A Few of My Favorite Things: Laundry Organization

A few of my favorite things…

Laundry Organization

 

I'm not a fan of purchasing organization and storage products in an effort to organize yourself (read more about that here). I'm a firm believer in establishing the daily habit first and then "prettying it up". Meaning that when I hang my clothes up for tomorrow, they just get arranged on a hanger. It's been this way for months. Now isn't the time to purchase a pinterest worthy garment holder. I can do that when I don't even have to think about laying my clothes out the night before. Establish the habit then invest in it.

However, if this is an already established habit and your looking around for some good deals to spruce up your laundry room (or laundry closet if you're like me), check out my polyvore creation...

Click here for the original board where you can find stores and prices as well.

I love the Tide Bra Bags and have used them for almost 4 years now. I purchased two (each holds two bras) and with almost daily use, they've held up great. It makes it easy to wash bras in the laundry with your regular wash and have them stay perfect and well formed.

The retractable clothes line is a great way to save a little money in the summer by giving the electricity a rest.

The tabletop ironing board is great, especially if you have a front loading washer and can just leave it set up over the washer and dryer.



Head here to look at prices or to purchase...

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$55 ($104.47 value) for a Gold Star Membership

Includes $20 Costco Cash Card 

Coupons for a 48 pack of Kirkland AA Batteries, a Kirkland Signature Case of Water, a Rotisserie Chicken + $4 off Kirkland Coffee and Albacore Tuna

Valid for new members for their first year of membership only

 

 

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The Chopped Onion Project. Is there a limit to cutting costs?

Can you be too cheap?

-the chopped onion project-

Chopping onions to save a few dollars. Seems simple huh?

I realized just how many onions we've been using lately. Rather than buying the 12oz bag of chopped frozen onions for $1.00 at Giant, I considered buying onions in bulk to chop myself. Wegmans has a 10 pound bag of onions for $6.99. I could use my mini food processor to dice them two or three at a time while I made dinner. "Easy!", I thought.



As the tears poured down my face and my eyes burned so bad that I thought I was doing permanent damage, My husband kept saying "Are you OK? This doesn't look like a good idea". Then, when I noticed my 17 month old son rubbing his eyes on the floor next to me, I realized that I actually have limits to frugality. In total, It took me about 15 minutes to chop and package those onions to freeze. Those 15 minutes felt like about 10 hours and I still feel like all I can smell is onions when I walk through the kitchen.



At the end of the day, I saved $5.81 for enough onions that will likely last me through three months. While a savings of 54% is pretty impressive on a whole food, it wasn't enough to endure the noxious fumes that plague me to this day. At the end of a year, I would have saved $24.



We'll just live recklessly and buy the frozen chopped onions, 'cause you know, we're extravagant like that:)

Don't be deceived by the ease of the mini processor... You're about to cry.

Time Saver Tip: Lay Out Your Clothes The Night Before

Time Savers Tip:

Lay your clothing out

the night before

 

If you know me at all, you know that I'm a huge fan of FlyLady. I fought a long and hard battle to become organized, I wasn't born that way. FlyLady was instrumental in that battle and to this day, I find myself repeating her mantras. My two favorites are "Imperfect housework still blesses your family" and "You can do anything for 15 minutes".  You can find out more about how Flylady changed my life here and you can head over to the Flylady's website by clicking here.


One of the foundations that FlyLady teaches is to lay your clothes out the night before. Every once in a while, I cheat and don't lay my clothes out and the difference in the morning is considerable. There's something so motivating knowing you can safely click that snooze button for 10 more minutes, because everything you need is ready and waiting for you when you wake up. I shower at night, so I can get ready in 10 minutes. About 3 months or so ago, I started laying out my husbands clothes too. He loves having his stuff ready to go, and I love that the closet stays organized and easy to use (which actually makes laundry an enjoyable chore). Last month, I started stuffing t-shirt bags (So easy to make!... Click here for a tutorial) with gym shorts, a t-shirt, socks, underwear, and a towel to go running in.

There are a million beautiful pinterest-worthy ways to lay your clothes out, but I'm a fan of free and easy. The most important thing is to make it a sustainable habit, after that's done, you can pretty it up with dress forms or garment racks.

We keep it simple, we each have a hangar... at the old place, the hangars hung on two hooks on the back of the closet door. At our new place, we haven't gotten around to adding the hooks, so we just designated the center section of the closet for our hangars.

We fold the pants over the bottom bar of the hangar, hang the shirt over top, hang sweaters, cardigans etc over that, tucks the socks into the shirt (the pressure of the shirt and pants keep the socks in place, boxer briefs usually get tucked in here as well), Bras and panties get hung over the hanger hook.
Shoes get set out below the hangar.

To give myself a break on the weekends, I normally take a few extra minutes and lay out clothes for the weekend as well (since my schedule on the weekends is more lax).

Give it a shot! Then when you've made it a routine, check out these "pinterest pretty" ways to leave your clothes out the night before.

Photo Credit: thelittlestthing.com

 

 

photo credit:

http://3coffeesaday.blogspot.com/2010/01/i.html

 

 

photo credit:

http://www.parents.com/parenting/clean-your-kids-closet/?rb=Y#page=2

 

 



Worlds Easiest Beef Enchiladas!

THE EASIEST BEEF ENCHILADAS EVER!

Despite being so simple, these enchiladas are mouth wateringly delicious. In less time than you can get Chinese delivered, you can being sitting down to hot and cheesy beef enchiladas.
Feel free to add anything that you have around the kitchen... rice, beans, guacamole, onions and peppers... Live it up! Life is about change:) I tend to shy away from "recipes" and gravitate towards dinners that you can throw together and feel comfortable changing at will. Don't feel like you have to follow this exactly, change it to your liking.



Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef
1 can refried beans
1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup (More time than money? Try this home made version here)
1 onion
12 flour tortillas taco size
2 cans enchilada sauce (or try making your own here)
2 cups cheddar cheese



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the ground beef. Chop an onion while it browns (or be lazy and stick it in a mini food processor...I won't tell). Mix in a can of refried beans and cheddar cheese soup with the ground beef. Add the onions and combine over medium heat. Spoon a bit of enchilada sauce onto the bottom of a pan (we use a 9x13 baking dish), then fill tortillas with beef mixture, roll and place seam side down in the pan. Spoon enchilada sauce over the tortillas and sprinkle (or pile... it's all good) cheddar cheese over the tortillas and sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes then serve and enjoy!