Helpful hints and great ideas

You know those sections in parenting magazines where readers send in creative things they have done, like creating placemats out of family photos (so kids learn who their far-away relatives are), or recycling wipes boxes into toy containers? Well, I have a few helpful ideas of my own and I decided to share them with you.

1. Keep a full set of cleaning supplies in the cabinet in every bathroom in the house.
Saves time and helps keep your bathrooms cleaner, because when you see something you can quickly grab the cleaner and rag (that's right there close by) and do a quick clean. That way your bathrooms never get super-dirty because you are sort of 'always cleaning them'. I may not have time to clean the whole bathroom at one time, but with my supplies always close at hand I can clean the mirrors tonight(while waiting for the kids to brush their teeth), then clean the toilet  in the morning (while they are getting dressed), then clean the tub, etc etc etc. See how this works? the whole thing gets cleaned but in little increments so you don't even feel like you've spent time "slaving away cleaning" it.  :)

2. Put shelf liner paper on the top of any cabinets you have that don't go all the way to the ceiling.
You know the paper that has sticky stuff on the back that you can use to line your shelves and drawers with? That's the stuff I'm talking about. In fact I try to not even buy new rolls, I just mismatch all the old colors I have (no one will see it up there). The reason for doing it is to make it easier to clean. Have you ever tried to drag a dust rag across unfinished wood? It doesn't work. It leaves globs of dust behind and the wood is rough (no builder ever stains or sands that part of the cabinet so it never has a nice smooth finish like the rest of the cabinetry). That rough wood is what causes the problem. But if you line it with that shelf paper you now have a smooth surface which is super easy to dust and clean :)




3. Use gallon-sized ziploc bags to pack kids clothes for a trip.
I started this when my kids were about 5yrs and 6 months old. Now that they are 5 and 9, it doesn't work as well (their clothes are bigger and won't fit), but let me explain how it works and if you have kiddos under 5years I bet you'll find this is a really cool trick and a great idea.
When going on vacation I would pack each child's whole outfit for a day into a gallon-sized ziploc bag (pants, socks, top, undies, even a diaper). Then when we were traveling it was really easy to grap a bag from each girl's pile and that was their outfit for the day. It was also nice while my kids were in diapers to have all these extra ziploc bags on hand while traveling so that if we had a stinky diaper to change in the car we had a non-stinky place to put it, or if there was a diaper blow-out, the whole soiled outfit could go in a bag (again containing the smell AND the mess) until we could get to a place where it could be cleaned. Super convenient way to pack and travel with young ones!

4. Use old socks for dust rags.
I like this because I can put my whole hand inside the sock and it feels like my hand isn't getting as dirty while I'm dusting. Plus its really easy because then your whole hand becomes the cleaning tool, so you can get into little crevices and corners pretty quickly and easily.

5. Use decorative storage boxes to keep the kid's school papers and projects.
I put manila folders inside the boxes with the grade or year , then all the papers or crafts I want to save for that year go in that file in the box, which is stored on the top shelf of their closet. I try to get matching boxes but when I fill them and have to buy more that doesn't always happen, so I have a variety of pretty rectangle boxes that will keep all those cherished memories for us. I find that one that just fits a manila folder is fine for older grades, but that a really large one is better for pre-K and kindergarten because lots of their crafts at this age are on large pieces of paper that won't fit into the smaller box unless I fold them multiple times.

Well, that's all I have for today, hope some of these ideas where helpful to you :)