Small and simple tips to make life easier No2

[IAmKerplunk]

Hope nobody minds me starting a new thread? I am finding it very helpful!

@IAmKerplunk · Yesterday 20:02
"how can one box in a boiler in the kitchen? It’s on the wall and ugly"

You might think mine looks boxed in. It isn't. On one side of it there is a wall cabinet, on the other a corner. There is a batten on tbe wall and a batten on the cabinet. 18mm thick,. On one of these battens are fixed removable kitchen hinges. The door is hung on these hinges and swings shut in front of the boiler, closing against the batten. If your boiler is fatter than mine you might need a deeper cabinet beside it. Wall cabinets are usually 300mm deep but you can get deeper. They are called Boiler Cabinets. You can also put microwaves in them, or just use them as deeper wall cabinets.

Wall cabinets and your doors are usually about 600mm, 720mm or 900mm tall. If you need to, you can put a fake top box door above the fake cabinet door.

My wall cabinets are actually hung on Wall Cabinet Hanging Rail, not individually screwed to the wall, so if the fancy takes me I can lift them off and move them around. This is a very superior method, and very strong.

For washing at this time of year, everything on hangers goes on wet and gets hung on the bedroom curtain pole, in the bedroom of who it belongs to.

Windows are cracked to avoid condensation and our radiators are under the windows so stuff dries quickly when the heating starts going on. Then it's easy for the person it belongs to to take it off the pole and shove it straight in their wardrobe in the same room.

I sometimes mislay keys. So each bunch (Car A plus front door key, Car B plus front door key, Back door plus shed and gate, Front door for guests) is on its own nylon lanyard. Each is a different bright colour. The car set have a lanyard the colour of the car. The bright coloured lanyards are easily seen wherever you have left them, and not easily concealed by some small object left on top.

The front door sets do not have keys for shed, garage etc on them. Once you have let yourself into the houses with your front door key you can pick up any extra keys you need. You need a front door key when you are out of the house. You don't need it when you are in the house. You don't need the shed key when you are away from the house.

So each bunch is minimum size.

Keys are kept where they are not visible and not easily accessible by casual visitors or anyone passing an open door or window.

At the risk of reigniting buttergate, if you want a non-UPF spreadable butter-like substance you can solidify pure extra-virgin olive oil.

Pour oil into a jar. Freeze for about 1 hour then put it in the fridge. It stays solid but very soft. If it gets warm and goes liquid, just repeat the freezing treatment.

I’ve just purchased a load of quick dry towels. Everyone’s is colour coded (so we knows who’s is on the floor!) can be hung up to dry quickly.

I dry wet washing infront the woodburner but I dread big heavy bath towels as impossible to hang up and take days to dry!

Just thought of another one

i cut the colour run sheets that go in the washing machine in half so a box lasts twice as long.

I bought a lift out handbag organiser on ebay. All my stuff goes in it and as and when I want to change my bag it just gets taken out of one and popped into the next. It also has the advantage I can put gym stuff or a rain jacket in the bottom of my bag and sit the organiser on top and no one knows it is there.

On the last thread, there was a lot of discussion about Ikea stainless steel food storage containers, which can go in the oven, fridge and freezer. One poster suggested the best ones were the ones with a plastic lid, which sealed, as opposed to the bamboo lids which didn't.
Just looked on the Ikea website and can't find these - just the bamboo ones. Does anyone have a link please?

I got a bit fed up with multiple cleaning products.
I have bought a huge plastic thing of 5 litres of Ecover all-purpose cleaner and am diluting it into reused spray bottles for the kitchen, utility and bathrooms. I slosh it into a bucket of hot water to do floors.
i have saved money, am using less plastic and the Ecover products are fairly environmentally OK. My under sink cupboard is far less cluttered.
So far, so good.

The lids are here: IKEA 365+ lid, rectangular/plastic - IKEA UK for the 1 litre tins, and here IKEA 365+ lid, square/plastic - IKEA UK for the smaller size.

To find the entire range of containers and lids, just look for 'Ikea 365' and the entire range will come up.

@Swizzel thank you so much.

Thank you xx

I have a list of birthdays for the year in my notes app, then try to buy cards in bulk (including a few thank you/ sympathy/ blank) to put in my card box so theres no last minute scrabbling for a card, paying over the odds, and missing birthdays

I
like the charity shop bag idea

Following on from the lanyard key ring idea… Lanyards are perfect for looping around a handbag strap so you can fish out your keys.
If the lanyard has a detachable end part, even better!

I am still reeling from the idea of having all tupperware of THE SAME SIZE with same size lids. So simple. I'm doing that tomorrow! Thanks, guys!

