by Dian Leave a Comment

8 Clever Ways A Clothespin Will Make Your Life Easier!

The Clothespin: something that costs as little as about $0.05 each, and is a very useful and versatile tool to have around the house! That’s why you can probably find them in most rooms in my house. They are handy and cheap little things that make my life easier.

The Clothespin: something that costs as little as about $0.05 each, and is a very useful and versatile tool to have around the house! That’s why you can probably find them in most rooms in my house. They are handy and cheap little things that make my life easier.

Here are 8 ways in which you can use them to do the same!

1. Replace the “chip clip” with a clothespin!

You don’t need fancy clips to keep your chip bags closed, or your cereal bags closed, or frozen veggie bags in the freezer. Just grab a clothespin! I have a string of them attached to my shelf in the pantry so that I can always find one to grab to close all of my food storage bags. 

2. Use it as a coupon organizer.

Want to easily keep track of coupons depending on what store you will use them at? Write the name of the store on the clothespin and separate them out that way. It is bulkier than just a paper clip, but I like these better because of the ability to write the store name on the clothespin.  

 

3. Display your Christmas cards.

To display my Christmas cards each year, I have a 4″ long Christmas ribbon with a grommet at the end that I hang on command hooks. I then grab a mini clothespin and pin each Christmas card we receive to one of the hanging ribbons. This is a convenient way to display your cards without having to use tape, poster putty, or put a hole in the wall!  

4. Grocery list holder.

I have a clothespin that I glued some strong rare earth magnets on the back to it so it can easily hold up my weekly grocery list on my refrigerator. If anyone in the house needs anything – they know that it needs to get written on this list in order for me to purchase it.

5. Keep mitten and glove pairs together.

Keeping gloves together in pairs is more difficult than socks because you can’t always fold one glove into the other to keep the match. I have a bin of hats and gloves in our coat closet, and all of the gloves and mittens are kept together with their match with a clothespin.

6. Phone charger cord holder.

This is a super easy way to help control the cord clutter on a table or counter where you charge your electronic devices.

7. Light a deep candle with the help of a clothespin.

Have you ever had a candle you wanted to light and the wick was too deep and you didn’t have a long utility lighter near by? Just use a clothespin to hold the match. This will give you enough length to hopefully get that candle lit!

8. Label cords on a power strip.

I hate the power strip cord guessing game! You no longer have to guess what cord goes to what appliance if you label a clothespin and clip each cord!   What about you? What other ways can you think of that a clothespin comes in handy at your house? (other than hanging clothes of course.) 😉

Maura White blogs over at Happy Deal – Happy Day! Frugal crafts, recipes and money saving tips are regularly shared. She also loves to share about her shopping trips to Wegmans, and helps to find you be the best deals on Amazon! 

by Dian Leave a Comment

21 Organization Hacks!

You can never be too organized, whether it’s the beginning of the year, spring cleaning, or before the holidays, all year long is a good time to get and stay organized.  

Here are 21 Organization Hacks my online friends have shared.  I hope they help you get organized and stay that way.  Honestly in my experience kids are happier when they are on schedules (especially babies and toddlers) and organized households make Moms a lot happier than cranky kids and chaos.

 So, pick what might work for you and add a little organization to your life. 🙂

Closet Organization – Ann’s Entitled Life

Steps To Making Moving Less Stressful – How To Get Organized At Home

Downsizing: Why Reduce Your Homes Content – How To Get Organized At Home

Storage Solutions For Small Spaces – How To Get Organized At Home

Tips For Storing Books – How To Get Organized At Home

Kitchen Cupboard Organization – How To Get Organized At Home

Cleaning up that Pile of Magazines – Paints And Paws

Organized Room to Room: The Pantry – How To Have It All

 

Tax Tip: Creating a Filing System – How To Have It All

Organizing Explanation of Benefits – How To Have It All

DIY Shelving Unit – Diva Of DIY

DIY Organization Station – Diva Of DIY

How to Get Organized in Just 15 Minutes a Day – Two Kids And A Coupon

3 Ways to Organize Your Bathroom with Recycled Tin Cans – Two Kids And A Coupon

5 Fun Ways to Organize Your Daughter’s Hair Supplies – Two Kids And A Coupon

5 Simple Tips For Your Garage – Organize It On A Budget – Thrifty NW Mom

5 Ways Make Your Master Bedroom Relaxing – Thrifty NW Mom

How To Organize Your Home: 5 Budget Friendly Tips – Thrifty NW Mom

How To Organize A Small Bathroom – Living On A Dime

Quick Tips For Organizing Closet Shelves – Living On A Dime

5 Dollar Store Hacks For Uncluttered Cosmetics – My Beauty Box Review

by Dian 35 Comments

How To Clean Your Couch So It Looks New Again!

