Repurpose: Turning Trash Into Fire

Winter is slowly approaching.  Well, in Mississippi it is very very slow.  My mother calls to let me know that its actually cold where she lives.  My response is always the same: quit rubbing it in before I kick your butt.  I hate summer time. It's full of bugs, heat, sweat, stinky sweaty people, grass that needs to be cut and me making a desperate attempt to turn my blinding white legs into shiny, smooth, golden brown summer legs.  Yeah, that never happens.  I celebrate the changing of the leaves and look forward to nights of hot chocolate, fluffy socks and a fire. 

I am totally hooked on fire.  We have central heat but nothing warms you like a fire.  It's so peaceful to sit in front of a fire with some hot chocolate, all of the lights off and just watch the flames dance.  It's relaxing.

I try my hardest every year to make a fire.  Occasionally I get it. On the times that I do manage to get it started the kids quickly huddle around the fire with their favorite blankets attempting to stay warm while all of the windows are open, the smoke alarms are screaming and I am running from room to room pressing the reset button which does absolutely nothing because this small fire is producing more smoke than a forest fire.  I finally get everything calmed down and we relax until the next day..when it all starts over. 

I'm sure that more experienced fire starters don't require half a dozen starter logs to make 2 small logs burn.  Well, more power to you.  Unless you are going to volunteer to come start my fires every night during the winter don't talk to me.  I ran out of starter logs one night last year and I was determined to make fire so I started searching the house for things that burn easily.  And then it hit me..dryer lint.  They always warn you to clean your dryer's lint trap so you don't burn your house down.  So I grabbed some lint and made fire.. it didn't work.  I don't know how dryer fires happen so frequently.  As soon as I set the lint on fire it was gone.  It probably had something to do with me wanting it to burn for a while.  I'm sure if it had been in my dryer it would have burned for weeks. 

I wasn't giving up because I didn't want to have to tell the man to build a fire for the poor helpless girl.  Next I packed lint into a toilet paper roll.  I figured that the cardboard would make it burn a little longer.  Yep!  Perfect...score..yes...I did it!  Worked perfectly!  I was so proud of my fire building skills and even more proud of the fact that I made a fire starting log with things that I was going to throw in the trash because there was no other use for them.
I love making things for the house that are completely free.  By making my own starter logs I save a little cash every winter.  I don't have to worry about running out because there are always toilet paper rolls and dryer lint in the house!

It's very simple to make.  Simply stuff an empty toiler paper roll with dryer lint.  Place in fire place or fire pit and burn. It works just as well as starter logs.

Does anyone have a homemade product that they would like to share with everyone?

Cleaning Carpets - On The Cheap

I hate dirty carpet!  I hate carpet period because even clean carpet is dirty. My next major project will be pulling up this carpet and having a carpet burning bon fire celebration. We have a no drinks or food rule in the the rooms with carpet but we somehow still end up with koolaid and pop-tart stains all over the carpet.

I clean the carpets weekly. Well, daily..one room a day. Between kids, dogs and the cat I should probably clean every room every day but I don't have time for that. Cleaning carpets weekly uses a lot of carpet cleaning solution and that stuff is not cheap. One bottle is almost $20.00 and it lasts about 2 weeks at my house. It works great and smells awesome but $20 is a lot every 2 weeks for soap. 

I decided I could make my own and for less and with less chemicals...and I did just that. I LOVE white vinegar. It doesn't smell great but it an amazing cleaner. I use it on everything so I figured I could use it on the carpets also. 

I start by vacuuming. Instead of using carpet freshener I use baking soda. It is natural and is an excellent deodorizer. I sprinkle it around and vacuum like normal. Next I mix up my cleaning solution. I mix a little oxi clean with water and spray that on any stains that I find. I let it sit for about 30 minutes or so. Instead of using commercial cleaning solutions I fill the solution tank with 75% white vinegar and 25% tap water. It works great!  The vinegar smell is strong for a few minutes but within 30 minutes there is no more smell. It leaves a fresh clean smell throughout the house. In all it costs me less than $1.00 to clean all of my carpets.  White vinegar is a very inexpensive, natural cleaning agent that works great!! Do y'all have any homemade cleaning products that you love? We would love to hear about them! 

Laundry - On The Cheap

Laundry is expensive.  The kids and I are allergic to everything.  The only washing powder that we can use is All Free and Clear.  Every other brand causes rashes or itching.  All isn't exactly cheap.  It's around $12 a bottle and it may last a month if I am lazy with laundry.  $12 isn't a lot for a month supply of anything but I wanted something better. 

