Size Does Matter!

Back in January, I wrote a post about the XL Tide pods and how I didn't feel I could use it for our washing machine because it didn't wash enough clothes to merit such a large pod. Last month, we said goodbye to our first set of machines.

Goodbye, washer and dryer. We had a good 12 years.

Sometime in the last seven months, our washing machine began thumping and banging the sides during every single load. I had anxiety doing laundry because I wasn't sure what was going to happen during the load or if our clothes were going to get damaged. Could we have looked into it and had it repaired/fixed? Absolutely. So why didn't we choose to repair it?

Because the logic wasn't working. If my memory is correct, we paid roughly $600 total for our washer and dryer in 2014. This included a rebate we got from Whirlpool for buying the laundry pair.  If you divide this up, it means each machine cost us roughly $300. From my research, the part needed to repair this washing machine was around $80. In order to do the repair however, you had to open up the machine and tilt it a certain way in order to get the piece out/in properly. For a skilled technician with experience, we're looking at 1-2 hours of labor. For the average homeowner with little or no repair experience with washing machines, we're looking at 2-4 hours of labor. From experience, anything that was meant to be "easy" can turn into something much longer. If you didn't read my last post, that's exactly an example of a quick-fix gone wrong. 

If we chose to call in a repair person to come fix our washing machine, we would have gotten charged $150-$200 for the repair including parts and labor. From this perspective, the math doesn't math. Why would I spend 66% of my initial cost just to fix a 12-year-old machine?

The second part of this logic was I actually wanted a larger machine.  When it comes to laundry, size actually does matter. With our old washing machine sized at 3.6 cu ft, I was washing three loads of laundry a week. Although I could do it and I had the time, it was a lot of individual loads of laundry. With our new machine sized at 5.5 cu ft, it feels like a bottomless pit compared to our old machine. Believe it or not, I have to force myself not to wash laundry too soon because it simply doesn't fill up enough to be efficient. 

Hello, washer and dryer. Hope you stay and work a long time. 

What's even more crazy is the Energy Star label for the new washing machine says it estimates a yearly operating cost of $10 with a gas water heater and 120 kWh. This is less electricity than our old machine for the same number of loads - 6 loads per week. Does this mean if I do one load of laundry per week for a year, my operating costs are only $1.66 and 20 kWh? According to the math....that would be the assumption. (believe it or not the cost of electricity estimate on the energy label is actually higher than what we pay....so theoretically, our cost should be even lower?)

I'm in slight disbelief at how such a large washer can use less energy than our old smaller washer, but this is the benefit of technology and innovation. The hope is these machines will last us another 12 years at the least. I would like to believe it will happen with little to no bumps along the way, but I'm a cynic. Despite technology and innovation having many benefits such as modern day efficiency and lower operating costs, longevity is not a benefit. 

Regardless, my laundry anxiety had to be relieved and a new washer was the way to go. The dryer was just an added bonus to reset the clock on its age so we wouldn't be replacing them at staggered intervals. Instead of dreading doing laundry, I'm looking forward to each next load (alas, infrequently...) I get to wash. That's a win in my book. 

Critical Thinking Loves Creativity

When I first got pregnant, I loved baby/children's consignments. They were exciting, fun and I could go to one place and be bombarded by all the baby clothes and gear I could ever dream of. It was amazing to see such low prices because new baby things are costly. We didn't buy everything second hand and there are items I would not recommend getting second hand, but it was so much fun for me to walk through the consignment and get early access as a first-time mom. This was over 8 years ago. I haven't been to a consignment in the last 5-6 years because by the time I got pregnant with my second, we basically already had everything. 

A few weeks ago, I went to a kids consignment again for the first time in years. I didn't have anything in mind for things my kids needed, but I was curious to go look. I went over during their half price sale on a Monday evening and we ended up perusing for about an hour.

