Works For Me Wednesday - Closets

Today is Works for me Wednesday, Backwards Edition, at the WE ARE THAT FAMILY BLOG. This means that you ask for help from blog readers.

My question is: Do you have ideas for adding pretty and feminine touches to my side of the closet? I'm brainstorming ideas using fabric, flowers, pictures, a lamp, and other things like that. Have you used any of these things in your closet?

I continued to work in my closet last night. You really can get a lot accomplished if you work on something for short periods of time each day!

But you have to stick to it! I really didn't want to do this the past two nights, but figured I could do anything for a few minutes (Thanks Emilie Barnes and Flylady!). I made myself get started and once I got started, it was enjoyable.

I am working my way around the closet, straightening and purging as I go. I removed my heavier winter clothing, such as sweaters and wool jackets. These are stored in another closet in the house that has room for my off season clothing. I left my transitional clothes that can be worn in our North Carolina roller coaster spring weather. I have two large piles for donating to the thrift store.

I am planning some pretty, feminine touches to this closet, but for now here are some utilitarian items. I am trying to use as many things as I can that I already have on hand. As much as I would love to go shopping for closet organizers, they are expensive!

A three drawer plastic cart that holds small items such as socks and undergarments.



A wooden crate for storing pocketbooks and other bags.



Two over the door plastic heavy duty hooks for storing recycled gift bags and my few dressy or long items of clothing. This is where my wedding dress and the dress I wore to my daughter's wedding hang.



I'd appreciate any ideas you have for making this space more feminine!

Thanks!

Works for Me Wednesday

Want to hear lots of tips and ideas? Go to We Are That Family Blog.

I have two ideas that work for me this week.

1. Shower Curtains: Our bath tubs use shower curtains and I was constantly replacing them with new liners because of mildew. I've taken them down and washed them in the washing machine or other ways, but ultimately, they would just need to be replaced. The last ones I bought were a little nicer than I normally buy and really hated to just throw them away. Recently when I was cleaning the tub with "Scrubbing Bubbles" cleaner I sprayed some on the shower curtain too. THE MILDEW CAME OFF WITH PRACTICALLY NO WORK!!! I just wiped it off and rinsed it by directing the shower head towards it. I'm sure most other people already knew this, but it just dawned on me.

2. Coupons: I have a love/hate relationship with coupons..... I love to use them, but hate to keep up with them.

Here's the way they look when they get out of hand:





Carrying around a plastic box like this DOESN'T work for me! I threw away all the coupons that had expired, of course. I also went ahead and got rid of the coupons I routinely clip, but NEVER end up using. For instance refrigerated biscuits and cookies. There are always a bunch of these in the paper, but we just never use many of them.

I have now reverted back to my old organizer until a better solution arises.


Having a small organizer works for me. No plastic boxes and no notebooks.

For a wonderful post on simplifying coupon organization, read Lyn's post at her blog called Essential Thrift, HERE.

Laundry in my Home

Its Works For Me Wednesday again and I thought I'd share a few laundry tips that work for me.

1. I am always utilizing the air conditioning/heat vents in my house for drying laundry. I often put my drying rack over a vent. If I wash any shoes I just put each one upside down on top of two different vents and the next day they are dry.

This week I washed my black dress pants and black blazer on the delicate cycle, hung them on hangers and in order to expedite their drying I hung them on the end of the ironing board, you guessed it, over a vent.



Our heat has been running at night so these clothes dried pretty quickly. Heck, here in North Carolina the heat was running one night and the air conditioning the next day. So, there's usually some kind of air coming out of there. Why not make more use of those energy dollars?

2. My ironing board is up all the time in my little sewing room which is located right beside the laundry room. I don't always get it done, but its really convenient to iron hubby's shirts straight out of the dryer. My iron is usually on for sewing purposes all day on Saturday anyway.



3. I recently set up a drying rack in our bedroom. This is a picture of the drying rack and laundry basket located in an out of the way place outside the door of our bathroom. The bathroom we use is very small and we don't have too many towel racks. Since there are three of us using this bathroom on a regular basis, hanging the towels over the shower rod to dry gets complicated. Who ever is taking the next shower might not be the person who wants to reuse those towels. So I have started hanging mine and hubby's towels on the drying rack. Its also nice to hang some laundry on to save electricity, especially if its something that doesn't really need to go in the dryer. I hung several pairs of black trouser socks on there this week that were washed with the above pants and blazer.