This post is all about How You Can Clean Your Couch So It Looks New Again.  We recently moved into  bigger place and I wanted a fresh start, so I kinda got rid of most everything.  By that I mean most of our furniture.

You see, our daughter and her husband have this business where they find things for sale for cheap or FREE, or even things other people have thrown out.   Then they clean them up, fix them and then list them on Offerup or Craigslist to resell them.

So, I thought I would have her sell my old stuff and let her use that to get me new stuff.

Well the first thing was a couch.  She found this sectional with recliners built in and drink holders, really nice for watching the game with the family or a movie.  Then she brought it to my house to “work on it”, because she was out of room at her house.  It. was. a-w-f-u-l!  

I was in complete shock – I wanted it gone the second I saw it.

I don’t know what these people did but, it looked like their kids lived on it, ate on it, and everything.  One thing she never messes with though is furniture from a home that has pets or smokers, so, it had THAT going for it, but not much else!

So, she got right to work.  

She cleaned it first and then she repaired the leather in several places, added foam to the seats – some were completely missing foam, sewed up some of the areas that had come undone and I was shocked!  It looks great!

Plus – there was only 1 timeout issued!

She used a Rug Doctor with hot water and alcohol to clean it.  1 part alcohol to 2 parts water.  (Always color test anything before you try and clean it)  She scrubbed the arms and footrests with a plastic bristle scrub brush she got at a dollar store.   She uses this method for microfiber and microsuede couches. For Chenille couches she uses less alcohol.  The best way to repair Chenille is to use Dritz Fray Check around the tear, let it dry and then stitch it on the Fray Check otherwise it just continues to unravel.

If you have some grease or oil stains on the couch you can add in 1-2 drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid in with the alcohol and hot water.

I couldn’t believe my eyes and when I show people the before picture, they can’t believe it! 

Then she found me this great rug to go with it!

All in all it cost me a total of $75 for the rug and sectional – but, it didn’t cost me anything really cause she sold my other stuff to pay for this.

You can see her trick for How To Remove Water Stains From A Wood Table Easily <— here.

by Dian 9 Comments

21 Grocery Items You Can Freeze!

When we had 4 kids at home I often wanted to buy extra when there was a good sale, but, I was always afraid it would spoil before we would use it.  So, I learned a lot about what I could freeze.  

We have/had 2 refrigerators and 2 deep freezers at all times.  I always kept the deep freeze and 1 fridge outside and then 1 fridge inside in the kitchen. We recently moved and I now have 2 fridges in the kitchen and 1 deep freeze in the laundry room, and even with just the youngest left at home we still stay pretty stocked up on everything.  

I do coupon shop so that is how we do it! I thought I would share with you 21 grocery items I have had success in freezing:

Milk – Just remove some before you freeze it, it will leak out the top as it expands while freezing. Sometimes you may have to shake it after thawing if it separates.

Tub Margarine/Butter – I freeze these all the time.  Depending on the brand and kind I may have to re-whip it when it thaws because it separated, but that takes just a few minutes and it tastes great!

Cheese – I freeze cheese, too. block or shredded. No problems.

Bread – Be sure it stays on top so it doesn’t get smooshed 🙂

Chocolate

Nuts

Flour

Sugar

Cream Cheese

Cakes – I used to do some decorating and I will tell you there is nothing more moist than a cake iced while still frozen (which is easier by the way) and then allowed to thaw under the icing!  Try it!

Stick Margarine/Butter

Cookie Dough

Yogurt

Tortillas

Rice

Pasta

Coffee

Canned biscuits – Depending on the brand sometimes they don’t rise as high as they do before they are frozen.

