What's one small thing you've done to make your life easier?
For example, I 3d printed a box over my outlet to protect my cables from my bed pushing against it. In addition, my cables never fall to the floor so they're much easier to grab.
I bought 20 pairs of identical socks.Now every sock matches and makes putting away laundry easier.
I did this too :D I used to have 20 pairs of non-identical black socks, which made matching hard and it felt wrong to wear socks of slightly different type or size. Much easier now
I keep getting socks for Christmas though, which I never wear cause they'd mess up the simplicity
Lol that's funny and and annoying in a good way..
Fuckin game changer. Lowered my blood pressure LOL
Eliminated Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and all of the affiliate companies and services for the mentioned ones, from my life. Now all I have is Linux based and self-hosted. My life's toxicity levels dropped to pretty much nothing since then.
Woah woah woah, the post said one small thing. This would be a monster task for me as my whole life lives in Google drive.
I just finished doing this too. It's so freeing not being tied to mega corporations anymore.
What do you use for search?
Not OC, but I'm using Kagi and super happy. Before I use Kagi, I didn't realise how bad Google result is. Its results are poisoned by ads and SEO nowadays.
I have my own self-hosted instances of Ecosia, Searx and Whoogle.
It might seem dumb but i started preparing what i need for the next day the evening before it, clothes ,my bag, the train ticket, what i need to eat on the go, etc. instead of doing a mad rush in the morning to get ready.
Also good is to always put something back where it should be. Like my work badge is always in the front pinch of my laptop bag and the first thing I do when I finish work is put it back into that pouch.
Overstock.
Buy two bottles of cleaner. One in the kitchen, one in the bathroom. Tool box lives in the garage, but I have spares in the kitchen drawer. Trash can in every room. Extra shoelaces sitting on the shoe rack. It doesn't take up a lot of space and it makes life much easier when you don't have to look for something.
Extra shoelaces? I don't remember ever needing extra shoelaces ever in my life.
This is such a generational thing. My parents and grandparents would get shoes and have them resoled periodically. With a little care, a pair of shoes were expected to last decades. You used to see shoe repair shops in every neighborhood. I can't remember the last time I brought a pair of shoes that could be resoled.
My work boots typically go through 2-3 sets of laces over their lifespan.
The day when you will,you'll see that this is really smart.
You sound like someone who has never lived in a small space.
it depends. I live in a studio, I still have a kitchen trash and bathroom trash, paper towels and cleansers in both. it's just easier knowing I'll always have quick access to clean up a mess. like cat vomit.
ideally I'd also have a flashlight and first aid kit stashed in both places, but those have been less necessary and so fell off the critical re-supply list.
Adding to this buy extra phone chargers for your work desk, car, suit case, and sofa so most any time you have a charger and cable ready to go.
How could I forget that??
Labelled bag clips on all the stuff in the freezer. When something runs out, the clip goes onto a bit of string, hanging from the bottom of a cupboard. Instant freezer shopping list.
Edit to note: The only weakness is that you only add things to your shopping list when they run out. The workaround is to have 2 bags of everything, though this wouldn't suit everyone.
Basically a system where the clips act as Kanban-cards. Simple and effective!
oooooh this is a good one
I write everything in my freezer down on a list with a in/out side. Once the two sides equalize I cross the line off. I also record the date on the freezer bags and the list so I eat the older stuff first.
Helps keep track and makes shopping easy.
I have ADHD, that would last about a week before being forgotten about. Organisation is definitely not my strong point.
When I was in college I had zero knowledge of how to cook so I relied on what my mom packed me and takeaways.
I decided to learn how to make basic stuff, like pasta, eggs, baked potatoes, etc and it saved me tons of money.
I'm not a good cook by a long shot but I can feed myself and to this day I enjoy some quality time in the kitchen.
This also makes you good dating material, for anyone out there who could use the advice 😉
Pretty great 2nd date in my experience, not a great idea for an initial date unless you know the person ahead of time. But can pretty quickly reveal if they can cook too!
It's crazy to me how people dont know this.
Cooking saves so much money, its incredible.
Try and find a cheap deal for a meal service like hellofresh or blue apron or any other service. I didn't want to, but my spouse did. I've learned some good techniques and used ingredients I would not normally use. Don't sign up long term, just get a box or two or whatever and cancel. Once you've learned your lesson you can extrapolate that.
When going on vacations abroad, we bring a power strip from home. With it, you'll only need a single international converter to power multiple devices.
