Focus On Another Friday - Makeover Your Pantry!

 Only the praise is my own.  The image and ideas are all property of DecorChick.


This is a genius idea!  I share with you a single image but the rest can be found on the home site.

Photo via DecorChick, linked below.

Decorchick made over her pantry and used Lazy Susans in the corners for an amazing spin on things!  For the full version, along with the before, during, and after photos of her pantry go check out her blog!

Meanwhile, word on the street is these aren't easy to make.  Here is where can learn how to get them.  Or, alternatively, why they are hard to make.

Who Wore This Last? Telling Sibling Wardrobes Apart

My boys, despite being 4 1/2 years apart, are nearly the same damn size.  Some things?  Are easy to tell apart when it comes time to sort their clothes and put them away.  Others?  Not so much.

If it is a size 8-10, it is the oldest.  A 6-7 belongs to the youngest.

But what about a medium?  A small medium is all the 4-year-old.  A larger medium is all the 9-year-old.

Or...

1 dot, for the 1st born, belongs to the oldest.  He outgrows it, it gets a 2nd dot, and it goes to the 2nd born, the little brother.

Dot?

Dot!

Why the hell not?

Grab a sharpie.

Add a dot.

Add a second dot once the oldest passes it on.

And with a quick glance, and never a second guess, you can tell what belongs to whom.

Done.

And with my love of the sharpie marker, of all sizes and colors, I'm not at a shortage of them, and love an excuse to use them creatively!

I squee with glee just looking at them online!

Look!

Now wipe up the drool.  There you go.

Go find one now, I assume you don't have to go buy one, and dot away!

(Why not names?  Because what will start as a T will have to get crossed out to become an L.  And 1 dot then adding a 2nd is just less work, less conspicuous, and takes up less room on what may be a small tag, or the inside collar.  Imagine if you have 4-5 kids all the same gender passing stuff down.  Yep, dots just take up less room, make more sense, and leave less to question.)

What Is That Smell And How To Lose It! Diaper Pail Demons

I've had 3 kids.  My youngest is 9 months and can fill a diaper pail in 3 days, and stink up the whole house with it in 1.

Yes, there are fancy shmancy diaper pails out there that cost roughly $30-40 for the pail, not so bad, but then you have to buy refills for it, at 20$ a box, just to make the thing functional.  That?  Is redonculous!

Sure, it masks the odors some.  But...

This

To hold it all.

And this

To mask it all.

Is all you really need.

Throw a garbage bag in to collect, of course.  Add in a dryer sheet.  Done.  If your baby is anything like my baby, you are emptying the thing at least twice a week.  The sheet can handle that.

I personally use Arm and Hammer mostly because it is baking soda based and baking soda is great at taking the odor out of the air.  I like the lavender scent for the extra cover.

Plus, the brand isn't that expensive at all!

So.  40$ for a pail and 20$ a pop for refills.

Or

15$ for a pail and 3$ for a ton of dryer sheets, which you can also use to freshen clothes.  Oh and a garbage bag of course.  Though, I imagine you have some anyway, yes?

Really, it's your call.  And if you have the cash to spend on a fancy poop collecting gadget, go for it.  But I spend enough on diapers.  I'm not blowing more than I have to on where I put them once used.

Chore Chart

The end all, be all way to know who does what around the house and to see it get done?  I do love me a good spreed sheet, is all I'm sayin'.

This is very much in the works.  A rather large change in the family dynamic and living situation is making this possible now.  And there are more changes to come.  So it will be a while yet before this is printed large and hung so we're accountable.  We need time to fine tune and then retune once things settle down.

Of course, along with a chore chart comes the number one family rule regarding the chart: The chart is just a guideline.  As work and stress loads shift, we are a team first!

Grocery Shopping Made Easy

Alright, I am an impulse grocery buyer.  An impulse grocery buyer who ends up not being able to buy all the basics sometimes, because I blew the budget else where.  Usually wandering the store, while hungry, not sure what we need.

So, I made a master list.

A list of all the basic necessities that we need to aim to keep in stock (milk) or like to have at least once a month (pot roast).  On the first of the month, I compare the list to what we have in the house already.  Mark off what we don't need or want and make sure the rest of the list is the first thing in the cart.  Any food budget left can go on whims and cravings.

My list is broken down by department, of course, and then in order of how we come upon them in the store we shop at.  The master list is 4 pages long.  It's nice not to have to search around for what we need aisle to aisle as we enter them.

And when we stick to it, life becomes much easier around here.  You don't want to see my boys when we run out of ketchup well before we can stock up on more!

Shopping List

I live paycheck-to-paycheck.  Which means I pretty much need to know on payday exactly what that check needs to cover besides bills.

I utilize the hell out of Google calendar for this.

Wait, google calendar?

Heck yes!

Not only do I have my payday marked but then I have an event called "check eaters" that hits every 2 weeks, on payday, where I keep an ongoing list of what I need.

The bottom of the page is the regular stuff that we are always needing at some point.  You know: diapers, toilet paper, shampoo.  Even if I don't need it out of the next paycheck, I'll need it out of the one that follows. Or the one after that.  Quick skim down the list assures I haven't forgotten something.  Nothing worse then doling out the funds just to realize one purchase to late, you forgot something that is otherwise obvious.  And usually important.  I'm looking at you laundry detergent!

Then the top of the page holds a list of what needs to come out of that exact check.

Sometimes there is even a middle list of the things that will be hitting the pocket book soon, but can technically wait a week.  If we have the cash now, might as well, if we don't it can wait.