A few months ago someone tipped me off to this wonderful video demonstration on how to make laundry detergent.  I wasn't too excited.  I had gone down this road before.  I made liquid laundry detergent.  I ended up with a bucket full of water and a thick layer of soap floating on top.  I didn't have the time or patience to remix it every single time I washed a load of clothes so I used it for a few days and then the rest went out the back door. 

This recipe is different..it is powdered washing powder.  I figured I couldn't screw this up so I sat down and checked out the video.  How to make a year worth of washing powder for under $30.  Cute title but yet right.  I'm sure she drove all around town for a solid week hitting up every sale with a stack of coupons to get all of the ingredients.  At least that's how it normally goes.  Nope, she just hit up Walmart and the dollar store.  Shock!!

So I wrote down the ingredients and headed out.  Everything was super easy to find.  I got everything at Walmart except for the oxi clean.  The Sun brand at Dollar General is half the price of the brand name and that is even the same brand that she uses in the video!!  I searched for a large container to store this giant load of detergent in.  I found the same one from the video at Walmart and she was right..it was only $10.  It's the exact size that I needed.  One thing that I noticed that she didn't mention is that the scoop inside the Sun oxygen cleaner is 2 tbsp. which is the amount of detergent suggested for a load of laundry in a top loading machine.  Convenient!

I followed the instruction in the video, made a huge mess in my kitchen and ended up with a lot more powder than I thought I would. The only change that I made was leaving out the softener..can't have itchy kids going to school and scratching all day.  Now it's time to test it out!!  I washed a load of clothes and threw the baby's stinky tennis shoes in there.  They came out smelling so fresh.  I was impressed so I decided to test it a little harder.  It was time to wash my favorite Mike the tiger blanket (go LSU) that the dogs rolled around on a few days ago when they ran inside soaked from playing in the rain.  It stunk!  Totally stunk like several day old wet dog.  I was prepared to burn it stunk.  So I threw it in the washer with 2 tbsp. of detergent and waited..knowing that when the washer stopped I was going to have to face the fact that I would be saying goodbye to my favorite fluffy, comfy blanket forever.  Well, I opened the washer, removed Mike and slowly went to smell him.  Amazingly, he smelled brand new.  A fresh, clean smell that is even better than the smell after using my favorite All detergent...which by the way did not get the wet dog smell out of Mike on a previous try.

I am converted.  I have said my final goodbyes to "store bought" detergent and will be making my own from now on.  Unfortunately, I can not take credit for this amazing recipe.  I have attached a link to the instructional video, located on YouTube, below.  Good luck and happy washing :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXHOfLFhMQI

Organizing - To Keep My Sanity

Life is crazy!! With 3 kids that have to be at 3 places all at the same time saying that life is crazy is a drastic understatement.  Being a stay at home mom means I am responsible for pick up/drop off of the kids, dentist/doctor/orthodontist appointments, bill paying, checkbook balancing, cleaning...basically everything with the exception of actually making any money.  But it's fun...right?? All of that free time that I have to watch tv and get manicures is amazing.  Yeah, that was a bit of sarcasm.  Picture this....3 months ago....my house...Boondocks, Mississippi, I depended on my IPhone.  I couldn't function without my IPhone.  I scheduled every appointment in my calendar, every bill had an alarm.  I did EVERYTHING with my IPhone.  One day I sat down to pay bills.  I spent 5 minutes searching for the checkbook, 5 minutes trying to find the website to pay a bill and 10 minutes resetting the password for that website because I always forget them.  15 minutes on 1 bill alone and I had like 6 of them to pay.  Needless to say, ain't nobody got time for that. 

I'm a Pinterest addict.  I LOVE Pinterest and am unsure of how I survived before it.  I can't even remember what we ate before I discovered the unlimited library of recipes now at my disposal.  My husband seems to love my addiction, after all that is where his favorite steak recipe came from.  During one of my many breaks to browse Pinterest, I noticed a pin with the caption Home Management Binder.  Curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on it.  Dude, was I amazed!  This wonderful pin was exactly what my organized/OCD side needed!! I knew with a few changes and some personalization I was on my way to finally having every ounce of my life in order.

