10 Home Hacks Unlocked By Ayessa Bautista

Ayessa Bautista, also known as @UndiplomaticWife on Instagram, has a treasure trove on her feed for moms and dads looking to organize and refresh their homes. In this exclusive, she generously shares 10 home hacks with the Modern Parenting audience.

This story about home hacks was written by Ayeesa Bautista for Modern Parenting’s 2022 print edition.

One look at my home and you’ll find clean, white walls decked with family photos and minimalist art. My Instagram username takes inspiration from being married to a diplomat. We currently live in Switzerland and as a doting, hands-on mother to both a toddler and a dog, I understand the difficulties in maintaining a space that looks refreshed and spotless. Over the years, we’ve moved around a lot and I’ve learned to find aesthetic ways to organize my home for the sake of efficiency. Here are some of my most essential home hacks that are quite easy to incorporate, and allow for clutter-free family life. I hope you find them useful too.

Hack 1: Organizing your kids’ art

When it comes to my son’s art, I choose and keep the pieces that truly spark joy or kilig for me. While some of our kids’ work turns out to be mini masterpieces, some end up as “practice” pieces. For the latter, I repurpose them as wrapping packages that I send out. I think this adds a special and personalized touch.

For those in the “keep” pile, I organize them using MUJI’s A4 PP albums with side pockets. In my experience, they are the best way to store things for the long term, not only because the side pockets are easier and prevent the paper from spilling out, but the material is acid-free or archival, which means they are perfect for long-term storage because they will not yellow or damage your kid’s artwork.

For larger artworks, do not be afraid to cut to size especially if you’re not cutting out important parts. You can also choose to frame them. I love the super lightweight IKEA FISKBO frames because they don’t contain glass. Then I store and display them in my son’s room. I label them with his age and his year level at the time. This makes it so much sweeter to look back on later in life.

Hack 2: Removing stickers

First, I try lifting a small corner. If it doesn’t come off clean, weaken the adhesion by using a blow dryer set to the highest heat and lowest fan setting. Hold it about one to two inches from the sticker. Be careful when doing this on plastic items because they might melt. Sometimes it’ll come off clean or leave adhesive residue.

If there is a bit of residue, try rubbing it off with baking soda and water paste. For large or stubborn patches, go straight to scrubbing with an oil and baking soda paste. Only do this for items that can be washed with water and soap afterward to remove the oil. This mixture makes it easy to remove sticker residue without having to soak it for a long time.

For items that cannot get wet, soak a cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and place it on the residue for a few minutes. Once it’s fully soaked through, rub the cotton on the surface until the residue comes off.

If you don’t mind using chemical products, you can also use GooGone, available in hardware stores, or Elmer’s Sticky Out, which is available in bookstores.

Hack 3: Cleaning sneakers

As a busy mom, my home hack makes it easy to clean several pairs of sneakers at the same time with minimal effort. I don’t have a mud room or outdoor wash area so I take them to our tub and attach our fine fine-hole drain to catch as much of the dirt as possible.

Use high-pressure water spray to remove as much of the soil or dirt as possible. Then, spray Grandma’s Secret Sneaker Cleaner on the shoes and leave it to work for 15 to 60 minutes.

For plastic and canvas sneakers, you can toss them in the washing machine. Tie the laces closely to the shoe to prevent them from getting tangled in the washing machine. Place each pair in a shoe wash bag. If you don’t have this, then you can use a regular laundry bag or an old pillowcase. Be sure to tie the end of the pillowcase before placing it inside the washing machine. Add other similarly colored fluffy rags inside the washing machine, as an added layer of protection. Wash at 30-40C on a short, gentle cycle.

If your dryer doesn’t have a shoe rack, it is best to stand your shoe’s toe side down leaning on a wall outdoors or in a well-ventilated area while avoiding direct sunlight. After a day, flip the shoe’s heel side down to dry evenly.

Hack 4: Hanging and storing Christmas lights

One of the most life-changing home hacks I’ve done for our Christmas lights is to stop winding them around the Christmas tree. This leads to twisted and tangled lights.

Instead, place Christmas lights on one side of the tree first. Start at the bottom, winding left to right on one side until you reach the top. Once you get to the top, you can then wind it left to right on the other side of the tree until you reach the bottom. This will make it so much easier to remove the lights without tangling! It’s been life-changing and we don’t get as stressed out hanging up lights this way.

Another home hack is to fold them instead of winding them in a ball when you take them off the tree. Leave a little excess wire before winding or folding to avoid damage. I love Velcro One Wrap Thin Ties for keeping my Christmas lights tidy. You can also use furniture wrap to keep them compact and write the warranty expiration date on a piece of masking tape.

Hack 5: Packing for travel

Create a packing list using the app Packpoint, which tells you what to pack according to the weather, location, and activities you will be doing during your trip. This app is also handy if you are traveling with a baby.

