Fridge Envelopes

For my daughters party some years ago I made this craft. I thought it would be great for the kids lockers, but they wanted to play more then they cared about the crafts. Since then I have had them on the side of my fridge and find them very useful. The one on the left is full and disorganized but I use it for small papers I don't  want to lose such as business and appointment cards, receipts, small photos etc. The one on the right holds my box tops for education and if we collected pop tabs for Ronald McDonald (if we drank pop out if cans) then I would have collect them in here. One day I will be super organized, but in the mean time this is what works for me.

Cleaning Mud Run Shoes

I signed up for a mud run this year, thinking how hard can it be. Really hard! It had been raining a lot in the area and it was super muddy. I knew I was going to get muddy but I didn't expect 75% of the three miles to be mud pools. 20% was deep mud, sometimes putting me over knee deep. I'm not sure why they call it a run when you can't run in it! I tried not to stop because then it would suck you in and you might never get out again!

I don't think I would do it again. I prefer the Warrior Dash and I hope to do a Spartan race or maybe even a Tough Mudder someday.

What I did know was that I couldn't let this mud take my shoes. I needed them for the Warrior Dash! I ended up taking my shoes of during the race which was quite  hard to do with mud every where. It wasn't  too bad to run without shoes , until the end where they had a little of rocks.

So I got home with an extra 5 pounds of  mud, and here is how I cleaned them:

1. Dry out the mud by placing shoes in the sun. I think it also rained a little but they dried out again.

2. Bang the shoes outside in concrete to get off chunks of dirt.

3. Spray with jet nozzle of hose to get remaining dirt chunks off the shoes.

4. Dry out again.
5. Wear them (without socks because they are still dirty) around the yard while doing yard work.
6. Throw them in a pillow case and tie with a hair tie. Dry them again outside.
7. Wear them around again to re break them in again.
8. Do the Warrior Dash and donate them to a good cause!

Keeping a Dog Off Your Clean Sofa

My sister actually told me this trick for how she makes sure her dog does not get up on the furniture when she is gone. Both our dogs are fairly well behaved ( I doubt any dog can resist from stealing meat within its reach), and I don't mind too much that my dog is on the furniture, but I want to keep it off most of my furniture so I don't wear it out from vacuuming. I bought the cheapest set of furniture I could find at the time, and I thought suede holds up but ours is pilling from wear and threads are sticking out of spots. I would really like to preserve it for a few more years till I can afford and find something I really like.  My dog is always looking for a comfy place to land since we removed the carpet, so I don't really blame her for wanting to sit on the sofa. To keep her off the love seat and the chair I put extra plastic lids on them, which are easy to remove and can store behind the furniture if needed. She can't remove them and it helps me to keep the furniture from all the pet hair. The only thing you need to remember is where you put the lid when you need one for your plastic box. I have extra lids from when my kids have broken the plastic boxes, so this is what I use. For the sofa I just make sure to have a blanket in place for her to sit down, and that I can easily throw in the washer weekly monthly before guest arrive.

Whirlpool, We Have A Problem

Pre-boot Replacement rip on my daughter's PJ

Over two years ago I posted about my new Washer. At the time we had troubles linked to our new water softener when they installed it wrong. Friday night I went to take clothes out of the washer and part of the boot seal had ripped off! We called to see how much it would cost for someone to come and fix it, but it was going to be about $300. We only paid $700, plus we have been seeing holes in our clothes and can't figure out if it was the washer or dryer. I searched You Tube and found a video about replacing the boot on a front loader. We were able to order the part for $110 and my husband replaced the boot. He put in the first load and when it was time to put it in the washer he discovered my work out pants burned and tore.

I got these at Marshalls and really liked the length and the fit. There is no repairing this kind of tear. The pants are 93% Polyester and 7% Spandex. The PJ are 100% polyester. We also have holes in cottons but they haven't been as big as these holes.

I searched online and found some older forum about holes in clothes. It seams people blame washers, dryers, laundry detergent, activities and clothing for holes that seem to appear.

