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 just want to say that when I asked this question originally, I never would have predicted such a huge treasure trove of ideas! I've collected so much wisdom here. Solutions to problems I did even know I had and products I didn't know existed. You epic bunch!

Thank you for my new self description “I’m all lid, no container”
Perfect 🤣

I got a shoe bin for the patio doors so now we have garden shoes right there instead of traipsing through the house each time.

OMG @TheOccupier those pull-out drawers! My Amazon basket is full, I’m going to have to defer some things till next month but I feel those drawers are going to change my life.

Some great ideas on this thread!

Thanks to a wonderful local handyman, we now have lots of clothes hooks on doors, originally for coats but now also holding hats and bags that didn’t have a proper home.

Also shelves anywhere we could fit them in.

So does Aldi

I don't use labels, just use a laundry marker pen. Write K, D, SK on the actual product label 🙂

thankyou I will add them to my shopping list 😊

We try to automate what we can, but I appreciate this is expensive and not necessarily something that works for everyone.

• we have a robot vac on every level of the house (3 levels). They are set to clean at specific times of the day which means less annoyance when trying to do anything nearby
• our Alexas are set to remind us to take the bins out, and repeats this reminder multiple times.
• smart lightbulbs which can be turned on/off via Alexa, also can have colour changed and brightness changed. Very helpful!
• automated cat feeder for dispensing dry food throughout the day/night to ensure cat always has “fresh” food - otherwise our cat will stare at its bowl full of dry food and not eat it! Our cat did not like the water fountain we got, so we use a normal cat water bowl.

Other helpful things in our home:

• keep knives on a magnetised strip on the wall - easy to reach for when cooking, not taking up countertop space in a knifeblock
• 3D printed nespresso pod holder stuck to the side of the nespresso machine and to the wall, no rummaging for pods and saves more countertop space. These little storage holders can also be bought online.
• A sharpie stuck to the fridge with blu tack - as soon as a sauce/spread is opened, we write the date on it.
• Ikea 365 glass containers only (no plastic tupperware) - can be used in the oven, can be put in the freezer. Does not stain and retain food smells. They stack really well too.
• we use double walled glass cups for hot drinks most of the time as it keeps the drink hotter for longer and also seems to use less space in the dishwasher due to not having to manouver handles/ears.
• a foldable stool/step in the kitchen means I can pack things away on top of the cupboards in plastic organiser baskets and can reach it easily

I hope this is helpful to someone! Great tips on this thread, thank you!h

EDITED TO ADD:

• we buy flat sheets to fit the largest bed in the house, and then these can be used on all the beds. No faffing trying to find the right sized fitted sheet
• we only use single duvets - so much easier!! No duvet tug of war
• motion sensor stair lights
• we keep a container of toiletries etc in our spare bedroom for guests to use, especially useful if they’re flying with hand luggage only. This contains shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, nail clippers, hair ties, cotton pads etc.

How are you all storing handbags? I gave a rucksack, a satchel and a small more formal handbag I rotate between every week. I want them near the front door. They're so bulky hung up but shelves seems odd and to take up a lot of room too. They just float around looking messy and getting lost.

Mine are in a kallax box. One for scarves, one for bags. Then smaller baskets for seasonal wear like hats/gloves/sunnies. They sit on top of the coat rack.

Will need a rethink soon as there are 5 of us now and not enough space. Also the kids can't reach so they need an adult to hand them things and there reaching an age where they prefer independence. But it's worked up until now.

@SchatzMaus the Sharpie on the fridge is genius!

I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if this has been done but these:
https://shorturl.at/YEarF have been a game changer for me. The boxes and lids stack perfectly and the little coloured spot means finding the right lid is a breeze.

The home cookery year by Claire Thomson is great!

I bought some reusable mop heads for my flash speed mop. Wet the mop head, quick squirt with some method floor cleaner and it’s easy to give the kitchen floor a once over. I have little kids including a baby who is starting solids so my kitchen floor gets messy.

I don’t sweep the kitchen floor, I mostly hoover it. I find sweeping it mostly just flicks the crumbs around. I also use my Dyson cordless with the nozzle attachment to hoover bizarre things like the crumbs from the cutlery drawer (how do they get in there??), around/under the toaster, the bottom of the fruit/veg drawer of the fridge where random bits of grape stalks or dry bits of garlic skins or whatever seem to accumulate. Then it’s quick and easy to wipe it properly and you aren’t just moving the crumbs around.

I clean the fridge before the food shop arrives so the fridge is mostly empty. I’ve started trying to do this weekly so that it’s a quick and easy job instead of one I dread.

I’ve started using the Ocado regular feature so it automatically books me a delivery slot at my chosen time on the same day every week without me having to remember. It then automatically fills my basket with my usual purchases so I just have to go in and amend it.

I have 4 children close in age but who all need different sized socks. I only buy socks from places that print the sock size on the inside of the cuff. I generally try to buy a different pattern for each child (eg one has currently got a Dino pack, one has got a truck pack, one has got animals on type thing) but for plain grey school socks this is a life saver and it means I can be confident I’ve not put the wrong socks in the wrong drawer.

I use over the back door organisers and all uniform goes in there. Each child has a compartment for each day that’s labelled. So I know that the PE kit is in the correct day.

I have a small spare box of uniform under each child’s bed (labelled with their name) with a few spare bits in for when they inevitably come home without some crucial bit of kit.

Each child has a named peg for their coats/bags. I bought little keyrings with their names on and they’re in different colours so my children who can’t yet read can tell which bag is theirs (and so can I as they’re all the same otherwise!).

I only buy Frugi puddlebuster/rain coats and make sure any new ones I buy are in a different pattern to the ones we already have. They make my kids stand out so I can spot them and I know at a glance which coat belongs to who as they’re all a different pattern.

Please link these storage boxes 😃

Just write K or D on the care label

Buy the next size up food caddy bags to the size of your bin. I found the 8l ones only just fitted and were difficult to tie up (partly because people would overfill the bin). I now buy 10 litre food caddy bin bags. They fit better plus are so much easier to tie a knot in.

Hooks on the back of the under stairs cupboard door.

I have two that are screwed in and one that goes over the top and has four hooks.

I hang handbags and those body warmers you may suddenly decide you need if you're popping out.

Another simple fix. Put your bags of sugar in a container. No more loose bits of sugar in the cupboard. Contemplating doing this with flour as well, but got several types of flour (plain, self rising, different bread flour etc).

I have my main two (work and everyday) on hooks. The rest are stored in a plastic tub in wardrobe.

Eraser sponges act like fine sandpaper and can remove finishes and protective coatings from things. Just see what they do to gloss paint. They will definitely remove stains from a cup but will make the cup easier to stain in the future.
They are made from nasty things. Google it.

I use these pads for all sorts of things. https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAEShgEB6zswFTX2Ua12dbe7GEQpgJcsDsVlzASzZNuWjLIe1dvSftaF-PY33qEd6DMsOwViuB3epK_-Y27SGO07fdo7JzaxS9qou1TuyzlPjRgpbw3NTWxpfw9ll60RF3KaRsE9jQgTuszRPDJmk5AZiTGOR38-2-6L2gu9qfGrIVWenJefX0hufg

My 3 game changers are, a stick on tiles toilet roll holder, frozen onion slices and floor mop that fits under my sink

Where do you get onion slices? I've only ever seen frozen chopped onion.