Use packing cubes — better if you can color-code them according to each family member. We use four different packing blocks to easily identify the things inside the luggage. We also bring enough laundry bags for dirty clothes, as well as shoes and slippers as these get dirty. Maximize each packing cube by doing the least amount of folds.

If you are unsure of how many clothes to bring, here is my rule of thumb for adults: one top each day, a pair of bottoms for two days, one bra for two days, two pieces of underwear for each day; and one to two jackets or other outerwear pieces for each trip.

Repeating clothes? Refresh bits such as underarm and pant crotches by lightly spraying the inside with Kurin water and hanging them to dry. When traveling in cold weather, I only use ultra-light down jackets so it doesn’t take up space or weight in my luggage.

Hack 6: Creating a tidy charging station

Keep your charging areas tidy by using a universal power block with on and off buttons. This allows you to turn off certain chargers without having to pull the plug, which makes for more efficient energy use. Make sure that you are not overloading each outlet. Older wall outlets and worn-out power blocks are not safe for use.

Hang the power block on the wall with the accompanying screws or do it damage-free using two to three large 3M Command Strips.

You can also use wire organizers like similar[1]colored zip ties or Velcro Thin One Wrap to keep wires from dangling. A stationery caddy can also help your gadgets stand away from each other while charging.

Hack 7: Making laundry safe, simple, and natural

Going natural doesn’t necessarily mean going the more expensive route. Shifting to natural laundry soaps has saved us more money; a tablespoon for every 7.5 to 8 kg laundry is enough. Mix it in a cup of warm water and pour it into the detergent drawer.

Moreover, these products are biodegradable and do not leave any chemical residue. They also don’t use synthetic fragrances which contain harmful compounds linked to several health disorders.

We pre-treat our laundry before throwing it into the laundry hamper. Fill a spray bottle with one-third of the natural laundry detergent and two-thirds of water. By having this spray bottle in each bathroom, we can spray on stains, dirt, and bits like the underarm and crotch areas before placing our laundry in the hamper. Avoid pre-treating when the stain is already set in.

To remove stains with little effort, treat stains as soon as possible so they don’t stick. Immediately spray Kurin water on stains and rub them with white tissue. Do this repeatedly until the stain is gone and the tissue comes out clean. If the stain is already dry, I use Tiny Buds Natural Stain Remover or chlorine-free oxygen bleach to brighten the whites.

Instead of using a softener, you can put one-fourth to a half-cup of vinegar in your washing machine’s fabric softener dispenser. It softens laundry without residual odor and makes your towels last longer. This is ideal if your socks, linens, and towels need an extra refresh.

Hack 8: Keeping furniture and walls white

One question I get asked frequently “How do you keep your walls and furniture white with a toddler?” When DiploBaby was a toddler, we kept writing or crafting materials on a high shelf and did arts and crafts on the floor.

We also only eat at the dining table. This strengthens our communication as a family during mealtime and also prevents food particles from getting into other parts of the home such as the couch.

When accidents happen on our white couch, immediate clean-up is crucial. For walls, I use melamine sponge cleansers such as Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I pre-cut them into small, thin squares so it’s easier to use and more economical. Wet the sponge cleaner with water, squeeze out excess liquid and gently rub on the white surface gently until the mark or stain is removed. It’s very abrasive so always start with the gentlest pressure, increasing only for stubborn stains and resilient surfaces. I only recommend this for white items because it can leave a white cast on non-white items.

For other stains, immediately spray with Kurin water and use tissue to blot or gently rub off the stain.

Hack 9: Tidying Legos

If your kids like rebuilding the same sets, it makes sense to store them as sets in bins or zip-lock bags. If you choose to organize using zip lock bags, choose ones that have a base so the set can stand alone, with a zip that can slide to open and close. Use a label-maker or a marker to write down the name and number of the set on each container.

However if your kid, like mine, loves free building, then I recommend rainbow-organizing them by color. This is also the easiest organizing technique to maintain because children can always help put blocks away in their corresponding color drawers.

For regular blocks, I use buildable, stackable MUJI PP drawers that have adjustable dividers. For those tiny, special blocks, I store them in bead organizers that have a clasp to avoid them accidentally opening and making a mess.

Hack 10: How to Clean Shower Heads and Faucets

It’s time to clean shower heads and faucets when the water pressure is reduced, spurts in different directions, or the droplets become harsh on the skin. It’s important to remove the calcium, rust, and minerals that build up in our showerheads and faucets.

Here’s a simple home hack: place shower heads and shower head screens in a basin, soak them in a 50/50 vinegar-water solution, and leave for an hour. Afterwards, wipe with a microfiber cloth or brush softly to remove any build-up.

Test the shower heads. If they continue to malfunction, place them back in the solution and leave them for longer. Repeat until shower pressure has normalized.

To clean your faucets, place a 50/50 vinegar-water solution in a small ziplock bag and use a rubber band to attach it. Leave to soak for an hour. Afterwards, take out the bag and brush out the build-up. Turn on the tap to check the water flow. Repeat the process with the same bag of solution until the flow returns to normal.

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