Transform Tuesday -- Kid's Toys Reorg.

I did this post about a year ago, but I'm reposting it because I need to go through our toys again and I'm hoping this will give me the motivation to do it.  :)

If you have kids, then you have toys. If you are anything like us, you have more toys than your kids could possibly play with in a day.  When we moved here 2ish years ago, we were one of the younger families at church.  We moved from a town home into a single family home and all of our stuff could fill about 1/3 of our house.  Several of the families at church took pity on us :) and gave us tons of clothes, toys, furniture, dishes, etc.  Before long our house actually had stuff in each of the rooms.  We also had more toys than we knew what to do with!

My husband and I both grew up in large families...8 children in his and 7 children in mine.  Both families were middle class, but fell closer to "lower income" than "upper income".  We were given hand-me-downs all the time.  I remember it being like Christmas whenever someone gave us something they didn't need anymore.  I also remember hating to throw perfectly good stuff away.

It has taken a good bit of effort to be okay with getting rid of things we don't need or use.  I know that sounds silly, but I'm sure some of you out there know what I mean.  So, what does this have to do with organizing your toy room?  Well, I had to sit down and go through everything.  I had several tubs and some bins to sort things into as well as some trash bags and boxes.  First I pulled out everything that was ratty and/or broken and put it in the trash.  Then I went through and pulled out all of the toys that I didn't really think we needed and they either went in the trash or in a box for Goodwill.  At this point there were still a LOT of toys left so I went through all of them again and only pulled out the things that my kids have played with more than once in the last month.  Everything else, no matter what it was went into a box for Goodwill.

As I went through them the final time, I sorted them into tubs and bins and labeled them all.  I think I cut our toys in half, but I know that everything in there are things that are in good shape and that my kids like to play with.  Now it will be much easier to clean up each time because the containers are labeled and because there aren't as many toys to clean up.  It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

**One word of caution:  This job is much easier to do when your kids are not home or are in bed.  If they are around, they will want to "help" you by pulling out toys and moving them into different containers.  Also, don't load up what is going to the garbage or Goodwill with them right there.  It will most likely cause crying and temper tantrums.**

By the way, this picture is just to show you how many toys there are left and how they are organized into tubs.  We don't keep them stacked up like this in the play room.

What have you transformed?  Link it up!

Here are the rules:

1.  Use the link to your actual blog post, not your general blog address.

2.  Grab a button and post it on your blog somewhere.

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3.  Check out what everyone has done and leave them some comment love!

Removing water deposits

Do you get water deposits around your faucet or on the little drip tray under the water dispenser on your refrigerator?  Or do you see them on the bottom of your glasses after pulling them out of the dishwasher?  Have you tried scrubbing and scrubbing and it won't come off?  Want to know how to remove it without hard chemicals?  Vinegar.  Yes, really.  Just saturate it with vinegar for a few minutes and use the scrubby side of a sponge or scratcher pad or a toothbrush and it quickly and easily scrubs off.

I just cleaned our drip tray yesterday, but I forgot to take a picture.  Here is a picture of someone else's faucet with the water deposits on it.  All of that can be gone with some vinegar and a little bit of scrubbing.

P.S.  I survived a day without sugar and I didn't die.  Let's see how today goes.

Stinky Sponges

Ever used a sponge that stinks and then the smell stays on your hands even after you wash them?  Let me tell you, it is GROSS!!  Know what causes them to stink?  BACTERIA!  So, if you are washing dishes or countertops with a stinky sponge, you are just smearing around bacteria.  Isn't that a lovely thought?

Other than using a new sponge everyday, do you think there are other things you can do?  Well, there are a few different things that kill the bacteria and get rid of the smell.  Here are my favorites.

1.  Boil your sponge.  Put it in a pan and cover it with water.  The sponge will probably float, but that doesn't matter.  Bring it to a boil and let it boil on each side for 4-5minutes.  Then take it off the heat and pour it out into the sink.  Run cold water over it until you can touch it.  Ring it out and let it dry.  No more stink and no more bacteria.  You need to do this regularly and your sponge will last for a long time.

