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What are your fav household tips?
I'm always looking for ways to make things easier/faster/ streamlined. What are your tips for cooking/cleaning/etc? It can be anything.
Some of mine:
-The girls' bedrooms are downstairs and ours is upstairs so I started sorting kids' clothes from everything else when I wash so that I can fold all kids' clothes and put them in a basket to go downstairs. The loads of adult stuff (whites/lights/darks/linens) can then be folded and put away upstairs without sorting out the kids' clothes.
Plastic Placemats for the girls' side of dinner table. Now I stick them in the dishwasher with the dishes and then put them back instead of wiping down the table or cleaning the adults' placemats all the time.
Menu planning has saved my life and budget.
A cleaning schedule with tasks broken down by day has saved my sanity and time spent cleaning actually.
I don't have a ton of tricks, so I'm hoping to learn more.
Re: What are your fav household tips?
I don't know if it's really a tip or more of a saying but I like- Never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink
-spending 10-15min to *fluff* the house will do wonders, when you don't have time to deep clean
-a good vacuum is totally worth the money
-I love the smell of lavendar, so my house just feels cleaner when my cleaning products have a lavendar sent
-sometimes its OK to sit down and enjoy a glass of wine!
-No matter how much positive thinking I do, the laundry will NOT fold itself or put itself away!
For kids laundry, I wash each kids separate, but all together. Socks go in a lingerie bag. Then that basket goes straight to their room for sorting. Then DH and I have our 3 sorter basket I deal with. For stained clothes, I have another lingerie bag, so they go in there, so I remember to double check them before drying. Will has a cubby wire rack thing for a dresser with cubbies for his clothes, so he can put away his own clothes, not that he does.
In the kitchen, wipe down counters as soon as they are dirty, after meals. My laundry is upstairs, so I have a small white trashcan at the bottom of the stairs. Dirty washrags and kitchen towels go in there, then when someone goes upstairs, they take it to the laundry room and dump it in a laundry basket. When the basket's full, it gets washed.
So far those are my best tips. I try to meal plan. I've gotten as far as making sure on Sunday that I have plenty of meat out of the deep freeze, and plenty of veggies and sides for the week. Then we can make it up as we go, which isn't the best idea, but is better than nothing.
That's my motto too! THere's nothing worse than waking up to a messy kitchen.
Here are a few that work for me.
Weekends are jammed with projects and honey-do lists, but DH and I realized we can never do projects simultaneously. Like last weekend, he was power washing the deck and I was cleaning the fridge (the deep cleaning that can take an hour). Even though I set things up for the kids to play independently, they still needed us, and both of our projects took twice as long as they normally would have. So the new rule is, only one project is going on at any given time, and the other parent gives the kids undivided attention.
An obvious one: never let a kid get too hungry, bored or tired.
There's nothing wrong with distracted cleaning/organizing. (like when you go to change the laundry and stumble upon 5 other things that need to be done, and 45 minutes later you still haven't changed the laundry). As long as things get done, who cares what order they happen.
Grilling is the easiest type of meal to clean up after.
To keep kids on task, tell them what steps are forthcoming and give them responsibilities. In our case, it can take FOREVER to get Cohen out the door because he's a master staller. So he's in charge of helping AJ get his shoes on, feeding the cats and whatever else little tasks he can handle to help get us out the door quicker. This trick works in grocery stores too. In every aisle, he's responsible for helping me find something.
An oldie but goodie: the key to organization is having a designated place for everything. Bins and cabinets are my best friend!
This is so true! And if one adult decides to do a project, he/she (cough, DH, cough) needs to let the other adult know, so they can be aware the project. This way they know where not to have the kids play, how long it will take (because no project at our house ever really takes 15 minutes, no matter how many times DH says it), if the kids can help, etc.
- 5+5+5 plan on the Master Suite. After I shower and dress - before getting DS up - I spend 5 minutes on the master bedroom (just enough time to make the bed and pick a special thing to organize/clean - today, I cleaned out my nightstand drawer) + 5 minutes in the bathroom (I pick a different thing to focus on each day - like today, I cleaned my make-up drawer) + 5 minutes on the master closet (today I took all the dirties to the laundry room + organized my hanging space).
- It sounds really anal but I created a spreadsheet and blocked time /noted what I was to do or going to do. Before doing this - the day got away from me - I was tired - felt like I had no time to get things done - I really didn't get anything done. Now I have clear times that I can clean, menu plan, take a break, etc. AND still make sure that I block time each day for outside play, inside play/learning/one-on-one time with DS.
- I menu plan/grocery plan/coupon plan the day before going shopping. I SAVE the weekly menus so that when there is a week that I don't have time to plan - I have a safe go-to and probably still have some of the dry ingredients on hand.
I'm fortunate to have a husband that is an equal partner in our household and child's care. So I don't feel like I have to do 'everything' but I do try to do as much as I can without wearing myself down. I am also lucky that DS now goes to early preschool three mornings a week - so I have a few extra hours by myself.
I use the swiffer duster every day because it's fast and easy.
I can't go to bed unless dishes are done, counters and table are cleaned and the house is picked up.
If the dishwasher needs to run, I start it at night and empty it first thing in the morning so it's always able to receive dirty dishes and my counters and sink are clear.
I have a short bookshelf right by the front door (we enter directly into the kitchen, no entry-way) and I have a basket for each of us. For example: Leo's basket has sunscreen, water floaties and his shoes so it's easily accessible when we're outside or getting ready to leave. Mine just has flip flops in it.
Our laundry room is in our bathroom, we take showers/baths at night and put our clothes right into their darks/lights/whites hamper. No clothes all over the house.