, a pouch with nail stuff, handcream, tooth floss, readers, pen and baby wipes - I can do my nails, take my make up off, sort my teeth out whilst watching the telly!

This is genius!

After reorganising some of the garage storage I'm now after tips for garage storage. Ours is all old bookcases that have been replaced in the house.

I chopped the legs off our ironing board so it fits int a cupboard in our utility room when stood upright 😂 Took the rubber stopppers off, sawed a couple of inches off each leg and stuck the stoppers back on. Now sits out of the way in a cupboard that would have been too odd a shape for anything else

It's not really a fix, but along the same theme of long term....

When my workplace closed down in 2008, they were giving away items, and I took away two lovely pictures. I always meant to put them up, but just moved them from house to house, until I finally said to myself, put them up or give them to charity. They are finally on the wall!

About ten years ago I purchased a wall mounted hair dryer holder (it looks like a metal spiral) and it finally got attached to the wall, after feeling inspired by the pictures.

I have wondered why this has taken me so long 🤷‍♀️

My kids used to leave the downstairs loo light on and the fan would run all night, wasting a lot of electricity. Replaced with motion sensor that switches itself off after 10mins. Probably cost more than the wasted electricity but makes me feel less ragey

I labelled all the spare keys so I know what they open and ditched the ones that didn't fit anything.

I live in a London terrace and the bins are in the front area, I bought a cheap but sturdy pair of slipper clogs ( but any easy slip on clog like shoe would do) which live in the porch , I am either barefoot or in slippers in the house but can nip out to the bins whatever the weather. Clogs on, bin, clogs off.

Someone might have already said but a cheap stick on battery light would work. Ive since put them in all of my kitchen cupboards too.

I wear crocs as slippers.

I freeze flour and oats for 24 hours as soon as I've bought it. Kills off any weevil eggs.
Motion sensor plug in lights by the back door and in the hallways. No more stubbing my toe when letting the dog out on the middle of the night.
I'm going to buy a bathroom cabinet for the bedroom to hang above my dressing table to store all my toiletries and hair products in. Just feel like it'll be cleaner and neater and I'll be able to find what I need much easier.

I've been making changes over the past 10 years, and most of them I can't even remember any more, but it really has changed my life.

STOP PRESS - was writing this bit below and realised it's really changed everything about the flow of the kitchen! - I've got a second cutlery basket for the dishwasher. So now we always have a cutlery basket out on the draining board and the dirty cutlery goes in there. When it's time to put on the machine, put in the basket, taking out the empty one. Everyone is on board with the process, and I swear is doing other dishwasher stuff better as a result.

1 Probably the overall change is streamlining and then adding. Eg we had a full set of cutlery that we generally used less because it was a nice wedding present. I got rid of 1000 pieces of random cutlery and now we just use the "good" stuff. It's been 25 years since we got it, and we added to it in the sales, so I'd say we got it money's worth.

2 For me, having multiple of things I use all the time, buying when they're on discount and then having next to the bed, in a box next to the sofa, in the bathroom.

3 buying several pairs of scissors and keeping them all in the cutlery drawer. They're just generic kitchen scissors, but I use them for wrapping paper and cutting up chicken. Everyone knows they're there, and magically seem to remember to keep them there.

4 - the Clutterbug quiz really helped. The woman behind the yt channel is really good and pointing out that there are different brains and different kinds of tidying. DH needs to be able to see everything, hence his office looks horrific, but actually it's obvious he just needs to be able to see everything.

I cannot stand stuff everywhere, but equally cannot cope with putting everything a million little files or boxes and just won't look in them or return items to them. So I need things behind cupboard doors, but in big groupings so I can just chuck things back. I put cables and chargers in one box, but happy to ferret for a moment to find the right one. Clothes, I have boxes and drawers for different items to keep them together, but I'm rarely interested in folding neatly.

5 - we ended up with 2 dishwashers by accident (tl:dr) and it's amazing. Don't use the old one all the time, but there are 4 of us home all the time, so it can't get ridiculous with 4 x breakfast lunch and dinner and whatever. I also don't have anything in the kitchen that can't go in the dishwasher. Ever. I also use it to wash all sorts of things such as exhaust filters. I also run it fairly frequently with all the filter bits taken out and out on the top rack because the stuff that builds up under there is revolting. Once I discovered what was lurking I couldn't get it out of my mind!

That's all far too long and boring.