2.  Run it through the dishwasher.  Put it on the top rack and run it through the dishwasher.  Once the dishwasher is done, take the sponge out and run it under cold water while squeezing it.  Once it is cooled off, ring it out and set it out to dry.  No more stink and no more bacteria.  I have 2 sponges that I rotate and it works great.  I run the dishwasher every night, so I just make sure to put it in before I turn it on.

3.  Use anti-bacterial dish soap.  This one won't keep it from stinking completely, but it does help on keeping the bacteria and smell down.  You still need to boil or run it through the dishwasher, but with this soap you need to do it everyday.

This is a picture of a dirty sponge under a microscope.

"Kitchen sponge microbes. Kitchen sponges can accumulate food and microbes when used for long periods of time and are not thoroughly cleaned. The moisture and food particles in a dirty sponge make it a perfect environment for microorganisms to grow (such as, bacteria and fungi). Their waste products give the sponge a distinctive smell. Features shown in this photomicrograph are: sponge surface (blue); bacteria (rod-shaped - purple and green colors); filamentous fungi (thin and thick filaments - purple and red colors); yeast fungi (round spheres - yellow-green color)."

How to get gum out of hair and off of stuff

Gum is not allowed in our house.  I know this makes me a mean mom, but my kids won't keep it in their mouths, and therefore it ends up on random things in my home.  Unfortunately I didn't realize that some of the suckers my kids got for Halloween had gum in them, and what did we end up with...yep...gum on random things in my home.  Want to know how to get it out?

Hair and skin

The best way to get it out of hair or off of skin is to use peanut butter.  Yes, peanut butter.  Something about the oil in peanut butter makes the stickiness of gum go away and it breaks it down so it can be removed.

This is J.  He wanted to know what would happen if he stuck his gum in his hair.  Once he finally came to me, it was all over his hands, and stuck pretty good in his hair.  Here's what you do.

Put a blob of peanut butter on top of the gum and start smooshing the gum and peanut butter between your fingers.

It takes a few minutes, but you will start feeling the consistency of the gum change.  Once this happens, pinch the gum between your fingers and slowly pull it out.  Add more peanut butter as necessary.  Just keep doing it until all of the gum is out.

Then wash the hair.  I usually use dish soap first because it is made to cut grease.  Then I follow up with shampoo when I bathe them.

Carpet, furniture, cloth, etc.

Peanut butter also works on these things, BUT you don't want to use it unless you can wash the item with hot soapy water and then rinse all of the soap out.  If you can't wash the item afterwards, then the next best option is to use an ice cube and freeze the gum.  Then you have to slowly pick it out.  It does take a while, so go slow and be patient.  You would hate to hurry through it and end up hurting the item you are trying to save.

You can also use peanut butter on stickers where the paper pulls up but the sticky stays behind or on the left over stickiness of a Band-Aid.

I hope none of you ever have to use this information.  If you do, send me a comment and tell me about it.  We can commiserate together!

How to get the stink out of towels

While the hair bow tutorial is having technical difficulties, I thought I would post something else.  The bow tutorial is coming soon...I promise.

Please tell me that I am not the only one who has come across a clean towel that smells fine when dry, but once it becomes wet it STINKS!  A couple of years ago I made it my mission to figure out how to get the stink out.

I have tried baking soda, vinegar, OxiClean, extra detergent, combos of all of them.  Nothing worked and I just couldn't justify throwing them out and buying new ones.  Well, all of that investigative work finally paid off!  Want to know what the trick is?  You have to stand on one foot, close your left eye and chant "stink-be-gone" 3 times per towel while they are in the washer.  :)  Just kidding.

The trick is Clorox 2 for colors.  Just use the normal detergent you always use, add 1/2 a cap full of Clorox for Colors and use hot water.  You can also throw your fabric softener in if this is what you normally do.  Put your towels (or whatever else might stink---your son's socks) and let the washer do the initial agitation.  Then turn the washer off and set the timer for 30 min.  Once they are done soaking, turn the washer back on and let it run through the rest of the wash cycle.  Then just dry them as usual.

That's all there is to it.  The stink is gone and you didn't have to throw them away and buy more.  If have never come across anything that this didn't work for.

By the way, don't forget to enter my hooded towell giveaway.  It ends on October 16th!!