As a Mom, sometimes it seems like I spend half my day “picking up” after my family. I often spend so much time getting the small stuff in order that I never make it to the deep cleaning. Consequently, I’m always looking for cheap tools to help speed up the the process. Two of my favorites are my Butler’s Broom and my ultra-handy Grabber.

It’s kind of amazing how quickly the kitchen floor can go from clean to crumb-covered. Even if the mess is isolated to a certain spot (like that pesky area under the stools) - the kitchen gets so much foot traffic that the initial mess seems to spread within minutes. My solution? Catch the mess early with a Butler’s Broom - or better yet, make your kids do it. I bought this handy little tool in the cleaning supplies section of Wal Mart for around $10. Its short size makes it very kid-friendly and allows it to tuck away neatly on my pantry door. It’s perfect for sweeping up small messes and reaching into tight corners. As a bonus, the handle-mounted dustpan saves you from bending down and it’s large enough to hold even the bigger kitchen clean-ups. I’ve used mine several times a day for the past two years and - although it’s starting to signs of wear - still works like a charm.

My Grabber was another Wal Mart find that I can’t live without. On any given day, I probably pick up dozens of random items off my floors, tables, sofas (and pretty much any other horizontal surface). I guess it might have something to do with the 4 people in our family that are less than 40 inches tall. You long time readers might remember the stash boxes I created to help deal with this pick-up-after-yourselves problem. Although the stash boxes and our weekly stash box challenge help a ton, I still hate bending over a zillion times a day to pick up what remains. That’s where this handy tool comes in. Designed to help people with disabilities extend their reach, the Grabber is perfect for Moms looking to streamline their clean-ups.  It’s narrow and lightweight which makes it incredibly convenient for grabbing kid shoes, papers, matchbox cars, couch cushions and pretty much everything else that wanders out of place each day. Best of all, the long handle virtually eliminates the need to bend over and provides extended reach for when your son decides to stash his rotten apple core behind the way-too-heavy-to-move-by-yourself armoire.

I loved having my Grabber during pregnancy - especially during that last trimester when I couldn’t bend over to tie my own shoes, let alone pick up Polly Pockets. If you’ve got a baby shower to attend in the near future, I highly recommend skipping the sea of traditional pastel baby presents and picking up a Grabber instead. Trust me, yours will be the first thank you card she’ll write! You can find the Grabber at various sites online or in the “as seen on TV” section of your local Wal Mart for around $10. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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My oldest daughter turned eight this year and one of her many transitions into “big kid life” has been to manage her own bath-time routine.  One area she seemed to struggle with was temperature control.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to drain the tub because she’d managed to fill it with icy-cold or scalding-hot water.  I thought shifting her to showers would help but she would end up letting the water run for 10 minutes before her shower because she couldn’t seem to get the water to a comfortable temperature.  After awhile, I gave up on the training and opted to start the shower for her each night.  It was tedious, but at least I didn’t have to worry about her scalding herself or draining all the contents of the hot-water heater. 

Then last week I had one of those ah-hah moments that every mother loves.  I was filling the tub for my youngest kids when I noticed that, unlike my daughter, I didn’t have to adjust the handle when filling the tub.  I seemed to know - from years of experience, I guess - just how far to turn the handle to get the water to the right temperature.  It occured to me that if I could somehow mark that “perfect” spot for my daughter, she’d be able to do the same.  I quickly grabbed a pink Sharpie from the junk drawer and, while the water was still running, marked the faucet handle.  I put one small stripe on the wall fixture and another in the same location on the handle (click on the picture above to get a closer view).  When the stripes are aligned, the water coming from the faucet is a perfect kid-friendly temp.

So far, the results have been great.  Now when my daughter needs to start her own bath or shower she just lines up the pink stripes, waits for the temperature to regulate, and then hops in.  It also came in handy today with my little five-year-old.  I started the tub for her and then went to clean the kitchen while she hopped in.  Apparently she bumped the handle during her entry because within a few minutes she was screaming about the “super-cold water” that was pouring out of the faucet.  In the past I would have had to drop whatever I was doing and go fix it for her…but not this time.  I just reminded her about the pink shower stripes and told her to make them touch.  She adjusted the handle all by herself and was happy as a clam in her warm, bubbly bath. 

