31 bags in 31 days

This is my kitchen utensil drawer.  Check out all of those whisks!  Who needs that many whisks?  How did I even get all of those?!

I've seen this idea floating around on the internet for a while now and thought it was time I give it a try too.  The idea is that everyday for 31 days (or however many you want/need) you clean out one small area of your house and either throw away or give away a bag's worth of stuff.  My goal is going to be to quickly go through that day's area and purge.  It's going to be hard for me to not re-organize everything after that, but I know that if I do that, it will turn into a big project and then I probably won't get to all the areas.  I'm also going to be traveling for two weeks, right in the middle of this project.  And while I'm sure people would just love for me to go through and get rid of their things for them, I'll be on vacation.  So I'll start it up when I get back.  Some of these projects are bigger than others (cough, cough....my closet) so I won't necessarily go in order, but I'll just do the area that I can get to that day.

1. pantry

2. fridge

3. bottom tech center drawer

4. utensil drawers

5. kitchen cabinets

6. cook books

7. under the kitchen sink

8. Jackson's toys

9. basement closets

10. bar area

11. office closet

12. craft supplies

13. linen closet

14. boys bathroom under cabinet

15. laundry room

16. Gavin's closet

17. Jackson' closet

18. boy's books

19. Jackson's room

20. bedroom armoire

21. nightstand

22. shoes

23. closet shelves

24. hanging clothes

25. purses

26. accessories

27. bathroom under cabinets

28. bathroom drawers

29. medicine cabinet

30. coat closet
31. china cabinet

So, is anyone brave enough to do this project with me?

Mile High Momday: Tips and Tricks!

For today's Mile High Momday, I thought I'd share with you some household tips and tricks I've accumulated.  Many of these have come from my mom, and some of them from the internet.  I didn't invent any of these things, I just use them, and thought you'd like to use them too! 

Stain Remover:

My mom told me about this one.  I don't know where she heard it, or maybe she just made it up herself, but it's always worked for me!  Pile some Cascade dishwasher detergent (the powder kind) on the stain, and then spray it with Shout stain remover.  Take an old toothbrush and make a paste out of it and let it sit on the stain for a while.  After several minutes take your toothbrush and run it under water and scrub the stain.  Work it until the stain comes out.  You might have to repeat this process a couple times, but it will work.  I've gotten ink, tomato stains, blood and everything else you could think of out of clothes with this recipe.  Just be sure to do it before you wash it, or else the stain will set in the clothes.  If that happens, you're on your own!

Granite Cleaner:

I found this recipe online and it's what I've used for several years.  I got so tired of spending an arm and a leg for some specialty granite cleaner.  This one is super cheap to make and works just as well!  You'll need:

     *Quart spray bottle

     *Three drops of Dawn dish detergent

     *1/4 Cup rubbing alcohol

     *Lavender or another scent of your choice (optional)

Pour 1/4 Cup rubbing alcohol into the spray bottle, then add the dawn.  Give it a little swish to mix it.  Then slowly fill the bottle with water.  (You don't want to make the mixture sudsy.)  You can add a few drops of essential oil to make it smell nice, if you'd like.  

Rinse Aid:

I learned this one at the blogging conference I attended, from Amy at The Motherload.  Use Vinegar as a rinse aid in your dishwasher instead of those more pricey name brand ones.  Just pour the vinegar into the rinse aid compartment!

Cloudy Drinking Glasses:

Our dishwasher isn't very good and it's constantly leaving our glasses cloudy.  I was ready to throw them away, and then my mom came to visit.  She soaked them in vinegar for hours and they came out looking new again!

Candle Wax:

If you get candle wax in your carpet or fabric, let it cool, then scrape away as much as you can.  Then take a paper bag and put it over the wax and run a warm iron over the bag.  This will melt the wax right on to the bag and off of your fabric.  Move the bag around so that you are always using a clean section.  

