Household Tips

Fresh lemon will remove onion scent from your hands, it does a pretty good job on garlic smell, too.
Others say rubbing your hands on stainless steel will also get this particular from your hands.

To keep out ants, find where they are entering and sprinkle a barrier of cinnamon or ground pepper to block their way.

Stuff miniature marshmallows in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.

Potatoes won't "eye" if  you put an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

Fresh eggs sink. If your egg (still in the shell) floats, chunk it.

Egg whites remove gum from clothes. Brush egg onto the gum and let it set for 15-20 minutes, then wash as clothing label directs.

Baby wipes are touted as stain removers from motor oil to blood. I have personally used them to remove soda and ketchup, but not for any oil based stains.

Pour leftover wine into ice trays to use for sauces. (Who has left over wine?) I am going to use this for left over juice.

To clean the microwave, place 1 c water and 1/2 vinegar in a microwave safe bowl and boil for 4 minutes. remove the bowl and start wiping off all the gunk that is now dripping from the ceiling of your microwave. Repeat as necessary! I have had to do it more than once.

Save your old tooth brushes for cleaning, painting and other useful stuff. Run it through the dishwasher and it's sanitized.

See More House Hold Tips for more things I use to make my life easier.

Sanity Saver!

Our Sanity Saver!

 My child has the memory of a goldfish. Every morning is spent playing 20 questions such as "have you brushed your teeth yet?" and "are those clean socks?" My husband and I work together in this game, but when he had to spend a week out of town, I knew I would be on my own. Since I am getting ready for work at the same time she is getting ready for school, I had to devise a strategy to avoid meltdowns in the morning.

I went to the store-that-shall-not-be-named out of a momentary lapse of brain function, but they actually had what I needed on clearance and I have used the supplies on other crafts!

You will need:

Three colors of poster board (or other sturdy paper)
Self-adhesive magnet tape
Aleen's craft glue
Permanent marker
hole punch
ribbon

Write the title on the top of the base sheet the poster board. 

On the yellow board, cut equal sized strips in the number you will need to complete the list. 

Cut off a 2" strip of magnet and adhere to the list strip. 

With the green board, cut one strip slightly more narrow than the yellow and then into 3" pieces. Write DONE on the green pieces. Smear some craft glue onto the magnet and adhere the green to the back side of the yellow. 

Cut a 4" strip of magnet and stick to the pink where you want to hang the yellow strip.

 Punch two holes into the top of the poster board and string ribbon through the holes. You're now good to go.

Craftiness

My daughter wants a dog. We have a cat that thinks she's a dog, but apparently those aren't one in the same for a nine year old. To allow her to show her responsibility and to earn an allowance, we decided to create a chore-for-pay system. This will hopefully also help her get into a mindset of what needs to be done in the house other than play Poptropica! Another side effect is to teach her you earn money for work in the real world so let's start off with the things she is going to have to know when she is out on her own.

I saw several ideas in the store for how to keep track of the chores and I saw how other mom's have done it. This is what I came up with. It's a cookie sheet, ribbons, gold duct tape and the colors are paint chips stuck to magnets with each chore and the amount earned for each chore. Since she's only 9, we agreed that that $10 total a week is more than adequate for an allowance. She only gets paid if she does it without being reminded and the chore has to be approved as completed before movement of the magnet.

The list of supplies:
Cheap cookie sheet ($0.97 @ the store-that-shall-not-be-named)
2 rolls of coordinating ribbon
1 roll of contrasting duct tape ($4.00 for the whole roll)
roll of self-adhesive magnetic strip 1/2" ($8 for the whole roll)
Paint chips of your favorite colors. (free! but the store might get a little cranky if you take lots of them at one time. I went by the paint section twice to get all my chips)

Keep in mind the chores that are completed every day and the ones that are once a week. I used the same hue for the repetitive chores.

This is the magnetic tape. It was really easy to work with and made the craft go by really fast. Anytime you work with self-adhesives, it speeds things up exponentially!


Another tip I discovered after starting on the project was if you can find a cookie sheet with a hole in the handles will make it easier to hang. I cemented wire on the back of the sheet with some epoxy, which works fine, but I would have rather done it differently.