What are your top time saving tips ?

[Rookietherednosedreindeer]

I'm going back to work soon eek and felt it would be good to get the wisdom of experienced mners with your tips on how to save time with housework and so forth.

I have already got a few gems from other threads. I think it was Xenia who gets her cleaner to unpack their online shopping which is a great idea for those of us lucky enough to have a cleaner. Someone else said that they sent out their laundry which I never would have thought of. I'm a bit stumped on the cooking front as I don't want to do ready meals every evening.

I don't want this to turn into a discussion about why our DH/DPs aren't pulling their weight, unless anyone has any specific tips about how household equality can be achieved, let's assume they are and this could be helpful to them as well.

It will be Monday I have off, provided that works out for work & for myself. Could certainly get the groceries delivered on a Sunday evening, thats my swimming night, evil snigger.

Actually we are really lucky and can afford a cleaner so at least a lot of the hoovering and cleaning will be taken care of. I have unbounded admiration for those of you doing jobs and doing all the cleaning as well.

Well basically it is just keeping on top of things then. I would have them delivered Thursday or Friday evening given that work pattern then you have the fresh stuff when you at home most.

Just been reading this, there are some useful things here. I'm in the sticks in the west country though so never even heard of Ocado! and can't afford a dishwasher, nevermind a cleaner or nanny but I do make and freeze alot of meals and pack bags the night before, do my cleaning on my 2 weekdays off, dd is great at dusting too! and ordered lots of Christmas presents online. Lots of people have said how good slow cookers are - what sort of things do you cook in your slow cookers-they sound like a good idea.

My favourite current organiser is a white board that I got from IKEA with magnets. I did make lots of lists but they always got lost but now I have no excuse. Its great apart from when other Mums come round and get a scary insight into my personality.

I was going to say don't cook anything that takes a long time to do but see a lot of the suggestions are to do a lot of cooking....

Another thing is force small children to dress themselves ASAP....remembering daughter 1 when we moved here when she was 13, when she had pubic hair... still having to get her clothes on her some mornings - seem incredible now that I did that. (She always had trouble getting up for school in time). Younger 4 children much better at getting themselves dressed.

I try - and I do stress try - to keep my slow cooker in permanent operation over the weekend, ideally I'll cook one casseroley-type thing in the oven and another in the slow cooker at the same time, in order to have some meals to freeze for the week.

For when you do need to do ready meals, there are many healthsome options available nowadays. One we do quite often is: salmon steaks from Tesco, steamed potatoes from Tesco and random veg done in the microwave. The salmon goes in a microwave steamer, so it's all done in less than 10 mins, but is proper, good food. (I call it Star Trek food cos you just shove stuff in and press a button). Equally Marks and Sparks and places like that do a fab range of stuff to cook from fresh (or to steam) - so don't be afraid to use shortcuts, you won't have to be resorting to the 'meal in a packet' option. It's not cheap, though.

I'm in awe of the more organised mums, but in my defence, I have a very ill husband, so my main priorities are that prescriptions are ordered on time, we make all hospital appointments, and that everyone has clean clothes and food to eat.

Any recipes for slow cooker food and what does one look like? Never seen one and reading this thread feel compelled as obsessive organised mum to get one.

I have to say apart from all the things you can do you also have to accept that some stuff will not be done, your house will not be as clean or tidy unless you are able to pay for it (either other people or in your own health).

Before you go back try to organise your photo albums as you will find it hard to fit in again and if you can pay everything by Direct Debit, do the research now to get the best deal for things like broadband, gas etc.

Write renewal dates and birthdays in your calendar now and buy a by month organiser with the cards in for each person in advance.

Challenge your views on what you do at work and what you do at home (if you can). So if you work hard at work and bring it home so never have time for a walk or the gym - why? You need to replenish your own energy so that you can do the other stuff well.

Break tasks down and do them step by step, so put things on the stairs ready to grab and take up on your way to bed. If you need to tidy a room start with one cupboard and then the next etc. I know it sound mad but it is the only way I have managed to get through things with a small child and a full time job.

Joint calendar is a godsend

Agree who will do what e.g. who will generally look after the car (services, insurance) and the garden (keep it tidy).

Will you tag team at weekends and give each other a lie in on day?

We found it helped if the nanny fed the children so there was no cooking for children each night but that was when it was cheaper to have 3 under 4s/under 5s with one nanny than 3 nursery places. On the other hand some people like family meals with smallish children as a family which is quite nice too but when you've worked all day probably nice to be spared that. The last nanny also did their baths in the week too before she left at 6.30 when they were littler. The more I look at it the more advantages I think you can get from finding someone to come to your home to do the care rather than them going to her home or a nursery particularly the more children you have.

Ocado

Xenia if she can't afford a cleaner or a dishwasher I doubt she can stretch to a nanny....