I do this as well, but add in a 10 port USB charger and some USB cables so I can charge all my devices.
I just tend to buy a powerboard at whatever place I end up. Surprisingly cheap compared to the price of the journey, and a great gift for someone on the last day.
How would that work? Instead of one foreign electrical outlet, I end up with six of them.
Started distancing myself from friends who become political extremists and life is much calmer
Unless all you did was talk about politics, how does it actually affect a relationship (unless they say something actually atrocious)?
I have a friend who was a classic Catholic libertarian in college--he held some views on trans rights, abortion, and economic justice that I find deeply disagreeable. It made conversations a little tricky because there were a whole set of topics I couldn't bring up unless I wanted to wade into a debate immediately; sometimes I did, but often I just wanted to hang out and chill and that was hampered.
It took him exactly one year of being out of college and working a real job to realize that his economic views were fucked, and the whole rest of it unraveled from there. He's now a staunch leftist, and it's way, way easier to hang out with him.
That's not, however, to say it's not worth having friends you disagree with. We remained friends because we were able to disagree productively, and I feel I understand my own political views far better for all those long nights discussing them. Still, it was a friendship that took unusual effort to maintain.
Honestly? I switched from Windows to Linux. I was working for several years at a Windows-centric computer magazine and realized a couple of years ago that many of the articles I was writing were about how to make Windows behave less like Windows. So I installed some Linux distro in a virtual machine on my work PC to play around with it for a bit. And soon after I installed Manjaro on my PC at home. Today, four years later, I've installed various Linux distros on all my PCs, and I'm much less annoyed by computer issues on a regular basis.
Yes Linux sort of feels like a car from the 1980s or earlier, where you can open the hood and understand it, and Windows feels like a car from the 2020s where you simply can’t understand everything the car is doing because of all the computers onboard.
you simply can’t understand everything
ironically neither can the car (windows), which is what always ends up making it run like horse shit after a few years of use
Except instead of the car being old, it is modern and fast.
I went on a T-shirt wholesale website and ordered 20 navy blue shirts for a few bucks apiece. I look like this now. Get over it.
I do this with socks. Mostly because I hate taking the time to match socks when I'm doing laundry. And when I inevitably lose a sock I'm not left with one sock that doesn't match any other sock.
My friends kids all just wear mismatched socks. Apparently that's the thing to do these days.
tom scott arch nemesis
I started antidepressants
When I did that in college, though it was over 20 years ago, I distinctly remember my mother saying over the phone “Oh sure, just take the easy way out”.
Yeah Mom, I’m taking the “easy way out” here by going to therapy and taking medication. That’s totally what those words refer to. 🙄
Not to shit on your mom or anything, but that’s ignorance right there.
Good for you for taking responsibility and care for your own mental health
My parents were baby boomers. When I started antidepressants I continued my policy of saying nothing to them about my personal life. It saved me a lot of trouble over the years.
Hired a bi-weekly house cleaner. My mental health is so much better now that my house is always clean.
Ooh that sounds nice. I’ve considered doing something similar, but I’m worried about being able to find stuff if I’m not the one who puts it away. Have you had any trouble with that?
Most cleaners only clean, dont really change stuff. The secret is to kind of tidy up your house before they arrive. And yes, definitely get one. It’s a life changer, and good for your personal relationships.
Yes, I am not comfortable with someone coming in my private residence. So I am left to do everything myself...
My cleaner just moves stuff to the side, cleans that area and slides them back. So at most it's like a few inches from where it was before or in the same general area. We have a really sweet lady come once a month and it's so nice to not worry about doing deep cleans. I do basic cleaning in between if stuff gets really dirty.
Just to clarify, do you mean twice a week, or every two weeks?
Every 2 weeks
I stopped listening to news radio in the morning. Music is the way to go to start the day.
Big feel you on this one. There was a while I would hate-listen to NPR on my drive and realized how badly that was making me shit my ass. One day, I was listening to 'Lovely Day' by Bill Withers with the windows down and an older lady started dancing while I was at a stoplight and blew me a kiss. Terry Gross not giving me nothing that compares to that...
Buy multiple chargers and charging cables for my devices. One on my nightstand, one on my desk, one in the living room and one in my work bag.
If it’s relatively cheap, buy multiples and spread them around so you’ll never have to look for it.
