Household Tips Archives - Page 75 of 118

Links Worth Sharing – Week of January 11, 2014

Jan 11 | Household Tips, Links Worth Sharing

Here are the interesting links I came across on my travels around the web this week! Enjoy and have a great weekend!

How to Make Homemade Dryer Sheets

Jan 10 | Household Tips, Cleaning, Easy DIY

Learn How to Make Your Own Dryer Sheets

Homemade dryer sheets have answered one of my laundry conundrums. For the longest time I was using plain white vinegar as a fabric softener in the wash, but I started to miss having that fresh smell that store bought fabric softeners provided. So, I thought I'd try my hand at creating my own homemade dryer sheets! The bonus in my mind, is that I'm still not using harsh chemicals to scent my laundry which is perfect for my family!

Here's how to make homemade dryer sheets:

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

a jar with a lid
1 cup white vinegar
20 drops of essential oil
several "rags" (ripped up t-shirts, baby cloths)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Place your rags into your jar.
Pour 1 cup of white vinegar and 20 drops of essential oil over top the rags.
Put the lid on the jar and shake it up!
Each time you put a load of laundry into the dryer, take a rag out of the jar and put it in with the laundry.
Dry as you would normally.

For my homemade dryer sheets, I've been using old baby cloths and a few rags that I cut from stained baby clothing. I also used lavender essential oil, but next time I make a batch I'll add 10 drops of vanilla and 10 drops of lavender!

Be sure to check out this post explaining how I clean my whole house with homemade cleaners!

What's one store bought item that you've replaced with a homemade version?

Get Organized in January – Assess your Storage Containers

Jan 8 | Household Tips

Take time today to assess your storage container situation to help you Get Organized in January.

Storage containers can be expensive if you have to buy them new. So take time today to assess your storage container situation to help you Get Organized in January. Take a look around at the things you already own that may be useful for storing things:

Glass jars (canning jars, spice jars, baby food jars etc.)
Plastic grocery bags. Use these to help seal freezer foods
Tins. Thinner tins such as cookie tins and chocolate tins can be used to store first aid items, sewing items and more. Coffee tins would be great for pens.
Cereal boxes. These work well for magazine and paper storage
Plastic buckets. For example, ice cream buckets!
Shoe boxes. Or any cardboard box in good condition for that matter.
Unused shelves
Baskets. Do you have any empty wicker or fabric baskets?
Old luggage/travel trunks. Decorative luggage and trunks can serve a dual purpose by storing out of season items while providing something neat to look at.

Here are some more affordable storage container solutions if you’re having troubles finding anything:

Make your own fabric bins
Look in Dollar stores
Look in Thrift stores
Shop garage sales
London Drugs. They quite often have faux suede decorative boxes that go on sale for about $2.99 which are great for holding magazines, DVD’s, CD’s and more.

What are some things around the house that are great for storing items that might not be on the list?

Coupon Organization

Jan 6 | Household Tips

Last week, I organized my coupons. Took out the expired ones, clipped the new ones, then organized them into my binder system.

If you’re following along with the Get Organized in January event you may be interested in reading this How to Organize Coupons post I wrote last year. It details several different systems and ideas that may work for your coupon stash!

How do you organize your coupons? Will you be trying out a new system this year?

Get Organized in January – Progress Update #1

Jan 4 | Household Tips

get organized in january

I’m back with the first update on my organization progress! I managed to get everything finished that I set out to do this week.

I started out with purging my books and magazines:

books purge

These are the books that will be leaving our house. Nearly a whole box! I cut my ties with some books that haven’t been touched in years or ever.

magazines purge

And the magazines that have left. Not too many! I seem to be getting better at not accumulating magazines.

box

Here’s the box that any magazines will go into. Every time it’s full, I’ve decided to purge some magazines to make room for any new ones that may land in my hands, rather then finding another box to fill.

The toys this year were a bit tricky. Sienna doesn’t have what I would call a lot of toys, but they still take up a corner of our living room and a couple of baskets. I’ve been putting things away in storage as she out grows them. I just can’t part with them for good in case a #2 comes along or we have little visitors!

toys

toy basket

This basket sits on our bookshelf where our CD player used to live (sold it!).

little toys

Her little figurine/toy phones/etc. live in this box which has a spot in our TV stand.

Coupons. I actually started this on December 30 because I wanted to use any full value coupons I had left! I cut and sorted the coupons into my binder system.

Guess what? Since I organized my coupons, that means you can expect to see a coupon giveaway on Monday with all of the coupons pictured below! (and more!)

coupon giveaway