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Clever New Uses For Household Items

September 30, 2009 By

MSN Lifestyle has a slideshow article from RealSimple showing new ways to use old items around the house. Some of them are so clever, I had to share.  Tell me what you think of these ideas in a comment or share some of your ways to reuse household items!

  • Use a Twister Game Mat as a tablecloth for a child’s birthday party. After everyone eats, wipe it clean and use to play Twister!
  • Wash out an empty ketchup bottle, let dry, then fill with pancake batter to squeeze out the perfect amount of batter!
  • Use an empty toilet paper tube to keep your hair accessories handy. Hairclips and bobby pins go on top, ponytail holders wrap around!
  • A six-pack drink holder is the perfect size for carrying ketchup, mustard, squeeze relish, rolled up napkins, and utensils to a picnic!
  • Have an empty cassette tape holder? Coil up your iPod earphones and stash inside. A small MP3 player will fit inside too!
  • Use an empty (and clean) travel soap holder (the kind with the lid that snaps shut) to carry your point and shoot camera in your purse!
  • Store extra plastic shopping bags for lining your wastebaskets in empty tissue boxes. Keep one under each bathroom sink!
  • At a party, mark each person’s glass with a removable window decal. Stores have holiday ones for a festive touch!
  • Wrap the ends of hangers with rubber bands and dress straps won’t slip off!
  • Cover doorknobs with aluminum foil when painting to keep them clean!
  • Need to take a few day’s medication with you on a trip? Pop a fewl pills into a contact lens case so you don’t have to take the whole bottle!
  • It’s easier for a child to drink out of a regular glass if you wrap a few rubber bands around it for a better grip!
  • Eye doctor gave you an eyeglass case you don’t use? Use it for nail clippers and emery boards when you travel!
  • Wrap a wine-bottle carton in pretty paper and use it to hold your lightweight shoes, sandals, and slippers!
  • A napkin holder can hold your bills, checkbook, stamps, address labels, and envelopes neatly on your desk!
  • Attach a magnet to the inside of a metal medicine cabinet to hold your nail clippers or tweezers!

Told you the ideas were clever!  I hate having my camera loose in my purse, I never thought to put it in a hard plastic soap holder!  What are your tips?

Filed Under: Things That Make Me Happy Tagged With: ,

All kinds of nonsense and foolishness

April 1, 2009 By

We have a new favorite show here- the Style Channel’s “Clean House”. The host is one Ms. Niecy Nash, who looks fabulous and has no patience for homeowners who fill their homes with clutter.

niecynash

Watching Clean House makes me feel better about myself as a housekeeper. I mean, I may have a problem with piling stuff up on tables, but the people on Clean House are filling every square inch of every room in their house with stuff. I can see my carpets and floors!

Even still, I have this overwhelming urge to take every single thing out of this house and start fresh. We’re having a neighborhood garage sale next month, and we have So. Much. Stuff. And I can be honest, I am mostly the reason why. I hold on to things for sentimental reasons, or because I think it might come in handy “some day”. I find it nearly impossible to get rid of books, because if I’ve paid for a book rather than get it from the library, it’s because it’s a really good book that I’ve read more than once.

My Mom, who passed away in 1997, was a teacher and collected children’s books. She would go to conferences and come home with tote bags full of Newberry and Caldecott winners. I have her books now, in boxes in my basement, because I have nowhere else to put them. And that’s when I hear Niecy Nash’s voice in my head- if you really love something, why is it in a box in the basement?

I’m participating in a webcast tomorrow with Peter Walsh, the chief Organizer of TLC’s “Clean Sweep”, another show I love. He’s even tougher than Niecy, and often has to remind the people he’s helping on the show that memories are what you hold in your heart, not what you stuff into boxes that gather dust. Wise words indeed.

I don’t just hear Niecy’s voice when I’m looking at clutter in my house. I hear it whenever I think about a lot of the things that I know are holding me back. My weight? My lack of exercise? My crappy diet?

Nonsense. And foolishness. It shouldn’t take a TV show host for me to know that.

Filed Under: Stuff I think about Tagged With: , , ,