A lot of the good stuff had been picked over - I wasn't surprised - and what was left was consolidated into one large room. I wandered over to the shoes to see what they had and didn't see anything for my daughter. Then I went around the perimeter and found the boys shoes. There were a few contenders I debated. Then, I wandered over to the toy section. I was originally looking for roller blades but the ones they had probably sold pretty quickly at regular price. While perusing the toys, I saw old toys we used to have which have been passed on to other families and friends over the years. It was a little sad being reminded of the toys my children used to play with, but honestly, it was a lot of clutter and a trip hazard when at our house. I'm thankful for that phase of life we had, but I'm also thankful to be in our current phase of life.

Lastly, I wandered the aisles of clothing left on the racks. My daughter doesn't own any jeans because I got rid of all the ones we had at one point due to her reluctance to wear them. We've gotten to a place where although she still doesn't like wearing jeans, it would be nice to still have a pair. I browsed the aisle and saw a few pairs with tacky designs or faux rips on them. Those were not what I wanted. As I wandered the second aisle, a pair of jeggings in a basic blue wash caught my eye. They looked pristine as what happens with a lot of items at consignments. 

This is the exact pair of jeggings I found sold new on the retailer website. 
When I went to the consignment, these jeggings were listed at $12.99

 
Then I saw it. The imperfection. The reason why other moms and dads did not purchase this and put it back on the rack. The adjustable waist elastic was missing on one side. 

I'll spoil it for you now: I bought them. At $2.25,  this was a great deal. And I'll break down for you why I did.

1. I did notice the missing elastic. I'm a saavy enough shopper and observant enough mother to notice details like this. I'm also experienced enough to know how manufacturers make these elastic adjustable waistbands. I saw that the elastic was buttoned on one side of the jeggings and missing on the other. These elastics are one piece which meant the "missing" side had to be lost inside the waistband of the jeggings. I felt around, and sure enough, I found the lost end of the elastic hiding inside the waistband. 

2. Could I fix it? Yes, I was confident I could. Last fall, I replaced the elastic in one of our queen sheets. 

After coming home, I got right to work. From the opening in the waistband to where the elastic had slipped to, it was about 7-8 inches in. I needed something long and firm enough for me to grab a hold of the elastic and pull it out. I'm no sewing and alterations expert, but my critical thinking skills are good enough to where I've solved a number of life problems with creative solutions. I grabbed a metal chopstick from our kitchen drawer and stuck it through the waistband. When I had gotten a hold of the elastic, I attempted to guess where a buttonhole was to loop the end of the chopstick through so I could pull the elastic out. 

I worked in slow increments, making sure to hold the elastic every time I pulled it closer toward the opening a few inches at a time. I had managed to use the chopstick and pull the elastic out almost to the opening. I was trying to figure out how to angle the chopstick to get the elastic out of the hole when the elastic fell off the tip of my chopstick and slipped back in. It didn't recede nearly as far back as originally, but I had to pull it back out a good 3 inches or so. 

On my second try, I got it out and securely buttoned to complete the adjustable waistband. This pair of jeggings was like new again and completely adjustable. It took me about 5-7 minutes from start to finish. For over $10 in savings compared to buying new, I'll take it!  

As annoying as it can be to see my children put deflated ballons in a water bottle and call it an "experiment", use medicine dosage cups as maracas, or tape paper onto colored pencils and call it a sign, this is the start of their creative journey. And when paired with the right amount of intelligence, you never know what beautiful successes are coming for them. Because I still amaze myself at my own.  😄

Does Size Matter?

Our washer and dryer are going on 12 years old. We purchased them for our first apartment because we could either rent the units from the apartment complex for a monthly fee, or we could buy our own. We bought our own and they've been working hard for the last 12 years. 

We were grocery shopping together last week and got a free sample of laundry detergent from the sample dispenser. The marketing line? 1XL pod = 2 regular size pods. So the sample was 1 XL pod. I turned to my husband and immediately said, "I'd rather have the 2 regular size pods!"

