The biggest thing working for me this week is sending the kids to Grandma’s house for the week! No. Seriously. And while they are gone I am CLEANING, CLEANING, CLEANING. Which leads to my other thing that works for me:

Working around the room.

When the room is just a MESS and you don’t really know where to start or don’t really even want to start… pick a corner and just. start. working. In my kitchen, I always start on the counter by the back door. Clean off the counter, the whole counter and nothing but the counter. YES, grab as many things as you can, don’t you dare walk away with only one thing in your hand. Load up everything that needs to go in the sink or in the trash can and take them in one trip (just don’t get confused!)

I don’t know about you, but I always work clockwise. I don’t really think that’s a rule. I wonder if a left handed person or a left brain person would do it differently? (Since I am a righty for both..) Hmmm… Anywho….

When that counter space is done, I move to the sink, then the counter on the other side, and so on and so forth around the room in a circle. I do the same thing in the other rooms, too. I know I am not the only one who does this, experts have recommended this for years, and it really does work for me.

This week while the kids are gone, I’m applying this principal but on a deeper level- instead of just picking up the space, I’m cleaning the space thoroughly. I started in the living room at the bookcase and took that opportunity to declutter it, dust it, and reorganize it. Moved to the chair next to it, cleaned behind it, under it, under the cushions, etc, and kept going. Yeah, okay, so I had the vacuum on half a dozen times instead of doing it all at once, but it felt good. I could visibly see the room getting cleaner piece by piece and once I was done with a space I never had to go back over it for something else.

The older I get, (or after having 3 children and using up all my brain cells), not only do I often have trouble focusing but I also frequently suffer from a serious Lack of Want To. I know you know what I am talking about. That’s why this really works so well. I don’t really have to think about it. I do have to get up and do it, but it gets done quickly and easily and truthfully,… I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER ONCE IT’S CLEAN.

Oddly enough, I can think better when it’s clean too.

Huh.

Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen @ We Are That Family!

Sponsored Link:101 Uses of Hydrogen Peroxide {Click here for my Disclosure Policy}

Today I’m reposting an oldie but goodie because it has saved my money and my daughter’s wardrobe once again!

Same daughter, another brand new white shirt, a coffee stain that’s been through the dryer, and the same solution:

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“Shout it Out!”

Originally posted January 23, 2008

Remember that slogan? Today’s tip is a quick one from my laundry room. I hate (I really do) spending money on expensive clening products, they just really cut into the budget. Sometimes they’re worth it. And this one really is. A four dollar bottle of Shout Advanced Gel is definitely worth it when it helps me save half of my four-year-old’s wardrobe. (Yeah, you thought it was going to be the BOY, didn’t you?? Not this time!)

Drama Queen is notorious for stains; always has been. She stains at least half of her stuff the very first time she wears it. Can we say frustrating??

Not anymore.

I had several cute and new things with stains that didn’t come out so I took a shot and bought a bottle. And boy am I ever so glad. I’ve been using it a little over a month and it has removed every thing my four year old has thrown at it, including set in stains that got missed in the wash, AND half-removed stains from who-knows-when. The older the stain the longer you need to pre-treat it, so be prepared. I sprayed it, folded the shirt and left it on top of the washer until the next day. I just kept checking it each day and adding more gel if necessary until I felt confident enough to wash it. A couple of times I washed something and saw a small amount left and sprayed it again. But man, this stuff works.

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Works for me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen @ We are THAT Family

Let’s just PRETEND, mmkay?

Let’s PRETEND that your 3 year old found a green permanant marker somewhere. Pretend your mom isn’t asking where he got the marker in the first place or why it wasn’t out of reach. Besides, you don’t normally buy green permanent markers, it came free with another product so let’s just keep on moving, shall we?

Let’s PRETEND that your 3 year old son found the permanent marker and began doodling on the whiteboard with it. Of course since you do have a green dry erase marker and since you have been letting him draw on it to occupy himself during school time, you’d think nothing of it. Not until you saw the lid to the green permanent marker on the floor and realized that this one out of place sharpie cap just upset the balance in the universe and shifted all that is right and good.

I’m just saying. This is completely hypothetical here. OR SOMETHING.

So if your son did color ALL OVER the dry erase board, say, 80% of it… what would you do? I mean, after the room tilted and your stomach churned as you realized that the dry erase on the white board wasn’t dry erase??

Hypothetically speaking, you might turn to Twitter:

And you might get an answer:

And it might just work, too!! Who knew that you color over it with dry erase and it would come right off?!

(Disclaimer: You may have actually started cleaning the board with Purell because of it’s high alcohol content and already wiped most of it off. But you may have been left with green stains, which were amazingly and COMPLETELY removed with the dry erase marker trick! So you may only be able to assume that it would have worked just as well if you’d skipped the Purell step, but you would know for certain that if nothing else it worked to remove the stained appearance!!)

