Get your life organised with these brilliant life hacks which will undoubtedly make your day a LOT easier. If you like them, don't forget to share this with your pals - we're trying to spread the word of Expert Home Tips and would really appreciate it!
1. Keep those cables tidy with clips
Use bulldog clips on the edge of your desk to keep your cables tidy and quick to find. You can use them to hold phone chargers, laptop chargers - and they'll be quick to locate this way too.
2. Make a DIY charging station
A mess of wires is a common site these days, so why not neaten them up by placing all your chargers in an old converted shoe box. You can cut holes through and label them if you choose. A bit of paint is all you need to make it look extra-pretty.
3. Store pan lids using hooks
Don't let lost pesky pan lids destroy your kitchen calm - choose a sensible way to store them. Use hooks to keep them clipped to the door for easy access. For other great ideas check out Storage Cheats: 10 ways to store your Pan Lids.
4. Hang up recipes for more counter space
Love cooking? When following a recipe, hang your cookbooks onto a cupboard door handle with the help of a skirt hanger. It'll save on space!
5. Label your plugs
Save time and energy with electrical wires by labelling your plugs so you can quickly know which to remove when you want to plug something in. This tip was taken from 17 smart packing tips to make moving home a breeze.
6. Never lose a hair-tye again
Do you end up discovering hair-tyes all over the floor in your home? Never fear, the trusty carabina is here! Use one to store all those hair-tyes in your bathroom or bedroom.
7. Packing for a holiday? No problem.
If you're off on holiday the last thing you want to do is forget something. Good news, we've created you The ultimate packing checklist for your next holiday. It covers everything you need, for any type of holiday.
8. Hide shoes under your bed.
If you and your family have lots of footwear, you'll know it can be tough to organise it all. Try saving loads of space by keeping all your off-season shoes under the bed with a cheap shoe divider. For other incredibly clever ways to store your footwear, check out Anushka's Home hacks: 32 incredibly clever ways to store shoes.
9. Put pet bowls in low drawers
Organise pet bowls in low drawers for your dogs and cats when it's eating time. Don't forget to make sure it's all secure.
10. Keep fridge documents tidy with an old cereal box
Paper an old cereal box and stick it to the fridge as a pretty container for takeaway menus and post.
11. Plan the week's clothes on Sunday
Don't waste time every day picking out an outfit. Plan an entire week's worth of work-outfits on Sunday instead, and hang them up accordingly. You'll get to spend more time in bed this way! This tip was taken from 45 time-saving hacks for a more relaxed you.
12. A clutter basket = organised chaos
Check out Declutter Your Home: 7 stress-free ways to do it now.
13. Free up counter space with hidden plug points
If you liked the DIY charging station idea, you'll love this. Install plug points in drawers to help free up space in your living room. This is a great way to hide away all your gadgets.
14. Clean your keyboard with a post-it
Use the sticky end of a post-it note to clean out the dirt from between your keys. I think you'll be surprised / horrified at how much you can pick up with it!
15. Use jars to store kid's craft items
If you have lots of craft items for kids, use old empty jars to store your bits and bobs. Get creative by super-gluing small plastic toys to the lids and painting them. Visit Anushka's 47 exciting ways you can transform empty jars.
16. Have individual shower caddies
Using some doorknobs, hang up shower shelves for each family member. This way it's easy to see what people need and how much they have left. Shower time will be more efficient too!
17. Organise your holiday life with plastic bags
There are many uses for plastic bags, especially on holiday. Use them to keep dirty clothes in, keep shoes away from your clothes, protecting any liquids and packing souvenirs safely! Look at 18 holiday hacks for your suitcase to learn how to be a smart packer.
18. Sort out your underwear
Use a shoe organiser as an underwear organiser instead. You'll be able to find the items quickly and speed up your morning routine. This is a wonderful idea for baby clothes too, if you don't have much space.
19. Organise bathroom bits with a magnetic strip
In your bathroom or bedroom, use a magnetic strip to tidy up all your essentials - nail clippers, tweezers, nail scissors and hair clips.
20. Make this make-up brush tidy
Wow, this looks like a brilliant way to tidy away all your make-up brushes. Check out iranasCuteBox for details on how to make your own. They can be rolled up, tied with a ribbon and put away, all pretty.