 

Our washer has a 3.6 cu ft capacity. When we purchased our set, I didn't think about the size as much as I did the cost. It was very cost efficient compared to other sets and for just the two of us, it worked great. I've never had trouble with cycles not cleaning well, but size has become an issue. If everyone's (littles and bigs) laundry basket is full, I can't do everyone's laundry in one cycle. It has to be two. Sometimes, if our hamper is completely full, I can't even do all the bigs laundry in one cycle. 

When I look at our washer, it doesn't appear to me as small. 
But when I look inside other washers, mine looks small...

I end up doing a lot of laundry in one week. On an average week, it's about 3 loads. Most of the time, it's not because there's a lot of dirty laundry. There's a decent amount, but if I had a bigger machine, I could do less loads.

I honestly would rather have the 2 regular size pods as a sample because for our machine, 1 XL pod is overkill for 3.6 cu ft of laundry. Whenever I use laundry detergent now, I have to remember to fill the cup for the "medium" loads even though I'm washing an XL load on my machine because that's how much I'm washing compared to what some of the larger machines out there can hold!  From the research I've done, there's a good number of washers between 4.8 - 5.5 cu ft! Our machine is 25-35% smaller than a lot of machines on the market. 

I've been asking myself for years, is it worth it to upgrade to a larger washing machine even though ours works? Sometimes, I tell myself we don't have any problems with our washer and it's fine. Other times, I really want a different machine (a removable agitator?!) to be able to suit my needs (or glorified wants?) better. 

Last year for Black Friday, Lowe's was giving out free appliances to one winner per store. I didn't wake up early to get in line because I don't believe in my chances of winning, but man, it's a nice pipe dream to wish I could have been one of the winners. 

Do you like the size of your machine? 

Defying Fast Fashion

Ten years ago I went Black Friday shopping with my husband. It was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and we went shopping at a bunch of stores. I was excited someone else could help me pick out clothing and give me feedback on how they looked. He has always been – and still is – better at fashion than I am. 

Facebook reminded me of this trip because it showed up on my newsfeed as a memory. I had conveniently spread out the items and taken a photo to “show off” my purchases. There were 10 items total which I had purchased. 

- 1 pair of flats
- 1 pair of black booties
- 3 sweaters
- 1 dress
- 1 blouse
- 2 pairs of pants
- 1 pair of jeans 

Original purchases in 2014

I was drawn to these flats because of the price, the quality/brand, and the style. They were priced well and I wanted a versatile pair of black flats. The last pair I owned last me many years and I knew they didn’t scratch the back of my ankle like many pairs of flats notoriously do. The unfortunate side was the color – an off-white suede. It was going to attract lots of dirt and dust over time and wouldn’t look bright for long. That’s most likely the reason why they ended up on the clearance rack. Fortunately for me, I’m not a fashionista and I didn’t really care. If they could be functional for me for a decent period of time and priced well, I would be satisfied. I enjoyed wearing these flats for many years. I even wore them once through mud by accident. They were never quite the same after that, but I kept wearing them for about a year before saying goodbye. They lasted me roughly 4-5 years if I remember correctly. That’s not a bad longevity for a shoe which cost me less than $50 and was in my rotation about 50% of every year. 

These black booties were my first pair of short boots or booties. At this time, I was still diversifying my closet so I wanted to own a pair. These were priced well, my size, and looked cute. With a three-inch heel, they were pretty killer paired with a pair of skinny jeans. I wore them every now and then, but there are limitations to how quickly you can safely walk when in three-inch heels. I tend to like walking faster than slower, so that did limit the number of times I wore these. They were almost treated like dress shoes. 

I bought three sweaters on this shopping trip because I was building up my sweater collection. Sweaters were not my thing growing up. I didn’t like wearing bulky clothing. However, as I got older, it grew on me when I found the proper style, material, and fit. One of these sweaters was labeled dry clean only. I wore this sweater very sparingly until I decided one day to wash it at home in my machine. It came out not looking too different than before from what I could tell. From then on, I wore it a lot more knowing I could wash it at home with little or no consequence. One of these sweaters ended up being very scratchy and I didn’t enjoy it. After years of storing it season after season to maybe be worn 1-2x per winter, I decided to say goodbye. The third sweater has a more baggy fit. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to wear something so loose-fitting so it’s not necessarily a go-to item in my closet, but I don’t have a reason to get rid of it. 

