You know you're getting old when your conversations with friends move from chats about boys, clothes and music (what even is number 1 now?) to all the things you love to hate such as washing, kids routines and the joy of an early nights sleep! I love a bit of house chat and my uni friends whatsapp group is regularly haunted by questions about the best stain remover, a far cry from any drum n bass mentions.
As an interiors obsessed mum with an almost 3 year old and almost 1 year old there are some things I just can't do without to keep the house ticking over and staying on the right side of 'lived in'. I know kids mean mess and marks everywhere, and we definitely have those, but I try my best to keep it nice because it makes me happy not to bruise my bum by sitting on yet another toy!
Here are my... "life changing" buys that make spring cleaning just about doable!:
1. Cordless vacuum
The cordless vac seems to receive a marmite style reaction. For me, it is love. The best purchase we ever made. We have hard floors downstairs so it really is a quick spin round to clean up at the end of the day. I would never have believed that just removing the cord would make so much difference but it really does. I whizz it round several times a day for about five minutes here and there. We have the Dyson V7 and if it broke I'd replace it in a heartbeat. Game. Changer. The only downside is doing upstairs (carpeted), we have 3 bedrooms, a box room and one bathroom plus carpeted stairs and it always runs out of battery halfway through which is so annoying!
2. Heated airer & washing machine timer
We don't have space for a dryer and I seem to always have a full washing basket no matter how many cycles I get through! We don't have a tumble dryer and never have had one which causes shock amongst my tumble friends but I've just never known any different. However, my heated airer is definitely an item I couldn't be without. I have a system in place now... washing on timer to be finished 7.30pm ish (kids bedtime) then and overnight dry on the heated airer. Generally a load will fit and needs about 24 hours to dry. Boom. Next! (I am the worst at folding, ironing and putting things away though... #futuregoals). We have the Dry Soon model from Lakeland.
3. Spray mop
I HATE MOPPING but this is ok. This is the most positive I can be over mopping which is pretty huge! Spray mops are cheap and so easy - I use the wonderful smelling zoflora (think we have the orange one). It is so quick to go round and pretty much dries as you go.
4. Ottoman bed
We are lucky in that our room sizes are pretty good but they aren't huge so space really matters. I've worked hard to make the space in our house work for us but a game changer in our bedroom has been the ottoman bed. Winter clothes are under the bed for the summer and visa versa - a storage solution that works. I go in it pretty regularly too so it's not a hidden storage space like our loft which is a collector of all things junk.
5. IKEA Kallax
We've kind of made tidying up at the end of the day a thing with our little boy. He mostly does it but has the occasional "Mummy, I'm so tired today...". Either way, it's a 2 minute job because the IKEA kallax storage cubes are the modern day Mary Poppins bag equivalents. They fit so much in there and we have the material drawers you slide in so it's a scoop and chuck away in moments. As long as you've nothing breakable these are an absolute must for getting spaces cleared.
That's it. They are my five. My travel steamer almost made it but I iron/steam so rarely it really can't go on a 'can't live without' list.
I'd love to know your make life easier gadgets and hope this blog is of use! Love a bit of household things chat - no amount of night cream is going to stop my aging!