George Foreman Grills:

We had a George Foreman grill that we used constantly, especially in college.  It got so gross and was such a pain to clean that we eventually threw it away.  My mom got us another one this past Christmas (it's not actually George Foreman brand) with removable plates for easier cleaning.  Had I known this little trick before we might not have had to replace it in the first place!

After you're finished cooking, unplug the grill and put a wet paper towel on each of the cooking surfaces.  Let it sit there for several minutes.  It should be much easier to wipe clean after this!

Smashed Down Carpet:

You know when you move your furniture and it leaves dents in the carpet where it was?  To get the carpet standing up again, put an ice cube in the dent.  Let it melt and the carpet will go back up!

Before you wear a new garment for the first time, put a little bit of clear nail polish on the front and backs of the buttons, over the thread.  This will help to keep them from popping off later.  (Usually at a really inappropriate and embarrassing time!)

Put fabric softener sheets in your dresser drawers and linen closet.  This will keep your clothes smelling fresh for weeks!

What helpful household tips and tricks do you use?

P.S. Make sure you use common sense when using these tips.  Try the stain remover in an inconspicuous spot before hand, same with the granite cleaner.  As a matter of fact, using common sense is a good rule, for life in general.  Not just for cleaning.

P.P.S.  Posting on Monday is really hard with  my schedule!

 

Mail Crime

On a lighter note, I've been nesting working on organizing and simplifying our house lately. There are three areas of our house that make me absolutely crazy because we can't seem to keep them organized. One is our paperwork/mail system. Another is the garage. And the last is our laundry. Now, I don't want to point any fingers. However, two of those areas of the house I have very little control of. My husband deals with almost all of our finances (because it's either that, or death) and we have a lot of bills and paperwork that come into our house. We have six properties that we own, five of which we rent out. So that's six sets of utilities. Five sets of rents coming in. Four mortgages going out (one of our units is a tri-plex). Plus all of the paperwork for the property management company we hire. And just our regular bills for our personal lives too.

And partly because of these properties, and partly because he just really really like them, he also has a lot (I mean A LOT) of tools that take up a lot of space in our garage. It's great that he is willing and able to do most of the repairs around our house and our rentals. It has saved us SO much money. But this means that there are tons of tools everywhere. We've tried organizing the garage before, and have been successful, until something happens where we have to actually move things around. Like having a garage sale or a big home project. Then it all gets messy again. It's very frustrating. As far as the mail goes, we've never had a very good system. It's always just been a stack of papers on our kitchen tech center.

So, I've taken on these two projects recently. The laundry still needs a lot of work, but we aren't wearing dirty clothes or anything, and it's easier to hide dirty laundry (no pun intended) than to hide a messy garage and bills everywhere. So let's get into how I organized our mail system.

Like I said before, we've never had a good system for our mail. Typically it goes something like this.
1) The mail comes into the house and is plopped on the kitchen counter.
2) An initial sort is done for who's is who's, and three stacks are made. Mine, Eric's, and random stuff for nobody, like ads and coupons.
3) I usually ignore anything that doesn't look like a greeting card, money, or an invitation to something fun. I won't deny that I haven't contributed a little to this mail mess, however, I don't get much mail. It's mostly junk, and the two things that I'm responsible to pay on a monthly basis are online.
4) Eric goes through his mountain of mail and kinda sorta sorts it into piles that I have no idea what they mean. There is usually a trash pile, and then three or four other piles that I don't dare touch. Usually one on the kitchen table, one on the counter, one on the tech center. Like a mail explosion, of sorts.
5) That's where the mail sits until one of us moves it weeks later. After a couple weeks of random piles, I usually get frustrated and at least take all of the little piles and put them into one big pile on the tech center. And that big pile grows and grows until it's falling over.

Then another pile starts beside it.

This is not a very effective system. I've known for a long time that we needed to get this under control, but either A) lacked the motivation to actually do something about it or B) let my perfectionism get the best of me because I only wanted to do it in the way that I felt was right.