To troubleshoot this problem for myself I'm going to:

1. Not let my husband wash my clothes. I think he over stuffs the machine and he doesn't sort.

2. Separate my knit clothes from jeans and other materials

3. Wash them in the gentle cycle

4. Only lightly fill a small laundry basket for a load

5. Consider new detergent

I will update later if I find that this is working or if I find more holes in my clothes.

Note: The Whirlpool Duet Model I am using is WFW9150WW00, Serial number HL01895953 bought from Lowes Aug 2010.

Household Coordinator

Source: someecards.com

(I decided I need fancy names for my household projects. So for my post on improving my money will be called Financial Expeditions, Organizing will be Household Coordinator, and Health will be Well-conditioned.)

As my husband was commenting on how he has been working 60 hour work weeks, I thought to myself "big deal." I bust my butt every week to keep this household together. He gets to come home, leave his job and doesn't have to answer the phone. I work 40 hours outside of the home, then I come home to do 80% or more of the household and child rearing. I make the appointments, buy clothes, co-ordinate schedules, make list of list, and entertain kids. So sorry if I'm not sympathetic. I think I did my wifely duty by just writing this on my blog and not telling him to his face.

..........................................................................................

As household coordinator, I have already developed a weekly list of chores, which I haphazardly follow. Now I need to come up with back up plans for when I'm out of town on the weekend or when I'm not able to clean during the week.:

Gone For the Weekend Chore List
Monday- living room dining room tidy up, dust, vacuum furniture and sweep floors
Tuesday- clean both bathrooms
Wednesday- clean kitchen, sweep floors
Thursday- tidy up basement, laundry clean and put away, balance checkbook, and plan meals

Weekend Power Clean
1. place all laundry downstairs and start a load
2. assist kids with cleaning bathrooms
3. run load of dishes
4. tidy up dining room and living room, dust, vacuum furniture, sweep floors
5. move laundry to dryer and add another load if necessary
6. kids clean their rooms, while I clean kitchen
7. laundry to dryer
8. kids move to tidy up basement, I mop floors
9. work on my bedroom
10. everyone puts laundry away

Another thing I would like to do is to make a more detailed list of cleaning rooms to follow, and to teach my kids more about what a clean room entails. My daughter can work two hours on her room and it will look like she has done nothing because she still have a mess all over the floor. I gave them list to check off the other day and it worked great so I would like to make more list for their chores so they have clear expectations.


Money report: $8.82 on lunch,bought Chinese at Hy-vee with a pop
Chore Report: swept floor made bed, ran dishwasher cleaned up living room/dining room, laundry down stairs
Health report: ran/walked tonight, drank pop :0C , and I am tired since I didn't get to bed by 10 because I stayed up to watch movies and woke up with a stuffy nose.

Spring Cleaning Challenge- Day 5

Today I was week with motivation.  Day 1 of the challenge I started with the toy room in the basement, and had worked on it a lot day one and a little the following days.  I really wanted to get the kids bedrooms done today too, which they worked on a little bit, but they are not finished.  Around noon I finally got the motivation to finish it to 98%.

The second shot really shows how much open the space has become.  I need to get rid of the electronics on the desk and move the pillows to the couch from under the TV, but I hung out down here today and it was great.  We got the bean bag chairs for the kids for Christmas from Gordman's and they are really comfortable.  It is nice to have a basement to relax in during the summer because I don't like to keep the air conditioner running all day.  (It was getting hot today, and I refuse to turn on the air conditioner in March.)

This is now the dress up area.  I need to get pegs for this board to hang up the hats and necklaces and some other misc. items.  (I will update this picture when I do.)

This is my daughter's toy shelf.  I didn't want to spend a lot of containers so I used Girl Scout cookie boxes (Note: we didn't buy all those cookies, I was the cookie mom so I had stashes from booths and doling them out).  The top is barbie dolls and little toy girly dolls.  If you can believe this: all those thin mint boxes are littlest pet shop items mixed in with a few small my little ponies and Squinkies (plus I didn't take the game of littlest pet shop they were playing on the train table).  The other cookie box is for piano books for the keyboard to the left, and to the right is her craft table (too messy to show, I didn't want to mess up her constant work in progress).

This is my son's toy area.  I really like how the peg board weapon display turned out.  I am going to take a picture of how it looks when everything is put away and hang it above so he know what to do.  The shelf on the left holds superheros, box of balls, tool sets, smaller toy cars and the white box holds ammo.

