Make a "Life Folder"

Making a Life Folder on your Computer

Something I think is really important for any household is what I call a Life Binder. It includes all of your important information, like schedules, important phone numbers, and budgets but it also can include your recipes or anything that pertains to your daily life. I decided to go paperless with mine and simply make a folder on my desktop instead of an actual binder. This is what mine looks like:

Here is where you break down everything you want to organize with its own folder. I have folders for super important things like budgets and recipes, but I also have a folder for movies that contains a list of movies that are soon to be released that I want to see as well as another list of movies I have yet to watch that I don't want to forget about. The folders I use the most are Recipes, Budget and Projects, which I will show you now.

My Recipes folder is divided into various categories, such as Appetizers, Entrees and Desserts. This makes  finding recipe ideas a lot easier than wading through all of my bookmarks on my computer and my poorly written index cards. Everything is neat and legible as well as alphabetized and it's very handy for keeping those recipes you have yet to ry around without forgetting about them.

This is my favorite and most hated folder. So many hours of work went into it, BUT it was totally worth it. It contains multiple spreadsheets for what I call 'Extreme Budget Tracking'. Since we are buying our first house soon, we decided we want to start saving more money and this really helps. I will do a post later on how to budget for your lifestyle and where to get handy spreadsheets.

Another folder I have been working on extensively is my Projects. Obviously I am keeping track of moving expenses and checklists in one of my sub-folders. My Gardening one is filled with ideas, prices, season guides and of course another budget sheet. The travel folder is the most fun since it essentially my dream vacation. I decided that I would start a savings account just for this vacation and have the money portions all planned out so as soon as I reached that number I would drop everything and go. This is where all of my destinations are listed, where I want to stay, addresses of my international friends, calendars of events in various countries, etc. It also contains a list of future vacations I want to take. This folder was inspired after I heard a very depressing statistic:  The average person spends as much time in the bathroom as on vacation. I have no idea if this is true but if it is I do NOT want to be the average person.

Hopefully this will inspire you to make your own life folder and fill it with ideas, inspirations and helpful things. 

Kitchen Drawer Organizing Tips

How many spoons does it take to stir one pot?

Do you ever go to garage sales and look through all of the kitchen utensils in case there is something you don’t have? I most certainly do this, since I cringe at the thought of paying more than a couple of dollars for a spatula or some tongs. But then I get all my goodies home and low and behold my kitchen drawers are overflowing! Well apart from coming up with some temporary storage ideas (like sticking all of my random baking utensils in an over-sized cup in the cabinet) I have decided that I would part with some of my unused utensils…

Things to Ask Yourself:

1. Do I actually use this?
2. Do I really need more than one of this?
3. Would this be useful somewhere else in the house?

Above, is how far I got, simply putting them into piles and staring at them trying to make a decision. Sad, isn’t it? Not as easy as I thought it would be, getting rid of things I don’t even use. I guess my biggest hurdle is having weird empty spaces, I mean if you have a drawer put something in it, right?? Logically, there are four burners on the stove, so a max of four utensils of one kind should be the norm. I mean the odds of me making four different pots of pasta are slim, but making 3 or 4 sides isn’t out of the question, or even frying more than one thing.

Finally I managed to rid my drawer of a few of my multiples. So how did I trick my mind into getting rid of some stuff from my utensil drawer?? RE-purposing!! Since I have begun converting buying from name-brand cleaners to mixing and making all of our cleaning supplies, I simply transitioned some old spoons and such from the utensil drawer to my supply area for the cleaners. And I found once I had more room in one drawer, I wanted room in all of my most used drawers, and it was so much easier to get rid of things.


Good Luck with your Organizing!

Taking Control of Pesky Kitchen Gnats

I'm not sure if it is the weather or if I just cook things that smell too awesome, but even if my entire kitchen is spotless I have a couple of gnats buzzing around. I've cleaned everything I can imagine would attract them, kept little to no dirty dishes in the sink, and put all of my fruit in the fridge, but still they buzz. The only thing that seems to work is killing them, but I don't want to sit around with a fly swatter all day hunting for them. So I tried this simple trick and trust me IT WORKS! It doesn't get rid of the problem (I think we will need professional help for that) but it does kill them without taking up more than a minute of your time!