21. Old Tic Tac boxes for spices
Use empty Tic Tac containers as a way to store your dried herbs, spices, salt and sugar.
22. Use pillowcases to store your bedding
Don't rummage for hours looking for the right matching bedding, organise it so you don't have to! take your pillow case and fill it with the duvet cover and other pillows.
23. Velcro remotes are genius
This is a genius idea for those of you who experience a lost remote controller every now and again. Fix up some velcro to the side of your coffee table and then your remotes will always have a home.
24. Nail polish your keys so you know what does what
Don't get caught in the rain trying to work out for ages which key opens the back-door. Colour code your keys with nail polish, as seen on aBubblyLife. This is a great idea for all the family too.
25. Use an old Tic Tac box as a ribbon dispenser
Here's another great use for an old Tic Tac container - as a ribbon dispenser! If you're a keen gift wrapper or crafter, it's likely you'll have lots of ribbon to organise. Look after those old Tic tac containers and you can store all the different ribbons you own in them.
26. Hang up your paints
Use bulldog clips and nails to hang up your paints in an orderly fashion. When inspiration strikes, you won't be searching at the bottom of the draw for one particular colour!
27. Keep your wrapping paper rolled up
Grab some toilet roll cardboard and cut it. Use this to keep wrapping paper from coming unwrapped. Perfect for Christmas time when everybody is using the same paper!
28. Make a home for cleaning products
Grab a shoe organiser, attach it to a cupboard and use it store all your cleaning supplies.
29. Use old CD holders for tupperware storage
If you're like me, your tupperware draw is a right old mess. Repurpose an old CD rack and stick all your lids in it. This way all the boxes can be stacked up neatly.
30. Make laundry easier
Buy different coloured laundry baskets and create a sorting area in your home. Label 'lights', 'darks' and mixed and get everyone in the house sorting their own laundry.
31. Hide those toothbrushes
Keep your toothbrushes out of the way buy cutting notches in the cabinet shelves.
Phew, that's a lot of organisational life hacks for you, hope you've enjoyed them! If you've got a tip you're bursting to tell us, please do so in the comments below
Hi Colleen, many great tips, as usual, you can use a shoe organiser in the bathroom as well to hold things like shampoo, shower gel, conditioner etc, in fact, about the only thing that is NOT flagged for a shoe organiser is organising shoes!! Another tip for cleaning keyboards is a firm artist's paintbrush to get between the keys, or even that good old standby, an old toothbrush, also, a baby wipe or anti bacterial wipe for going over the surface of the keys and the body of the keyboard. Of course, it's sensible to do any pressure work on your keyboard with the PC switched OFF, otherwise you might have some unpredictable things coming up on the screen.
Forgot to mention, if you have the usual tangle of wires behind your desktop PC, monitor cable, power cables, printer cables, router connections, etc., a length of foam type pipe insulation such as "Climaflex" (other products are probably available), is useful for gathering them all together and, because the insulation has a split along its length, you can arrange the cables to exit wherever you want. Simply cut the length you need, feed the cables in via the split and select whereabouts you need them to exit. (Not so much of a problem if you have a laptop and a wireless printer with fewer cables of course!!)
Great tip with the keyboards Donatello - I will go hunting for an artist's paintbrush now!
We will check out Climaflex too - thanks again for the tip!
MMM as a 70 yr old I do quite a lot of those already but you've got plenty of idea's thanks cj
Thank you Celia, lovely to hear!
These life hacks are probably the best things I've came across so far! Thanksxx
Thank you Beth, lovely to hear! We hope you enjoy the rest of the blog.
No cutting notches in the bathroom cabinet shelf, if you value your neck, is what the wife has said to me...
Ha ha Tom! Hope you liked the rest of the post. :)
For many years I have used a Shoe Organiser to keep gardening supplies and tools easily available and ready to use. All those gloves, trowels, sprays, seeds, hooks, twine and a mirriad of other things ready for plucking out of their pockets. Even shapes that don't fit in the pockets can be hooked onto the edges of the pockets. I love being able to just unhook the spray I need with no rummaging involved.
That's a fantastic idea! We have an article with all the different uses for shoe organisers, and we should definitely add that to it.