Changes you've made to make life easier

When my son was in diapers we had them automatically delivered monthly. Got a great price and was never scrambling for a diaper. Also used Chewy.com for automatic delivery of dog food.

Amazon Prime, like many have said, is also very helpful. I like the shop online/pick up in store option at Walmart and Kohl's as well. I am in and out with no delivery fee!
 
What do you cook on Sunday that is good for suppers all week long?

All kinds of stuff. Typical things for the kids are taco meat, burgers, boneless/skinless chicken, lasagna, chicken tetruzini. For me, it'll be boneless/skinless chicken, maybe a lean pork roast, taco meat are the most common. We still will make sides for the kids a few times a week, such as noodles or rice, but even then it's only every few days...we make enough to last. There's no way we could cook fresh every night, just simply don't have time. DW and I both like to cook, so we wish we could do it more. "Back in the day", i.e. pre-kids, or more accurately pre-super busy kids, we did.
 
Garden with native plants. After a couple of years have passed and they're established plants, there's hardly any need to give them supplemental water except for an occasional soak in the middle of the summer.

herbs also make excellent no muss/no fuss landscaping plants. we've planted as ground cover at multiple homes we've owned (they choke out the weeds:thumbsup2)-the added bonus is fresh herbs summer after summer.

Typical things for the kids are taco meat, burgers

i cannot believe the amount of taco meat my son consumes-esp. over school breaks. i just make up big batches (thank goodness for those big containers of seasoning from costco) that get put in the fridge for him to make nachos. so long as i have chips, pouches of madras lentils (again-thank you costco), individual nacho cheese cups and chopped olives he's good to go. we also do up extra burgers when we bbq and make large batches of pasta that he eats from for days on end. a little investment of time saves so much more time in the long run.

ah to be young and able to consume and then immediately burn off all those fats and carbs;)
 
All kinds of stuff. Typical things for the kids are taco meat, burgers, boneless/skinless chicken, lasagna, chicken tetruzini. For me, it'll be boneless/skinless chicken, maybe a lean pork roast, taco meat are the most common. We still will make sides for the kids a few times a week, such as noodles or rice, but even then it's only every few days...we make enough to last. There's no way we could cook fresh every night, just simply don't have time. DW and I both like to cook, so we wish we could do it more. "Back in the day", i.e. pre-kids, or more accurately pre-super busy kids, we did.

If you work from home can't you just put the slow cooker on the morning so you have fresh food rather than something from 4 days ago?

I get it. I have 2 kids. We manage to cook fresh most nights .
 


If you work from home can't you just put the slow cooker on the morning so you have fresh food rather than something from 4 days ago?

I get it. I have 2 kids. We manage to cook fresh most nights .

Why so judgy?

My family's not nearly as busy as his, so I do happen cook most of the time - but if I didn't, I would never be able to rely on my slow-cooker. My DS hates the texture of anything I make in it! He'd end up fixing himself PB&Js every night, and I can't imagine that's anywhere close to healthier than made-ahead meals.

Every family figures out what works for them, and I think we need to support each other.
 
Instant pot
Amazon prime
Wardrobe now is flowy tunics with leggings/ capri leggings and cotton/rayon cardigans long and short sleeve. All interchangeable/ machine washable and go well with simple stretchy cotton sleeveless dress if it is hot. No major changeover for the seasons. Purged most of my sweaters and bulky clothing. This saves time and space as well.
 
If you work from home can't you just put the slow cooker on the morning so you have fresh food rather than something from 4 days ago?

I get it. I have 2 kids. We manage to cook fresh most nights .

I only get to work from home twice a week. The rest of the week, my commute 60 is miles each way...takes 1hr in the morning and 1hr 30min or more in the afternoon. Theoretically, I probably could toss something in a crock pot on home days. But it'd be no different than what we'd cook on Sunday, the same meats. So for us, no reason to make all that extra work.

Everyone's life is busy, so I'm not trying to say ours is more than anyone else's. As I mentioned previously in the thread, there are many days where from 4am until 9:30pm I will be in the house for a grand total of 15-20 minutes. Just no way we could cook. DW is similarly busy, though her commute is shorter and she has to pick up all the extra things I can't do because I'm not home. That's one of the reasons I so much look forward to our WDW trips, or even the 6 or 7 weeks/year we get where we don't have sports for the kids. :D
 


I made a master list of all my logins and passwords and keep it handy in a file. Also made a travel packing list that I made a bunch of copies of and pull out every time we travel.

