Household ideas

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There are always many things you can do - even just the placement of items - which can help make household life easier. Living away from home in a shared house I spend a lot of time doing chores - almost an entire day each week - and so often try to think up ways to minimize "work". Below is a list of a few nifty ideas I've come up with or seen done around the house.

Ideas for Around the House

Bedroom

• Elastic clips for bedsheets - in a moment of genius I bought elastic ironing board clips to hold the bottom corner of my sheets to my bed - saving me from messing up and re-making my bed every morning
• Big water bottle on beside - saves me from getting up whenever thirsty
• Pen and paper on beside - I find ideas, or "things to do" often keep me awake unless I write them down
• Lamp dimmer - it's surprisingly hard to find bedside lamps with proper variable brightness, so to dim your current lamp I suggest paying ~$15 for a cord dimmer switch. ;-)
• Shoe rack - keeping shoes on a shoe rack or hanging shoe rack (on your door or in your closet) looks 100% better than them lying on the floor
• Box of gift paper - birthdays tend to creep up, so I like stockpiling lots of wrapping paper, cards and ribbons and keeping them all in a storage box with sticky tape and scissors
• Matching coat hangers - it sounds anal, but once your coat hangers are matching and facing the same way you feel more in control of life. :-)
• Un-matching socks box - you can never have too many containers to help keep stuff organized... so I have a box for un-matching socks with the hope of finding their partner
• Laundry bag stand - these things are awesome

Kitchen

• Detergent spray bottle - buy a big empty spray bottle (like one used to water plants) squirt in a bit of dish detergent and fill it with water. If you need to wash just a couple of dishes at a time it's much faster to spray this than mix and waste a whole basin full of water!
• Big bin with liners in bottom - I'm not a fan of small, concealed kitchen bins - if you have space get a huge one, and why not keep the bin liners in the bottom?
• Foil/wrap/paper dispenser - kitchen roll holders are a great idea for dispensing foil, glad wrap and paper towel
• Utensil hanger - everyone has a knife block, but hanging your spatulas, tongs etc above your stove can also be handy
• Food clips - rather than waste rubber bands, I highly recommend using food clips to close open packets of food
• Magna-doodle on fridge - better than wasting paper
• Plastic bag recycling - I always take green bags to the shop (I keep them in a box near the fridge), but any extra plastic bags you get you should keep in one of those little stretchy thingy's for reuse
• Label shelves - it may seem nerdy, but when at someone's house it's never obvious where stuff is and icons are cool! I also label the inside of shelves as it helps me keep stuff organized

Outdoors

• String for gate - I find it annoying to bend down to unlatch a front gate, so as a kid I tied a string to the latch and the problem was solved. :-)
• Rope for wheely bin - I moved our wheely bin under our verandah so I could tie rope from the railing to the lid (with a bow) so we can open it and throw stuff in from the veranda
• Pouch for clothes pegs - to save extra time hook the pouch onto your shirt as you hang up washing... and of course you should also have a good clothes basket (cheap ones break) and trolley
• Table cloth clips - if you have a nice outdoor table cloth buy some little clips or weights (although the latter is quiet $) so it doesn't blow off
• "No junk mail" sign on letterbox - an oldie, but a goodie.. also good for the environment
• Electrical appliances! - yes, there are hundreds of useless small appliances you can buy for the kitchen (see list), and most of them will end up in the cupboard and never used... but I personally recommend a rice cooker and *possibly an electric wok if you like Chinese!

Bathroom

• Shower timer - help reduce your shower time by buying a suction stick egg timer
• Tap markers - save time in the morning by using a permanent marker to mark the position of your hot and cold shower taps for the perfect temperature (I use an up arrow)
• Toilet material - put a world map, magazine rack or something else interesting to look at on your toilet door. Also, don't forget a bin full of spare toilet paper and air freshener!

Other

• Bus timetable on door - if you catch the bus a lot, take a digital photo of the times at your nearest bus stop and put a printed copy inside your front door (I'm quite proud of this idea)... you may also found it useful to print out a list of open hours for your local shops (k-mart etc) and a pouch for maps
• Batteries box - rather than going through an ordeal when batteries die, I keep a bunch of assorted new batteries in a Tupperware container, and also bought a baby multimeter (~$10) to let me know when a battery is truly dead... rechargeable is also a good option
• Extra light bulbs - save yourself trips to the shop, force yourself to change to fluorescent bulbs and save the environment by buying a large bunch of them (check what type first) and keep them in your cupboard ready for replacement
• Smoke alarms and safety switch - these are not suggestions - smoke detectors and a circuit breaker are REQUIREMENTS and the latter one saved my step dad's life once.
• Pen on a string - wherever you have a phone (ready to take messages using Post-it notes) or a calendar, putting a pen on a string ensures it stays put!

See Also

• Car ideas
• Office ideas

Links

• Life Hacker - a series of videos with some great ideas for how to fix things around the house. :)