Home Sweet Homemaker

I’m not going into details about why I had to purchase Benadryl recently, but it has to do with an unidentified insect and a bad reaction. Regular Benadryl absolutely knocks me out but usually does the trick when it comes to my seemingly random allergic reactions. I asked the pharmacist if there was anything that [...]

We had a family wedding this weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the bride was exquisite and the flatware was plastic. Forget the clear stuff. This was shiny. I had no idea until I physically held the fork in my hand that it wasn’t stainless steel. And of course, I pulled out my camera and snapped [...]

Not only is this extension cord tucked away in a tote, it is free from tangles due to my daddy’s cool little cord trick. In borrowing this cord (along with my parents’ hedgers) I discovered that I’m not built for yard work. But I did learn how to neatly put away an 100-foot extension cord.
Below [...]

Our family spends most of our free time in the office/playroom. And since I’ve been on my “I love Peter Walsh” kick, I’ve been spending a lot of time organizing this space. The room is literally half office, half playroom. Upon entering the room, you see a desk with a computer on both your left [...]

Inspired by reading Peter Walsh’s Its All Too Much, I decluttered our bedroom. My first round produced 5 boxes and 3 30-gallon bags full of stuff I no longer use. Most of it was baby stuff that had made its way into our room after it was no longer needed in the nursery.
The 10 points [...]

I have just replaced bulbs in our home office. The overhead was dimly lit even at full bulb capacity, and my floor lamp has been recalled. Recalled as in discontinue use immediately and return to store for complete refund. It’s still standing there (unplugged) and I’ve had the notice for two months. But that’s another [...]

We are not good at yard work. This spring, we’re not planting anything. We’re just going to see if we can even maintain a bed of mulch. My neighbor was talking about how bad her yard looked. I said “Hey, I’m here for you! Mine will always look worse!”
We did begin our attempt at weeding [...]

I have started using Jet-Dry Turbo Dry Drying Agent in my dishwasher. It’s awesome. If you’ve ever had to deal with wet plastic when unloading the dishwasher, buy this stuff. It’s especially helpful if you are washing a bazillion baby bottles every day. This product spares me from having to stuff thin dishtowels down four [...]

Here’s some encouragement for the stay-at-home moms out there, straight from Dr. Phil. The context of the article is actually about the “5 biggest relationship busters” in marriage. This quote is from Problem 5: Career Concerns. Read the article at Good Housekeeping.
The work a stay-at-home mom does in caring for a family and a [...]

Socks looking for their mates now hang out above the washer, so I can at least see what’s missing. This is a sad state of affairs. It represents how slack I have been regrading laundry lately. I know that socks often never make it to the dryer, but I’m so far behind that pairs aren’t [...]

I checked out Marla Cilley’s Sink Reflections on a recent visit to the library. Marla Cilley is also known as the FlyLady. She has a free email-based program to help members (flybabies) break free from their CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome). The first thing she instructs her flybabies to do is shine the [...]

We have too much stuff. Part of making my home a haven is having only what I need and enjoy. As I look right now at my desk, I see many things that I do not need. And it’s not all about function. If it’s something I don’t need, it should be something I enjoy. [...]

Besides the standard mop, broom and vacuum cleaner, I own the Floormate, Spotbot, a variety of Swiffers, and way too many wonder cleaners in a bottle. My latest discovery is the Woolite Pod. It is cheap, small and effective. At less than 4 bucks, it can within minutes remove baby food spit up from my [...]

Can an office stay organized, can a playroom by peaceful? I don’t know what prompted him, but my husband cleaned his desk a few days ago. It was just what I needed to get motivated to purge our office of clutter. My first step was dealing with paper: I simply got rid of paper trash. [...]

My new rule as it relates to laundry: One load a day. It sounds simple enough, but it must be completed from start to finish… as in washed and moved to the dryer before it gets smelly, dried and removed from the dryer before it gets wrinkly, and just as important, completely put away before [...]

Who knew a bulletin board could make such a huge difference? I actually carried out an idea that I read about in a recent Good Housekeeping magazine. I covered a cork board with fabric, stapled a desk calendar to it and assigned each family member a sharpie of a specific color. I thought it would [...]

My first step toward home-havenness is the office/playroom where my family spends most of our evenings together after dinner. Actually, I shouldn’t say that the office is the first step, since the kitchen is a continual and simultaneous step toward clutter-free living. Then there’s that ever-growing mountain of dirty clothes. In so many ways, housework [...]

I decided to go for a variety of genres this month since July didn’t fare well on the reading front.

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
I remembered Judy Blume from childhood and was reminded of her books when my mom and nephew started their “Judy Blume book club” during our beach vacation this [...]