I learned to tie some knots. The canadian jam knot and the constrictor basically replaced zip ties for me
This reminds me of a r/coolguides post on many different knots. I should find that one and start practicing.
Edit: I just found this website. It shows animated knots.
I started doing things immediately when I see that they need to be done to look out for Future Me. It sucked at first, but it's a habit now. I haven't been putting things off as much as I used to. Future Me always appreciates it.
future me! fuck that guy! sic.
Future Me has more experience and wisdom than Present Me. There's no reason I should do anything when such a better-suited candidate will inevitably emerge.
I leave a roll of trash bags in the bottom of the trash bin, so it's where I need it when I need it - instead of taking up place elsewhere or getting lost. I do this for all trash bins. In the kitchen, at the toilets, at work, in the garage etc.
Also, with all the different sorting these days, I've decided not to sort the plastic, paper, glass etc. at the source, but just use one big container for all the clean stuff. When it's full, I'll take it out and sort it at the actual trashcan outside which is the place where it actually needs sorting. There's no need to keep 5 or more different trash containers under the kitchen sink to be emptied separately.
I leave a roll of trash bags in the bottom of the trash bin
That seems like it would work real well until one of the bags leaks gross stuff all over it.
We do this for work trash but not for home trash
I bought about ten command hooks of various sizes.
I use one of them to hang up my jeans at the end of the day. A few more hooks use other bits of clothing I’ve worn but might wear again.
It’s separate from the hangers so it’s clear which clothes are pristine laundered, and which ones are in transition: clothes that can be worn again.
I always had an in between pile for the same reason. Clothes that weren’t freshly washed but weren’t dirty enough to wash. I like your idea of hooks. I might try it out.
Deleting my social media accounts, migrating from yahoo/google mail, using a password manager, using an ad blocker, frequent backups, all kinds of scripting automations for work, Plex, home automation, learning to fix stuff around the house by myself (some plumbing, some electrical, whatever is safe and easier - it's hard to come by a good, available specialist these days).
In my experience, most of that is the opposite of making your life "easier," but instead makes your life better in other ways at the expense of ease.
I mean a lot of the suggestions are do some work ahead of time to make everyday easier which is what I see now. maybe not the backups but that is more about reducing major grief in your life so ill allow it (but not op but love making pop culture references).
When you learn to do something, you love it more.
Nowadays, we're mostly given something and we don't value it.
Buy two of things. If you have trouble washing something, like bed sheets, buy a second set. You can change them first, then you have some more time to wash and dry and fold the other set. Otherwise, if you only have one, then you have to wash and dry and remake your bed in a shorter time window.
I discovered this strat on accident! Blew out my favorite jeans irreperably, and my replacement pair was actually two replacement pairs. My limiting factor on how long between laundry loads is how much lunch is on my jeans and now I have a backup pair so I do laundry half as much on average.
Or actually less than half as much because the odds I have two big spills in a short window is much less than having one big spill.
I keep getting burned finding boots that I like and by the time they wear out they're discontinued. For the first time I finally did the thing where I bought a pair, confirmed I like them, and immediately got a second pair. It was a hefty up front cost but now I'm genuinely looking forward to the same blue crushed velvet docs for the next 4-6 years
I don't buy personal electronics, phone cases, or other items in black if I have the option. Not quite as rigorously I've stopped buying black or dark clothing where possible. Decades of buying everything in black or darker shades as the default and at some point I realized it's pretty damn bland and makes everything harder to find if lost.
I'm the opposite, I started buying everything in black. Makes choices easy and I don't have to worry about matching colours or whatever lol
That was my logic too. Wait until you've been doing it for decades.
(In all seriousness it's totally a personal preference, but I'm glad I stopped.)
I buy all my electronics in black, because they can last decades and still look fine. Most white or colored stuff become yellowish with time.
I've done the same with a lot of "easy to lose" things; I'll go for white or other bright colors so it's easier to spot and harder to misplace or forget. I lost my water bottle the other day because it was nighttime and the bottle is black.
That's actually a great example - my water bottle is so bright i looks like it should burn you if you touch it - and for exactly that reason. 😁
I travel with a work toolbox, among my stuff are drill bits and taps. I used to keep them all loose in a small container, and whenever I had to both drill a hole and tap it, I had to find the tap and then fish around for the correct but. Now I tie them together with elastic bands, so whenever I pick up a tap it has the correct bit attached.
