A few weeks ago, I accidentally washed a magazine in the washing machine that made a big mess. There were magazine bits everywhere. I threw the clothes in the dryer because it would be much easier to deal with small dry bits of paper than small wet bits. I turned the dryer on then headed out the door to pick up my husband from work.

I got about five miles from home when a terrible thought hit me. What if one of those hot dry magazine bits caught on fire? I wouldn’t be home and our place would burn down. This made me think of two things – renter’s insurance and turning off the dryer. So I turned around and headed back to the house. Luckily everything was OK. I turned off the dryer -leaving the house this time with more peace of mind.

When leaving the house, turn off all appliances especially the dryer. This is one I admit that I have left the dryer going even though I know better. You never know what might happen -so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Having left the dryer on reminds me that I need to find some cheap home insurance quotes for renters. Insurance is one of those items that we keep pushing off but when we need it, we’ll regret not having it. So we are not skipping the home insurance anymore. This time of year there are more house fires. I can only assume because people are using their heaters more. One recent house fire was caused by a faulty plug but was made worse because there were clothes piled up near the outlet. So take note and keep your outlets clear of any clutter like clothing and paper.

This time of year it is very important to think of home safety carefully. Protect your property and family this winter.

What I miss most from my day’s of being a housewife is my daily nap. Today I was complaining to my husband about how tired I feel when I get home from work. His suggestion? Take a nap. He’s right. A quick 20 minute nap when I get home from work would do me wonders. I feel so guilty for taking a nap but there is no denying that I do feel better those days I get a little extra shut-eye.

A nap helps me get to move household tasks. Those days I don’t take a nap – I take three times as long to do simple things like doing the dishes or sweeping the floor. It takes me so long because I have to mentally motivate myself to do it. When I’m rested, I can jump on those household chores without a huge pep talk. I still need to motivate myself – but I can do it in less time if I’m not dog tired.

So even though working is putting quite the damper on my household activities, it looks like I will be able to get in my daily nap once more. That should make my time at home more productive.

One purchase I always seem to make around Christmas time is a cheap tool kit. I am always needing a screwdriver or pliers, so I like having a tool set handy. Usually in a year’s time, those tools have been lost somewhere inside the house or transferred to a vehicle. This will be my next kit when I buy one -

My mother-in-law painted a flower on her hammer to deter her husband from taking it. Her reasoning was that he wouldn’t want something so girly in his toolbox. It worked. This is what this kit reminds me of – except the tools aren’t pink – just the bag. But that’s nothing a little paint wouldn’t fix.

Here is something I learned from my husband. You can sweep the carpet and get it pretty clean. We have rugs but I still bought an upright vacuum cleaner. The vacuum would do well one time and then you would have to clean it. It wouldn’t have been so bad to clean had it not been the three places you had to check for debris. One place you needed a screwdriver to remove the plate. It was a hassle, so I finally got rid of my vacuum cleaner and just decided to sweep the rugs.

It works pretty well. You have to sweep several times over the same area to see results. But at least I can see results unlike when I used the vacuum cleaner. The rug collects mainly grass that falls off our shoes. I see now why my sister-in-law has everyone take off their shoes at the door. That’s not crazy; that is a very smart practice. We should start doing that, too. It definitely would mean less time spent sweeping.

Sweeping the carpet is something I probably never would have done had I not seen my husband do it – and it work fairly well. Although it takes a few minutes, the results are better than using my vacuum cleaner.

Housework is a necessary evil. It must be done but who really enjoys doing it? Even though I’m a housewife it does not mean that I want to spend my day cleaning – although I could spend all day doing it and still not be done. There are many distractions that take me away from doing housework and I love each and every one of them. But sometimes, you just got to do what you got to do. There is no getting around it. Here are some ways that I have found to enjoy doing housework.

Set Short Time Limits. I find I work much better if I limit the time I plan on doing a task. I may not get finished with the task, and I can always come back to it. It really helps me focus if I know I am only going to be working on something for a few minutes.

Crank Up the Tunes. Listening to music helps pass the time and also makes it easier to do housework. I find it way less distracting than the television.