A possible 4th list is for when a bonus is due to hit, because I get a bonus every 3 months because I rock like that, for the things that are less day to day like clothes for the kids, me, and such.  It has also been known to hold present ideas, and costs, for Birthdays and Christmas.

Yes I have a screen shot for you of my actual event that eats my paychecks.

Note, I have costs next to them so that at a quick glance we know what to budget.  I note the usual cost as I'm buying them and add a bit extra for cushion.  Also, I buy in bulk.  20$ at once for baby wipes gets me more and last me longer than 4$ every damn check.  No, I don't really spend that much on Kleenex unless it's cold and flu season.  But we do have 5 noses around here.  And yes, I do, er, owe the library that much.  A certain someone much shorter than me lost a movie for a lengthy period of time before it was tracked down.  As you can see, we are working on it.  Why am I explaining this to you?

Anyway, this has made life so much easier in knowing what needs bought on payday!

I'm Just Going To Say This

I have to put it out there.

It's a lot easier to find the radio station pre-set, dvd, or book you are looking for if they are in numerical or alphabetical order.

Every library, book store, and movie store in existence can't be wrong.  So you, my friend, are in the wrong if you find yourself searching for Jurassic Park among your X-men series instead of simply looking in the J's.

And no need to Dewey Decimal your book case's non-fiction.  We aren't that meticulous, are we?  Unless you have the DD System committed to memory or bookmarked on your computer, by title/subject is good enough.  Separate from the fiction, of course.  What are you, an animal?

Also, "The" never counts if it's the first job.  So "The Avengers" goes in the A's.  Don't argue.  My first job was shelving books at the library.

M'kay?

Speaking of Purse Organization

Alright, we all know a woman's purse is a bottomless pit of disarray that holds everything but (and sometimes including) the kitchen sink.

After years of just tossing stuff in and then having to dig for something later, or worse yet having something open and ruining you don't even what to know what, I got wise.

Ladies, it is so stupid simple.  I use one to hold lip stick and gloss.  (If one melts and oozes, they only have each other to hurt.)  One to hold tampons and other personal items such as my pill pack of pain med holding.  And a third to hold stain remover, nail clippers, and q-tips. (One of my OCD curiosities involves an obsessive need to take a q-tip to my ears.  I did admit to quirks, yes?)

The center section of my 3 section purse is zippered.  I toss all 3 sealable bags in, zip it up and then when I need something, I have 1 sandwich bag (its assigned bag) to dig through, verses to bag of holding that is a woman's purse.

Also.  Women?  You know how tampons like to lose their wrapper when in your purse too long?  I won't say this curses that, but it does help a lot.  Less friction caused by digging around and items shifting.

Oh.  And these aren't keeping your lunch fresh.  No need to go name brand.  The dollar store can hook you up if your don't already have these, OK?

Pill Pack On The Go!

There is nothing I take daily, but there is plenty I take as needed.  I live with chronic pain, and depending on where the pain is, and it's intensity, different types of pain meds do the job differently.  Some days it's even a Ibuprofen followed up by Tylenol 4 hours later, sort of day.  All these pain meds, never home: Do I throw them all together or drag along a million different bottles?

Heck no!

Look at that!  7 different slots that hold a few or many of 7 different pain pill options (Including two different strengths of Ibuprofen alone) and it fits easily in my purse, nothing to it!  Everything is separate, well contained, and compact!

Nothing to it, yet it took me an embarrassing long amount of time to stumble upon what I now find so obvious!

Coworker has a headache?  They know where to come!  I bring out the pill pack and keep the prescriptions to myself but they have their choice of over the counter!

Now all you have to do is be able to keep track of what is what based on sight.  I can't help you there.  Unless you show me the pill, of course.

Aleve anyone?

All Hail White Vinegar!

In the last week I have used vinegar to:

• Remove the odor from clothes created by a child who doesn't always stay dry at night
• Remove rust, soap, and general gunk build-up from chrome bathroom accessories
• Mildew control in the bathtub and on the bathmat
• Remove build-up inside a nasty dishwasher
• Sanitize the inside of my washing machine
• Neutralize and sanitize a pile of my daughter's binkies (They sat in dish soap too long and started to take on that smell as rubber tends to do.)
• My favorite travel coffee mugs are NOT dishwasher safe.  Sure, the soap cleans them but there is always the smell of coffee that lingers.  Even to the point of smelling spoiled.  Vinegar!

That list just touches on the many things you can use vinegar for!  The acid nature cuts through crud.  It's neutralizes about any odor.  And it sanitized to boot!  Best of all?  A large bottle is under 5$ and last, well, that depends on how crazy you go, now doesn't it. But at 5$ a pop, you can afford to go crazy cleaning!

Paper Clips, Rubberbands, and Gadgets Oh My!

See this?

It's main function is to hold thread.  Or Hotwheel cars.  Sort of like this.

Or this.

Have a desk drawer full of paper clips, rubber bands, push pins, and other little do-dads you are trying to get under control?

My boys used one of these back when their hot wheel colection was managable.  It didn't take long, ebtween the 2 of them, for one small little organizer to become pointless.

I nabbed it.

I brought it to work.

I got raised eyebrows.

But it didn't take long before the realization of how useful something so simple was.

OCD? Not always a bad thing!

Might add: with it being two sided, use the bottom for stuff you aren't needing to grab quick, shut it, and fill the top with stuff you need all the time.  Keep the lid off for a quick grab, but near by to that flipping it over to get into the bottom isn't too much hassle.

Oh.  And the long section?  Perfectly long enough to hold a few strips of staples ready to load and go!  And yes, it can even hold pens.  Staples on the bottom half, pens on top.

You're welcome!