4. I learned from experience to always wash whites/lights that are going to get bleach LAST. That way I don't have to worry about a little tiny speck of bleach that splashed on the side of the washer getting onto an article of colored clothing.

5. I'm still cutting my dryer sheets in half. Honestly, this works and saves a little money. The main thing to me is that I don't have to worry about running out as soon. They last a really long time when you double the number of sheets.

6. I saw on the "A Home With a Smile" blog that Rhonda is making her own fabric softener and I want to try her recipe soon. Here's the post about the recipe. She also did an update here.
7. A lot of our towels are white and this is good because a little bleach in the water occasionally keeps them smelling fresh.

8. I do a few loads of laundry during the week, but to be honest, its less stressful to me to just wait until Saturday to do the majority of it. I don't necessarily like to be pressured to keep the laundry going ALL the time. Also on Saturday if the weather's nice I can hang some of it outside on the line.

9. I almost always stock up Purex Laundry Detergent because its often on sale at a good price and there are usually coupons available to combine with the sale. It just so happens to be on sale this week at Food Lion for Buy One Get One Free and I'm using my last bottle. I hope we have coupons! FH (Frugal Hubby) is checking as I type!

For more Works For Me tips, go to Rocks in My Dryer!

Convenient Home Set Up - Works For Me!

I saw that Rhonda and Susan showed their sewing areas and called it "KEEPING IT REAL" so here's my version:

KEEPING IT REAL



Today is "WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY" and I thought and thought about what works for me. Well, it seemed that nothing works for me a lot of the time. Do you ever feel that way. Sometimes I'm just carried along with the waves of work, home, family, etc.

BUT, I did come up with something that really does work for me!


I love to sew and do so for pleasure and am trying to build up a small side business with the ultimate dream of a full time business. Let me tell you that's a long way off! Since I work full time outside of the home and try to be a good house keeper, cook and chief bottle washer :o), it gets pretty crazy sometimes!

I always dreamed of having a fancy sewing room with all the latest equipment. There are two obstacles to this: 1. No room; and 2. No money for fancy equipment. :o)

I finally realized that the little front room at my front door was just wasted space and turned it into a sewing room. Its the perfect size and the best thing about it is that its convenient to the rooms that I am in and out of all the time doing laundry, cooking and spending time with my family.

From my seat at the sewing machine I can see the tv, the computer desk and the washer and dryer, as you can see from the picture. Also, I can hear whats going on all over the house. Its only a few feet away from the kitchen too. While I am waiting for the water to boil I can sew a few seams. As soon as one load of clothes is through washing I can jump up from my sewing and go move the laundry along its merry way.

So when I am sewing I am located in just the right place to keep the laundry going, to check on whats cooking and am never too far away from those guys in there watching football when they want me to come watch a great NC State or Carolina Panthers replay!

So I ask you, what is your passion or hobby? If you can locate your work (or play) area conveniently in your home, you can get more done in both your home and with your passion or hobby.

So please go to Rocks in My Dryer for more Works For Me Tips!

Works For Me Wednesday

Gift Closet Ideas

Now is a good time to be restocking your gift closet!

I was invited to a party this weekend, a pig pickin to be exact, for my good friend who was turning 50 that day and for her two children who both were graduating from college. I wanted to take a little gift for each of them.

My plan was to make a tote bag for each of the two graduates and buy some chocolate for my friend who loves chocolate. I made the bags Saturday, but wasn't quite satisfied with the gifts.

So, after church on Sunday I stopped in one of my local Dollar General stores just to see what they had and found some great Christian books that would make wonderful graduation, birthday or other gifts! That's the thing about Dollar General and Dollar Tree. You never know what you'll find. Sometimes I am amazed at the things they have.

I purchased three hardback books by Max Lucado entitled, "Every Day Deserves A Chance" for $4.00 each. With this addition, my gifts turned out very nice. I folded the tote bags up to be the same size as the books, wrapped them in tissue paper and placed them in a gift bag (recycled, of course!).

I also purchased for myself two paper back Books for $3.00 each. One is called, "When God Winks At You" and the other one is a daily devotional book called "Amazing Freedom, a Women of Faith Book". I have been devouring both of these and love them.

I'm having camera problems this morning, so I can't show you a picture of the books, but I'm going to try to add them to my favorites on the Amazon Widget on the sidebar.

