Table of contents for Life Hacks in Real Simple

Ever feel like your kitchen cabinets go from color-coded to crazy in about a week flat? One minute you’re living in a glass-container dreamland, and the next you’re pulling pieces of dried pasta out of the corners. Without regular cleaning and maintenance, it’s a jungle in there. A thorough and proper purge and organizing session helps keep clutter and mess at bay. We spoke with Ashley Hines, a professional organizer and owner of Thee Tailored Life, an organizing firm in Milwaukee, to get step-by-step strategies for how to organize kitchen cabinets so they stay tidy. Start With a Clean Slate Do you have to pull everything out of your cabinets? The answer is yes. But stick with us. This part sounds like a lot of work, but it’s worth…

WE RELY on email for instant correspondence—and assurance that our package is, in fact, on its way. But your inbox can quickly turn into the bane of your existence if left unchecked. And the sight of a cluttered inbox can be an immediate stressor for pretty much everyone. Regularly checking email is an everyday task that’s impossible to avoid, and no matter how diligent you are about sifting through new mail, it’s easy to get buried. And if you get a high volume, that lack of inbox organization (and the anxiety of being in email debt) may be harming your productivity more than you realize. Luckily, there are ways to take control. In an effort to manage our unruly inboxes, we tapped productivity pros for time-saving (read: life-saving) email…

YOU JUST SWORE at the person who took your parking spot. Your children think you’ve turned into a Disney villain. You start daydreaming about cocktail hour shortly after lunch. And your mind always seems to be in a whirl. What’s your problem? In a word: stress. You’re not alone. According to the American Psychological Association 2022 Stress in America survey, 27 percent of U.S. adults said that most days they’re so stressed they can’t function. The survey also found that it’s no longer just jam-packed schedules and go-go-go mentalities weighing people down: More recently, prolonged health crises, geopolitical tensions, inflation, climate anxiety, economic uncertainty, and other major global issues—many of which the majority of us have never experienced before—have taken U.S. stress levels to new heights. A little stress, on…

IN A PERFECT WORLD, we’d all be armchair sommeliers. We’d have just the right words to describe a single sip of pinot. We’d know what to pair with a homemade pizza. And we’d recognize the difference between this chardonnay and that one. In reality, most of us just buy what we’ve had a hundred times, or we pick by price or—yikes—label. That’s where this guide comes in. Read it before you head to the wine store to download easy tricks to help you find a great bottle. Have a Basement Price The quickest way to make sure you’re getting a decent bottle is to spend at least $10 a pop. “Many cheaper wines start with subpar fruit and need to make up for it on the back end, so…

WE’VE ALL been there. You’re in the midst of cleaning the bathroom—or the kitchen, or your bedroom—going through the usual motions with the usual products, and you start to wonder: What if there was a better/quicker/easier way? Sometimes it’s the tub that sets you off—you’ve scrubbed and scrubbed and there’s still a little buildup, but you don’t have all day, so as much as it irks you, you may just have to let it go. Or it’s the litter box that drives you bananas—no matter how hard and how often you clean it out, there’s still that odor. Or maybe it’s the stainless fridge: You spritz it with a targeted cleaning product, and voilà—no fingerprints! But wait, are those streaks? To be sure, when it comes to cleaning a…

LIKE EVERYONE I KNOW, I have an ever-expanding list of projects I want to undertake in and around my home: Renovate some 1990s bathrooms. Tile and wallpaper the mudroom. Install a glass-paned front door to let more light in. Build a patio where we can put an outdoor sectional. And the landscaping ideas—oh, the landscaping ideas. Of course, most of these projects won’t progress past fantasy any time in the near future, given the endless demands on our family’s time, energy, and budget. It’s hard enough just keeping up with the things crying out for more urgent attention or repairs. That’s why it’s reassuring to step back and notice that when it comes to our homes, the little things really do make a difference. Since we moved in a…

WHETHER YOU log into work remotely, have a hybrid setup, or head into the office every day, it’s important to consider how your physical workspace impacts your health. After all, propping up on the couch with a laptop doesn’t exactly benefit your posture or improve aches and pains. One standard solution is to create an ergonomic workspace—but what exactly does that mean, and how do you go about it? We asked physical therapists to explain the basic principles of ergonomics and offer their best tricks for giving your body the support it needs. Ergonomics has evolved over the years but became more prominent in the 1950s, in part because of the recognition that people are more prone to making mistakes than machines when they don’t have proper working conditions,…

