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 have two pairs, one by each door (front and back, I'm not weird). Means I can shuffle my slippers off, slip on the garden shoes whenever I take the dog for a quick wee or fetch something in from the car or put the bins out. I was a lazy cow and doing it in my slippers until one wet day when I ruined a pair, so now the garden shoes are my perfect solution.

Thank you to @Negroany for the info that Dunelm take clean bedding for recycling. I need to sort out my linen cupboard and the idea of throwing out extras has been stopping me

Or you could buy frozen garlic. And frozen chopped onions, white and red, frozen butternut squash, frozen chopped sweet potato and frozen mashed potato while you are about it. 😁

Probably not worth it if you are cooking for hordes, but if you normally only cook for one or two the saving in time and waste is significant and well worth it.

Please let us know the brand you used as the ones I bought online stopped working after a few months. Cheap crap from China.

My downstairs is an upright, and my upstairs vacuum is a tank and hose one, and as such it does the stairs most easily.

And frozen ginger!

Don't buy frozen ginger though, just buy a piece, freeze it and scrape some off the frozen root. Ditto chilli's, just freeze them and chop them up as needed.

I do this and grate it into stir fry’s etc, I freeze coriander and other herbs too and just crumble a bit off when cooking

Thanks, several people have said …. but that is exactly what I want to do away with.

And soffrito mix. I decant it into a plastic tub, and just grab a handful when I need it. I also vote for frozen mash, though some brands are nicer than others.

I have baskets in my airing cupboard with rolled up towels in. It worked for a while but then the water tank leaked and the new one is different shape so all my baskets don't fit in. I have too many towels. Old ones go to the vets if anyone else is getting rid.

Considering stacking washing machine/tumble dryer in place of set of two cupboards, tall cupboard with smaller on top. Would stop us all bashing heads on the top cupboard when door invariable gets left open - lots of blood and swearing this week - door now removed but it looks so untidy. Also where they would move to would mean we don't switch the washing machine off with our bums when cleaning out the dirt tray. It's a rather narrow utility room.

Considering having those drawers put in under the stairs, you know the ones that pull out. Again would stop me bashing my head whilst furtling around for wrapping paper.

All works in progress

Also cheap pair of dupe crocs (Morrisons) by back door for going into the garden. They just slip on and off

Only keep a small selection of kids toys out. Rotate on a Friday night when they’re in bed. Genuine game changer for us and I think it’s helped them share a bit better (idk why thought you’d have thought it would be the other way round).

The best ones ive used were a 6 pack of cheap ones from Lidls, they were round silvery grey ones. They've lasted years.

Yes to soffrito! Great stuff.

Getting rid of tinned tomatoes etc is insanity. Just stop buying them until you are running low..?!

I opened up my extractor fan, got into the control panel and glued a new piece of plastic from the on button to the inner mechanism. Now my extractor fan works again… and it was free. I was quoted £150+ to fix it and can’t afford that.

Why did I just live without an extractor fan for a year? Turns out there’s lots of things like that that I can fix if I just fiddle around with it. Fixed the broken oven next with a £10 heating element. A lamp with a new fuse. I actually feel a bit stupid having paid people in the past for small electrical fixes.

Replaced our bed with underbed storage drawers with another one, but the storage drawers at the head end of the new one aren't as wide so I don't have to move the bedside cabinets to open the drawers.

@SandwichMakerHater your sock situation has me salivating

Poppers on pillow cases. I am a rough sleeper and got sick of them sliding off so I bought the tools and 100s of poppers in a kit off Amazon. No more naked pillows by morning!

Only have black socks. All the same. No pairing them up. Exception being some thermal winter socks and a recent comedy pair with c*nt written all over them.

I box by the front door (outside). For parcels that won't fit through the letterbox. Vastly reduced my number of trips to the post office.

Gravity feeder for dry cat food. They're good at rationing themselves.

Pharmacy2u. I just tick the boxes for my repeat PX in the NHS app monthly, my GP sends the script to them, they post me my repeat PX. Game changer!

I have open plan downstairs. My husband put the bright kitchen spotlights on a dimmer switch. I absolutely love it, I can have lovely soft mood lighting in my kitchen!!

A 5m hose. I use a Henry/Hetty upstairs. In my narrow tamerrance stairs, plus steep and having a bad back, the hose reaches all the way to the bottom of the stairs with the smiley little prick sitting at the top. Also reaches into all upstairs rooms with minimal getting stuck round corners! One of my best investments.

I use the ones you get with boxed hair colour - wouldn't use them on my hair as they smell horrible, but perfectly good for shaving.

@IAmKerplunk Tesco own brand do , it’s so useful as I store them in a little draw system in my cupboard.

Chop first, then freeze.

This has been one of my very favourite threads. Energised to get stuff DONE and great ideas.

HELP needed tho from the MN hive mind. How do I compartmentalise a deep FRIDGE (not freezer) drawer. Its clear plastic for veg etc. But I want more vertical storage with holes. Otherwise my pots, carrots, onions, peppers etc are in a big heap. Im using cardboard boxes atm.
The closest solution can find are these but, are still too wide.
Anything better for a 20cm + deep drawer?