Things I Do to Make Life Easier - 2017 update

Often when I make reference to making things easier what I really mean is requiring less of my time. Here are some things I do to buy myself some time/make life easier. If you like this concept, you'll want to check out these old things from 2014: 10 Things I Do to Make Daily Life Easier and 10 Things I Do to Make Life Easier in the Kitchen. Kathy's recent post reminded me that it's been quite a while since I shared a version of this that is applicable to my life, so here are some recommendations:

1. HousePaws Mobile Vet - I'm not sure if trips to the vet are more traumatic for me or the dogs, so unless an office visit is required, I say fuck it and have the mobile vet come to the house.

2. Chewy.com - Chewy delivers dog stuff and they do it quickly. I still need to get Mae's food at a store because they don't carry it, but it's worth it for the dry food for Gus and Bruce. Their customer service is awesome as well.

3. Fresh grocery delivery - Amazon Fresh shot an arrow through my heart by cutting off delivery service to my area as of Thursday, but not to worry. I've got my old reliables that I used before Amazon Fresh came on the scene - Instacart and Peapod - and a new one to try on a friend's recommendation - Fresh Direct. MFD will run to Aldi some weeks, sometimes I get fruit and veggies at Lou's Farm Market, and I will sometimes pick groceries up at Target when I need to enter the physical store for other reasons but otherwise my groceries are delivered. But to answer the inevitable questions: the quality of meat is the same as it would be in the store you're ordering from, they can pick produce just fine to put in your order, and if anything is wrong or not as you'd like it you call and get your money back. It's no use wasting two hours going, shopping, packing, unloading, unpacking because you don't trust someone to pick your apples. Take the chance.

4. Make that everything delivery - If I can order it, I order it. I have said one million times and believe with all of my heart that time is money. I will spend money to use the time I do have doing what I want to do instead of what I have to do. Being out of the house close to 12 hours a day, I'm looking to buy all the time I can. I still get Amazon Prime Pantry but I'm hoping to transition over to Target Restock for pantry items. I also use Thrive Market for my pantry needs that are more organic in nature and Penzey's for spices. I get toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, clothes, gifts, everything delivered.

5. Google Photos - I don't back up photos to iCloud, I back directly up to Google Photos. I can share easily from there and I never have to worry about losing any of my pictures or dicking around in the cloud.

6. Wunderlist - I prefer my notebook lists, but on the fly or just to jot down ideas, Wunderlist is my go to. I can email lists to MFD also.

7. Goodreads - My want to read life was so cumbersome before Goodreads came on the scene.

8. Five Calls - When the political machine is spitting shit out faster than you can track, you just open up the Five Calls app (or visit the website) and it walks you through what is pertinent for the day based on what is important to you and who to contact about it. Democracy requires participation. Not participating is how we got here.

9. Feedly.com - Feedly stores the blogs I read so I can just go down the list and see what's up without any bullshit of other readers out there (looking at you bloglovin'). I will miss Google reader until I die though.

10. Gratitude List - When I'm in a real snit or feeling woe is me (not often, honestly, because I fucking hate woe is me shit even/especially when it pertains to myself), I do a quick and dirty things I'm grateful for list. On bad days one might be clean socks or breathing, but are they not things to be grateful for regardless?

What do you do to make life easier?