Share your life hacks!

[Anonymous]

Two twin comforters, German style. Sounds weird but if you try it you'll never go back. Lots of snuggles but no more fights over the covers.

[Anonymous]

We went even further--two twin beds pushed together with separate sheets! Sleep is much better now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two twin comforters, German style. Sounds weird but if you try it you'll never go back. Lots of snuggles but no more fights over the covers.

I know 2 people who do this, My Aunt and Uncle who actually lived in Germany for a while and a friend of mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
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.

Yup. Our laundry room is relatively small. The real plus to it is that it is on the bedroom level so that we don't have to go up and down to do laundry.

We have a drawer in our boys' room where unmatched socks go. When the pile gets pretty big, we just take the pile down while we watch TV and I match the socks that can be matched and put the rest back in the unmatched drawer. Works fine for us. I go through that drawer once or twice a month.

[Anonymous]

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...

Same solution for me but my 2 yo girl and 4 yo boy fit in the same size sock, so I have several dozen identical pairs of white socks. No sorting or matching required. Each kid just grabs two socks from the clean sock bin, which is stored in the kitchen next to their shoes, coats and bags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two twin comforters, German style. Sounds weird but if you try it you'll never go back. Lots of snuggles but no more fights over the covers.

Hate those and can't stand sleeping that way. I prefer sheets tucked in at the bottom and a quilt, then a comforter in cold weather. In Europe I'm either sweltering under the duvet or freezing when my foot escapes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two twin comforters, German style. Sounds weird but if you try it you'll never go back. Lots of snuggles but no more fights over the covers.

Hate those and can't stand sleeping that way. I prefer sheets tucked in at the bottom and a quilt, then a comforter in cold weather. In Europe I'm either sweltering under the duvet or freezing when my foot escapes.

My husband and I fought over the sheets in our sleep. Now we can sleep comfortably with our two duvets. We have a summer weight pair and a winter weight pair. I thought it was weird at first when we first moved to Germany, but now that I'm back here I won't go back. Glorious, peaceful sleep!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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!

I would never have the energy to do this after a long car trip! Kudos to you! I'm praying the kids stay asleep so we can carry them up without any troubles.

[Anonymous]

If you have a dog that needs medication and you use pill pockets, stop wasting money on them. I buy chicken hot dogs ($0.99 a pack) and cut off a piece that's big enough to hide the pill, then I use a chopstick to make a hole in the middle and then push the pill into the hole.

[Anonymous]

DH's hack/hint: when draining off bacon or hamburger grease, shove a paper towel in a wide mason jar then pour off excess grease. Let the grease cool for a bit then you can pull the towel out with congealed and absorbed grease and toss. Wipe out any residue. Done.

[Anonymous]

Do the posters with the sock problems and not knowing if the dishes are clean in your dishwasher have really large families? We are a family of four and never have odd socks and we always know if the dishes are dirty in the dishwasher.

The best hack is the one with the bedding in the pillow cases. Makes it so easy to pull out a full set when making beds rather than trying to find matching sets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!!

Test the case first to make sure it is leakproof. I've been wearing g contacts for decades and don't travel with cases full of contact lens solution because they inevitably leak in my bag or I pack the case in its own snack ziplock bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have a dog that needs medication and you use pill pockets, stop wasting money on them. I buy chicken hot dogs ($0.99 a pack) and cut off a piece that's big enough to hide the pill, then I use a chopstick to make a hole in the middle and then push the pill into the hole.

Here's some more dog hacks:

-- when making breaded chicken, I put the chicken trimmings in with the leftover egg dip and microwave it for a tasty snack for puppy.
-- those long bags that sandwich bread comes in are perfect for dog poop
-- let your dog lick out the yogurt and cottage cheese containers before putting them in recycling. Saves water in rinsing them and your dog will love you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two twin comforters, German style. Sounds weird but if you try it you'll never go back. Lots of snuggles but no more fights over the covers.

So you just each have your own? Or do you connect them somehow? I have always been tempted to use two, mainly for the ability to fit in my washer. If two, how do you make the bed ( the irony is that we rarely make it, but when guests come over we do)

[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.

You don't need to put it in the fridge. I wrap in a white trash bag and just leave overnight.