What I really wanted to do was get a beautiful piece of furniture. I envisioned a tall cherry wood book case with nice glass doors that closed and perfect little matching baskets on the shelves. One basket for each of our bills. Larger baskets to help organize some of Jackson's crafty things. Baskets for magazines. Baskets for catalogs. Baskets for everything you could imagine. But, you know, bookshelves and baskets cost money. Money that we really shouldn't spend. And for the sake of simplifying our house, spending money on something like this seems a little counter productive. My motivation and frustration with our current "system" was overtaking me. So I knew I needed to figure out a free alternative. I looked around our house for areas and things I could reorganize and re-purpose. I found that the broom closet in our kitchen could be reorganized for sure. I've recently switched all of our cleaning supplies over to Melaleuca brand, and therefore didn't need a lot of the stuff I had in there. And one of the bonuses of Melaleuca is that it also saves on space, by using concentrates. (I really like the stuff, BTW) Plus, the broom closet is a great location, given that it's in the kitchen, which is the scene of our mail crime, and there is a door on the closet so I don't have to constantly look at our bills. I also found a possible solution in our coat closet. I've used this shoe organizer on the top shelf to organize our hats, gloves and scarves. It worked well as a winter accessory organizer, but truth be told, we usually used the same scarves, hats and gloves all winter long and the other stuff just sat in there, well organized, yes, but unused. I think I could be just as happy going through all of them, giving away what we don't regularly use, and storing the rest in clear plastic containers. Then I could pull the shoe organizer and use it as my mail organizer. There weren't as many compartments as I was hoping, so that meant I'd have to double or triple up on some of the bill categories. But it was free, and it fit in the broom closet, so I was willing to give it a shot.

I started the process by going through the broom closet. I took out all of the cleaning supplies and got rid of a large majority of things. I also moved the big bin of dog food to a spot on the bottom of our pantry that wasn't really being used. That cleared enough space for the organizer and a shelf below it for other items that needed a new home. (Jackson's crafts, note paper, magazines)

Then I took the old winter-accessory-organizer-soon-to-be-mail-organizer and emptied it out. (Now I have to re-organize that closet, but I'll get to that another day)

Now the real work started. I sorted through our many giant piles of mail and put them into piles on our kitchen island. I had more piles than compartments in the organizer, so I had to make some adjustments and merge some of the categories. I labeled the organizer with post-its. I wanted to live with the system for a bit before breaking out the more permanent label maker. I'm not sure I have accounted for absolutely everything that comes into our house yet. (I can tell you that I have a "misc." compartment and it's quickly filling up, so I'm sure adjustments are eminent.) I found a couple of bigger plastic containers in Jackson's old room/new baby's nursery that I'll probably have to replace later, to organize things on the lower shelf, and I hung an old dry erase board (that I already had just sitting in storage) on the door, to write down important notes or bills that are not accounted for in our monthly budget. (Like some of the medical bills I'm receiving now)
I finished the project off by re-organizing the tech center in the kitchen, now that all of those pesky piles were gone. I went through all of the drawers, sorted everything, threw away a lot of stuff, and made it a better use of space for us.


Our new mail organizer has been in effect for about three weeks now, and so far so good. Although not *all* of us have been effectively using it, it's much easier for me to take the random piles strewn about and sort through them and put them in their proper home. And as nice as it would be for everyone who lived in this house to be super organized, that's just not the case. And I guess shouldn't put my "issues" onto others anyway. But as long as we have a system that works for at least one of us, that's a huge improvement.

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Clickety-Clack Bouncer













Steam and Sweep

Steam and Sweep

I've mentioned it before, but I really hate cleaning. I like to have a clean house though, so I do it. For the most part. Usually. But I'm always looking for ways to make it easier and simpler. I saw a commercial for the Bissell Steam and Sweep hard floor cleaner before Christmas and asked my mom for it for Christmas. Of course, she got it for me, cause she's just as much of a sucker for cleaning stuff as I am. It's essentially a vacuum and steam mop all in one device. The theory is that it cuts down your floor cleaning time by making a two step process (vacuuming then mopping) into a one step process. I read the reviews, and decided that it would be worth a try. My entire main floor is hard floor, some cherry wood and some tile, and it takes forever to clean. The main floor is the only floor the dogs are allowed on, as well as where the three entrances to our house are, so it gets extra super duper dirty, extra super duper fast. I've had the Steam and Sweep for about 4 months now and have used it a bunch of times so I feel like I can give a pretty fair review.

