Tuesday Tip-Old T-Shirts

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but blogger hates me!

I believe in the old saying "waste not want not" so I try to recycle and reuse everything.

My husband gets new under shirts for Christmas every year.  So of course I got to work cutting up his old shirts to use as "rags".  I love having these "rags", I use them for everything, from dusting to staining furniture.  They make great paint rags for drips and such, and no worries about throwing them away in the end.

I don't think that I have bought "rags" for 17 years. 

(that's how long I have been married)

Tuesday Tip-Hooks

I use hooks all over my home, I find them very useful.  

They are easy, especially for small children, strong and look great even when they are empty.  

I use standard hooks, knobs as hooks, and make my own hooks.  Almost every room in my house has hooks for something or another.

Here are vintage coat wire hooks that we use in our mud room.  They are easy and quick, perfect for busy children.  I have them screwed into wood planks to make them stronger.  We use them for coats, bags, backpacks, hats, you name it.

I have standard hooks in all the bathrooms for towels.  I find that my children have a much easier time hanging towels on hooks than they do folding a towel to hang on a bar.

We do not have a coat closet for guests, so guess what?  I have hooks!  Well these "hooks" are actually old door knobs that I put on an old piece of molding.  It is practical and it looks great when nothing is hanging on it.  Sort of a piece of art.

The laundry room has hooks also, they are so useful.  I dry clothes on them, they hold cleaning tools, I put hung clothes on them and they are great to display my favorite clothes pin holder, a baby dress.

If you read this blog you know that I have them in my hall to hang photos on too.

They are in the bedrooms, to hold goodies that look great and are sentimental.

Lets just say I can not find anything bad about hooks!  The are soooo useful and practical, I'm hooked!  

Ok, that was so lame sorry I could not help myself. heeheehee

Around The House Tip

As the maid (that's what I like to call myself) to 5 people and 4 animals I am always looking for ways to simplify my life.  

One thing I have noticed since being married and having children is that they are MESSY.  They leave a little, or sometimes a big, trail around the house where they have been.  Usually consisting of toys, books, electronic devices, etc.  

I used to pick these items up one by one and take them to their appropriate locations alllll daaaay long.  So to simplify I started using a basket and collecting things that did not belong once a day.  We would then put the items where they were supposed to be.  This worked well for a long time, when the kids were sharing rooms and our house was small.  

Now we have a toy/playroom and basement bedrooms. It just takes too long to collect, sort, find homes and so forth.  

That's when I started using one basket by the stairs for toys that go in the toy/playroom, this works well because all the toys go in one room now. Yay!!!  But for items that go to specific kids rooms, that was a challenge.  I felt like I was calling or yelling, they would say, for them to come and get their stuff all the time.

Finally, rethinking the situation, I came up with an answer that works great for us..........I have them take their clean and folded laundry to their rooms once a week to be put away.  They each have their own baskets in the laundry room, so now when I find an item that needs to go to their room I put it in their laundry basket.  Then when they put their clothes away they can put the items away too. AWESOME right?!?!?

This has also solved another problem we have, kids losing things.  They now know  if they can not find something (probably because they left it laying around where it is not supposed to be) to look in their laundry basket, because that is where I put it when I found it laying around where it was not supposed to be!!!! Urrr

Anyway it works great all around, and a lot less urrrrs from me. :}