This is still a work in progress but I am happy with what was done today.  I am going to call this good for this challenge and try to work on other projects.  

On a side note: We rarely have people over and then my husband came home and asked if it was OK if his friend and girlfriend came over.  I had been so busy with the basement, that the upstairs wasn't good-enough-for-me ready for company.  I was able to get the home clean in half an hour, and then they didn't come (but now I can relax for tonight :0).  I can say I am getting better at cleaning, and noticing things.  My goal is to be able to keep this up even after I start a new job some day.

See more who are working on the challenge at:

i Dream of Clean : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter

Amy’s Finer Things : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Home-EC 101 : Facebook : Twitter
Tidy Mom : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Untrained Housewife : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Live Renewed : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Biblical Homemaking : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Living Well Spending Less : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
The Greenbacks Gal : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Warrior Mama : Facebook : Twitter 

Spring Cleaning Challenge- Day 4

Yesterday I started work on the hall closet, but wasn't able to get done.  I wanted to get packing tape to tape boxes together to use instead of buying all new containers to put things into.  I was able to get out today and buy tape, plus I did end up buy two containers fore $3.67 each.  I really like the containers that Walmart has where the top latches to the container.  I also picked up packs of bins that were on clearance for $1 each.  They would be good for organizing desk drawers or for my kitchen drawers.  I also looked at bins to store toys inside, but they were $3.50/2, and seems smaller and more flimsy than the ones I already have.  I also put up the peg board in the toy room, but I want to move 1/2 of it to another space because I don't like how it looks.

I worked by pulling things out and placing them on a table in the living room.  My hallway it too tight to have the table in there so there was more leg work, but I didn't want to put things on the floor since the kids were home running around.

At the top I have my cleaning supplies, sorted by air & fabric refresher; spray cleaners, scrub brushes, and carpet cleaners.  The second 1: medicine, sunblock, hair care, and lotions.  Shelf 2:  lady's time of the month supplies, vaseline, wash cloths, cotton balls, and bars of soap.  Shelf 3:  hair accessories and brushes (3 ball jars for bands and clips, brushes, headbands and other in boxes), box for nail care, box for face care, box for body space and etc.  Shelf 4: bag of cologne sample and lotions, hair cutting, extra shower curtain.  The bottom I am keeping open for buckets for cleaning (right now they are helping me clean fish tanks).

In the end I had a box partially full of things that have other places to go, a cardboard box that has been following me around full of bathroom supplies since I got home from college in '03, and lots of garbage.

I also organized the cabinets in the bathrooms.  I put all the tooth care items in the half bath because this is where we all brush our teeth most of the time.  In the fake wood cabinet in the full bath, I kept the top shelf for my husbands shaving, the middle is for me which has my face cleaning cloth from Norwex, and the bottom is my daughter's with her hair brush and earrings.  In the metal medicine cabinet: tooth care on bottom, medicine and maintenance kit on top with my multivitamin and tweezers.  The wooden cabinet in the half bath: my women's needs (makeup, deodorant, perfume) and first aid and medicine on top, middle shelf has extra mouth wash and cups, my husbands deodorant and Q-tips, the bottom shelf is all tooth care.

I dream at night to be rich and be able to have a remodeled bathroom, with matching baskets to hold items.  I also wish to go through my hair care and lotion stash to get that down to a few and open up more space.  I think the latter is more likely to happen in the future, but I am super happy to know where things are and how much I have.  I am constantly buying things over and over because I don't know if I have them or not.  It is getting easier and easier for my to organize these days.  Before I would clean an area and get frustrated when I couldn't find something I had just seen while I was cleaning.  Now with the help of this blog as motivation and picture proof, it is helping me to find lost items and keep my sanity.

Next up: cleaning the bedrooms.