Pros:
*It really does cut back on cleaning time. I can do my entire main floor in less than 30 minutes.
*It only uses water, so you don't have to worry about leaving sticky residue or chemicals on the floor. I feel much better about cleaning my floors with steaming hot water than a cleaning solution that can cause my family harm and leaves a gross residue on the hard woods that only attracts more dirt.
*It does a decent job cleaning.
*It can sanitize the floor.
*It's lightweight and small so using it and storing it isn't a problem.
*I only have to fill the water tank at the beginning of cleaning. It lasts the whole floor, and I've never run out of water half way through the job.

Cons:
*The way that it's designed, the vacuum area is on the front of the machine and the mop is on the back, making it almost impossible to mop a corner. Even if you turn the machine around and mop backwards. I usually have to go back with a wet rag and clean the corners. Or I just let them go and have dirty corners. (Honestly, it's usually the latter)
*Sure, it sanitizes, if you hold it in one spot for 15 seconds. It would take me three days to sanitize my floor 4 inches and 15 seconds at a time. So I normally only sanitize spots that need it and do a general clean everywhere else.
*It's really only for maintenance. It's not so great if you let the floor get really dirty.
*Whenever you steam something smelly (like dog smell), it gets smellier for a while. So although my floors are much cleaner, it can take a couple hours to get that "steamed dog" aroma out of the house, which I don't love. I still think it's better than that masked "fake clean" smell of most household cleaners though, so I can live with it. I know that it's clean. It doesn't have to smell like pine trees to prove to me that it's clean. I read once that true clean doesn't have a smell, so I try to stick with that rule as much as possible.

Review: This is definitely worth the money, especially if you have as much hard floor as me. Is it the same as hands and knees mopping? No. Nothing compares to hands and knees mopping. And if there is something out there that does, let me know cause I'm SO buying it! It's a major time saver and does an good job for what I need it to do.

*Oh, BTW, although it probably sounds like it, this isn't some sort of paid advertisement for Bissell. Just an honest review of a product that my mom paid full price for.

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I'd rather be











Space Bags

Summer Wardrobe

Last weekend, there was a baby and kids consignment sale (they were consigning baby and kid items, not the actual babies themselves) put on by a local mother's group. It's where I got the clickety-clack bouncy seat. Some people might be turned off by used kids clothing. I have to admit that before I had Jackson, I thought I'd never buy used clothes for him either. That is until I packed away tubs filled with clothes he wore once or never when he grew out of his newborn clothes within the first few weeks he was born. What a waste of money. Ever since then, I've filled his wardrobe with about 75% consigned clothes. I still get him the occasional Old Navy outfit, because I really like the adjustable waistbands they offer for my skinny boy. But for the most part, I buy used. I also find that I get a better quality of clothing when I buy used, not to mention the price. I'm kind of picky about what consignment sales I go to and what I buy there. It has to be in good shape, and no stains or tears. This year, I spent $76.80 at the sale and this is what I bought.
Jackson got

13 short sleeved shirts

4 long sleeved shirts
4 sweaters/sweat shirts

11 pairs of shorts

4 pairs of PJs

The new baby got

3 rompers

3 pairs of pants

8 shirts

6 pairs of PJs

2 hats
1 bib

1 snow suit

And I got a couple maternity things for myself
3 shirts
2 pairs of shorts

I'm rather proud of myself for getting so much at such a reasonable price!