I keep a list of my work passwords, but in a simple cipher so if anyone stumbled across it, they'd have to put a bit of effort into figuring them out if they wanted to use them.

I put my "master packing list" into a spreadsheet. While packing, I mark anything already packed in bold so I know what I still need to track down. It also has a "number of days" field that then auto-populates how many socks, shirts, etc. we'll need.

along the same lines as having stuff prepacked for travel-
not for airline travel (whole different animal) but for trips we travel inside the u.s. by car-i've collected small travel sized bottles of the various otc meds we use/may need which i keep in a ziplock bag at the ready (refilled from the larger bottles we use day to day), i've also got one of those 8 day pill containers which i've relabeled w/individual prescription med names so we take one small container vs. 8 prescription bottles.

I like to bring an array of OTC meds on vacation, because someone always either has a cold, or indigeston, or something. If we don’t have the meds with us, we tend to just suffer through rather than seek out a gift shop or something. So what I did was get a 14-day pill case, and fill it with ibuprofen, antacids, cold meds, etc., and typed up a list of dosage amount/frequency for each that we keep taped to the case.

I always put my purse and keys in same location.

This has been a huge help for us! We have a pegboard for keys by the door, and my wallet, sunglasses, work ID, etc. live in one specific place all together.

When I first met BF he used the bottom sheet as a mattress cover and the top sheet as a bottom sheet, I was like, what kind of monster are you?? Now that I've moved in we have a real mattress pad and use the sheets the normal, civilized way lol. The ONLY way I'd drop the top sheet is if I used a duvet with a washable cover. I don't wash the comforter very often, but then we don't sleep with it next to our skin, that's just icky.

That’s what I don’t get about all these no-top-sheet people. How often are they washing their comforters or duvet covers, with it right next to their skin every night? Yuck.

I do a few things to make my life simpler/easier:
- Garden with native plants. After a couple of years have passed and they're established plants, there's hardly any need to give them supplemental water except for an occasional soak in the middle of the summer.

- I don't iron any clothes unless I absolutely have to.

I am terrible with plants, so I do your first thing out of necessity. Anything that needs special care or overwintering just isn’t going to survive in my house!

I’m right with you on the ironing. When buying clothes for work, I try to get things that will look good so long you hang it up right out of the dryer.
 
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Things I haven't seen anyone else mention yet:

I keep a spreadsheet of gift ideas for people throughout the year to make Christmas and birthday shopping easy. I just added "air fryer" to it for my MIL based on info from a Budget Board thread.

Having a cloud-based note app has been the greatest thing ever! I use the free version of Evernote, but any would work. I can update from any computer or my phone, depending on where I am when I think of something. I keep my grocery list on there, my calorie tracking, my “to read next” list of books, and more.

Speaking of groceries, for all non-perishables, I stock up on sales whenever possible within the limits of our storage space. Less money spent overall, and less chance of randomly running out of something. That’s actually something else on my Evernote – the lowest sale prices for the stuff we most commonly get, so I know whether to pull the trigger or wait.
 
I keep a list of my work passwords, but in a simple cipher so if anyone stumbled across it, they'd have to put a bit of effort into figuring them out if they wanted to use them.

I put my "master packing list" into a spreadsheet. While packing, I mark anything already packed in bold so I know what I still need to track down. It also has a "number of days" field that then auto-populates how many socks, shirts, etc. we'll need.



I like to bring an array of OTC meds on vacation, because someone always either has a cold, or indigeston, or something. If we don’t have the meds with us, we tend to just suffer through rather than seek out a gift shop or something. So what I did was get a 14-day pill case, and fill it with ibuprofen, antacids, cold meds, etc., and typed up a list of dosage amount/frequency for each that we keep taped to the case.



This has been a huge help for us! We have a pegboard for keys by the door, and my wallet, sunglasses, work ID, etc. live in one specific place all together.



That’s what I don’t get about all these no-top-sheet people. How often are they washing their comforters or duvet covers, with it right next to their skin every night? Yuck.