If marking up your fixtures with permanent marker makes you nervous, try a bright shade of nail polish instead - just create little dots instead of lines.  That way if you ever need to remove or adjust the marks a little nail polish remover should do the trick.  It’s not a revolutionary idea, but when it comes to managing the everyday motherhood obstacles, every little bit helps. :)  Just thought I’d pass it on. 

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One of the big drawbacks of a house without a designated toy room is that I’m forced to let my kids keep toys in their bedrooms.  Unfortunately, because our entire house is essentially one level, the cars, dolls, trains, and other random plastic objects inevitably make their way from the bedrooms to the common rooms of the house.  For the first few weeks, I would waste tons of time each night gathering up the various toys that had migrated from the bedrooms to the family room, kitchen, and hallways.  I needed a quick fix solution that would make my kids more responsible, so I invented this simple game.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I gave each of my kids a ’stash box’ a few years ago to help them be a little more responsible with their stuff.  A few weeks ago we started a new stash box ritual to help keep the toys in check.  We call it the Stash Box Challenge. 

I bought a cheap digital watch from WalMart and set the alarm to ring at 5:30 each night.  When the alarms sounds, we stop whatever we’re doing and the kids go get their empty stash boxes from their rooms.  They line them up on the fireplace and then we start the hunt.  We walk through each of the common rooms (i.e. living room, kitchen, hallways, bathrooms, mud room, etc.) and search for random objects that don’t belong.  As we find things, we add them to that person’s stash box.  For example, if Emily kicked her shoes off and forgot to put them in the shoe caddy they go in her box.  If Jack dumped his backpack on the floor instead of hanging it on the hook, it goes in his box. 

Once we’ve searched all the rooms, the kids dump their boxes and tally up their scores.  While I add their score to our simple fridge scorecard (you can find the file download below) they take their boxes to their rooms and put everything away.  We tally points all week on our chart and then announce the winner (and award the prize) at Family Home Evening on Monday night.

The first week’s scores were pretty pathetic.  My oldest daughter had a grand total of 58 items.  My youngest won the $1 prize with 24 items.  However, each week, the scores get a little lower.  As an added benefit, the kids seem to need my involvement less and less each week.  As soon as they hear the alarm, they grab their boxes and start searching for toys…hoping to catch one of their siblings off guard.  Generally, I just function as the referee and they do all the pick up.

It’s a simple system, but it has made a big difference in how my kids take care of their toys and how our house looks by the end of the day.  I figure that’s a win, win in any Mom’s book.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

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To survive as a parent, you have to be able to multi-task. Unfortunately, your car does as well. All too often my kids end up finishing their breakfast on the way to school, eating lunch on the way to soccer or munching a snack on the way to church.

To help my car survive the many mini-meals, I came up with this easy solution. I removed the label from an empty Crystal Light tube and stuffed it full of plastic grocery sacks. Whenever I start to see the mess accumulating or when I’m getting gas and have a trash can handy, I just reach under the driver’s seat and grab a sack from the tube. I pass it back to the kids and they dig around the car for any potential trash. The tube can hold around 10 sacks, so I rarely have to worry about refilling it. As a bonus, they also come in handy for stops at the mailbox and trips home from the pool in the summer.

To help prevent the tube from rolling around, I made another tube for napkins/paper towels and used two large rubber bands to hold them together. The rubber bands grip the carpet a little and help keep the tubes right under my seat. I’m sure there are tons of other ways you could use them as well, loose change, coloring pages & crayons, wet wipes, etc. It’s a simple, free, solution that has tons of potential. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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I’ve used these blue “shop towels” in the garage for years. Then one day, I ran out of paper towels in the kitchen and used these as a backup. I was amazed at how well they held up under water. They have the convenient disposablity of paper towels, but never fall apart when wet; even after a full sink of dishes. You can ring them out and reuse them over and over again. In fact, one of these towels usually lasts me the entire day.

