When I fold my sheets, I stick the stack into one of the pillowcases from the set. Queen sized, the pillowcase is right side out. Twin sized, the pillowcase is inside out. The bundle goes into the linen closet, and I never have to look for a matching pillowcase or unfold a sheet to remember if it’s mine or my kids’.
Make your kids responsible for their own laundry as soon as they’re tall enough to reach the controls from a sturdy stepstool. My daughter is 5, and getting her first lesson today. By next month, she’s going to be in charge of her own laundry, if her brother’s experience is representative. Almost everything she owns goes on hangers because she doesn’t own a dresser. Hangers are easy for little ones to use, easier than folding.
I keep a few empty wadded up grocery bags in the bottom of every waste basket, then put an open one in to line the basket. This means the teenager doesn’t have to take the arduous 30 steps to the pantry to get a new bag to line the basket when he empties it. Only once every couple of months does the stash need to be replenished.
~ When I buy a box of SOS pads, I immediately cut them all in half or a third.
~ When loading the dishwasher (utensils part), I separate out each type so when emptying, all I have to do is grab all of the knives, all of the spoons, etc.,
In the same vein…
I cook lunches for me and my wife on sunday night and it lasts us through friday.
I usually make a big crockpot full of food and take from that during the week.
It keeps food costs down, keeps dishes down if you wash and reuse your serving dish, and makes for a week without having to worry about lunches.
We also use a lot of squashes and other produce and about 2-3lb of meat lasts for almost 10 meals.
I’d just like to state my appreciation of these threads. Several months ago there was a thread where people touted Bar Keepers Friend cleanser. Bought a can a month ago and it did amazing stuff on old stains in the bathtub and such.
Another shower cleaning tip (for those with glass doors): use a squeegee when you’re done. I haven’t had to clean my shower doors in a long time. I still give them a once over when I’m cleaning the tub - but they hardly need it.
Keep your counters and tables bare. Do this once a day (I do it in the mornng while waiting for the kids to get ready). If nothing ends up there, you will always have a place to eat/prepare food/wrap a present/do crafts or homework.
We do the stair thing (bottom of the stairs if going up, top if going down).
Also, fill your unused time. If you are waiting for a pan to heat up, clean up or start making lunches for the next day. Look at your shopping list. Fill out any forms for the kids school. Wipe the counters and tables.
Make a menu for the week, and use that to make your shopping list. We’ve been doing that and it has cut our grocery bill down tremendously, as fresh vegetables and chicken cost less than prepared foods and beef for grilling. We have a lot less wastage, and have saved money by taking the leftovers with us to work for lunch.
Be ruthless in getting rid of clutter. I throw out old magazines once a month and get rid of catalogues and junk mail, the same day they arrive.
Don’t have a bunch of decorative stuff on the floor. (When I lived with my sister I had to walk around picking things up and putting them back as she vacuumed. You can imagine how annoying it was.)
If you’re a collector, keep the collection behind glass so you don’t have to dust as much.
The phrase ‘there’s no point in dusting because we keep the windows open all the time’ is bullshit. (That was my sister again).
If you’re the type of person to ‘dump’ stuff have a basket or hamper to dump it into. That way it doesn’t take over the room and it’s easier to put things away when you can just carry around the basket.
I also have a big pile of dish towels and a big pile of cleaning rags. Cleaning rags are for jobs with real grime, and floors. Dish towels I just like to keep as fresh as possible, because as far as I’m concerned, a dish is only as clean as the towel it’s been dried with. I throw them in the washer when they’re soiled, then they automatically get washed with the next load of stuff I run.
Have only one set of sheets for each bed and one set of towels for each person (with backups for emergencies only). That way on laundry day, you’re committed to getting through all the steps, so you have a bed to sleep in and towels for your shower.
We run the dishwasher every night whether it’s quite full or not. There’s always enough stuff in there to make it worth it… and we never have to fish something out and wash it by hand.
We have hard water so if clean dishes sit around wet, they get really bad water spots. Upside-down glasses get smudges around the rim so they look exactly as if they’ve been used. Bleah. The worst is if we run the dishwasher and then don’t open it right away while the dishes are still hot (they dry much faster that way).
Solution: I set the oven timer. It’s one touch to set it for 1 hour - miraculously, the dishwasher cycle takes approx. 59.5 minutes - and the damn thing won’t stop beeping until you go turn it off, so it’s impossible to forget about the dishes!
At gardening stores you can buy a reel of twist-tie material with a cutter blade to cut to the length you need. I have one with the gardening stuff and one in the kitchen and I use both all the time.
One tip that has worked pretty well for me is keeping a set of cleaning stuff in each place where I always clean (for example, two bathrooms and two sets of sink, toilet, and mirror cleaning stuff). It takes half a minute to clean the spotty sink if the sink cleaner is right there, instead of me going to get it and getting interested in something else and forgetting to come back.
I’m also a fan of small cleaning jobs every day, instead of a big clean once a week. I set a couple of chores for myself, and once they’re done, I don’t have to feel guilty for not keeping up with the house, and things basically stay tidy.
To make your mildewy shower curtain liner look like new again. Throw it in the washing machine with an old towel and a cup of white vinegar. Wash in hot water. Hang back on the curtain rod directly out of the washer.
Dryel instead of taking stuff to the dry cleaners. Saves a TON of money, and you end up wearing your dry clean only stuff more often. I can attest personally that it can be used on wool and cashmere and rabbit hair.
Similar to what sandra_nz said, put stuff at the foot of the stairs. Always something up or down, that way you don’t make special trips, they just accompany you each time you naturally go up or down.
I don’t do this, as I’m completely unable to plan that far ahead. However, I tend to plan today’s dinner around what I have left in the cupboards from previous days, and try to use all the leftovers. If I have a red onion and two potatoes left from yesterday, today’s dinner will have that in it. Half a can of soy milk left and some flour sitting in the back of the cupboard? Well, then, today is pancake day.
Oh, and another tip: Have a reasonably well stocked spice rack. It’s amazing how much easier it is to whip up a decent meal with some simple ingredients when you can chuck some chili powder or garlic powder or oregano or basil or curry powder or whatever into it.
Be aware that Dryel just remedies the scent of the item; it doesn’t remove dirt. Before you store an item for the season (like, a nice cashmere sweater), DO either get it drycleaned or find a way to hand-wash it and actually remove dirt. Otherwise, critters may move in and start munching on it
