Monday, June 1, 2009

Friend Makin' Mondays ~ Tips For Making Life Easier


This week for Friend Makin’ Monday, Kasey has asked us to share a few everyday, little tips that we use that make our lives easier ~ like all those special tricks we might have to cook, clean, raise kids, work in the yard, and so on. What a fun topic!

Here are my tips!

~ I really struggle with drinking enough water each day. To help me get the water I need during the work day, I fill my 24 oz water bottle with water and add a Crystal Light On the Go packet. By having a little something more in my water, it is so much easier to drink. I am usually able to get through at least one and a half water bottles during my eight hours at work this way. At home, we have stopped buying pop and almost exclusively drink Crystal Light made in a pitcher. We’re hooked!

~ I am absolutely addicted to this horribly fatty, delicious poppy seed dressing. I’ve come up with a little trick to enjoy my dressing but minimize how much of it I actually eat ~ I put half a serving in a small bowl and dip my fork in it before I spear my salad. That way, I still get the flavor of the yummy dressing, but I haven’t doused my salad with it. I’m amazed at how far one tablespoon of dressing will go ~ I can eat a whole bowl of salad this way and still have a teeny bit of dressing left when I’m done.

~ We use two laundry hampers ~ one for lights and one for darks ~ so I don’t have to do as much sorting when it’s time to do laundry. This also makes it easy if I just feel like doing one or two loads ~ I can just grab one of the hampers and throw everything in it in the washer. No more sorting and making multiple piles on our bedroom floor.

~ I make my own 100 calorie packs. This saves a ton of money ~ those prepackaged 100 calorie packs are so expensive! ~ and makes it easy to grab a somewhat healthy snack from the pantry.

~ When we cook pizza, we put the pizza directly on the rack {just like the box says} but don’t throw the box away. When the pizza is done, we just scoot it out onto the box and cut it there, rather than using a cookie sheet that will have to be washed later. {Lazy, I know, but life without a dishwasher is rough and I’ll cut corners wherever I can!}

~ I saved my best tip for last. This isn’t one that I use yet, but will certainly adopt when I have kids. It’s a trick my mom uses for my dad’s socks so they wear out evenly, and they’ve passed it on to my aunt who has six kids ~ she loves it. You have each family member {or in our case, just my dad} safety pin his or her socks together after they take them off and before they throw them in the laundry basket. The socks stay together in the wash and no more sorting, folding, or losing socks! Each person can even have their own pin color {if you use diaper safety pins} which makes dispersing the clean socks even easier. How fabulous is that?!?

Happy Monday!

~Heather

17 comments:

Tina said...

I love your 100 calorie pack idea...

Great tips.

Happy FMM Day and thanks for visiting my blog!

Anonymous said...

Happy Monday!

I love the sock idea!

Also, I learned that salad dressing idea from my mom. It works amazing, especially for the thicker dressings like ranch and blue cheese. Makes it not too overwhelming as well as being healthier! :D

Vivienne @ the V Spot said...

I love the concept of the socks staying together, but I know the reality... the laundress will get speared by safety pins, bleed all over the whites and have to re-wash the whole load. (Because I'm an accident prone dork that way...)
Love the pizza box tip.

Renee said...

I do the same with my laundry except I have a third one for delicates (like sweaters).

becca @ The Texas Darlings said...

I think the dressing idea is great- dip the fork in the dressing BEFORE spearing salad. Love it!!!

~Becca

J.J. said...

I love the 100 calorie pack idea too, I make snack packs for the kids and myself...just not sure that they are 100 calories :)

Chrissy Thomas said...

LOVE the sock idea! I am adopting that one right away. lol

Have a great day!

Rhonda said...

Love the sock idea!! Have heard of it...but the different colored diaper pins sold me!

Now I'll have to come up with a creative way to store the pins by the boys laundary baskets.

Amanda Jo said...

That sock tip is fantastic! I just might give that a try in my house! :) Thanks for the great tips!

Creekmore's said...

I really like the sock idea.

Shawn said...

My girlfriend created the sock cop. Hand cuffs for your socks. I'm still too lazy for those!

Unknown said...

Great idea on the 100 calorie packs. They are expensive and that keeps me from buying them, which just leads to pigging out and consuming WAY too many calories! Great tips.

Happy FMM!

Kasey said...

that whole sock idea just made my life so much easier! Thank you for sharing and also love the 100 calorie pack idea! I'm all for saving money and those dudes are expensive!

Jen said...

Cool sock idea - now if I can just get the kids to put their laundry ANYWHERE but the floor, that would be a miracle! :)

I also love the salad dressing tip since I'm trying to lose weight, but I like a little *flavor* on my salads!

:) Jen

Kelli said...

I love your tips. I have found that making my own 100 calorie packs for the kids is so much cheaper. Thanks!

Jen @ tatertotsandjello.com said...

Hi Heather -
Great tips. I loved them all! I love Crystal Light. Yum! And the socks one is great - I have a huge sack of unmatched socks sitting in my laundry room.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

XOXO
Jen

Unknown said...

I looove the sock idea. I'm a little late but I'm checking everyone else's post and I did one. Thanks For Sharing!