I am going back to Dollar General to purchase more of these books for my neighbor who just lost her brother and for another friend of mine who loves Max Lucado books. I don't want to be greedy, but I would also love to purchase some of these books for my gift closet.

They would make great gifts for someone who is sick or for someone with a death in the family or for many other occasions. Its so nice to be able to take a little gift to someone who is in the hospital or has suffered a loss of some kind, without having to go out and find it at the last minute. Just go into your gift closet and get something.

So check at your Dollar General to see if they have these books in stock. Most of the Dollar General Stores carry the same items, you just have to look around or ask the clerk if they have them.

If you don't have a Dollar General Store or if yours doesn't have these books, you could also find great gift quality books at yard sales and thrift stores to stock your gift closet with. Just keep your eyes open!

For more Works For Me Wednesday ideas, go to Rocks in My Dryer!

Works For Me Wednesday - Store Brands

Good Morning! I will be away from my computer all day today while attending a job related seminar. I have to attend a certain number of hours of education and ethics a year to keep my certification. It will be in a nearby town about 25 miles away and I have to get a move on more urgently than usual, so my post today will be brief! :o)

My works for me Wednesday tip this week is to give store brands a try. I have added the following new ones to my list of "good" store brands:

1. Dollar General brand packaging tape. I purchased a roll this weekend for $1.50. The size was 2 " X 800 " and it states on the package "Easy & Quiet Crystal Clear". This is the BEST packaging tape I have found. It does not make any noise when you are dispensing it and if it gets stuck back on itself, it is extremely easy to get it started again! This is a great product at a good price. I know this is not a very exciting item to be so excited about, but the other tapes, even brand name, that I have used nearly drive me crazy at times.

2. Dollar Tree trash bags. I bought a box of the handle tie trash bags just to try them. Usually the cheap trash bags are thin and short. These have handle ties which do well in our size kitchen trash can, they are sturdy and only $1.00 for a box. I'm not sure how many are in the box. I will definitely buy these again.

Sometimes store brands are even better than their name brand rivals. I am willing to give them a chance. If they aren't any good, I just won't buy them again!

Have a great Wednesday and I will check back tonight!

For lots of great "Works For Me Tips", visit the Rocks in my Dryer Blog!

Works for Me Wednesday - Menu Planning

This week's edition of "WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY" has the theme, "What DOESN'T work for me"

For me this is menu planning! I have tried many times to plan my meals for the week ahead and I feel like its a failure because we have so many leftovers, or something comes up to keep me from cooking the meal that's planned for that day, etc. I've found that I do better just planning day by day.

BUT, I'm still interested in making menu planning work for me!

WHY? Because its bound to mean less work and I'm all for less work! LOL.

So, I'm trying again. I have printed out a menu planning sheet for May found at the Family Homestead website. There is also a great article on buying groceries for two weeks at the time on the same website. My hubby has been doing the grocery shopping for a while now. I feel that this is an extra hardship for him right now due to work responsibilities. So I want to make this job more efficient for both of us.

I would like to do the grocery shopping and buy two weeks worth of food based on two weeks worth of menus. We usually base our grocery list on the Food Lion sales paper each week, but it would be easy to run into the store just to pick up any unbeatable deal that shows up on the off week. Most of the time the same sales at Food Lion just run over and over in a certain sequence anyway! If something's not on sale this week, just wait a week or two and it'll be on sale again.

In addition to buying groceries for two weeks at a time and planning a menu for two weeks at a time, I also want to focus more on "real" foods and cooking from scratch more. There has to be a compromise somewhere for the "working outside the home Mom", with time and money constraints, to be able to cook healthy meals!

I intend to make Italian Beans this week, as a first step toward healthier eating. You can find this recipe at the Family Homestead website as well.

So, wish me luck for turning something that hasn't worked for me in the past into a future "IT DOES WORK FOR ME POST!"

For more Works For Me/Doesn't Work for me Posts, go to Rocks in my Dryer!

Works For Me Wednesday - Small Space Help

My Works For Me Wednesday Tip this week is how to make more efficient use of small spaces. These are some ideas I put to use in one of my bathrooms.