This dress was not a great purchase. It was heavily discounted which is what led me to purchase. However, it didn’t fit extremely well and I wasn’t in love with the design. I remember wearing it occasionally, but sometime in the last decade, it has been scrapped. At 24 years old, I was still clinging onto lower priced items and hadn’t yet learned the value of spending worthwhile money. This dress was not worthwhile money and shows because I have no recollection of ever wearing it (although I know I did at least a few times) and I no longer have it. 

I really liked the blouse when I bought it. This was when I realized I liked the material chiffon in my blouses/tops. I have worn this blouse many, many times. My most prominent memory in this top was at my company Christmas party a while back. I haven’t worn it recently because I have inherited/found other blouses of similar material which I enjoy more. This particular blouse is also starting to wear due to the many washes it has endured. It’s still in my closet, but it may be retiring in the near future. 

The two pairs of pants I bought from this photo have served me well. One of them was a light pink pair of jeggings. The other was a pair of khakis. I wore my jeggings a lot. They’ve been through many work days with me where I could dress them up to be less casual. Over time, the light pink has faded into more of a dirty white. This pair of pants has also been relegated to a corner of my closet because I have other pants/jeans I prefer over them. However, I haven’t been able to bring myself to get rid of this pair. The khakis have been one of my favorite more formal pants in my closet. They too have come to the office with me on many days. I’ve worn them to perform at festivals as an accompanist. The waist was rather large at first – large enough to be big, but not large enough to be unwearable. Over time, and with the changes in my body, they’ve fit better. I don’t necessarily wear this pair of pants all the time, but it’s a comfort to know they’re in my closet. They probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. 

Lastly, my jeans. Oh, this particular pair of jeans. Looking at this photo, I almost couldn’t pinpoint which pair of jeans it was. But I knew. They have faded severely over time. I loved these jeans when I bought them. It was extremely unfortunate they were the pair I was wearing at the time of this project. I really thought that was the end of them, but I have continued wearing these jeans for the last three years. They are on their last leg and will be recycled or donated soon. 

I spent less than $200 on these 10 items from Black Friday 2014. About half of them are considered “fast fashion.” I impressed myself at how many pieces I still have in my closet today. 

Editing aside, everything has faded a few shades...

 

Much like everyone else, I do get bored of the same clothes over and over again. But I am also frugal and pragmatic. If something can be bought once and last me forever, I am inclined to want to do so. Clothing, sadly, will never meet those requirements as even the most carefully worn and washed fabrics will show age over time. But I will take care of them so they can stay as long as possible. 

I wonder how many of these I will still have in another 10 years...

The Hardest Part of Parenting

I used to think the hardest part of raising kids was sick kids. Sick kids ARE super frustrating. Especially when it's puke going everywhere you don't want it to because they do not know how to drop everything and run to the toilet. Non-sick kids are also frustrating when you see them stick their fingers into their mouths in all places after touching all sorts of things and you can just envision yourself in 24-48 hours having a child wake up in the middle of the night screaming because his/her throat hurts and the cold is coming. Sick kids take a lot of love and effort. But that is not the hardest part of raising kids. 

The actual hardest part of raising kids is disciplining them. And I don't mean discipline like raising your voice at them, sending them to time out, or even spanking them. Those are easy. 

We were going to bed the other night and my daughter picks out her clothes for the next day before bed. She opened her drawer to grab her socks and finds that her brother's socks are in her drawer. She's also holding up the pair she wants to wear which also belong to her brother. And she knows this.

I told her to hand me the pair of socks to put back into his sock drawer. She hands me one pair and clings to the other she wants to wear. I ask for the second pair. She unwillingly hands them over and then bursts out in tears. This is where the hard part begins. Because you see, she is wrong. She is absolutely wrong and she knows it. And yet, she is the one crying. I was also at the end of a long day myself after not feeling great, watching the kids, and then teaching my own students. By 8:30 pm, I was ready to get the kids into bed and do my own thing, whatever that meant. 

