The top 7 household lifesavers

These days, we often look for ways to make things easier for our busy lives; simple solutions that get the job done, and quickly. Here we mix unconventional uses for everyday items with revolutionary concepts, all with one thing in common: they make the perfect household lifesavers.

Make light work of pet hair:

Although we love our pets, the hair they leave behind can be a troublesome nuisance. Most traditional vacuum cleaners do not have the suction power to hoover up notoriously difficult animal hair; however, help is at hand in the unusual shape of a window cleaning squeegee. Simply attach one to a long pole, or brush handle, and get to work. The great thing about squeegees is that they are inexpensive and come in a variety of sizes. This means that you can buy several to suit different areas, such as carpets or rugs, stairs, upholstery and even the car.

Do it all with a Dustbuster:

Dustbusters offer a convenient alternative to hauling out the vacuum cleaner every time you need to hoover, especially when the whole room doesn't need doing. The dustbuster's convenience factor is enhanced further with its light-weight, compact size, making the normally arduous task of hoovering down the stairs a piece of cake. A nifty appliance like this one can also venture where other traditional hoovers can't, their handy cordless design means that they do not have to connect to an electricity socket.

Feel the heat with an induction hob:

Induction hobs are not a new invention, and have, in fact, been around for decades; however, it has only been in recent years that this revolutionary concept has taken off in the mainstream market. With conventional hobs, specific areas are heated up using an electric coil or gas flame and pans are placed directly on the heat source. In contrast, the induction hob actually heats the pan itself! This means that it can be placed anywhere on the cook-top. The benefits of an induction hob are extensive: they are energy-efficient, as they only heat the cooking vessel. Moreover, they are responsive, which allows for precise control and very low cooking temperatures.

Take the hard work out of hard water:

Living in a hard water area can make household cleaning difficult and frustrating. Wherever water flows in an affected house, such as toilets or baths, unsightly marks are left behind. Removing these stains is time-consuming and expensive, with hard water homes spending way more on cleaning products than those in soft water areas. Not only that, but hard water causes untold problems when heated: mineral deposits are left behind (known as limescale), coating pipes and interfering with the efficiency of plumbing, electrical appliances and water heaters. However, these problems can be eradicated forever with the help of a block salt water softening system. The appliance is plumbed into your water supply, conveniently stored away out of sight under the sink. Water pumped into your home is passed through the system, which uses the block salt to remove the troublesome minerals. The result is sparkling toilet bowls, with no ugly rings around your bath. Not only that, but your appliances will run more efficiently, producing lower energy bills, saving you substantial money in the long-run. If you’re not sure where to get the salt, you can buy it online at a good price.

Tea on tap:

The old saying about a watched kettle never boiling is annoyingly accurate, especially when you're in a hurry for your cup of tea before leaving for work in the morning. So, wouldn't it be great if you could just elbow the plodding kettle and buy an appliance that could heat water to 98 degrees in an instant? The Zip Hydrotap is a revolutionary idea that allows boiling water to flow from a tap on your counter. Not only is it perfect for that quick cuppa when you need it, it also gives a head start when cooking pasta and vegetables.

Pop-up power sockets:

Anyone who has a kitchen with too few electrical sockets will know how frustratingly difficult it is to organise yourself. You have to unplug one appliance, before being able to use another. A solution to this problem comes in the form of a pop-up power socket. These allow additional places for your plugs, and prove especially useful for areas of your kitchen that do not have a wall close by, such as islands and breakfast bars. The pop-up power socket can also be pushed down out of sight when not in use, hiding unsightly cables and preventing children from touching potentially dangerous electrical equipment.

Multiple uses for a microwave:

For most of us, a microwave is a handy appliance used to heat up cooked food or defrost our dinner. Now evolved, combination microwaves blows their traditional counterparts out of the water. This new invention has the fast, microwave energy of a grill and convection heat of a standard oven. This allows the food to crisp and brown in a fraction of the time taken when using a traditional oven. Better yet, additional accessories such as vegetable and rice steamers make it possible to cook a whole meal in one go.