I carry a Leatherman Squirt PS4 in my pocket every day. It's tiny and doesn't add bulk to my pocket but is super handy and I use it all the time. Has spring loaded pliers and tiny scissors, a small straight blade and file, and both a flat Phillips head and broader flat screwdriver.
I bought a $3 mini hook knife for my keychain off Aliexpress. I was tired of getting my pocket knife or Leatherman confiscated or stolen "for security reasons" at ever increasing (and surprising, like libraries, bars) venues. The majority of my needs was to cut open boxes and plastic packaging anyway. It's the size of half a stick of gum, pops open with a button, and only the inside of the hook is sharp, making it pretty safe for wet hands. The handle is part carabiner clip. Not sure how long they last, since they get confiscated, but at $3 each, I don't care. Keep it on my keys. The clip makes it easy to take off my keys if I need to leave it behind, but if I end up getting it stolen, meh.
It cuts through cardboard really well, and also opens that hard plastic packaging, burlap sacks, plastic strapping, and that weird material large dry dog food comes in.
I bought a $3 mini hook knife.... The majority of my needs was to cut open boxes and plastic packaging anyway.
That's a good tip! I have a Gerber Dime on my keychain, and I've found that the "retail package opener" is the tool I use by far most often. Luckily, mine hasn't been confiscated yet.
I got a freezer for the garage and I shop at Costco
Where I grew up there was a program where you’d sign up for a waiting list. Then when the county police encountered a deer that’d been injured but not badly mangled by a car, they’d put it out of its misery and send it to a local butcher. You’d pay $50 to the butcher and end up with a huge amount of packaged venison.
We kept a freezer in the basement just for that. It would fill the freezer.
Set calendar alerts for routine tasks that need to be done less frequently than once a week.
Things like washing the vacuum cleaner filters, descaling the kettle, replacing the water filter (I'm in a hard-water area), servicing various appliances, cleaning all the things that need cleaning but don't need cleaning every week. All small things. It removes a lot of cognitive effort and makes sure those things actually get done.
This is a big one. I try to tell my ADHD teen he needs to do this because he is constantly forgetting to do things (feed his cat, pickup around his room, go out to the school bus in the morning). He's very oppositional to change and doesn't think it'll help, even though he's either on his phone or PC all day long.
Weed.
Agree so much. Love that woman Marijuana
Yeah those pesky dandelions
Glow in the dark tape on the front and back of my phone and on the tips of the chargers to make them easier to find in the dark.
For the same reason my phone case is the brightest colored one I could find.
I had to get some clear heat shrink tubing to put over the charging cable ends to hold the tape in place otherwise it unravels after a few days use.
Sure they make lit USB cables but not in 20ft+
I'd really have preferred to have a bright solid glow in the dark phone case but for whatever reason barring I have one 3d printed (which will then not have the same protection of a normal cheap rubberized case) there isn't anything like that available.
There's your million dollar idea
Bring a cardboard box to the grocery store. Checkout is fast and the checkers/baggers love it
Or reusable bags. We have some here made of fabric(Or is it cloth? Don't know the right term) that we've been using for years.
Brillant
I make my work lunches for the week on Sunday night. It saves me the trouble of making a lunch every night of the week.
Labeling things. I write simple instructions to myself so I don't have to remember things as much. It doesn't have to be formal stickers. It can be some masking tape and a pen. I just leave little notes for My Future Self
During lockdown I spent so my time considering and planning; trying to find a sophisticated labelling system for my pantry.
Colour coding for the top of spice jars so I could quickly find what I need. High quality stickers with neat, clear labels of what the item is, with the brand in pencil that could be altered if I switched to a different brand.
That system was completely fucking useless. ADHD means my motivation to uphold a system is completely fucked on some days. And the awkward half measures irritated me on my good days.
Now it's masking tape and a marker and pray it's legible. Because when it comes to this (and tbh, many things in my life) consistently average is better than inconsistently perfect.
The best system is one that works.
I bought carpet tape to keep rugs in place on my polished hardwood floors.
During Covid (I'm a key worker so had to keep going to work) I started to take a small flask of coffee to work each morning and supplies to make more. I'll make a further couple during the day...the coffee is to my taste and saves time and money during the day ☕
I got a bag of marbles in a drawstring pouch as a kid and now I keep my coinage in it, have done for at least five years. Sometimes people laugh at my coinpurse, but I'm the one with all my coins in a neat little bag.