Her beloved pair of socks with the rainbow trim...I remember pushing her in her stroller at about 9 months old buying this pair of socks so I do not discount her sentimentality one bit.

So first, I had to ask her to complete her outfit selection for the next day, because since she took out the pairs of socks which were not hers and handed them to me, she had not moved an inch. So I firmly asked her to finish picking out the rest of her outfit or there would be consequences. 

Then, I held out my arms, she came over, and I gave her a hug. I. gave her a hug because I wanted to and not solely because I knew that's what she wanted. There are times when I don't want to give her a hug even though I know that's what she wants and needs, but I'm not ready. 

As I hugged her, I began asking her a series of questions.

1. Whose socks are those, yours or your brother's? Brother's.

2. Since they belong to him, who gets to wear them? He does. 

And then I explained. 

They used to be your socks when you were little. But your feet got bigger. So now he wears them because they fit him. They don't fit your feet anymore which is why you don't wear them. You wear socks that fit your feet. I continued by using an analogy to some of my old toys. It's just like when we go to grandpa's house and play with Mommy's old toys. They used to be mine, but I am not a little kid anymore so I do not play with them anymore. You are a little kid so I have passed them onto you to play with. She loves playing with my old things so I think this made my point very clear.

She then asked me if she could have rainbow socks. I told her we could get some for her birthday. So now I have to go find some rainbow socks for her that aren't absurdly priced per pair. And I actually will because part of parenting is following through with what I say. Well I know what's on my to-do list for the next month...

You know why this is hard? Nobody modeled this for us. Had this happened to me as a child, I would have been told, "Give me the socks. They're not yours. Stop crying. Go to bed." End of story. 

Sure, that's discipline. But that's easy discipline. Easy discipline doesn't raise capable adults. Easy discipline raises resentment, frustration, and manipulation. Being a parent now, it's up to me to end the cycle at the next generation. If I want my children to think independently, use good logic, and have wisdom in their decisions, I need to model it, and it starts now. 

I don't always respond like this. There are many times when I revert to old habits that are "familiar" and the situation ends up a little bit different. But this is what I strive for, and this particular incident was probably one of my finer parenting moments. 

That is the hardest part of raising a child. 

Storage 101: Master the Closet

This is the last part in my Storage 101 series. You can catch up on the previous parts here: Intro 1 2 3 

At the end of 2020, we began organizing our master closet and we finished everything in January 2021. It was a spur of the moment project which had been in the works for a few years behind the scenes.

When we bought this house almost six years ago, I really liked the master closet. It was large, spacious, and had shelves and rods to hang and fold clothes. It never came up as something needing to be redone because its functionality was okay.

But there came a point where okay was not good enough.

I began to realize I wanted more drawer space instead of hanging space. In January of 2019, I found a drawer shelf unit secondhand and went to go pick it up. My daughter was nine months old at the time and it was a brutally cold day. To my lack of preparation, the shelf did not fit easily into my car, and although it did fit when we switched the car seat to the other side, I could not lock the car seat back in place and safely or legally drive home. So the kind husband offered to load up the shelf in his pickup truck and drive it home for me. The drive wasn't far as they only lived five minutes down the road, but he didn't have to do any of this.

Kind people exist. You just have to meet them.

I bought new drawers compatible with the shelving unit and set it up in my side of the closet. I used this set up for almost two years before finally realizing it wasn't working anymore. Clothes would sit on top of the drawers and pile up into a stack. The drawers themselves were not enough space for me to easily store and remove the items, and the overall look was very sloppy. 

One evening last December as we were going through the motions to wind down for the evening, we landed on the topic of redoing our closet again. I asked my husband about constructing a drawer unit the way I wanted and we talked about the price of wood and supplies. This led to a quick google search to see if I could find something pre-made and adapt it to my liking. This google search ended up being a rabbit trail which led us to design our custom closet using Elfa from The Container Store. 

