What little things do you do to make life easier?

It’s a little lame to resort to technology as a response to this question.

But my iphone helps me keep track of bits and pieces of my life. I can find bus routes instantaneously, yelp a restaurant, look up an email, read the WSJ while I’m reading the bus so I can sound moderately well-informed about current events.

Google Calendars is also fairly amazing too.

I have some slob-like tendencies. I set an alarm for 20 minutes most nights and clean or organize until it beeps. That way my apartment looks less like a crime scene and I rarely have to spend hours tidying and cleaning.

I keep a box of tampons and a pack of Pamprin in my car, so I’m pretty much never stuck without.

I have a fold-up umbrella under the driver’s seat of my car; I hang my pots and pans from a high beam in my kitchen, I use Evernotes to clip recipes from Epicurious, or the NY Times, or other foodie sites, I have a can of WD40 in the glove compartment, and my best trick: get yourself a blind girlfriend. My girlfriend is blind and she can always find the stuff I lose, like socks, nuts and bolts, computer cables, etc.

the windows quicklaunch bar. truly a genious invention.

I drink. Copiously.

Sleep

I’ve had a hair elastic thingy around my wrist for the past seven years, in case I spontaneously want to ponytail my hair. Remnant of my more athletic days.

@efritz Me too! I feel naked without one.

@Likeradar I like that 20 minute idea.

I try to put things back in the same place every time so I don’t have to hunt for them.

Two laundry baskets. One for clean clothes, one for dirty. It’s good because I’m too lazy to hang them up, but too organized to throw them all over the floor.

Hah! I have the laundry baskets and I throw my dirty laundry on the floor in the corner anyway. I am a maroon.

seize the day
BY THE THROAT

@teh_kvlt_liberal
i see someone likes courage wolf?

I allow myself more time then most people for just about everything. This way I’m never rushed so it decreases the pressure.

First, I set my priorities straight:

Get everything that needs to go into the fridge into the fridge asap.

Take out the garbage every morning or when I go out.

Whether I like it or not, I will put my laundry back or my cats will either pee or fur on it; do the dishes and tidy up the house.

Have a place to put all my receipts and coins.

Always have a pen / pencil and a notepad in my bag.

Tie my hair up every morning.

I don’t have any snacks in the house so I am not tempted to snack. Makes dieting easier.

I set my clocks/handphone/watches 10 minutes faster. That way, I am not so late for appointments.

I’ve trained my children to do things for themselves, to make my life easier.

I keep the heavy duty twist ties from unpacking my kids new toys for organizing things in my work area.

• Brother P-Touch Labeler
• All labels face forward
• two iPhones & three computers all sync via MobileMe
• Baskets and boxes for organizing
• Clean & organize drawers and pantry cabinet every three months
• Clean & organize clothes closets every six months
• All child’s medicine, band-aides, medical stuff organized in her top dresser drawer
• Three shelves in the medicine cabinet, three people in the house

Wow, @cprevite, I wish I knew what it were like to be that organized.

Get yourself some Velcro Tape, it will change your life. There is an infinite amount of use for it.

My main use is to tidy up nasty looking wires at my computer desk and in the living room behind the tv.

Also, make good friends with The Container Store

@pdworkin: Yeah, I’m a little obsessed. I won’t bore you with my organizational system for my digital/computer files. ;^)

I Have a chair in my room that I keep all my Next day items in, such as pants w/ belt, shirt on the back shoes under it… and if it’s college time all my college stuff already inside ready to go.

I train various indigenous pigme peoples from an array of countries to go do my bidding, usually attacking grocery shoppers at random and stealing mailboxes…

Boobs has a plan

In the kitchen:

Keep pots and pans in the upper cabinet nearest the stove (saves bending over to pick up the heaviest things in the kitchen!)
Keep glasses in the cabinet nearest your fridge.
Use the crisper drawers in the fridge for beverages.

In the bathroom:

Use a very small canister or crock to corral all the toothbrushes and the toothpaste in one container.
All make-up in a basket with handles, with a small crock inside to contain all the tall skinny things like eyeliners and mascara.

Elsewhere:
I keep a medicine basket (like a small lidded picnic basket) in my living area (away from the hot moist bathroom).

Rinse the dishes very well before stacking them so they’re practically washed already and nothing is ever stuck on or hard to scrub.

Lay the laundry flat and smooth, item by item, coming out of the dryer so stuff is minimally wrinkled and hardly anything ever needs ironing.

Fasten stuff to my purse with binder clips so I won’t forget to take it with me.

Hang outgoing mail on a travel laundry hook by the door.

Write everything, everything that’s happening, in one place, the kitchen wall calendar.

Have a box of Kleenex in every room except the living room.

Oh, yeah. And I carry a serious pocket knife.

@Jeruba Why no tissues in the living room?

@Jeruba I was wondering that too, why not in living room?

Because. Because I think it would just look kind of junky. If you’re in the living room and you really have to cry or sneeze or laugh so hard that you need to mop your eyes, you’ll just have to plan ahead a little bit, that’s all.

End your anger about little things happening to you in 30 seconds. No need to cry over spilled milk.

I deliberately set my clocks 5 mins fast so that i am never late even if i think i am

I usually think of ‘to-do-things’ when i’m in the toilet (don’t know why that is….) So when that happens (i.e. returning a form or calling somebody, i write ‘form’ or ‘calling X’ in the palm of my hand (with my finger) and cross my two fingers (those next to the thumb) as long as needed.
After a while i (obviously) notice the fingers (and the word i ‘wrote’) and then i immediately go on with the task.

Just to avoid confusion and embarassement, i name-tag my girlfriends.