The bathroom that my sweetie and I (and sometimes my other two guys) share is small. It has 2 doors which allow entrance from two bedrooms. I wanted to have a place to put my stuff that was functional, yet not too plain, so I went to my local Dollar General Store and purchased a basket that would fit on the back of the commode. I put my makeup, etc. in it like this:




The tall container that I put tall items like makeup brushes in is a wine glass. The short glass container that hold q-tips and short items like lipstick are candle holders. I am able to put all of my makeup and other necessities for getting ready in the morning in this one space. If someone is in the shower I can just go get my basket and use it in another area.

I also needed somewhere to store other items and bought this shelf. I like to have certain items here so I don't have to go digging around in the vanity.




We keep the towels, washcloths, toilet paper, extra toothpaste and soap, etc. in the vanity. I need to organize the medicine cabinet and the vanity, so I didn't want to show you pictures of that! LOL

For more "Works For Me Wednesday Ideas", go to Rocks in My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday

When it comes to yard work at my house, Perennials WORK FOR US! They really do "do" the work. If I don't buy a single plant my yard will have blooms most of the spring, summer and fall. If I'm bent on adding new plants, all I have to do is divide some of the ones I already have. Perennials are amazing!

Its still early in the Spring, but here are a few I took a picture of this morning.

This is An old fashioned plant that I started from a little clump dug up from our family cemetery and one lone daisy. This plant is amazing. It has these purple flowers every day until it gets hot and then they close up. The next day they bloom again. They grow very big and I can divide it to make more plants with wild abandon! I have clumps of it all over my yard. Lesson: Any plant that survives at an old family cemetery, is a good one.



Purple Bearded Iris. I kid you not, I started with one root! I now have several bunches in different flower beds.



I bought one tiny pot of this green plant to accent some other perennials in this pot. I didn't know it was a perennial. Not only did it survive the winter, it has completely filled up this pot and has little purple flowers. I'll never have to worry about filling up this pot again. There are other perennials in there that haven't come up yet.



These yellow iris came from my grandmother's garden many years ago. She was 92 when she died and she has been dead for nearly 30 years.



A couple of hostas just beginning to grow.



As time goes on there will be more and more perennials blooming in my yard. Soon there'll be daylillies and gladiolas. Later there'll be mums.

For more Works For me ideas, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday-Dollar Store CDs

I know you've seen those CDs and DVDs at the Dollar store that come in little cardboard sleeves. Many times I have looked through them and dismissed them as not being very good.

Take a second look!

I love piano and other instrumental music. I recently found these Praise and Worship CDs at the Dollar Tree located near me. They have many of my favorite songs. ESPECIALLY, CANON IN D, which was played at my wedding. I listen to it and feel like I'm being transported away to some magical place.



My other favorites on these cds: Holy, Holy, Holy; Ave Maria; Crown Him With Many Crowns; Morning has Broken; How Great Thou Art; and Amazing Grace.

I had to restrain myself and only limit myself to these 4, but for $4.00, I think I got a good deal!


For more Works For Me Wednesday ideas, visit Rocks In My Dryer!

Works For Me Wednesday

I am very thankful for my laundry room! Its not too big, but years ago my laundry area was in a hallway covered by folding doors, or even worse, the laundromat. So, I know how blessed I am to have it. I have some of my favorite things in there. There are pictures of my children, a small table my husband bought me and a long rug in front of the washer an dryer, which help make the laundry experience more cheerful.

The only complaints I have are that its located in a high traffic area and there isn't anywhere to hang clothes. I hang a lot of clothes on hangers, some straight from the washing machine to air dry and some straight from the dryer.

I purchased these very sturdy, large plastic over the door hooks which hold a lot of hangers. If my memory serves me right, they were $1.00 for two in a pack. They are so sturdy, that I've had them for years.

I like to hang each person's clothes on a different hook which makes it easy for each person to take their clothes to their closet. There are four different doors in the area that I can hang a hook on. A couple of the hooks stay there all the time, but a couple of them I take down when not in use.




I tend to do most of my laundry on Saturdays. Its an all day thing, but I don't mind! My laundry room is located right next to my sewing room and its just a minor inconvenience to stop sewing and go move the laundry along its way.

I also love over the door hooks like these for the bedrooms.

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips go to Rocks in my Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday

This week's "Works For Me Wednesday" edition is all about favorite on-line shopping places.

I'm not a big On-Line shopper, but these are my favorites:

Old Navy. There are some things here that we always buy, like boxers for my son. They have the only ones he will wear. Its a comfort factor. Old Navy has a flat $5.00 shipping charge, no matter what you buy. They also have great sales, if you can catch them!

