Tuesday's Tip - 2 Stain Removing Gems

This week I would like to share with you two solutions to stubborn stains.

1. If you get permanent marker on surfaces such as walls, tables, doors, etc., anything that isn't fabric, there is a very good way to get rid of it with hardly any effort. The secret: hairspray. Spray it onto the stain, then wipe straight away with kitchen roll while the hairspray is still wet and the permanent marker disappears. You might need to apply a second time if there's still some permanent marker residue.
    
2. The second little secret is how to freshen up tired looking white trainers, that have become stained over time. Use baby wipes. It is a fast and effective way to clean them up quickly and make them look almost like new.

Smart Shopping Lists

Have you ever found yourself trawling through a supermarket, back and forth, front of the shop, back of the shop and back to the front again, to get every item on your shopping list? If this is the case, you probably wasted lots of time doing so. This week I've got a tip how you can avoid all that to-and-fro-ing in the future.

Arrange your shopping list according to the isles in your supermarket. I am certain you have been to your supermarket enough times to know roughly which items are displayed in what order. Write out your shopping list accordingly keeping like with like (so all the vegetables together, all the dairy products in one group, all the meat items, etc.).

If you're not too sure about the order in your supermarket, use your next shopping trip to make notes. Then from the shopping trip after that onwards you can get yourself organised and avoid unnecessary hikes through the isles.

Tuesday's Tip - For the Rubbish in your Car

Keep a plastic bag in your car so that rubbish doesn't have a chance to build up. Putting it in a handy place so that you can easily reach it will ensure that you'll actually use it. Make sure you take it with you when you get out of the car once in a while and dispose of it in your wheelie bin before you even enter your house.

This tip is especially useful for longer journeys when rubbish usually tends to pile up.

Exit Strategy

Do you often find yourself leaving the house with an important item missing? I'm talking about moments like arriving at your daughter's piano lesson without having the piano book on you, or the towel is not in the swimming bag, etc. As you can probably tell, there is some personal experience in those words.

But I've come up with a little system that makes all those items you need to take with you on a regular basis a whole lot easier to remember. Near the exit door put up a piece of paper (again, laminated if you like, or in a plastic sleeve) that clearly marks what is needed on what day and to what purpose. It could look something like this:

You can even colour code for each family member so that everyone knows what needs to be taken when by whom. Only mark on what needs to be taken regularly every week. You can leave some space at the bottom where you can handwrite with a dry erase marker anything that is applicable only for the current week if you need to.

I'm not saying you will never forget anything ever again, but you will be making your life a whole lot easier for yourself and everybody living with you.

Tuesday's Tip - More about Garages

(for technical reasons this week published on Wednesday)

The garage is a good temporary holding place for items you want to declutter and get rid of. The key word here is TEMPORARY!!!

Once you have boxed or bagged up the items you want to either take to the tip or to the charity shops "park" them in the garage. This way they are out of the house and one step closer to being out of your life. Once a week, maybe on a Saturday morning, put everything into your car and drive it to its final destination.

Family Meal Planning

Meal planning can be a real chore, with the eternal question "What shall I cook today?". There are everybody's taste buds to consider and you don't want to make the same thing every day either. If you're very busy and basically haven't got the time to plan it all out you usually end up rehashing the same recipes over and over again. Here is an idea that involves the whole family in the process.

When you're all together one time, maybe after a meal have a piece of paper and a pencil ready and let everyone in the family name their favourite meals. Write them down. Everything is allowed including take aways, eating out, but also make sure to include family favourites that you like to cook and you know everybody likes to eat. Depending on the number of people in your family you might want to limit the list to 5 or 10 items per person. In my family there are 4 members, so everyone, including myself, chose 10 meals. Some of my choices were "something new from a cookbook" because I like to experiment and "cold" meaning bread with ham, cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. to make life easy once in a while.

Once your list is complete make sure you scramble it all up so that they are in no particular order of person or preference and then write up the list properly, either on the computer or let the children have some fun with making a handwritten list look good with lots of colours. If you have the facility, laminate the list, if not simply slip it into a plastic pocket. Hang it up in the kitchen, maybe on the fridge. Now you will never run out of ideas again. If a meal has been chosen cross it off with a dry erase marker and it can't be chosen again until all the other meals have been crossed off. For our family this means that meals come around about once a month.

There is only one rule to this game. No complaints from anyone. Everybody's favourites are on there and they will get chosen, so no whining is allowed when someone else's favourite is picked and we're not so keen on that one.

Tuesday's Tip - Easy Garage Solutions

Garages clutter up so fast it's almost unbelievable. But you can do a few simple things to tame that clutter monster in your garage. Here are two useful tips.

1. Install some heavy duty hooks on the walls and hang ladders, shovels, rakes, trimmers, saws, etc from them. This will keep them off the floor and easily accessible.
2. Use the rafters to store bulkier seasonal items such as toboggans, sleds or surfboards or any other items you only need once in a while.

Martha Stewart Tips

This week I would like to introduce you to the email service from the US American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. Her website is filled with thousands of tips and tricks for making your household run smoother and more effective and for adding those extra little touches that make a home extra special. You can find recipes, craft ideas, organisational wisdom and much more.

There are several email services you can sign up for, such as weekly newsletters or workshops, my favourite one is the "Organizing Tip of the Day". Every day you get an email with a good idea or technique to make being organised a bit easier or just more fun. If you think the tip is for you, you can actually bookmark it with personalised labels right there on a free account on Martha's website.

Simply set up a free account and start receiving lots of good information.

PS: I don't get any income from promoting Martha's website, I just think it's a really good service.