I set up nextcloud with CalDAV synchronisation and gave access to my wife. Now we have a shared calendar on all devices to plan our week.
As much as I love my own Nextcloud instance, I'm not sure that's a "small thing" for most people. Also, now you have to secure it and keep it updated. I keep mine behind an Nginx reverse proxy and pass those logs to a small splunk instance with a dashboard to show me what's hitting my server. With basically zero footprint, botnets and attackers have still found my server and are attacking it regularly.
I saw a video that opened my eyes to what I could do with plastic wrap in the context of food storage. Also freezing stuff. In general I feel like both help me keep my groceries fresher and also waste less.
Some examples. Sometimes you only need half of an onion. I used to use an entire zip lockbag or just put it in the fridge as is. This is such an obvious idea but now I just plastic wrap left over veggies and they stay super fresh. Plastic wrap can pretty much be used to create a near airtight bag of any shape and size.
Another example with freezers is sometimes I buy things like jalapenos and end up only using half of them and eventually have to throw the other half out. Again this is such an obvious idea in hindsight but now I just freeze the other half. They can pretty much stay fresh for months and I will end up figuring out another use for them in the meantime.
Both these ideas seem so obvious but for some reason didn't really come naturally to me until I watched some cooking videos and found this is what some chefs do.
I tend to use glass jars for this. They are reusable and recyclable, you can see what's in them, they protect what's inside from getting crushed, and they're free if you repurpose jars that food came in.
I do this to the point of preferring certain brands of things like pasta sauce and salad dressing because they use continuous thread lids (Mason jar style) instead of lug lids. (The sauce company disclaims against reusing their jars for canning, but I do it anyway and haven't had a problem yet.)
I like standardizing on one specific lid type so that I can just throw them in a pile instead of having to keep lids matched with jars, and so that I can use various Mason jar-compatible accessories (e.g. a fermentation lid, an attachment for my vacuum sealer etc.) with them.
So you are telling me that you found the idea of using disposable plastic wrap instead of reusable zipbags revolutionairy? Huh, seems like a step back to me.
I recently got a convertible standing desk thing, with a treadmill/walking pad for underneath. It has done wonders for my mental health while at work. Reading boring real estate contracts is a lot easier to get through when I’m standing up and moving instead of falling asleep in my chair while simultaneously destroying my back/posture.
Sauerkraut
IT’S GOOD FOR YOU
burp
Sweetie pumpkin, do you want to join the Columbia Record Club?
Ritalin
Whenever there is a small task that will take less than a few minutes, I ask myself "When else are you going to have 80 seconds?" and usually that makes me realize I should just get it done now. Sometimes I still say "tomorrow" and reminds me to pick a specific time to do the task.
I get this advice, but I hate this advice. I have a million things to do that take just a couple minutes. I never know when to stop!
That's just it - getting started is the hurdle.
My rule of thumb for this is once I've begun cleaning in preparation for the other 4 ideas I have buzzing around, I write those down, finish one task and call it from there (this is usually after 2 to 5 mini-tasks that ends up with cleaning)
I got rid of my cell phone. It ruins the point if you can't use it while working, can't use it while in a vehicle, can't use it while sleeping, constantly have app issues, use it scarcely, and its usage is 90% car warranty. Not worth it, cannot emphasize that enough.
That is a different take from what I usually hear from people. Am I right in assuming that you are in a line of work that doesn't require you to communicate that much.
But even so, how would you communicate with your family or loved ones if they ever have to be away from you for some time ?
I guess more people started using the so called 'dumbphones'. Maybe owning something like that will the serve the purpose of occassional communication for you.
My work does include phones, just not cell phones, which also means I pay none of its bills. If anyone needed to communicate with me, there's always what we're doing right now.
I switched to a $20 feature phone years ago and been so much happier healthier.
Got me some anc headphones if you know why you may find they work amazingly
I automate all of my bill payments. Otherwise, I might forget to pay one or two and end up paying late fees, having service cut off, etc.
My parents were terrible about paying bills on time, and we got evicted at least once before they simply forgot to pay the fucking rent on time.
Before this was possible, I'd sit down on the last day of every month with a stack of envelopes and stamps, and I'd cut the month's checks so I could drop them in the mail a week ahead of time. Luckily I didn't actually have to mail the rent check; the landlord lived downstairs.
It's not that much of a chore. Once the kids are asleep, I plug everything in. The charger works great, and it hasn't exploded yet lol.
