Life "hacks" - ways you secretly stay ahead of the pack?

[tarquinandjocasta]

By this I don't mean those crap Take a Break tips that are going round the internet - use a trouser hanger to hold your recipe book. More like things that you do, that give you a bit of an "edge" no matter how trivial.

I am having a crisis of confidence day - feeling a bit like I'm not good enough.

I'm just wondering if others have secret ways of feeling better about trivial stuff that doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things.

Obviously MN itself is a bit of a secret and a great way of finding stuff out/researching without "letting on" to people in RL….

If I am feeling lazy, I buy plain fairy cakes and ice them myself fancily filling with lemon curd and piling on the buttercream and pass them off - people think I am quite the domestic goddess.
I warm shop bought biscuits in the oven too.

There must be other things that you don't 'fess up to in RL?

oh this is boring DOMESTIC life hacks

yawn

Meal planning: Make a list of all the dinners you and the family have - save it as a printable file and print off as stickers (Avery paper). Try to get about 20 minimum or work up to it each time you remember another dish you/DH can do.

Each week before you go shopping stick a weeks worth of meal stickers (get DCs to help) onto your calendar. Print off a new sheet each month.

Do an "odd job" like sort out shoe cupboard or clean out cutlery drawer or other random task once a week.

Love AreThesePeas idea about moonpig, at the moment I just buy all the cards I'll need at the start of the month (but then I still have to remember to send them)!

Make time to do something YOU like each month. Also get others in the family to choose something they'd like to do each month. Self esteem is easy to neglect and it's really important to value yourself for just being yourself. X

Here's a genuine one.

:)

Pillow plumping for the domestic goddesses among us

Bad hotel service?

www.buzzfeed.com/readcommentbackwards/37-essential-lifehacks-every-college-student-or-a-dmjk

Or thanks for reminding me to update my phone's shopping list

Get everything ready the night before, even clothes - saves a lot of hassle in the morning. Put bags needed for the next day by the door.

Every weekend, get 3 envelopes. In one put the money for lunches, in another put the money for travel for the week and in the last one £10 for milk, bread, those things you run out of in the middle of the week.

Work out what you need to pay the bills that month/week/fortnight, transfer everything else into a savings account.

This is my best one:

Get all housework, homework, washing, ironing, everything done on the Saturday. Sunday, is then your day off. There is nothing to do except cook a nice meal, eat, play a game with the kids, go out somewhere, watch what you want later that night etc

Love that hotel one! :)

Just occasionally, it is useful to be able to fake an orgasm. Just a low-grade one, mind

blow your mind life hacks

Dont use it anymore, there are probably apps:

Years ago, when i was a working mom of 2, with a long commute, a student husband who also had an odd hours job, and having to help with the transport for my daughters to visit their dad over 200 miles away, i made a shopping list.

It was based on a generic checklist given away by a new grocery, but we cleverly typed up a 3 column custom list, organized by the store layout, with a few most likely items and a few blank lines under every heading.

VEGETABLES
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Peppers
Salad greens
Tomatoes
Broccoli
Green beans
__
__
___

FRUIT
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
__
__
___

I printed it out at work and made about 100 copies. Every week, a new one went up on the fridge, we trained everyone to highlight items as they came to the last serving/package or discovered we had run out, or wanted something in particular

There last column was for menu planning.
Breakfast section was lines for particular cereals, or notes if the weekend was going to have a cooked breakfast.

Lunch had space for requests, and weekend plans.

Dinner had lines for planning.

It took minutes to choose from our usual dinner options, or note a new idea, have a look around the kitchen and other store cupboards, highlight the needed items at the end of the week. Sometimes, on the back, we would handwrite 'other' shopping like needing items for a school project or holiday. We took it to the store on a clipboard, with any potential coupons in an envelope clipped there too. As the girls got older, we could split up to collect stuff from different aisles and finish fast.

There probably are apps for this now, but i suspect even these days, a hard copy on the fridge would be more likely to involve the whole family. I was super proud 5 years ago when my newly married daughter showed me the version she made to organize her and DsonIL 's new shared kitchen and budget!

Now I am a SAHM with one son and husband. My favorites on the online ordering system is a good start, but isnt helping my son learn housekeeping skills. I may need to reinvent this when his reading skills are up to it.

I have a stash of cards (7 for £1 from card factory) for birthdays. I also have a few generic gifts so I don't get caught short.

I have a notebook and write to do lists, shopping lists, ideas etc. it's a life saver.

I use my lunchbreak for household admin.

Lists, list and more lists
Eye brows tidy every week
Regular hair cuts next appt made when current one paid for
Clothes that are cut to fit and fit and work with each other
Shoes with decent heels for walking
Lists lists and a few more lists
Weekly review of "what the hell am I doing next week" on Sunday before midday so any last minute shops can be sorted!
Moon pig with reminders
A few more lists, and lists
Calendar with reminders for Everything even buying train tickets so I get better deals for earlier purchases

Trusting in thin-slicing and blink answers. We know more than we think, so go with your first thought on as much as you are comfortable with and build it up to more important stuff. More info doesn't make for better decisions in lots of cases. If you have a busy inbox, spend 5 mins an hour firing off quick replies.

Fucking hell, is this the Wifework thread?

i think the OP wants more than ' pack school bags the night before' shite

here

have the cupcake one

cheezburger.com/7866799872

I hang my year planner on the back of the bathroom door. I check it before I go to bed and first thing in the morning, which generally means things I have to do really sink in.

crisp bowl
lifehacker.com/5508789/create-an-instant-snack-bowl-from-any-snack-bag

Might be an obvious one which everyone does but I've only just discovered it: instead of trying to remember everything we need when writing a shopping list I made a master list of all the stuff we always buy and now just print it and cross off what we don't need. I find it much quicker but am sure there are more 21st-century ways of doing it!

Buy a fridge with ice cubes - then put them in wine.

One from a previous thread on here I've implimented; don't go up stairs or downstairs empty handed, if you stop for a second to think, with DCs there's always something that needs taking upstairs/downstairs.

cleaning wipes and baby wipes strategically placed around the house for quick cleans.

e-mails on your phone, deal with as much as you are out and about as you can do.

Online shopping and meal planning.

Eating with the little DCs at 5:30pm giving you whole evenings to MN do stuff.

I look on the secondary school's letters page on their website, and read the letters being sent to the year above.
That way I know what is likely to happen next year before it happens.
Much more exciting that all the household stuff

Loving your increasing desperation, Betty.