Masking tape and a Sharpie for labelling tubs for the fridge and freezer.

Empty Barleycup jars for storing rice, pulses, nuts, etc..

Narrow shelves on one kitchen wall, where I store said jars.

I sew and have a large cutting mat and rotary cutters and the rulers that are used with that those items, so probably not much use to anyone unless you have the kit.

on the run up to Christmas I put up a folding table with my huge fabric cutting mat on it and use old rotary blades that no longer work with fabrics in my cutters to cut wrapping paper. (I recently invested in two more cutters, one now only has older blades for cutting paper, and I also have a pinking blade, I was changing the blade to use it but decided it was easier to invest in another cutter for the pinking blade). - also I tape two smaller cutting mats on their bottoms together sometimes to make a larger cutting mat, I go on sewing holidays and have found that really useful).

all my cables are labelled with the label maker and recently found out you can get proper labels for cables so will be investing in them on next purchase.

have been buying rechargeable lights for dark cupboards

Wide heavy duty stick on Velcro by Velcro, I’ve used it to stick up small mirrors and all sorts of random things that would have required a drill

labelled my freezers drawers, but labels are on left and right, so left says sea food and right says chips and try and keep those things on those side. My drawer freezer is huge and when I start to run it down as I make myself eat from it to cut my shopping bills I fill empty ice cream tubs with water and then they go in the back of the freezer drawer to keep it full and running efficiently.

put things like salmon, ham etc, once opened into clear takeaway food tubs so they keep better than in opened packets and are easily found in the fridge. (Have a dedicated long thin Tupperware box just for bacon) with things like salmon I cut the date label from the packaging and pop in the box too, I work away a fair bit and often come back wondering if said item in a Tupperware box is in date.

use the white inside of my pantry door as a nobo board for shopping lists, don’t buy list, and a two week menu planner (wipe with a bleach spray and use nobo pens). Buy and don’t buy have headings made with the label maker.

Use a sharpie to write the use before date in large on those huge cereal boxes as the kids laugh at me for soooo much out of date stuff when they come to stay

I have a basket by the side on my sofa and the extension lead end is in there and the plug in leads go in there when not in use so the robovac doesn’t try to hoover them up. (But recently discovered that Eufy mapping has a no go zone which has been a game changer because the stupid thing could get under my sofa but not out and now habe a no go zone round the basket).

put things like salmon, ham etc, once opened into clear takeaway food tubs so they keep better than in opened packets and are easily found in the fridge. (Have a dedicated long thin Tupperware box just for bacon) with things like salmon I cut the date label from the packaging and pop in the box too, I work away a fair bit and often come back wondering if said item in a Tupperware box is in date.

The printed date doesn't apply once you've opened the packet. The packets are usually either vacuum sealed or filled with CO2. As soon as you open them and let air in, the contents begin to spoil.

mine escaped into the garden when I accidentally left the door open - so will set up as no go zone -thx!

So do I - easy to slip on and light if you take them on holiday.) And I've got a different coloured pair by the back door for gardening and another at the front door for bins. (All cheap fake Crocs, though.)

I'm sure there are more, but a couple for me:
Buying an enormous basket for the porch to finally corral all the bike helmets and balls. Only thing is they're now outgrowing the basket rather, so the next thing might be one of those benches with a shelf and hooks above, or just a row of hooks, to hang up the helmets instead.

Putting a big hook on the side of my home-working desk to hang my headset on when not using it. It's on the side that's in the corner so you don't see it, but it means I can easily grab it in a hurry but then put it out of the way afterwards so it's not cluttering the desk.

DH likes freshly ground coffee and got a coffee grinder, but it used to spread coffee mess all over the kitchen, so I got a little tray to put it on. Keeps the mess in one place and easier to wipe.

Still got loads of things I need solutions for though!

I use cheap hair conditioner instead of shaving foam or gel. It makes my skin feel nicer and doesn’t have the rusty tin issue.

A steamer instead of an iron, saves so much time, great for long dresses etc, no ironing board needed

and this massive chopping board from ikea which we use to chop everything and as a worktop saver
www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/laemplig-chopping-board-bamboo-00309829/

Also have clothes horse over dehumidifier to dry clothes inside in winter in our utility room, and a mini washing lines strung above the clothes horse with hangers to hang shirts etc. This is all next to tumble dryer so the heat helps if it’s on too

Also mini cheese grater for garlic from sostrene grene instead of garlic crusher