Share your life hacks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I repurposed a Godinger flatware caddy (silver plate, basket weave design) for use in the bathroom. I put all the kids' toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes in there. Easy peasy.

This is so smart!

Anonymous wrote:

DS has three crates in his room: underwear, tops, bottoms. Getting dressed by himself is no longer a time consuming nag-a-thon. Instead of shorts, he wears swim trunks to camp each day. No changing.

Also, I haven't finished my coffee, so I misread DS as DH, and I was really questioning your choice in life partner...

[Anonymous]

At the end of every long car trip, I always take the car to a gas station right near home. The kids wake up and start getting their gear together and I have them pick up and throw out all the garbage that has accumulated right there at the gas station while my husband gasses up the car and wipes the windows. We also drive over the the vacuum and one of us vacuums what we can while the other buys milk and whatever else we might need. 5 minutes later we are home and unloading the car is a lot easier.

I don't do this, but my friend schedules a Peapod delivery for perishibles the morning after a long vacation which makes sense!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't people's dishwashers have the light that indicates clean? Or can't people smell clean vs dirty dishes when they open it up?? I guess not as this seems to be an issue for a lot of people.

Yes, we have a clean light, but if you open the dishwasher once, the light turns off and doesn't go back on. So if you open the dishwasher to grab one fork, the light goes off. Also with two toddlers running around the house, sometimes we get interrupted in the middle of unloading the dishwasher and don't get back to it. Then the other parent comes along and needs to look to be sure if the dishes are clean. Since my wife is visually impaired, it's not as easy to just "see" if the dishes are dirty. Since we only run the dishwasher 2-3 times per week, we pre-rinse the dishes to get most of the food off so that they don't dry on and it doesn't stink of old food. So for us the jar method that I posted above really helps. It's a quick easy way to determine if the dishes are clean or dirty, so why wouldn't we?

Why can't you just re-throw the lock after you grab a fork out? That's what we do.

Our Bosch dishwasher doesn't have a lock. It's just open or closed.

Our dishwasher doesn't have a lock, and we have drawers, so it can be hard to tell which drawer contains the dirty dishes. I keep two sponges and scrubbers in rotation, so when we empty the dishwasher, we switch out the clean sponge for the dirty one, and put the dirty sponge in the other drawer. The dirty dishes go in the drawer with the sponge. It also keeps the sponges clean and sanitized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When painting the walls in my house, I can rarely finish a room in one day. I take the roller (handle included), wrap it in a plastic bag from the grocery store, and store it in the refrigerator for the next day. This saves me from cleaning all the rollers until I am finished with the job. (If using different paint for different walls, I put all the rollers in the fridge and label them with the paint type - e.g “ceiling,” “white gloss,” etc.).

Does the smell get into the food?

Not at all. Wrap the roll tightly in plastic and it's fine.

If it's going to be a while, you can put them in the freezer. Just thaw them out and go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my new tip -- maybe not a life hack, but it made me happy. Noticed a couple weeks ago the dishwasher was not getting things quite as clean, so they needed more of a pre-wash. After being annoyed for a couple weeks, I watched a short YouTube video on how to disassemble and clean the filter trap at the bottom of the dishwasher. Took about 30 minutes, and there was some nasty stuff down there, but now my dishwasher cleans like new again. Huge improvement. Kind of disgusting to think I'd never cleaned it in 10 years.

wow.... I clean that trap at least once a week....

Seriously?? My dishwasher trap has about 10 screws holding it into place.

[Anonymous]

For travel, I buy contact lens cases (the kind with the screw on caps), and fill them with makeup, moisturizer, hair gel, etc. You can fit a bunch of them in a 1 quart zip loc, and you'd be surprised how much makeup one of these can hold. I've used them for two week trips.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's my new tip -- maybe not a life hack, but it made me happy. Noticed a couple weeks ago the dishwasher was not getting things quite as clean, so they needed more of a pre-wash. After being annoyed for a couple weeks, I watched a short YouTube video on how to disassemble and clean the filter trap at the bottom of the dishwasher. Took about 30 minutes, and there was some nasty stuff down there, but now my dishwasher cleans like new again. Huge improvement. Kind of disgusting to think I'd never cleaned it in 10 years.

wow.... I clean that trap at least once a week....

Seriously?? My dishwasher trap has about 10 screws holding it into place.

Not pp, but some have filters that just pop out.

[Anonymous]

Car Key Credit Card. My DH frequently locks himself out of the car, with the key in the ignition. He keeps this in his wallet and has saved himself money by not calling roadside assistance.

[Anonymous]

After I put shampoo in my hair, I gently use a comb or brush to comb it out. The suds make the hair slippery and they untangle easily and lie smooth. The hair brush and comb also get cleaned thoroughly with the shampoot. Rinse out your hair straight and then apply conditioner. Comb out tangles again and rinse it straight.

I also use this trick to wash my neice's hair that was always tangled, and it was very easy and effective.

[Anonymous]

Separate set of pool stuff to pack the pool bag as soon as we get home from the pool. This makes it possible to go for a quick swim after work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For travel, I buy contact lens cases (the kind with the screw on caps), and fill them with makeup, moisturizer, hair gel, etc. You can fit a bunch of them in a 1 quart zip loc, and you'd be surprised how much makeup one of these can hold. I've used them for two week trips.

This is a great idea thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Car Key Credit Card. My DH frequently locks himself out of the car, with the key in the ignition. He keeps this in his wallet and has saved himself money by not calling roadside assistance.

Can you get this done for any car?

[Anonymous]

We use a king flat sheet on our queen bed so DH and I don't flight for the covers.

[Anonymous]

We use a king flat sheet on our queen bed so DH and I don't flight for the covers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On vacation, I sleep in workout clothes. When one kid wakes up, I can quickly get him/her out of the room before he/she wakes up the rest of the family.

Put kids plates/cups/bowls in a low cabinet -- they can get themselves food and drinks, help set the table and help unload the dishwasher when they are as young as 3.

Keep a collapsible storage bin from ikea in the hallway outside the kids' rooms for all the unmatched socks that come out of the dryer. When it gets full or we run out of socks, we have a matching party where we dump them all out and the kids search for matches. Sometimes I offer to pay them a nickel a match. Good for math skills too. I don't know why I didn't do this a long time ago, as the number of unmatched socks just drives me totally bonkers and I never knew where to put them until the other sock showed up.

Different solution to the sock problem:

Buy each kid their own color socks (for me, the older boy has gray, the younger has navy). Multi-packs that don't have different colored stripes can be hard to find, but most places sell individual pair and when they are on sale, I buy a dozen. Easy to sort sized and match... When one gets lost or holey it doesn't matter as there are 23 more that are exactly the same...

I do this for adult socks. My DH and I essentially wear the same size men's socks, so it's easier to buy plain men's black socks or white workout socks.

I guess this only works if you fold in the laundry room but...no sock leaves our laundry room unless it has a match. Unmatched socks get pinned to a bulletin board that can be quickly scanned when the next unmatched sock comes along. We also have a dish in the laundry room where pocket contents get unloaded. Also another vote for a basket to collect junk mail next to front door. We also have a shredder right there too.