All you need is:
- A Cup/Mug/Glass/Container
- Some Apple Cider Vinegar
- A drop of Dish Washing Liquid

Just fill your cup about halfway with the Apple Cider Vinegar add a drop or two of Dish Washing Liquid and set it on your counter. After a few hours....

Those tiny dots you see are gnats!!

VOILA. You have killed at least some of your problem... the only down side is the smell of Apple Cider Vinegar BUT if you keep it at half a cup the smell isn't very strong and won't drive you nuts. Happy Gnat Hunting!!

Make a Record Wall

Make a Record Wall

I had some visitors coming and since we are moving in a couple of months after only a year renting, I hadn’t done anything with our spare bedroom. Between the blindingly white walls and the echo you get from an empty-ish room I knew I needed something simple and cheap to put on the wall.

Most thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army sell records for a Dollar each, however sometimes if you go off the beaten path a bit and either go to a smaller thrift store or even browse Craigslist, I have found records for as little as 10 cents apiece. The trick is figuring how many you want/need. Having bought a few record collections off of craigslist and the desire to have a record wall much larger than this for some time now, I have many more than I actually need. In this tutorial I only used 12, so at $1 each I would have only spent a right around $13 with tax if I had gone out and bought records specifically for this project.

Supplies:

-          Records (DUH)

-          Yardstick

-          Level

-          Hammer and Nails

-          3m strips (optional)

Step One:

Ok so this one is super easy. Figure out where you want to hang your ‘art’. I measured straight up from a wall outlet that was in the center of my wall so I didn’t have to get out a measuring tape. I made a mark right in the center of where I wanted the top row of records to go.

Step Two:

Each of the records have a 6 in radius so your nails are going to be 12” apart plus whatever spacing you want in between. I ended up at around 12 ¼ “. If you measure 6 and 1/8” (be sure to use the level and get it straight) from your center mark on each side then you will have your first two spots marked for your nails. Then just go the full 12 ¼ “  out from the two marks you made and your top row is done! Then just use your yardstick and level to fill in the rest of the marks.

I was super lazy at this point and only measured the top row and the left row, then I just places the records and measured the spacing  by eye and used the holes to find the nail spots.

Step Three:

Hang the Records! If you're OCD (or the preferred CDO) you can use 3m strips to prevent your records from turning and the keep the labels aligned, but I decided I didn’t mind that they weren’t all facing the same way.

Now you have a super fancy and cheap record wall, hmmm now what to do with those record covers....

D.I.Y. Dry Erase To Do List

D.I.Y. Dry Erase Cleaning or To Do List

I absolutely LOVE dry-erase boards and with an underwhelming cleaning check-list, I knew my ideal solution would be some sort of dry erase/cork board combination.

After about 20 minutes of staring at the selections of bulletin and dry erase boards in the store I decided that I really wanted a half and half board, so that I could create a list and not have to re-write them all the time because I smudge them with my hand. SO here is what I came up with.

Supplies:

-          Magnetic Dry Erase Board $4.50

-          Cork Board $3

-          Both with Dimensions of 5.5in x 14 in

-          Blank Computer Paper

-          Packing Tape

-          List of things to include on your To Do or Cleaning List

(MY underwhelming cleaning list, the suplies I intend to replace it with ad the finished product)

Step One:

Take a piece of Blank Computer Paper and figure out how wide it should be, to fit on your Cork Board. Make a crease and then cut off the extra. Keep the scrap to use later.

Step Two:

Write your checklist on the paper you trimmed to fit the cork board, minus the check boxes. I used the scrap paper to prevent the ink from my marker from bleeding through to the counter.

Step Three:

Take another piece of paper, or use your scrap paper and line it up with your checklist and make your boxes that you can put checkmarks into. Then fold and trim off the extra paper.

Step Four:

Take some packing tape and attach the boxes to the right edge of your dry erase board.

Step Five:

Now you are finished and can hang your new dry-erase checklist wherever you need it!

 

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Double H logo with a super hero inspired design. It also looks like a window pane, don't you think?

Welcome Readers!

If you have a love for cooking, crafting, DIY, greener living and saving money then you have come to the right blog! Having been just created, there isn't much content right now, but be sure to bookmark us and check back in a couple of weeks and we should be filling our pages with tons of useful tips and tricks to become an At Home Hero or Heroine yourself.