We had perused the Elfa collection years before. One evening for fun about five years ago, we were at The Container Store looking at their custom closet solutions. At the time, I was thinking about getting a shoe organizer. The Container Store had these beautiful gliding shoe racks which actually held a good number of shoes. We got a small design drafted up, but that was the end of it.

This time as I thought about installing some new drawers in the closet, we decided to redo our entire closet so it could be almost completely custom. Translation: Hubby saw how good my side looked and he wanted his side to look that good too. In order to do this, we had to remove three closet rods, retexture the wall to match, and paint. It sounds easy on paper, but it was actually a two-day process because we needed to wait for everything to dry properly. I also ended up redoing the wall texture twice because the first time did not match as well as I wanted it to. 

Then we began installation. The Elfa system is designed to be very DIY-friendly. First, we installed the top tracks. We measured and had them cut so every single screw would hit a wall stud for the most secure installation. It is a few extra steps, but I believe it's worth it considering these are going to hold up to 100+ pounds depending on how much clothing you're storing. Then we hung the hanging standards and used brackets to install gliding drawers, gliding shoe racks, and shelves. It was a lot of fun. Was it a lot of work and did it take a few tries to get it the way I wanted? Yes, it absolutely did. But I found the work very therapeutic and exhilarating from my normal SAHM and working part-time duties.

I'm not going to lie. After we finished the closet, there were a few times when I would purposely go to the closet, sit in it, and admire our work. 

Wifey's Drawers

Wifey's Hanging + Shoes

Hubby's Hanging + Drawers. The picture is deceiving. Our halves are almost equal.

Wifey's Long Hanging

That is all my clothes I own and wear in our closet. Do I own a lot, less than average, or a normal amount? I've always wondered because I never thought I owned a lot. But once I realized how much storage I needed to store it all, it made me start to wonder if I actually have a lot of clothes...or just normal amounts. 🤷🏻‍♀️

This was not an inexpensive makeover of our closet. However, I was also able to reuse some of the old storage solutions in our kids' closets. The shoeboxes that used to hold our shoes are now in my son's room holding his shoes. 

I was able to fit 3-4 pairs of shoes in each box and labeled them by putting
a scratch piece of paper under the lid as a simple DIY label. 

I was also able to repurpose the shelf and drawers I originally had in my son's closet to hold his clothing in larger sizes. My daughter already had one of these shelves because hers is one I inherited from a friend back in college for my apartment. 

This is the original drawer unit I purchased second hand
being repurposed in my son's closet. There was never anything wrong with it.
'I just realized I was exploding each bin with clothes and needed more space.

I'm not one to spend a lot of money, and especially not spending money on things to hold my things, but this was completely worth it. Even now, as I finish this blog, I'm getting excited all over again for how functional and aesthetic this closet makeover is. Good things are worth the cost. Thanks for reading. 🙂

Household Tricks: Part 3

This is the third part in my household tricks series. If you want to catch up on part 1 or part 2, feel free to do that first!

Today's tips include some more laundry tricks that I've discovered over the years. I really thought most of this was common knowledge and I was just discovering it on my own, but after talking to some friends, it's actually not. Who knew. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’m not the most eco-friendly person who ever walked the earth, but I do value reusing, repurposing, and salvaging when possible  

 1. Air dry new clothes after the first wash after washing in cold water.

We all know washing in cold water prevents shrinking. But air drying after the first wash does too! I discovered this when we washed out baby clothes for our first baby. I'd buy it in one size, wash it, and then feel like she was outgrowing it already. It was also obvious when I looked at hand-me-down clothing vs new clothing we'd air dried after the first wash in the same size. The ones we'd air dried really looked an entire size larger. By air drying my kids’ clothes after the first wash, they keep their original size and we can wear them for much longer. This sounds like a lot of extra work, but the key is to remember it only applies after the first wash. Once you wear it and wash it again, you can feel free to chunk it into the dryer willy nilly without having to pick out each specific item to air dry. 