LL Bean has the BEST customer service I have ever dealt with. They will fix any problem you may have. Their products are high quality and they also have good sales and you can get free shipping and monogramming if you use the LL Bean credit card. Just be sure to pay it off at the end of the month! This past Christmas they had free shipping on everything, no matter how you paid for it.

EBAY. You can find anything you could possibly want on EBAY. These are my suggestions to buying on EBAY.

1. Don't run the price up by bidding early! Just watch the item and see what happens. This isn't good when you are the seller, but I see new EBAYers bidding like crazy all the time, and experienced ones, just wait!

2. Don't fall for the ones that charge unreasonable shipping. I won't even look at the item if the shipping is out of line.

3. Be sure to check the sellers rating out. Not just the percentage, but how many actual unhappy customers they have had. If the seller has sold 8,000 items and has a 98% approval rating, that could be a lot of unhappy people!

Be sure to check out Rocks in my Dryer for more online site favorites!

Store Brands Work For Me

There are certain store brands that are always the best buy unless you have a great sale combined with coupons. I have experimented with different ones to see if they are any good. I'm not brand loyal at all and there are some items that the store brand works just as good. These are some of the ones I regularly use:

Soap: I'm not talking about fancy, smell good, moisturizing soap. Just plain old fashioned deodorant bath soap. We like Dial Gold. Usually the store brand of this is just as good. Recently Walgreens had their store brand of soap on sale 5 for $1.00. I haven't used their brand before and they were sold out of the gold. All they had left when I got there were the blue ones that "compare to Coast". I thought for 20 cents a bar, what did I have to lose? So I bought 5 bars for $1.00 and will definitely be buying it again. It works just as well as any I've used before. In fact, I like it alot.

Tea bags: The men at my house drink about a gallon of sweet tea a day. I have found that the Dollar General store brand of tagless tea bags work well. There are 100 bags in a box for $1.00. I like not having to remove the tags too. I'm sure that someone who drinks hot tea would not want this tea, but for the amount of tea that is consumed at my house this works for me.

Fabric Softener Sheets: The ones sold at Dollar Tree are the best deal. They have a box of 55 sheets for $1.00. I save even more by cutting them in half.

Rice: Walmart's brand of "converted rice" is good. It has to be the "Converted", not the cheapo one. The Walmart brand is much, much cheaper than the name brand converted rice and cooks well. Its a little over $1.00 a bag.

Its a good idea to experiment with some store brands for items that you're not totally brand loyal on. There are some store brands that aren't good at all and you might not like the ones I've listed, but purchasing these work for me!

Please share with me the store brands that you like and regularly use!

For more "Works For Me" ideas to to Rocks in My Dryer!

Little Minutes

Do you ever have a big job to do that just seems overwhelming? I do!

The way I deal with these is to do them in little, sometimes teenie, steps.

One example: At my office we needed to declutter and organize our huge file room. It had been accumulating stuff for years, so it didn't have to be done in a hurry. I decided that every time I got up to go to the bathroom, which is in the file room area, I would throw away one thing or organize one little thing. One of my co-workers got in on the fun too. Before long the file room was all straightened out. This also works for filing. We sometimes accumulate 2 or 3 boxes of files to be filed. So instead of spending an hour or two on this, every time I get up to go to the bathroom I will file a handful of maybe 5 files. Before you know its done or kept up to date if I do it consistently.

At home this could be done this way: If you are watching tv, every time there is a commercial, get up and do as much of a certain job as you can and then run back in just in time for the show to start back. I have cleaned my bathroom this way before. Spray down the shower with cleaner during one commercial, scrub part of it during another commercial, scrub another part during another commercial, rinse it during another commercial, clean the..... you get the idea!

You can break down lots of jobs into small jobs and put them on your to do list.

I am trying to do some Christmas decorating this way. My to do list for this week is something like this:

1. take down fall wreath.
2. give pumpkins to goats.
3. remove all fall-like decorations in house
4. Get down Christmas wreath from attic
5. Get down Christmas tree from attic

Just doing these things, one or two a day, will make such a difference this weekend when I start decorating!

More examples, clean out your junk drawer while talking on the phone. Organize your purse while waiting for a family member to get ready to go out the door.

It would also be a good idea to have a list of jobs that only take a minute or 5 minutes that you can do when the available time arises!

So use those little minutes that we all have available to get some jobs accomplished. It works for me!