10 Simple Ways to Make Your Busy Home Work Better
Is your household messier than you’d like it to be? Life should get better with these simple ideas
Whether it’s impractical storage, high-maintenance pets, young children or simply too much stuff, your house – and by extension, you – can sometimes crack under the pressure. So why not see if some of these clever, and frequently fast, fixes will lighten your load?
Simplify shoe tidying
In a fantasy world, your family would come in and put their shoes neatly away (in their pairs) in a cupboard. In reality, shoes, boots and trainers are strewn everywhere and no one can ever find both halves of a pair when they need them.
Giving each family member their own basket – or, neater still, lidded box – will allow them to just come in and carelessly chuck them into their pile. That’s the theory, anyway. Good luck with the practice.
In a fantasy world, your family would come in and put their shoes neatly away (in their pairs) in a cupboard. In reality, shoes, boots and trainers are strewn everywhere and no one can ever find both halves of a pair when they need them.
Giving each family member their own basket – or, neater still, lidded box – will allow them to just come in and carelessly chuck them into their pile. That’s the theory, anyway. Good luck with the practice.
Protect a lovely dining table
Picture the scene: you’re a newly-moved-in-together couple and you splash out on a handsome dining table. Fast-forward a few years and your toddlers are smearing it with yogurt/paint/stuff you’d rather not think about.
Linen tablecloths are useless in the face of that kind of onslaught, but wipeable oilcloths are a different story, protecting the tabletop from scratches, too. Gaffer tape the cloth to the underside of the table or they’ll inevitably pull it – and everything on it – off.
Picture the scene: you’re a newly-moved-in-together couple and you splash out on a handsome dining table. Fast-forward a few years and your toddlers are smearing it with yogurt/paint/stuff you’d rather not think about.
Linen tablecloths are useless in the face of that kind of onslaught, but wipeable oilcloths are a different story, protecting the tabletop from scratches, too. Gaffer tape the cloth to the underside of the table or they’ll inevitably pull it – and everything on it – off.
Hide away the washing
If you have no space for that dreamt-of utility but room to spare in the kitchen, hallway, a bedroom or even the bathroom, you can create a laundry room in a cupboard.
It needn’t be as extensive as this – even just a combined washer-dryer with hanging space for airing clothes above it will save you having to whip your undies off the radiator when the vicar drops in for tea. Have you noticed the slide-out drying rack here? Simple but natty.
Find local professionals to help you design and build bespoke cabinets
If you have no space for that dreamt-of utility but room to spare in the kitchen, hallway, a bedroom or even the bathroom, you can create a laundry room in a cupboard.
It needn’t be as extensive as this – even just a combined washer-dryer with hanging space for airing clothes above it will save you having to whip your undies off the radiator when the vicar drops in for tea. Have you noticed the slide-out drying rack here? Simple but natty.
Find local professionals to help you design and build bespoke cabinets
Banish clothes from the floor
There’s always someone (maybe it’s you) who can never quite get around to actually hanging not-quite-dirty-yet clothes back up, preferring to let them idle on the floor or on a chair until they’re called into use again.
A few simple wall hooks should cure them/you of this habit, because it’s easier to take them off a hook than it is to sort through the floor mess then bend over to pick them up. Gives the clothes a chance to air, too.
To see more from any of the designers whose photos are featured in this article, click on the image, then on Learn More if you’re in the app, and follow the links to the professional’s profile.
There’s always someone (maybe it’s you) who can never quite get around to actually hanging not-quite-dirty-yet clothes back up, preferring to let them idle on the floor or on a chair until they’re called into use again.
A few simple wall hooks should cure them/you of this habit, because it’s easier to take them off a hook than it is to sort through the floor mess then bend over to pick them up. Gives the clothes a chance to air, too.
To see more from any of the designers whose photos are featured in this article, click on the image, then on Learn More if you’re in the app, and follow the links to the professional’s profile.
Make sofas low maintenance
Remember the oilcloth/posh dining table trick? You can perform the same magic with throw covers over sofas. Want to avoid the student flat look (who wouldn’t)? Choose embroidered quilts, thick blankets or even light rugs rather than thin, plain throws, and layer up to three or four on one sofa. That way, there’ll be less movement and rearrangement to cope with, too.
Remember the oilcloth/posh dining table trick? You can perform the same magic with throw covers over sofas. Want to avoid the student flat look (who wouldn’t)? Choose embroidered quilts, thick blankets or even light rugs rather than thin, plain throws, and layer up to three or four on one sofa. That way, there’ll be less movement and rearrangement to cope with, too.
Create unexpected storage
Most kitchens are short on storage space, which is why it really pays to think creatively and root out opportunities in the most unexpected – and under-used – of places.
Around a doorway is a classic example – and often perfectly proportioned for some handy box shelving. Put frequently used items at waist height, and everything else high or low. Try this in the living room for books and the bedroom for shoes, too.
Most kitchens are short on storage space, which is why it really pays to think creatively and root out opportunities in the most unexpected – and under-used – of places.
Around a doorway is a classic example – and often perfectly proportioned for some handy box shelving. Put frequently used items at waist height, and everything else high or low. Try this in the living room for books and the bedroom for shoes, too.
Lift your bike out of the way
If you use your bike every day, it might end up cluttering the hallway, which also tends be the narrowest room in the house. Hanging it up to get it off the floor is a good option, especially if it’s a light-framed model.
Hooks are simple to fix to wall studs, but in a home with high ceilings, consider a pulley system fixed to ceiling joists, which will allow you to heft it up above head height.
If you use your bike every day, it might end up cluttering the hallway, which also tends be the narrowest room in the house. Hanging it up to get it off the floor is a good option, especially if it’s a light-framed model.
Hooks are simple to fix to wall studs, but in a home with high ceilings, consider a pulley system fixed to ceiling joists, which will allow you to heft it up above head height.
Tuck away cat kit
Cat flaps have been around for ages, but this one is a cat flap with a difference. Inside the cupboard, which the cat can access from inside and out, there’s room for its bed, food and water – and because the door can be opened like any other, it’s easy to maintain. Of course, the cat will probably still sleep on your bed and drink out of the loo, but what can you do?
Tell us…
In the Comments section, share or show us one small(ish) thing you’ve done in your own home that has vastly improved daily life.
Cat flaps have been around for ages, but this one is a cat flap with a difference. Inside the cupboard, which the cat can access from inside and out, there’s room for its bed, food and water – and because the door can be opened like any other, it’s easy to maintain. Of course, the cat will probably still sleep on your bed and drink out of the loo, but what can you do?
Tell us…
In the Comments section, share or show us one small(ish) thing you’ve done in your own home that has vastly improved daily life.
Hallways tend to be dark, so it makes sense to paint yours a light, cheerful colour. However, that means you’ll also spend a fair amount of time wiping down walls, particularly if you have kids. Eventually, the paint might start to come off, too.
So, choose a finish that’s really, really tough and enduringly wipeable. There are lots of specialist finishes, but kitchen wall paint will stand up to the demands of this particular job just fine.