So,.. hypothetically… IF you should ever find yourself in the same situation, now you know what to do. You know,… IF.

Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen @ We Are That Family! Hop over to find other, less “hypothetical” tips and tricks!

Note: The picture above is actually Little Prince coloring with the dry erase markers a few days ago, when I discovered that I didn’t move the white board to as unreachable a location as I’d thought. ASSUMING he DID color all over it with a permanent marker, I might not think to grab the camera before running to kitchen for cleaning supplies. =P

My kids HATE chewable vitamins.

H.A.T.E. them.

Well, except for the three year old chomps them down like candy and complains that he only gets a half. But if you have 3 or more kids you know the rule of thumb is that they NEVER all agree on ANYTHING. Just sayin.’ But back to the vitamins…

We tried the gummy vitamins and they DID all like those (oops- just disproved the above rule!) but I didn’t really like the nutritional information on the back. So once the bottle was gone (a family member gave them to us) I went back on the hunt for better kids vitamins. And it just so happens that they are chewable. And the kids don’t like them.

Can you blame them? How long has it been since you’ve had to choke down one of those sugary, gritty, zoo animals or cavemen?

The whining gets real old, real fast. The crossed arms and refusal to eat them isn’t acceptable. So of course,… I bribed them. With candy. Tic Tacs to be exact.

Don’t judge me. I figure the benefit of the vitamins outweighs the sugar and calorie content of one tic-tac.

So,… they eat a vitamin, they get a tic tac to help rid the taste from their mouths and replace it with a new taste – orange or citrus or cherry. And it works, and there is minimal whining before the deed is done and then it’s all over with. They still aren’t crazy about them of course.

Well, except for the 3 yr old who chomps down his half a vitamin AND his tac tac together at the same time.

WHATEVER WORKS.

Works for Me Wednesday is hosted by Kristen @ We Are THAT Family. And in the meantime, I’m taking suggestions for new vitamins.

This week’s is a themed edition: ORGANIZATION.

Oh, I do love me some organization! Some brightly colored bins, straight little buckets all in a row, a neat line of bottles or containers.

I adore it. I’m actually very good at it.. I just STINK at the part where you’re supposed to KEEP it that way.

Moving on…

I have a handy little list of organizational tips that I actually do use on a regular basis and they continue to work for me, again and again.

In the kitchen:

1. If your kitchen cabinets are high over head and you find yourself stretching and reaching for spices or powdered sugar – organize them into baskets (common spices, seasonal spices, baking needs, etc.) that can be pulled down, dug through and then replaced. It will save your back, not to mention prevent anything from getting lost at the back of the cabinet.
2. Under the sink: Milk crates make good bins for cleaners – it keeps the bottles together and prevents anything from getting lost in the cobwebby shadows.

In the living room:

1. Organize your DVD’s into DVD wallets* (which allow you to keep the inserts unlike cd wallets) and chunk all those plastic cases – or even better, recycle them!
2. Organize the books on your bookcase by size and color and you’ll have a very streamlined and pleasing appearance to your bookcase in lieu of a cluttered one.

In the bathroom:

1. If you don’t have enough drawer space in your bathroom, stackable transparent storage containers with hinged lids can help contain all the bottles, creams, and what-nots and make it easy to find things when you need them.

In the kids’ rooms:

1. Organize your kids’ sock and undies drawer with small baskets. One for each and if you have room, a basket for belts and/or scarves, too.
2. Keep your kids’ sock basket orderly by buying all one kind of sock (with maybe a few exceptions with church socks for girls.) If one gets lost, it will always have a mate!

I have more, but I can’t give away all my secrets at once, now can I?!

For more organizational tips, stop by WFMW at We are THAT Family!

Sponsored Link:101 Uses of Hydrogen Peroxide {Click here for my Disclosure Policy}

You heard me right. Binder clip… your trash bags… to the trash can… and they’ll stay in place!! That’s TOO easy, isn’t it?

I owe it to my grandmother who was over one day, watched me fetch the bag out of the can and replace it over the edge of the bin again. She said, “You know they sell little clips that hold your bag on there – right?”

Looking at her blankly, I said “Clips?? I HAVE binder clips.” She started to explain, “No, they’re little clips–” Me, “No, I understand. I’m just saying.. I HAVE binder clips. Right here. Right now. Why didn’t I ever think of that?”

So poof! My trash bags have been binder clipped ever since, one on each end. They don’t get in the way, the bag does stay in place, and I didn’t have to spend any money.

Love it.

Hop over to Kristen’s and throw your tip into the hat. This week’s Works for Me Wednesday is a Back to School theme, but she promised me she wouldn’t delete any non-school tips. I suppose I could have said, “You’ve got too much to worry about with all the back to school stuff you need to do – why worry about your trash bag? Binder clip it in place and you won’t have to waste valuable remaining summer time scrubbing out the bottom of the can.” Is that pushing it a bit you think?

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