Who says watching TV isn’t educational? I was watching Ace of Cakes and picked up a pretty good tip about cracking eggs.

Duff Goldman was making the world’s largest cupcake and had to use 90 or so eggs. Yikes! That’s a lot of egg shells. No doubt some will wind up in the eggs. His tip is to let the eggs sit for a little bit and the shells will fall to the bottom. Then when you pour the eggs into the batter, the shells will stay in the bottom of the bowl. But he said if you see them then remove them because salmonella lives on the outside of food and not on the inside. Good to know.

It’s amazing the tidbits you can pick up by watching TV. I always fear that I have egg shells in my cracked eggs and usually just use a tea strainer to make sure I didn’t miss any. This method might take a few minutes longer but it’s less dishes to clean up, so I think I will be letting the eggs sit next time.

The holidays are over. Now it’s time to put up all that left over holiday wrapping paper. Usually I use every last scrap I have but this year I have four rolls left over. This is the first time in a long time that I’m actually putting up wrapping paper for next year.

Most of what I have isn’t opened yet, so storing it is pretty much a toss into the top of the closet. But the opened rolls are a different story. If something isn’t done, then the paper will most likely unroll, crinkle, and not be usable next year.

Here is what I do to store rolls of open wrapping paper. Take three small pieces of invisible tape. Use one in the middle and one on each end to secure the loose end to the paper on the roll.

This keeps the edge from getting messed up. It’s also easy to remove and won’t ruin much if any of the wrapping paper. Once you have it taped together, if you would like a better solution than tossing into the top of the closet, try a tall garbage can. I had wanted to buy one of the tall plastic wrapping paper containers but waited too late. Then it dawned on me how much it reminded me of a garbage can. It might be exactly the same but it’s close enough for government work. Wait a minute. I’m not sure that is meant to be a compliment anymore. Anyway, I think the garbage can could work well if you prefer to toss the rolls in the bottom instead the top of the closet.

Cleaning is one of those chores that I don’t mind doing. Well that is once I get stated. Up until that point, I’m dreading every minute that I must wield a broom, mop, and toilet brush.

One of my resolutions for the New Year is to keep a cleaner, more organized house. Here are some guidelines that I plan to follow to help me keep on track:

Schedule cleaning – First of all, I hate schedules but love them at the same time. They really do keep you on task but seem so planned. That’s the whole point I know but there’s just something deep inside that wants to rebel against that. But if each day I have time set aside for dishes, sweeping, and other tasks then I’m more than likely to get it done. I will just have to move past my hatred of schedules and realize that they are a good thing afterall.

Get the family involved – When we worked together, my husband and I get household chores knocked out in half the time. And since he doesn’t mind doing them, I just have to ask and follow through. You see, when I ask him to do something, I mean do it now. He thinks it means to do within the next three days. When I ask or schedule, I will have to give complete instructions including a time frame. Also, Rae is getting to the age where she can pick up her toys. If she wants to help more with things, then I need to have patience and let her. Who knows. That helpful attitude might hang around and be really useful when she’s a teenager.

Keep supplies together – I have a plastic bin under the sink where I store all cleaning supplies. It has a handle, so it is easy to carry with me around the house. Usually I just grab what I need and return it when I’m done. If the house was bigger then I would probably carry it around.

Everything it’s own place – If everything you own has a place it belongs, then in theory it should be easy to straighten up since you will know where to put it. This is the area that needs the most work in our house. Too much stuff and not enough room. It’s time to thin down to what we use and what we like. From there we need to decide what needs to be in the house and what can be stored.

One day I hope to have our house in order as it will make cleaning easier. Until then we will have to keep slowly clearing away the clutter and chaos.

I absolutely adore visiting with my husband’s family. After all these years, I have gotten used to the cigarette smoke. Some visits it really seems to aggravate my allergies. After a few days of being at home, everything is back to normal. Now it appears my husband has developed an allergy to cigarette smoke that affects him every trip. He does better after a day at home.

It seems everything smells like smoke when we return home. First thing we do to remove the cigarette smoke smell is that all clothes get immediately washed. Even the travel bag is either washed or placed outside to sun. We also shower and wash our hair as soon as possible. When we are traveling back, all clothing or any bags that we brought in are put in the trunk. This keeps the interior of the car from smelling like smoke.

For the trip home, I either keep our clothes in the car or I use a travel space bag to pack them. The space bag keeps the smoke from penetrating our clothes. The travel space bag is more convenient since you can keep all of your clothes together.

An air neutralizer can also help rid the smoke smell from a home. Something like Odo-ban works well and doesn’t leave a scent behind.

Even my camera will smell like smoke when we return back home. So take everything out of bags to let them get some fresh air. I usually just leave my purse in the car when we go for a visit but this time I brought it in. If you bring a purse, try to keep it in a room where there is no smoking. Even though smoke will travel through the vents, it can at least help make the smell not so strong.