After several days of research and many hours of sorting through online templates, I finally decided what items I needed to make my day run smoothly.  I am a visual person.  I love my IPhone but I work better when I have a calendar to write everything on, that I can peek down and see the entire month in one quick glance.  I also knew that one of my most chaotic areas was keeping school activities and attendance organized.  Last year the boy kid had 19 unexcused absences.  In reality he had about 4 but for some reason the 2 weeks he missed after having tonsil surgery were counted as unexcused.  Had I been more organized I could have fixed that very simply.

Introducing: The Thompson Family Home Management Binder. 

 

 

This is the table of contents for our binder:

 

 

 



My whole life is managed by this little blue binder...and it works wonderfully.  I have saved countless hours since making this.

 

A brief description of each section:

 

Monthly Calendar: This section includes a calendar for the entire month.  Here is where I list all activities, appointments, anything that is scheduled for the month.

 

Cleaning:

   A. Weekly Cleaning Chart:  I have divided the weekly cleaning into 6 days.  (Sunday is my off day) By doing a few small things every day, in addition to the usual picking up, I end up with a clean house by the weekend without spending the entire day Saturday cleaning.

   B. Monthly Cleaning Chart:  This is where I list all of those things that you should do monthly but sometimes forget.  My list includes: test smoke alarms, clean ac filter and vents, clean dryer vent, clean vent hood filter, clean windows and blinds, clean oven and microwave, clean ceiling fans, clean dishwaher, washer and dryer, clean carpets, bathe dogs, wash cars and clean furniture.

 

Food:

As I am sure most of you know, when you plan a weekly menu you save time and money at the grocery store and you eliminate those costly trips to the store midweek.  I this section I include our weekly menu and a running list of items I will need to pick up when I go to the store on the weekend.

 

Financial:

This is my favorite section :)  It's the one that I use almost every day and has made the biggest difference. 

It includes: my check register, bill calendar, bill checklist, monthly budget, snowball payment plan, contact information for every credit, utility and account that we have and a section for usernames and passwords for every online account.

The checkbook register that is included in checkbooks was too small for me and always looked messy so I found a full page template online and began using that.  I now have room to write and it looks neat.  The bill calendar has each bill listed on it's due date.  The bill check list is just a spreadsheet with each bill listed along with the months of the year.  I can simply check off that bill each month once it is paid.  This allows me to see at a glance what has been paid and what needs to be paid.  The monthly budget shows what I have allowed us for groceries, etc for the month.  The snowball payment plan is my favorite. It is a spreadsheet with all of our bills, payoffs and payments listed.  I began paying on the smallest bill we had.  Last month I paid off a medical bill.  I was paying $100 a month on it.  Instead of having an extra $100 this month I will apply that $100 to the next bill in line and continue to do so until all of my debt has been paid off.  By doing this I estimate that our house and land will be paid off in around 6 years..a lot less than it is financed for!  Cha ching for saving on interest!!  Finally, I have a listing of all of our accounts with the contact information and account number for each, along with the online account information.

 

Emergency Info:

In this section I have a page for everyone along with a copy of their birth certificate.  Each person's individual page has information needed in an emergency.  It lists their full name, address, contact info, employer/school, birthday, SSN, blood type, eye/hair color, height/weight, allergies, medical conditions, medications, doctor, dentist and pharmacy.  It also includes a recent photo.  I don't like to prepare for the possibility of my husband or child being missing but doing so is responsible.  If I were ever in this situation I would not have to waste time searching for this.

 

School:

  A: Absence Calendar and Doctor Excuses

As I said before since we had attendance issues last year I am determined to be prepared this year.  I have a calendar that I jot down every absence, tardy and check out on along with the reason for it.  I also photo copy each doctor/dentist/orthodontist excuse and add to this section before sending it to school.  Schools are busy places and sometimes excuses get misplaced..it happens and now I am prepared if it does.

  B: Notes

This section is for any correspondence I have with the school.  I haven't had any issues so far so it may stay empty :)

C: Handbook

I added a copy of the district's handbook.  It's a handy thing to have around when you have questions about the dress code, policies or when you have a crazy mom moment and forget how much lunch costs.

 

Lastly, we have the important documents section.  This section includes our property deed, insurance policies for the home, vehicles and life, vehicle titles, retirement account information and anything else that is important to us.

 

Having all of this in one place is a life saver.  In the event of a fire, natural disaster, any reason that we would have to get out and in a hurry I know that my "bug out"/home management binder is always under the table by the door.  Everything that we would need is in this one location.  I don't have to worry about replacing birth certificates, titles or getting a copy of our insurance policies if we have to evacuate for any reason.  Being this organized has made my life so much easier and my days more productive.