See more who linked up at the Spring Cleaning Challenge:

Spring Clean : The Why :: Home-EC 101 

Spring Clean: Floors and Windows :: Amy’s Finer Things
Spring Clean: The Kitchen :: Tidy Mom  
Spring Clean: Home Office :: Untrained Housewife
Spring Clean: Declutter Around the House ::  Live Renewed
Spring Clean : Main Living Area :: Biblical Homemaking
Spring Clean: Conquering the Kids’ Room :: Living Well Spending Less
Spring Clean: Outdoor Living Spaces :: The Greenbacks Gal
Spring Clean: Garage and Cars ::  Organize365

I'm also linking this up to Project Simplify '12.

Spring Cleaning Challenge- Day 2

Last night I was able to go out and buy some baskets from Dollar Tree for my wall shelf I'm going to put in the dress up area in the toy room.  I also went out and bought peg board from Menards.  It was there that I found out a '4x4' sheet won't fit in a Jetta, so I bought two 2'x4' sheets.  I will need my husband's help, but he is getting his oil changed at Walmart which takes about 3 hours when you don't make an appointment.  

Meanwhile, I was trying to put up the shelf and I thought my wall hanging supplies were in the junk drawer, but couldn't find them.  I figured this was the best time to tackles this project.  Above is the before picture.

Here is a shot of what I sorted from the drawer.  16 different categories, all of which had other homes.

This shot is what I put back inside.  My husband's checkbook (because I know he will question why I had to move it), a notepad, and my screwdriver kit that I am always needing.  I vacuumed and wiped down the drawer but it looks like it needs a new liner.  It didn't take me that long and with all the work I have been doing in the other areas of my home I was able to put things away in no time, and with little thought.  I just wonder how long this drawer will stay this clean.

To see more about the Spring Cleaning challenge check out these sites:

i Dream of Clean : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Amy’s Finer Things : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Home-EC 101 : Facebook : Twitter
Tidy Mom : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Untrained Housewife : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Live Renewed : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Biblical Homemaking : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Living Well Spending Less : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
The Greenbacks Gal : Facebook : Pinterest : Twitter
Warrior Mama : Facebook : Twitter 

Spring Cleaning Challenge Day 1

The right corner shows the totes I moved from the other room.

I started the challenge yesterday with cleaning my kid's toy area.  From the February cleaning challenge, I moved all the toys that I took out of the toy room from last year's Spring cleaning.   My sister also gave me an air hockey table that I would really like to set up and we got a keyboard for my daughter for Christmas.

I started with moving all the bins that I already have sorted to one side of the space. I was making sure nothing out of place was mixed into the bin (the top picture), while moving them to this space.  Then I also lined up empty bins to hold anything that didn't match or was too big for the sorted containers.

These are the after shots, which still looks messy but there is a lot of floor space that opened up.  I still have to dig under the tables to pick up the toys on the floor but I have only two small boxes of things that didn't get sorted because I wasn't really sure what there are or where to sort them into so I'm going to get my kids involved tonight.

Here are my current categories for toys:

• zhu zhu box
• lego books
• tool box
• tools and screws, small wood for foam wood
• baby doll items
• plastic animals
• plates, cups, etc for house play
• play-doh toys
• barbie, misc dolls for girls
• balls/ outdoor play
• train set
• weapons
• vehicles
• dressup

•  balls, bats, ect (yes more play balls)
• Lil pet shop bin (more on the table
• stuffed animals
• big toys
• wagon with rollar skates
• cardboard box with foam wood and projects from lowes

• top shelf is items to sort still
• stuffed animals
• blue bin is super hero
• pink bin in empty
• garbage can
• outdoor toys

Some thoughts at this point:

This video has great ideas on labeling toy bins.

I have a wall shelf that has a dowel under it, that I will hang on the wall for a dress up area.

I need to organize a space in the garage for kids toys, and move some of the balls out there.

I want to set up an area for my son's train set, cars, and tools, and another separate area for my daughter's Lil Pet Shop, barbie, doll, stuffed animal, plastic animals

I'm going to store the food and plates because I haven't seen them play with any of these things for awhile.

I'm going to put the play-doh with the board games.

I want to buy a peg board to have my son's weapons hung on the wall.  

The big TV in the middle of the floor is going on Craig's list for free because it is a really old 32".

I will also donate another TV to Goodwill since they only take good condition TVs with remotes.

I hope to have more updates for tomorrow.

See more who linked up at: i Dream of Clean