I do find that having a level of organisation you're happy with helps - and that may not be the level you want to tell other people you've reached. I am actually pretty organised (not to Anchovy level, but things haven't fallen apart here in the Inferiority Complex yet, which has to be down to me rather than DP, frankly) yet tend to give people the impression of being slightly ditzy. That way, nobody's ever disappointed in you.

Very cunning. Although I agree anything that gets organised in our house (except golf matches) is down to me.

Unless you're going to give yourself a nervous breakdown, your house is NEVER again going to meet your ideal standards of tidiness and cleanliness. Accept it and live with it. On your deathbed you won't regret that your kitchen floor didn't gleam ! Rx

I have very low standards of house cleanliness already.

For the person looking for slow cook recipes I did a word search and found this with loads of recipes :
forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=490232&postcount=9

hope it works my links never do.

I do like motherfurriers idea of appearing less organised than you are, I think my problem is I appear over organised so people assume I will remember things when actually I am fairly forgetful.

Sallystrawberry's tip to leave tumbledryer on overnight - Sorry Sally, but it's a bit dangerous. Tumble dryers are a common cause of house fires & if they're left on overnight with a load of hot dry clothes inside it could... Well in the case of some friends of mine their house burnt down. If it hadn't been for their dog barking & waking them up they would have died in the house with their kids. This was just a few months ago - I never knew it was risky before then, but the fire brigade told them it happens a lot. Also, clean the lint trap in the front of your tumble driers regularly. I do it every time I use the drier now, which is probably a bit overzealous!

(This overnight tumble drier phobia is probably why my laundry pile touches ceiling as previously mentioned )

Sorry to be alarmist, but don't want anyone to kill their kids while trying to save time...

I've often left ours on but it sounds like it's dangerous. We didn't use one for the first 10 years because it was too expensive. They do use a lot of electricity.

Kitchen calendar with all the dates on helps everyone.

Loving this thread!

Ditto bulk cooking/freezing, clothes out night before, bulk-buying cards and presents, shopping delivered, plenty of sleep etc.

Also (as a reformed house-slattern) I can honestly say that it's a question of mental attitude and doing a little bit every day. I used to think it wasn't worth trying if I only had ten minutes to complete a task, but now I try and use every minute and it's amazing what you can achieve with concentrated effort in that time. I've also found that ring-fencing time for specific tasks and also for a bit of 'me' time (for a pedicure for example) really gives me energy for the rest. I try not to sit down in front of the telly until I have the most important things done (and yes, some nights, I don't sit down at all, but it's worth it in terms of lowered stress levels)!

Finally, one really good tip which was forced on me by my child's nursery school teacher: make sure children's gloves, hats and scarves are attached to their coats with elastic. Saves loads of time in the mornings looking for things. I live abroad and the elastic in question is available in most haberdashery shops, (haven't looked for it in UK) but it has holes spaced along it (like button holes) at regular intervals. Just sew buttons to the coat at the sleeve-openings, neck and collar, and sew matching buttons to each of the gloves, the scarf and the hat, and use the elastic to attach it all together - voila! Bit of a faddle initially but saves loads of time in the end!

Good luck!!!

Im absolutely gob smacked at the amount of people who have cleaners and nannies. am single parent - no partner, no cleaner, no nanny.

Ok, this is what I do:

1. Alway save leftovers into a tub and freeze, even if just one portion of shepherds pie - always something for someone to eat
2. bulk cook, eg massive bol sauce etc and freeze in portion sizes, eg family, 3 kids etc. also slo cooker, from argos or asda
3. wash as soon as you have enough to fill machine, use a sorter for whites/coloureds/darks (from lakeland i think)
4. tumble everything for 40 mins and then finish when you have time to take out and actually fold in piles for ecah eprson
5. each person puts their own away
6. kids stack own stuff in dishwasher & empty it sats and suns
7. kids feed dog sats and suns (or no TV!)
8. kids do own packed lunches or no packed lunches (& dd helps me still)
9. make lunches day before and alwys make own lunches then

10. family organiser calander with a pocket on fridge, fill pocket with things to write in and write it up on wednesdays (don't know why, it's just the day i do it). Pay bills, sned cheques to school on same day (this is a flylady tip and I recommend trying there for afew tips bit don't get obsessive!) 11. top up dishwasher with salt etc on sunday nights 12. use ouitlook calander and sync with ,u phone - it beeps me for reminders etc and things to do, like order shopping, collect kids when it's on a different day and sync with hussbands PDA too (he gets one from work) wish i could afford a blackberry...

13. shop on line, have a regular list set up and use magnetic list on fridge that EVERYONE puts things on, if its not on the list it deosn't get bought 14 buy cards in bulk from places like oxfam, they have great ones for 99p and put them in the calander in right place o in a #'birthday' draw but we ran out of space
14. ditto presents buy when yoy see a bargain or online, nearly all my xmas pressies are online this year

16 don't iron, shake and hang
17 have a cleaner if you can afford it, we can't really
18. plan weekend trips ,eg picnics etc a head and get ready night before