Designate a High Closet Shelf for Temporary Housing of Items

When you have little ones, there is going to have to be a toy jail or other high up out of reach shelf to place items that must be kept from little ones hands. The last time we moved we had a two year old and the conflicting interest of getting moved in. You know how it is, we were getting pictures hung, painting rooms, hanging shelves, etc. So screwdrivers, levels and other items that we didn’t want our 2 year old to get his hands on ended up on whatever high shelf we could find at the moment. Then when we started another project we had to waste quite a bit of time going around the house checking all the high places to find the tools. Now some things end up high when our kids fight over toys or start to beat another sibling with an object. Generally our fireplace mantel is our designated shelf but sometimes it bugs me that it isn’t more hidden. I suppose it gets me to put the items away sooner than if the shelf was tucked away in a closet. Either way, a designated closet shelf can be the keeper of items that you don’t want little hands to get a hold of or those items that you are using but got interrupted using and didn’t have time to put back in their proper place. This way you have only one place to look for your lost screwdriver and one place to look for those odds and ends that need to be placed back in their proper homes. This can be useful even for households without little ones. If you designate a closet shelf area for such things somewhere on each floor in your home then you will probably spend less time hunting for those things that you didn’t have time to put back.

Making Time for Friends by “Efficientizing” a Visit

I find that this time of year has me missing friends but I struggle to find the time for a nice visit. Everyone that I know with young kids has a pretty hectic schedule and it seems that everyone is going in different directions. However, if you can multi-task a visit with a good friend you both may be more likely to make it happen. We recently had two new neighbors move in on our street. Yesterday a neighbor across the street who I just love but don’t get to see enough came over and we made brownies and took them to each of the two new neighbors to introduce ourselves and our kids. We got to visit and welcome the new neighbors together.
I have also made dates with friends to organize their kitchen and attic (which I love to do) and not only did we get a task done but we spent some quality time together. Sometimes I’ll just tell a friend to “swing by one your way to Target and chat with me while I fold laundry.” If you put it out there with the invite then it is understood that you’ll be tasking during the visit so no one cares. There are parties that couple friends of mine will hopefully hold every year which I love that is along this line. Meg has a “Christmas Card Party” where everyone brings their Christmas cards to address and stuff and stamp. It give you a due date to get your cards which is nice but one gal didn’t have her cards ready so she brought nail polish and did her nails instead while we did our cards and another didn’t have her cards yet but brought envelopes to address that she put her cards in later. That’s really thinking! My friend Sue held her first annual (hint Sue) Christmas gift wrapping party. This had to be done with a small group of course because of the space constraints. I think there were 6 or 7 of us. It was so fun to see the other gifts and to chat while getting a bunch of gifts wrapped. It was worth hauling in laundry baskets of wrapping paper and presents.

I have also gotten together with a friend to get some freezer meals assembled. Anne and I did this before she had baby #3. We each planned the grocery shopping, met at my house, did the meal prep and exchanged grocery money to even out the bill. Another thing to do for a friend who just had a baby is to tell her that you’ll come over and fold a load of laundry or sweep the floors or something while she nurses or just demand that she give you a task that would be helpful. Heck anytime you can plan to swap floor cleaning or some other daunting household task. It goes super fast with two people on their hands and knees and then you can get the other person’s house the next time and your little ones will be preoccupied with playing together. Of course maybe some of these type of tasks is left only to close friends. I have had a very good friend offer to come and paint a room with me. Now that is friendship!

There are still a bunch of friends I would like to see soon so I am considering having a little no reason party in February or March but first I might think about what I can do to “efficientize” the party. Any ideas now that the Christmas season is over?

Extraordinary Uses for Binders

Binders can organize so many things. If you have some shelf real estate to plop them on they are so accessible and have so much potential. Of course there are obvious uses for binders. I use several for recipes. I have one binder labeled “Culinary Experiments” (recipes I have not yet tried but intend to), another “Culinary Collections” (the tried and true recipes), and one for “Desserts and Breads.” I don’t get bogged down with details like cutting and pasting recipes. I just slide cardstock in clear protector sheets and put the cut out recipes on top so they are easier to read. I don’t paste or anything, that way if my Culinary Experiment recipe is a success I can easily slide it out and move it to the Culinary Collections binder.

I used to enjoy browsing through home magazines (who has time for that now with three kids?) and I would always tear out a picture of something that I really liked. I have a “Home Ideas” binder that includes several categories of my magazine tear outs. The tabs include “Architecture,” “Gardening,” “Decorating Projects,” and “Gift Ideas.” The binder came in very handy when we moved into our untouched 1970s house that was in terrible need of a new kitchen. I had collected pictures of kitchens that I liked for years and even though I didn’t know exactly why I liked the pictures, it gave the cabinet makers a place to start when trying to figure out what we wanted.

The best housewarming gift ever given to us was a binder labeled Menus. Several years ago we moved from the east coast to the Midwest when I was 8 months pregnant. A friend of ours drove around our new town before we arrived and gathered take out menus. Not only did she put the menus in clear protector sheets in a binder that was cleverly decorated in old photos but she even categorized the menus by food type: Italian, Chinese, Sandwich Places, etc. This binder is a permanent fixture in our house.

My most recent binder creation of a couple years ago is labeled “Greeting Cards.” In the front I have a sheet that lists everyone’s birthdays by month and I included greeting card holidays like mother’s day and father’s day by month. Behind that sheet I have 17 clear protector pocket sheets. Each clear pocket is labeled with my handy dandy label maker at the top right hand corner. The first twelve are labeled the months of the year, then there are clear pockets for blank cards, generic birthday cards (those that aren’t for anyone specific), get well cars, sympathy cards and thank you cards. So, you know how sometimes you will be looking for a birthday card for Amy and as you are reading them you come across the perfect card for Jim? Well now I can get the perfect card that I found for Jim even though his birthday isn’t for another 10 months because I have somewhere to put it that I know I will find it again. I’ll put it in my October pocket. For some reason card shopping is one of the most challenging things to shop for with my kids. They have no patience for me to pick out the perfect card and if they aren’t restrained in a shopping cart they love to run down the card isle and pull them out and destroy any card organization the store has in place.

I use binders when we go home to the east coast to visit family. I print out the phone numbers to our friends and family out east as well as favorite restaurants that we want to visit and phone numbers of our neighbors in case we would need to check up on something back home. I include maps, activities for kids and the hours of the various establishments we hope to visit and I keep our receipts in one of the clear protector sheets with a tally sheet so we can stay within our vacation budget.

I know there are many more ways to use a simple binder with clear protector sheets to organize various things. I have several empty binders waiting to be filled.

Most Frugal Household Cleaning Tip

Vinegar Water
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle with reusable cloth rags
Vinegar Water in a spray bottle with reusable cloth rags with children doing the cleaning

Vinegar is a natural disinfectant. It will not contaminate your food, your pets or your children. It is safe, effective, environmentally friendly, disinfecting and most of all totally frugal.

**For my wood floors and painted or finished wood I use 1 part vinegar to 16-18 parts water (or for my spray bottle that's 1/4 cup vinegar to 4 cups water). I am told that any higher ratio may take the shine out of such finishes.