Get Dreaded Chores Done First. If there is something you absolutely hate doing, then get it out of the way. You will feel so accomplished and eager to tackle the rest of your to-do list.

Reward Yourself. If you have a lot of cleaning to do, then splurge on a small reward – be it food or a small trinket. It doesn’t have to be a big reward- just something to look forward to when you are done cleaning.

That’s how I make it through my chores list. Hope it helps you with yours.

For Christmas, my daughter got a Rapunzel tower. She loves it. It comes with many small pieces that fit onto a small shelf. She wants those items to sit nicely on the shelf. The problem is that any slight movement knocks everything down.

My husband offered this tip – use a small amount of Handi Tak to keep the items secure to the tower bookshelf. Handi Tak is sort of like Silly Putty. It is used to hang posters and other items. I used it a lot in college since you couldn’t put any nails in the wall at the dorm.

We haven’t tried it yet but hope this works. My husband does this at work with some of his small stuff on his desk. She is going to test it out tonight. Maybe this will be an easy solution to falling toys.

My husband has been eating a lot of yogurt for breakfast, and I hate to just toss these cute small cups. I’ve been washing them up hoping to come up with lots of different ways to reuse them. So far I only have a couple.

Yogurt containers are excellent to use when the girl wants to paint. She can clean her brushes in the container, and I don’t have to worry about cleaning all of that paint from a cup. It works well since you don’t need much water.

She also uses them in the bath tub. She loves to pour water from the yogurt cups. It keeps her entertained and it’s much cheaper than bath toys.

Next spring I will be using yogurt cups as seed starters for our herb garden. The cups are the perfect size to get a plant started. It sure beats buying small pots.

So that is it for how we are reusing yogurt containers. Do you recycle yours? Share your suggestions.

The ants seem relentless this summer. It has been so dry that the little suckers have been invading every small space in our home searching for food and water. The ants unfortunately found the cat food. Last summer the ants found the cat food. After spending what seemed like an eternity picking out the ants, I decided that from now on we would use a plastic box with a lid for cat food.

This year I guess the lid wasn’t on tight because the ants found the cat food. I was about to toss it all out when my husband had this solution. Close the lid and place the plastic box outside in the scorching heat. The ants will die and the cats will then eat the food. I thought he was crazy and a little of a sadist but thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try.

Lo and behold the next day the ants were indeed all dead. It worked and it was so easy. I hate to admit that he is right but this time he was right on. From now on I will make sure that lid is closed.

While doing the dishes, I couldn’t help but to notice the stains on my husband’s favorite coffee cup. We drink a lot of Diet Coke, so it’s Coke that is the culprit this time and not coffee or tea stains. Still, it’s a stain that just wouldn’t come out.

I decided to try baking soda to remove the soda stain. First, I heated up some water in the microwave. Then I added the water and the baking soda to the coffee cup. I let it sit for five minutes.

After five minutes, I took my dish brush and swiped around the sides. I poured out the water and this is the result -

The coffee cup looks really good. There is a slight ring at the bottom. Next time I wash it, I will use the baking soda method again and let it soak longer. My husband will be pleased since those stains really bother him. It just feels like the cup isn’t clean if it doesn’t look clean.

I remember one Mother’s Day when I was a child asking when was kid’s day to which my father replied that everyday was Kid’s Day. Well, that’s how I feel about Earth Day. Earth Day is everyday. It’s where we live and we should strive each day to do something nice for Mother Earth.

For Earth Day, I’m taking all of our plastic bottles for recycling. They have been piling up – so it’s time to drop them off.

Plastic bottles are not the only items we recycle. We recycle cans and Capri Sun wrappers. In fact, a lot of schools collect Capri Sun wrappers to turn in for cash for their school. Each wrapper is worth 2 cents but my kid alone – the way she drinks those things – could be worth an extra $50-$100 to a tight school budget.

This summer we should have a nice load of aluminum cans for recycling. It’ll be nice to get some extra pocket change for those cans, too.

Ever since we started recycling our plastic, we have less garbage each week. This makes me very happy to know we are sending less to the landfill and using less garbage bags.