I am terrible with plants, so I do your first out of necessity. Anything that needs special care or overwintering just isn’t going to survive in my house!

I’m right with you on the ironing. When buying clothes for work, I try to get things that will look good so long you hang it up right out of the dryer.


How dirty do you think people are when they go to bed? Even with normal skin sloughing off, your comforter isn’t going to get filthy.
 
How dirty do you think people are when they go to bed? Even with normal skin sloughing off, your comforter isn’t going to get filthy.

Not filthy, no, but I expect it to get about as dirty as sheets do if you're not using a top sheet, and most people wash their sheets much more frequently than comforters! People also tend to sweat during the night. If I didn't use a top sheet, I'd want a duvet with a cover that I washed each time I changed sheets.
 
Speaking of groceries, for all non-perishables, I stock up on sales whenever possible within the limits of our storage space. Less money spent overall, and less chance of randomly running out of something. That’s actually something else on my Evernote – the lowest sale prices for the stuff we most commonly get, so I know whether to pull the trigger or wait.

i stock up as well and also keep a running list of what we are running low on/reasonable price for in case i'm doing a walmart or target order and need just a couple of dollars to bump up into free shipping (i will not pay $5.95 for shipping when i can spend the same amount for a few non perishables and end up w/the same dollar amount spent but more in my pantry).
 
Lab Mouse- yes, I forgot about those! I refuse to buy clothes that seem like they will need ironing.

I also use a note app and have lists for everything! Lists for specific stores I frequent, errands, days of the week where I can add specific to do items, packing lists for specific locations, home repairs, etc. I love lists!!!

Last year, we also started using grocery pick up for our annual beach trip. 3 families and we usually get the same things each year. It saves so much time vs fighting all the other people coming to town the same day.
 
grocery pick up

i have to say that grocery pickup has been the best thing for walmart's customer service ever. it used to be if you asked an associate where an item was locate they could tell you what aisle or area it would be in but now they know what aisle, shelf and exact location:thumbsup2
 
That’s what I don’t get about all these no-top-sheet people. How often are they washing their comforters or duvet covers, with it right next to their skin every night? Yuck.

Not filthy, no, but I expect it to get about as dirty as sheets do if you're not using a top sheet, and most people wash their sheets much more frequently than comforters! People also tend to sweat during the night. If I didn't use a top sheet, I'd want a duvet with a cover that I washed each time I changed sheets.

lol..wash day is this: fitted sheet, pillow cases and both comforters (as previously mentioned my husband and I have separate blankets). In my case it's 2 loads of laundry total (my comforter in one (because mine is a king) and his comforter (because his is smaller), fitted sheets, and pillow cases in another).

I'm not a dirty heathen :P:D
 
in place of the top sheet (below the comforter) i have a light weight blanket so i can have something to cover me when the comforter gets too warm (hot flashes:furious::furious:). i just launder it as i would a top sheet (but i don't get tangled in it nor does it end up in a tangled mess at the foot of the bed).
 
Another thing: Someone mentioned keeping a packed bag. SUCH a great idea! My parents are late 80s and when you get 'that' phone call, you have to drop and run. I keep a packed bag, change of clothes, matching makeup, toiletries, and phone charger READY TO GO along with a notebook where I have every bit of information about my parents lives written down.
I’m the one with the packed bag. And since you brought it up, I received “ that call” two weeks ago. It wasn’t totally unexpected but I’m so glad SO GLAD I had made a checklist of what to do when I did receive “ that call.” I wasn’t sure how clearly I’d be thinking so I made a checklist in advance to go in my packed bag. I can’t imagine getting to a funeral and finding out that I forgot the shoes that go with the dress. And other things like turn the water off to the washer, water flowers, notify neighbor we’re leaving etc. I also had a file about my folks but about six months ago, I scanned it all. So it’s also in my laptop. That came in handy too.
 
I appreciate all the good tips everyone—thanks!

I haven’t seen this mentioned(my apologies if it has already been mentioned)so I thought I would add on a general note that we stopped exchanging gifts with everyone but the kids in the family. It might be hard for some, but there are many benefits: less money spent, more time saved, less stress and effort(especially at Christmas, lugging gifts everywhere), and less clutter coming in to our lives.
 

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