For clothes we’ve bought new and carefully air dried, I’ve been able to keep my kids in them for two sizes! (My 18 pound 8 month old baby boy can still wear size 6 month clothes, but he can also fit in size 12 month clothes hand me downs which have shrunk.)

2. Air dry clothes with stains after washing just in case the stain did not come out.

I used to just give up after one wash if a stain didn't come out and either throw the piece away or live with it stained. Then I realized if I didn't dry the clothing after, it would give me another chance to remove the stain. If I've washed it twice following careful instructions and it still doesn't come out, then I count my losses and move on. 

Pretty sure these had stains and were air drying after a wash. Some pieces are going through a second hurrah with us right now with little brother 🤗

3. Separate stained or new clothes into a laundry washing bag.

There's a lot to remember if you have to pull out specific pieces from the washing machine to keep them from being tossed in the dryer. A trick I use to make my life easier is to throw them into a laundry washing bag before going into the washer. Then, when it's time to dry, I pick out the bags and toss everything else into the dryer. This way, I'm not trying to filter through each wet, entangled piece of clothing to make sure I've found all my pieces to hang dry. 

This may seem like a lot of work to go through, but to me, if it means I get more use out of the same clothing, I’ll take it! 

Stay tuned for the final part of my household tricks series. 

Household Tricks: Part 1

2020 has been one wacky year. At some points, it was terrible. At some points, it was ok. But mostly, it's a wash for the books. My mind is mentally stuck somewhere around May and June...so the fact that I have two mobile children eating real food still phases me at times.

Despite all of the unsettling, upsetting, and plan-ruining 2020 has ushered through, believe it or not, there has been time for personal growth and learning as well. Primarily for me, there's been a lot of household tips and tricks I've added to my mental collection. Here are a few of the ones I've specifically learned in the year 2020.

These are my top tricks I use at home for removing stains.

1. Dawn takes out grease and oil stains on clothing.

One day when I was cooking, I swirled the pot to coat the meat with the slowly thickening sauce. As I swirled, one of the pieces of meat rolled around the pot and splashed a nice circular pattern of grease onto the shirt I was wearing. Do I have aprons? Of course I do. Was I wearing it at that time? Sadly, no. Who knew spending 10 seconds swirling a pot of simmering meat in sauce was going to cause me over 10 minutes of extra work. 

It wasn't a special shirt or anything, but it wasn't one I was willing to give up or wear stained. I have three long-sleeved t-shirts that are my go-to at-home comfy shirts in the winter. They're not too formal to where I'd wear them to work, but they're also not too casual to where I couldn't leave the house in one. This was one of them. 

I rinsed the shirt under water and soaked it in a bucket before the next load of laundry. After washing, I hung it up to dry so the stain wouldn't set in case it didn't come out. It didn't come out. That's when I googled how to get grease stains out of clothing and discovered Dawn! Or maybe just dish soap. I lathered up my shirt on the stain with my Dawn and washed it again. 

And the stain came out!

And then I also realized I should have tried spraying it with my stain remover spray I use on the baby's clothing. But now I know. If you don't have stain remover, try Dawn!

2. Saline solution (or contact solution) removes blood from fabrics and stuffed animals. 

My daughter woke up with a nosebleed in the middle of the night. Of course, being two, she freaked out and rubbed it all over her face and it dripped everywhere and I was trying to get her to hold still and stop moving. And, of course, it got onto her favorite stuffed animal on the part of his fur that is white. So what did I do? I grabbed some tissues and my contact solution and started dabbing her penguin. Cause let's be honest. Nobody cares about the clothing or the bedsheets. The most important article to clean? The stuffed animal, hands down. 

And it worked great. It worked so well that the next morning when her daddy looked at the penguin, he couldn't even tell where the stain had been. High five for mommy! 🙌

So the next time blood gets on a precious stuffed animal (or precious clothing if that's your thing,) grab some contact solution and dab away! Keyword: dab.

Stay tuned for more tricks around the house next time!