Time and hassle - tips for retaining sanity

Quasar

We have a sneaky way to save the pennies thread, a prepare for the winter thread and more besides. But time is also money (ok, leisure maybe), and hassle uses up time, so how about sharing our tips to smooth out the wrinkles in our daily life? I'll start with a few, which I posted on the sneaky ways thread:

(With my luck there's a similar thread already but I can't find it )

1. Use the ring pulls from drink cans. Nail them onto small tools, brushes etc and hang them up tidily.

2. To make a handy funnel, cut the top quarter of an empty bottle of washing up liquid and use that.

3. Store half used cans of paint upside down (ensuring the lid is on tight), so that when you use them again you turn the can upright again and any skin that may have been formed is now at the bottom.

4. Use surplus jars this way: screw the lid under the top inside a cupboard and then you can screw the jar onto it, which will hold things like nails etc, or even spices or whatever, depending or where you put them.

5. Keep a plastic carrier bag by you when you are doing dirty work and, so when the phone ring (which it always does :rolleyes:) you just cover your hand with the bag and hey presto, the phone remains clean. Unless you wear gloves and take them off of course...

Over to you now

valk_scot

Main one?

Put it away. I waste more time either tripping over things that have been left out or looking for things that aren't where they are supposed to be than anything else.

Closely followed by:-

Chuck it out. Unnecessary clutter slows you down too. I don't mean the ten groaning bookshelves full of tidy books, I mean the groaning stacks of newspapers and magazines on the floor. Etc.

SunnyGirl

Something that I do is to make sure that downstairs is tidy at night before I go to bed - dishwasher unloaded, sink wiped, kettle filled etc. Then when I come down in the morning I can feed the dogs, get the breakfast going & put the washing machine on while the kettle is boiling. It may not save masses of time but it makes life easier for me & means I can chat to DS3 at the same time instead of ignoring him while I run round like a blue a**d fly!

valk_scot

SunnyGirl wrote: »

Something that I do is to make sure that downstairs is tidy at night before I go to bed - dishwasher unloaded, sink wiped, kettle filled etc. Then when I come down in the morning I can feed the dogs, get the breakfast going & put the washing machine on while the kettle is boiling. It may not save masses of time but it makes life easier for me & means I can chat to DS3 at the same time instead of ignoring him while I run round like a blue a**d fly!

Ohh yes, tidy up the kitchen before bed. There's nothing worse than facing a messy kitchen first thing. I tidy it up before I go out shopping as well.

Also I get the kids to assemble their school kit on the dining table the night before. Backpacks, homework, sports kit, water bottles, keys, phone, signed notes, lunch boxes on packed lunch days, money if not. I'll even put the non-refridgerated stuff in the lunch boxes. And school uniform out on a chair somewhere, plus coat, hat and gloves. There is absolutely nothing worse on a school morning than trying to assemble all of this when half asleep and short of time.

scotrae

Probably nothing new to you organised people but it's only this year that I've insisted on keeping a shopping bag for everyone's hats, gloves and scarves and doors, on pegs by the front door. And I've bought a few pairs of very cheap goves in this latest snow.

It might not help with DS1 taking gloves to school and leaving them there but it's made a difference and I have managed to produce gloves most of the time when they've been heading out. It also means I've got somewhere to bung them all when I find them all over the house or driveway!

oystercatcher

I've been wondering what to do with our hat and glove mountain. It hadn't occurred to me to use a shopping bag.:o

Thank you thank you thank you :rotfl: :rotfl:

Penelope_Penguin

Ask your family to move out and live elsewhere - I always have a tidy house and loads of time and space to do just what I want when the others are away

Penny. x

redfraggle_2

when Ive emptied a messy saucepan, I put some hot water and washing up liquid in and put it back on the warm hob so that the heat gets to the work on the mess

Emptynester

Just in case anyone is in any doubt the best time saver I use is an MSE tip - cooking double. Just think how much time we save everytime we have a meal ready in the fridge or freezer and can then clear it away quickly cos there are no or very few pots. This has changed my life.:A
(How sad am I? but grateful xx)

maryb

Redfraggle

Something similar in my case. Fill oven dishes/roasting pans with hot water and put in the oven while we eat. Enough heat to get the water really hot. I sometimes do this with clean hot water so as to have some for washing up without putting the hot water on

Quasar

To dust fiddly objects such as ornaments etc, wear a pair of old socks on both your hands and do the job in half the time.

Boil a skin of water in the pan before boiling milk, as that avoids all those stuck milk bubbles that then need to be scoured off.