Make Group Trips a Group Effort The trickiest part of family vacations: coming up with an itinerary that suits everyone, especially when multiple generations are involved. To keep people happy, make them part of the planning, suggests Samantha Brown, a travel expert and the host of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love. “Allow each member of the family to choose and plan at least one activity,” she says. “The kids will like having a voice in the decision-making, and everyone will feel invested in the vacation.” Create a shared file, like a Google Doc, or a survey (try Google Forms) so loved ones can jot down notes, make suggestions, and voice their opinions. Have the Hard Convos Before You Head Off With Friends Traveling with your pals can be a…

WE’RE GRATEFUL for the advancements of 21st-century medicine, but when it comes to doctor visits, it’s easy to long for the good old days of cozy chats with kindly, bespectacled family practitioners who asked about your mom’s sciatica. Now a trip to the doctor can feel about as personal as an oil change, and probably even faster. You know how it goes: You’ve barely recounted your aches and pains, and you’re working up the courage to mention that toenail fungus, when suddenly the doctor tells you it’s time to put your pants back on and pick up a specialist referral at the front desk. Wham-bam, where’s your copay, ma’am? Here’s how to make the most of your next appointment—whether it’s with your general practitioner, ob-gyn, eye doctor, or any…

I’LL ADMIT IT: I am bad at asking for help. Blame it on my reading those stalwart Little House books in my impressionable early years. Or my fear that other people have enough on their own frantically spinning plates without having to drive me to the car rental place at 7 a.m. But then I got a crash course—so to speak—in sending out an SOS. In the middle of the night, during one of our mighty Indiana summer storms, a huge oak punched through the slate roof of my house, and a giant limb totaled my car. A power line was resting across the lawn like a menacing garden snake. Somewhere out there, my three backyard chickens squawked in alarm. I am currently an empty nester (except for the chickens).…

YOU KNOW THAT one piece of organizing advice that finally made you declutter your closet? Or that nugget of tidying truth that convinced you to streamline your living room? Or the cord-tidying trick that finally did away with the jumble of TV wires? Well, we asked some of our favorite home organizers for clutter-busting tricks on that level—the most game-changing home-organizing advice they’ve ever dealt out. These are the tips behind their clients’ aha moments. And now they can be yours, too! Here are 10 life-altering pieces of organizing advice, according to the experts. Set a Timer “Clients are amazed when they see that what they thought was a daunting task can be accomplished quickly,” says Lisa Zaslow, the professional organizer behind Gotham Organizers. Set a timer and then…

USE Wine Bottles TO Water Plants Have you seen those self-watering contraptions that look like little globes on stakes? They’re great for plant parenting, but an empty wine bottle will also work. Step one is fun: Drink a bottle of wine with friends. Step two: Rinse the bottle, then fill it with water up to the base of the neck. Cover the opening with your thumb, turn the bottle upside down, and quickly insert the neck into the soil of your thirstiest houseplant. Over time, water will release from the bottle to hydrate the plant. Cheers to everyone! USE Coffee Filters TO Catch Soil Houseplants can be messy. They live in dirt, after all. And because most plants do best in planters with drainage holes, you can end up with a saucer (or,…

THE THINGS you need, including groceries and utilities, take a chunk out of your budget. But then, so do the things you want—like vacations and dining out. So where can you cut back? Everywhere! Read on and our experts will show you how. THE SPEND GROCERIES Thanks to inflation, a grocery trip might feel more like Supermarket “Steep.” Food prices are projected to keep rising through 2023, though at a slower pace than they did in 2022. According to the Consumer Price Index, grocery prices have increased by an average of 6 percent in the past year. Little Ways to Save SHOP YOUR FRIDGE FIRST Before you go to the supermarket, clear out anything past its prime, note what’s still good, and plan meals that incorporate those items. You’ll buy less,…

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. We’ve heard it all our lives, a pithy reminder that a good diet is crucial to physical health. But emerging evidence shows just how intertwined food is with mental health as well. So a more accurate line might be: You feel what you eat. “There’s no question that the gut and brain share a special connection,” says Jay Pasricha, MD, chair of the department of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Your noggin responds strongly to what you put in your belly, Pasricha says, in part because your brain needs energy to function, and your gut helps turn food into energy. But the connection goes beyond that, because like the brain, the human gut (aka the gastrointestinal system, comprising the esophagus, stomach, and…

SHERYL CROW once sang, “A change would do you good.” Except for many of us, change feels anything but good—it can make our palms sweat, our mind race, and make us pine for a time when everything was predictable. But change is a fact of life. Whether they’re your choice or not, life changes are normal and happen all the time. For instance, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person will have 12 jobs during their lifetime. Data platform FiveThirtyEight reports that the average American moves more than 11 times over their lifetime. And according to research company the Wedding Report, around 2.5 million couples got married in 2022. Even when it’s “good” or “for the best,” the very idea of change can make many of…

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