Also after you’ve applied the hot water, sprinkle with table salt, kills weeds etc right down to the roots.
Dont use on weeds in lawns as it also kills the grass!

Rather gross but a nappy (clean) in the bottom of a bin bag helps absorb disgusting bin juices.

Further to the bin numbering - I have a gigantic number stuck on the lid and side of my wheelie bin, but it STILL gets hijacked by the people round the back where we leave our bins, whose house has the same number as mine.

This annoyed me as my bin was in better condition than the numbered bin they left me. So I bought decals of flowers and stuck those all over my bin so that they still might nick my bin but they can't get away with 'oh, sorry, I thought it was ours, I just looked at the number...'

I ordered stickers from Amazon with the road name as well. I still occasionally end up with the wrong bin but that's because my very kind neighbour puts it back for me assuming that the bin men have dumped my bin outside my house - which isn't always the case!

Newspaper is much better at absorbing moisture/smells than plastic bags. I always wrap anything like meat bones, fishy bits in it before putting in the bin. If you don't have a ready supply of newspaper there might be copies of the Metro on the bus or at the station, or save brown paper/big envelopes from deliveries.

So cheap sanitary towels would work as well?
My favourite tip is puppy training pads are excellent for soaking up spills! For when I check the drain on my washing machine!

we have a command centre hidden on the inside of 2 kitchen cupboard doors. We use our mug cupboard and tea and coffee cupboard so these are seen by me and DH multiple times a day.

One door holds a slimline calendar, marked with birthdays in red, work commitments in green, bin / recycling days in black, and holiday/social stuff in blue. Any significant life admin (mot / insurance renewals etc) are noted on the relevant month too. A stick on pen holder is stuck next to this which holds a bic 4 colour biro so there is always a pen to hand.

next to this is a slimline whiteboard. We use the top half to make a note of anything that needs adding to the next shopping list. The bottom half is where we jot down a loose meal plan. The whiteboard has a built in pen holder.

in the next cupboard I have created a pin board by sticking 8 cork drink coasters up using double sided tape. This takes regular push pins and has lasted 6+ years.

on the topic of wires, we sorted by type and then massively purged duplicates.

we ditched stupidly short / poor quality usb charging cables and bought anker branded braided ones in decent lengths, so you don't have to be glued to the plug socket to use the item as it charges. These tend to charge much quicker than cheaper ones.

item specific wires were labelled using a label maker. We printed long labels and looped it around the wire in a C shape then stuck the label to itself.

cables are kept tidy using reusable velcro cable ties and live in a specific box in the office so we know where to look if we need one.

for older cables (scarts, coax, networking etc), if we couldn't remember when we last used it or foresee when we might next need it we we decided to let it go, on the basis that we could almost certainly source a replacement within 24hours for less than £20 should we ever need one in future.

www.amazon.co.uk/Adjustable-Fastening-Management-Accessories-Headphones/dp/B0BLN7RBS1/ref=sr_1_9?crid=2LW9Y15JBZ3XH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cBxZcjRjkUi9L3LlZHXaDfTJLcsv9GRGmVnIAQ7Ae2GMEOGTQpOXHU5TMFiGGyOUdI9FD0J8v-PcZXH46EAYaOrXJ3jmW4IiuzOH9nveJjCFGELBpyBH0fNBlLtuokngRErWe9GBB29oIuOxfwR39FBTYwsESJvJL-XylaLJIPppBTvcBLbtX0iJ4xIl2ElNZ_4GYh_ZWqZfxT8FIH3TTLvw_VKnKVT71Bj1UwIMa68POt6-2bv-yhr4oFyLvTiNm-hYITIA-u4b01Hh4h0T6LEjneUKYkqOgtOFVa2zKNk.TYG22mrLm-SXlkfPC5tEIufgr9VtqoSDlXmJXcG3nrU&dib_tag=se&keywords=wire%2Btidy%2Bfor%2Bcables&qid=1790619594&sprefix=wire%2Btid%2Caps%2C143&sr=8-9&th=1

I'd suggest caution about the drop off point near the front door.

There are thieves who will wait by your open front door while you go to get change or something, and snatch whatever is handy. There are not so many who will actually barge the door open to do the same. But there are constant complaints of people who will walk through an unlocked door and take wallets, handbags, car keys. To be fair, this is most often people with plastic doors who have to make a conscious effort to lock them, and don't bother. Your insurers will not pay out if somebody walks through an unlocked door.

I prefer a door that is locked automatically as soon as you close it, and always needs a key to get in from outside.