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Cloth Diapers

I'm ready

Perhaps it's the nesting instinct you get when you are pregnant, or maybe it's because I have the mother I do, but for the past several months I've had an insatiable urge to simplify our house. I'm mostly referring to the stuff in our house, but also the way our house is run. I've always been a rather simple girl. My wardrobe, although abundant, is simple. My sense of humor, although dirty, is simple. My decorating style is simple. My approach to motherhood is simple. Yet, WE HAVE SO MUCH CRAP! Do you know how many sets of mixing bowls we have? Four. Four SETS. Not four bowls. And stored in those four sets of mixing bowls? I have two sets of measuring cups. You know how many bathing suits I have in my closet? Yeah, I don't know either. But I can promise you it's more than I need and more than I can ever wear. I seriously have my swim team suit from middle school stashed away in there! We have a coat closet for the leftover coats in our coat closet. I have three bedding sets for our one bed. Not three sets of sheets, but three entire SETS. Like duvet cover, shams, bed skirt. The whole package. I've used the same set for over three years now, while the other two have sat in the linen closet because they no longer match the room, now that we've painted it. For Christmas/Hanukkah, my in-laws got us a new set of everyday plates. I already had two sets (one from our first house that matched that decor, and one from this house, that matched this decor, but the plates were very chipped and cracked). Those old plates are sitting, packed away in the garage, ready to be sold. You know the last time I even thought about those plates? The day I packed them away and put them in the garage. I completely forgot about them! That's how important they are to me! At first glance, walking into our house, you'd never know how much unnecessary crap we have. It's kept rather clean and simple. But one look into our closets or our garage will tell you the truth. It's like Monica's secret closet on Friends. Through the years we have collected more than we've gotten rid of. We've inherited items from parents and grandparents. We've gotten wedding gifts. We've spoiled ourselves with meaningless kitchen appliances. (I'm looking at YOU Dairy Queen Blizzard maker!)

I think you get the point. We have too much crap. So, I'm getting rid of it! I'm ready for my closets to match the rest of the house. And I'm going to tell you about it as I go. So hang on. This could get interesting........

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A minimalist or middleist

A minimalist, or a middleist?

Lately I've been reading several blogs (like this one, this one, and this one) that I've stumbled across pertaining to living a minimalist lifestyle. It's not something I've sought out, but I've just come across them by reading other blogs about money saving, coupon clipping and budgeting. And I must say, I'm rather intrigued by this lifestyle. I don't know if I'm up for it though, but I don't know that I'm NOT. Most of these families that I've read about have one or no cars, have washing machines, but not dryers, they compost and recycle like crazy, grow their own gardens, only have a few articles of clothing, things like that. I'm all about saving money, and their are definitely certain aspects that I think are totally doable for us. But there are certain things that I'm just not willing to give up. (Like my dryer)

I'm fairly certain I'm going to give cloth diapering a try with this new baby. Some people tell me I'm nuts, some tell me it's no harder than disposables, just a load every 2 or 3 days in the washer. (Cloth diapers have come a LONG way, BTW. We aren't talking about our mom's cloth diapers. No folding diapers, pinning them and separate rubber pants. No soaking them in gross and smelly buckets. Just change your baby and put the dirty diaper in a "wet bag" and when it comes time to wash, you just throw all of the diapers, bag and all, in the washer, then the dryer) Cloth diapers could save up to $1000 a year, not to mention the toll disposables pay on landfills.



Food is another aspect where I could totally live a minimalist lifestyle. We really already do. We are very good about always eating in, and making our own meals (although we don't really go the organic route just yet). I made all of Jackson's baby food myself. (and will for baby #2 also) It saved SO much money and really wasn't difficult. We don't often buy snacks or other non-necessities. We make a grocery list and stick to it.
Something that I don't think I could change would be giving up my car. Being stuck at home is like a nightmare come to life. And with Eric gone from about 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day, I really would be stuck at home. I don't live in a big city so walking places wouldn't be an option. Could I possibly downsize my car? Sure. And I'm willing to do so, if I need to.
What I'm not willing to do is have an unreliable car. Eric's truck is already so unreliable, we need at least one that we can depend on.