They worked so well that eventually I pitched all my old germ-carrying dishcloths and bought a paper towel holder for under the sink. I still keep paper towels on my counter for little spills and touch-ups, but when it comes to dishes and wiping down kitchen surfaces, I always grab one of these. I buy mine in bulk at Costco, but you can find them at almost any super store in the automotive section. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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I’ve always hated making bunk beds. It’s such a pain to try to reach up to the top bunk to tuck in the excess. My girls have a hard time too. We struggled with it until I came across this bright solution.

You should know, this solution will only work if you intend to keep your beds up against the wall. My girl’s room is too small to have freestanding beds, so this worked great for me.

Rather than buy two twin size quilts. I bought one king size and cut it right down the middle. Luckily, king size children’s bedding is almost always the first to go on sale, so I got a steal (as a bonus, they usually come with a pair of shams). After cutting the quilt, I simply stiched up the rough edges. It wasn’t particularly pretty, but it didn’t matter because no one ever sees the wall side.

The quilts look normal from the room side, but actually only hang down 2 or 3 inches on the wall side. It’s so much easier for my girls to make their beds now that they don’t have to fiddle with the extra width. The king size is a little longer than the regular twin size, but that actually helps too. I fold the excess length under the mattress and tuck it under the mattress supports. It helps keep the quilt from shifting all over and makes it easier for the girls to straighten.

I’ve washed these quilts tons of times and so far, the edges have held up well. I’m sure it won’t last forever, but getting 2 sets of bedding for under $40 is tough to beat. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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In an ideal mothering world, I’d never pick up after my kids. They would feel responsible for their own messes and clean them up without my assistance. But let’s face it, sometimes it’s exhausting to enforce the “pick up after yourself” rule throughout the day. I created these “stash boxes” to give me an alternative to the constant nagging.

I really do believe that kids should be responsible for their own stuff, but I hate tripping over toys. With a stash box, I have a way to get the stuff out of my way while still enforcing the “pick up after yourself” rule. I’ve got one of these boxes (I bought them at Target for $9) just inside the door of every bedroom. Their purpose is to hold all the misc. items from around the house. The kids are responsible for emptying their stash box when it starts to get full and/or on the weekend when they do their Saturday jobs.

It’s also very handy for my kids when they’re cleaning around the house. They’re each responsible for tidying up various rooms in the house throughout the week. Before stash boxes, I would often hear “but I didn’t get this out why should I have to put it away?” in a lovely whining tone. Now they know that they can just take all the clutter from the room and distribute it to the various owner’s stash boxes. It speeds up the cleaning time for them and forces the original mess maker to do most of the cleaning.

I have loved these stash boxes. We use them constantly. I imagine they’ll be a staple at our house for years. Just thought I’d pass it on.

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How many times have you told your kids to go clean their room only to find them pulling out more toys 20 mintues later? I felt like I had to sit in my kids rooms and direct them from one thing to the next in order to keep them on task. Then I came up with this simple cleaning chart to help my kids do it without me.

It breaks down the normal clean up into the most common tasks (make your bed, pick up toys, pick up books, etc.) The chart has two columns, To Do and Done. When we go in to the room, I have them pull off all the jobs (they’re velcroed on to a piece of laminated cardstock). Then we look at the room and figure out which of the jobs need to go in the To Do column and which can go in the Done column. They place the To Do jobs in the order that they think will be the easiest. Then they get to work. When they finish the first job, they move it to the done column and then move on to the next To Do. When their To Do list is empty, they come and get me for a final check.

It’s also really handy to use throughout the week. If I notice a big mess in their room, I’ll shift a couple of the jobs over to the To Do column. Whenever they want to do something special like earn TV time or computer time, I ask them if they’re To Do column is clear. If it’s not, they know just what to do to take care of it…without my interaction.

The best advantage of this chart is that my kids can now do this mostly on their own. They’ve figured out that if they can break a job down into tiny pieces, they can do a lot more without help. This chart just provides the tools they need to do just that…no nagging required. Just thought I’d pass it on.  You can find the free file downloads for this chart below.  Both the boy chart and the girl chart are included in the file.

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