Kitchen Tip Tuesday – Pesky Ants!

Tis’ the season…or at least in this area it is! For reasons that escape me, when the weather warms up, the ants find their way to my cupboards and counters! With 3 kids of my own and the 3 others I have around most of the time…crumbs are inevitable. Here is a great article on environmentally friendly ant repellent.

For more great Kitchen Tips visit Tammy’s Recipes every Tuesday

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

A few months ago I was introduced to the Tip Nut website. What a plethora of information! I haven’t made it through even half of the  posts, but I’m always finding new and not-so-new ways to help my household run more smoothly.

I really enjoyed this section on Vintage Household Tips. While, I couldn’t find too many that applied to modern day homemaking – it was interesting to read how things were done when my Grandmothers were keeping house with a house full of kids!

For more Kitchen Tips visit Tammy’s Recipes every Tuesday

Organizing Coupons

My “couponing buddie” and I are on a mission to reorganize our stash! We’ve realized that our shopping trips would go a lot smoother if we had a better organization system. I’ve tried different methods in the past, but I think we finallly hit on one that will be perfect!

Jaime over at I’m a Money Magnet did a series a few months ago about her method. My favorite tip from this is Stapling your stack of coupons BEFORE you cut them out! It makes so much sense and is so easy to do.

Part 1 HERE – clipping tips

Part 2 HERE - organizing your stash

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

I know it’s Wednesday ~ but I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday and I had a really good one for this week! J

I don’t know about your house, but in ours, it’s nearly impossible to find an extention cord when we need one. I just found a fantastic solution to this problem. Use a toilet paper or paper towel tube to keep them together and put them in a basket in your laundry room or storage space.  Here are some other great uses for your empty toilet paper & paper towel tubes:

Chew Toys

No, not for the kids. But for small rodents, toilet paper tubes are a wonderful chew toy. We have two guinea pigs that love tubes! They chew on them and toss them around their cage.

Fire Starter

You can either fill them with old napkins, tissues, or any paper trash, or leave them empty. Use them as fire starters at a camping trip, or in a charcoal grill. They work great and keep the flame going.

Gift Wrap

A unique and fun shape, they can hold small presents like socks or underwear, pencils, pens, crayons, etc. Anything tiny enough to fit inside, will work great! This especially works great for party favors!

Kids Crafts

Kids can create all sorts of wonderful projects with tubes. Glue two together to make binoculars, add some colorful beads between two sheets of wax paper and attach to one end for a kalidiscope, they make great megaphones and mirophones…the possiblites are endless. Like my husband would say… Google it!

Eye Glass Holder

Cover the tube with wrapping paper or something else really pretty and store your sunglasses, or eye glasses inside. You can either keep them at the house, take them in the car or drop them in your purse. It’s a handy way to keep your glasses safe.

There are so many great ideas for tubes…care to share your ideas? I have lots of tubes and kids that like to create ~ I’m up for anything!

Don’t foget to visit Tammy’s recipes (click on logo) for more great tips!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Baking Soda

I love using baking soda as much as I love using vinegar for all sorts of cleaning projects. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Making Soft Scrub
• Sprinkling on stuck-on food when washing dishes
• Adding to dish water – it helps remove food and softens your hand
• Use 1 cup baking soda down your drain followed by 3 cups boiling water to keep drains clear
• Removing soap scum from the tub and sinks
• Removing smell from pickle jars so the jars can be reused
• Sprinkling in the garbage can to keep the kitchen smelling fresh

How do you use Baking Soda? I’d love to have more uses for it! For more great Tips visit Tammy’s Recipes every Tuesday.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday

I don’t really have a new kitchen tip for today…but I wanted to let you all in on the Traditional Medicinals Giveaway. I love these teas…they are an all natural alternative to feeling better and living healthy.

Go to the post here for the details and don’t forget to visit Tammy’s Recipes for some great Kitchen Tips for this week!

Kitchen Tip Tuesday – Vinegar

I have to admit…I’m totally addicted to vinegar! Here are some great uses for White Distilled Vinegar:

• Laundry – use 1/4 cup in place of fabric softener.
• Dish Washing – use a splash in your dish water to help your dishes get really clean and dry spotless
• Cleaning – sprinkle baking soda on stubborn counter top glop and then sprinkle with vinegar. Let sit for a few mintues and wipe up the mess.
• Cleaning Windows – use full strength or dilute in a spray bottle and use to replace your regular window cleaner.
• Use to make Soft Scrub – use the scrub to clean your ceramic top stove, bathtub scum and counter tops.

These are just a few of my favorite uses. You can visit VinegarTips.com a lot more uses. You can also use it in cooking, but I would recommend using Apple Cider Vinegar in cooking because of it’s great health benefits. For more great tips, visit Tammy’s Recipes.

Kitchen Tip Tuesday – Labeling Leftovers…

The other day I was getting ready to put a sticky note on some leftovers and on my husband’s lunch so no one would make a snack out of them, when I saw my Dry Erase marker sitting on the table. “Hum,” I thought, “Wonder if this will wipe off plastic (I know…duh, right?)…so I tried and “Voila!” after it had sat for an hour, it still came right off! I did have to use a little dish soap on a rag, but it came off and I was so excited about my new found labeling system! No more sticky notes in the fridge or forgetting when I put something in there.

For more great kitchen tips, visit Tammy’s Recipes for Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Kitchen Tip Tuesday – 2009!!

I can hardly believe it’s 2009 already! I just read a comic strip in Sunday’s paper that mentioned that it seems like the century just turned and now almost a decade has gone by! YIKES…I digress!

My kitchen tip for today is to use an inexpensive desk / ink blotter calendar for your family calendar and hang it on your fridge. I picked up one at Target for $1 and used super magnet clips from Staples to hang it up. It’s great because the spaces are big enough to write down lots of info and it’s in a well-used area of our home!

Have a great Tuesday and don’t forget to head over to Tammy’s Recipes for more great kitchen tips.

Also don’t forget to check out the Colossal Clutter Clean-up…we start on January 10th

Homemade Liquid Handsoap

This was super simple & super frugal! Have fun experimenting with different soaps…

Homemade Liquid Handsoap

Ingredients:

• 1 bar soap (I used Lavender Ivory)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup room temp. water
• 1 teaspoon glycerin
• 1 Tablespoon honey
• 3-4 cups water

Directions:

• Grate soap into blender
• Add boiling water and blend for about 1 minute
• Add 1/2 cup water, glycerin & honey & blend for 30 secs.
• Let cool in blender for about 1 hour (you should have about 2 cups of the mixture at this point)
• Mixture will be a bit like jello jigglers after it cools; just break it up with a spoon before the next step
• Add enough water to equal 5 or 6 cups -depending on how thick you like your hand soap- blend until completely combined.
• Pour into your leftover soap pumps and enjoy!

Here are some pictures:

Grated Soap in blender

Blend with hot water ; then room temp water, honey & glycerin

Add water to make 6 cups and blend

Approx. cost for 6 cups of soap = $.50 (probably less!)