Wholly Guacamole – It thaws out easy and tastes great.

Lunchmeat – A lot of times I find a canned ham that is cheaper, once sliced, than lunchmeat.  I usually find a canned ham around 5 lbs and take it to the deli or butcher and ask them to slice it for me (they will do it FREE of charge) and then I take it home and re-package it in smaller packages and freeze the individual packages.  

Read about 10 more FREE Little Known Grocery Store Services!

Eggs are a little more work – never freeze them in the shell – but you can break them open and whip them together and then you can freeze them. I have heard people who pour them in to ice cube trays and cover them with plastic wrap.

Of course, you know you can freeze leftovers or even “freezer cook”.  I cook large amounts of  Spaghetti, Mini Meatloaves, Chili, Hamburgers, Chicken, Casseroles, Taco Meat pretty much anything.  I then take them and separate them in a family serving size and freeze them. Then on nights when we don’t feel like cooking or don’t have a lot of time, we just pick something out of the freezer and we’re set in minutes!

I usually keep my open Chips in the fridge to help keep them crisp longer – but, I have heard that you can freeze them with great success!  Hope this helps!

Make sure to check out my “Fruits & Veggies You Can Freeze” post to learn more about freezing veggies and fruits!  

What have you had success freezing?

by Dian 4 Comments

18 Beauty And Makeup Hacks To Stretch Your Money!

I thought it might be fun to share some easy beauty tips that can help make this part of our lives less expensive.  So, here are 18 Beauty And Makeup Hacks To Stretch Your Money.

When I was 18 I went Cosmetology school and got my license.  For years I worked in hair salons and learned quite a few tricks from make up artists I worked with.

Over the years I have learned even more from friends, and today my daughter and grand daughter shared some fun tips with me, too!

So, here you go:

First check out this DIY Pore Strip:

DIY Best Blackhead Remover

Use a drop of nail polish remover in your nail polish when it becomes too think or tacky.  It will thin it out and make it easy to use and you won’t have to throw out a half used bottle.  (Have you ever seen an empty bottle of nail polish?)

Mix your liquid foundation with your moisturizer to kill two birds with one stone and make both go further.

When my kids were little I always bought gallon bottles of shampoo from my local beauty supply and diluted it with water, half and half.  It lasted a long time!

Use a cotton swab to dig out the last pit of lipstick, gloss, eye shadows, lotions, almost anything to get that last little bit.  I saw this tool on Shark Tank for that, too:  Spatty Daddy.

Always use your ring finger around your eyes, it has the least amount of pressure out of all of your fingers making it less likely to pull as hard and cause as many wrinkles.  (Ok, so maybe this is just my favorite, but not so much money saving… well, you’ll have to buy less wrinkle creams! )

Mix lipstick or gloss colors when you get tired of one or don’t like it to make a totally new color.

Add a few drops of contact solution (saline) to your mascara to get the clumps out and make it like new.

Heat up lipstick with a blow dryer before applying it and it will last longer, like a lip stain.  Make sure to use a lip brush or cotton swab to apply it when it’s heated.

Apply lotion immediately after showering while your skin is still damp to help the lotion absorb and go further.

Wet your eye shadow brush before applying your shadow.  It makes it darker and will allow you to use less to achieve the look you want ultimately making your eye shadow last longer.

Heat up liquid eyeliner with a blow dryer before applying, it helps it set better and goes on smoother.

Always store shampoo, conditioners, and body wash upside down to help get it out quicker and ultimately use every last drop.

Cut makeup or lotion tubes open to get the very last of the product out before tossing in the trash.  Or get a Spatty Daddy to help!

Cut makeup sponges in half to get twice as much for your money.

Heat up your eyelash curler with a blow dryer making them curl faster and stay curled longer.  Don’t get them too hot, you might burn yourself.

Apply baby powder or translucent powder to your eyelashes between mascara coats to get fuller looking eyelashes.

Use old eye shadows to make new cool shades of nail polish.  Just crush up your old powder eye shadows and mix with clear polish to create your own shade.

Paint a bobby pin with nail polish to give yourself a new cute hair accessory.

image courtesy:  The College Prepster