I'm also not willing to give up my vacations. Usually that just means going back to Ohio to visit friends and family, but every once in a while it means going on a real vacation. A cruise or a trip to Hawaii. To me, vacationing is why I work on saving money. It's what I live for. (aside from family, of course) And vacations don't always have to cost a lot of money. It could be a quick trip to the mountains, or in the case of a possible trip to Vegas coming up, Eric is going to a convention there, which is totally covered by his job. His flight, hotel room, and food are paid for (not to mention that he'll get paid while he's there) so all we'd have to pay for would be my flight and food. Granted, I'll be 6 months pregnant by that time, and everything you can do in Vegas is awkward when obviously pregnant. (except for the buffets....duh!) But it's still a vacation. With a pool. And warm weather. So I'll take it. Even if I do get nasty looks with my big belly in a bikini.

Something else I've seen these families do is to minimize their clothing. This would go into the "possible but not likely" category. I saw one post where they are challenging themselves to only have 33 articles of clothing, including accessories. I think undergarments weren't in the count, or sleep wear. This girl had one sweatshirt! ONE?! Yeah, that's just not possible. I live in those things. So, while I can see the value in this I'm not sure I could do it. Especially for me, right now. I'm changing size every day and have no idea what I'll fit into from one day to the next. And in a couple months I won't fit into anything I currently do. So for me to go and get rid of clothes that don't fit or that I'm not wearing isn't going to work. I also have no idea what will fit after I have the baby either. Last time it took almost 18 months for my pelvis to finally shift back into it's pre-baby place. Something I am doing is not buying any more maternity clothes this time. (Okay, maybe one thing for special occasions) I still have my old clothes and I've had a couple friends give or let me borrow their maternity clothes, so I really don't need anything. But I think all pregnant women out there have discovered that you can live off of just a few outfits. Those last couple months there are usually only a few things that fit you anymore, but you refuse to go out and buy anything more. (rich moms are excluded from this rule) So, you just keep rotating those five (or however many) outfits for a couple months. It certainly makes laundry easier. And deciding what to wear easier. And it proves that minimizing your clothing can work, it's just a matter of if you want to make it work.
I had a whole gianormous paragraph here about why it's better (financially) for us to stay in our current house, instead of downsizing. It included a lengthy market analysis of our neighborhood and market trends, as well as a run down of our personal and financial goals. But in the end I think it's just better to leave it as "while we'd like to downsize to a smaller house on lots of land, it's not a smart move for us today". Then call it a day.

To end this blog and make it even longer and with even more pictures here's a cute picture of a baby pug:


And what's cuter than a baby pug? My baby! (My favorite picture of Jackson BTW)

And what's even cuter than a baby and a baby pug? A baby riding a pug!

How low can you go?

I haven't been "working" for several months now. By "working" I mean getting a regular pay check. Of course it's tons of work to be a 24/7 mom, but unfortunately, toddler kisses don't buy groceries. And I DO have a new build real estate deal in the works, and have for the last several months, but it will probably be several more months before I get a commission from that. So, that leaves me with, exactly, ZERO dollars. Eric works, but we've made our lifestyle so that his check pays for the mortgage, all of the bills, and food. That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room in the budget for extras. I don't need a lot of extras. None of us do. But sometimes "extras" become necessities. While I'm "not working" I'm trying to make it my job to find money. Either by saving money, or making money. I have my etsy site that is giving me a teeny tiny bit of extra money here and there. I also have been trying to find a kiddo to watch out of the house, and have my feelers out for part time jobs that wouldn't involve sending Jackson to day care (which is clearly not in the budget). Our spending is pretty much down to zero on a daily basis. We eat in all the time. Eric packs lunches everyday. I rarely leave the house in the car to save on gas money. And Jackson is FINALLY potty trained, so diapers (except for night time) aren't an issue anymore. So, I'm asking YOU. What do you do to save money or make extra money here and there? Are you a coupon clipper? Are you a one car household? Have you stopped eating out? Do you sell your rarely used items on Craigslist? For me, finding ways to save money is almost fun, like a game. (And anyone who's ever played a game with me knows how competitive I am.) Let's help each other out and see where we can find money that didn't exist before!