Next time we will remember the $15 air purifier that works wonders to clear the air to help us sleep better at night. We will also pack some Claritin for the husband and allergy medicine for me just in case.

It’s always fun to go visit and to then come back home even if it takes about a day for everything to settle back down.

*photo – N vd Merwe – SoulMyst.com.

Now here is a fun game that we play practically daily at our house. It’s called “Have you seen my..” We are always either looking for belts, wallets, keys, Woody and Buzz dolls, dinosaurs, puppies, my mind, etc.

Now finding items for my husband is pretty simple as he is a creature of habit. His stuff is usually in one of the three places he leaves things. But with Raegan, now her toys can be just about anywhere. She is always finding new spots to stuff toys in like cabinets, wood stove, backpacks, or just plain toss it outside.

The first place I look when looking for lost items is the last place I remember seeing it. Sometimes this works but it’s rare for anything to stay in the same place with a three-year-old around. If it’s something that was in reach of Raegan, I begin to search her favorite stash spots. Of course, sometimes she gets tired of something and will just drop it in the middle of the floor.

I’ve decided that the best way to search for something that Rae had last is to get down to her level to look for it. It’s amazing how changing perspective can really help you find stuff. While this method isn’t always fruitful, it has helped to locate shoes, small toys, and other items that had rolled or been pushed under furniture.

Also a good way to find lost items is to stop looking for them. It’s amazing how once we stop looking that we will stumble upon what we just spent three hours looking for. Terrible advice, I know, but it works a lot of the time.

Do you spend a lot of time looking through acne products to find one that will work for you? My husband sometimes gets adult acne, so we’ve recently bought him some acne products to help with outbreaks. But did you know that eating certain foods can also help your acne?

Reading this article on good foods for your acne makes me want to try some. Cucumber is on the list because they contain vitamins A and C. They are also in the same family as watermelons. My husband loves cucumbers, so this one we will have to give a try next time he feels an outbreak coming up.

It’s an interesting idea to fight acne with foods that are good for us. But I guess it does make sense that if we eat what is good for us then that can help fight imperfections in our body.

Probably the most stolen office supply is pens. They just don’t walk off your desk but are usually ‘borrowed’ by a co-worker who then proceeds not to return it. I’ve worked in some offices where people actually taped their name to their pens.

I never went to such extremes but I do have a few ideas as to how to keep your pens. You can always get personalized pens so that way you can easily spot yours should they leave your desk. But here is a my personal favorite. I keep my good pen really close to me like either in my hand, in my hair, or on my keyboard. I keep the mediocre pens on my desk in a pen holder. When someone wants to borrow a pen, I offer them one in the cup and not my good pens. If they make a move for my good pen, then I either cut them off or stop everything to make sure they return it. Yes, I love my good pens and want to keep them.

It’s worked well. I’ve only had a few go missing when I would forget to take the pen with me when I left my desk. But if you get the reputation for keeping track of your pens, your co-workers will get used to it and almost return them automatically. It may take a while for that to happen, so keep a close eye on your good pens.

We are planning a Labor Day weekend getaway. Our plans keep changing, so we are hoping to soon book a hotel and make an itinerary of things to do. My frugal side is feeling a little “sticker shock” from some of the prices for one night at a hotel, which is why we hope to find some good travel deals. From Hilton Head rentals to hotel rentals, staying at a nice place can come at a price but using a coupon will help us save some money.

I’ve begun to clip grocery coupons. I’m by no means an expert and save less than $5 for all my clipping effort. But that is just over the price of a tank of gas, so every little bit helps.

So, with a tighter economy and higher prices, it seems any time you can use a coupon is a good deal.

It seems when I search for tape at our house, I can always find postage tape. Postage tape does work wonders since it is so sticky. I use it not only for packages but for other projects as well.

I used a small amount to hold in place the aluminum foil on our back windows. I didn’t use any on the window sills because the paint would probably come off with the tape. But I just used it to hold the foil together.

Postage tape also works well for wrapping presents. You can split the tape and use strips of it when wrapping presents. It holds well. The only problem is once it is placed on the paper, then that is where it will stay. If you try to remove it, you will remove the paper as well.

Most anytime I need tape I can just use postage tape for the job. It is almost as versatile as duct tape.

One of the best ways to get better performance from your laptop is to upgrade your laptop memory. I recently upgraded mine to 1 GB from 512K. The difference has been very noticeable as it boots and accesses windows faster. It was relatively inexpensive and took less than five minutes to install.

I did need a small Phillips head screwdriver(Jeweler’s size) to remove the small, plastic backing. Then I had to place the memory in the slot and push down. Even though it was a tight fit, it was easier than installing memory in a PC.

It’s been one of the easiest upgrades I’ve ever done with any of our computers. The results have been great, too. So, if you’re looking for better performance out of your laptop, then try a memory upgrade.