For quick and easy sanitizing, I mix my favorite disinfectant half-and-half with water and keep it in a spray bottle in the bathroom, for cleaning up those "near misses".
Clean the entire fixture/chandelier each time you replace a light bulb. My light bulbs seem to burn out frequently enough that my fixtures stay relatively clean when I do this.
Do those rods on your blinds always break off, too? Try this buy a piece of dowelling, about 1mm across, and a package of eye hooks. Depending on how long you want the rod, you can cut each piece of dowelling into three or four pieces. Drill a tiny hole in one end of the dowelling, then screw an eye hook in, and attach to the existing hook on the blind. You can also paint the dowelling to match your décor.
Having a home-based business, I have catalogues stacked to the ceiling or they would be, if I didn't have them organized. I also like to keep every magazine I have ever read, so this tip helps organize them as well. There are several sturdy boxes that I have found make excellent magazine holders: the large size Quaker Oats, "Orange Tap" and "Apple Tap" (from Costco), and some powdered soap boxes (but only if they have a plastic bag liner so that the inside of the box is not sticky). Simply cut the box into the same shape that plastic magazine holders are, label the front of the box and you're organized and you can feel good for recycling! If the boxes will be in plain view, you may also want to cover them with wrapping paper, shelf paper, or fabric so they will look nicer and match.
I have two big boxes for storage one for each of my kids, labeled "For ________ To Grow Into". When clothes are passed along to us that are presently too big, or if I see some neat item at my favorite clothing shop (Club V!!) I put it into the appropriate box. Every six months, we look through the box for anything that might fit. I've been known to buy winter boots in June for $1.99 (why pay $29.99 on the first snowy day?) This is a good time to buy winter items to put away for next year (Crazy Carpets, kid-size shovels, mittens, etc.) as they are a fraction of the cost they will be next winter.
Now is the time to start planning your garden. We keep a "Gardening Diary" so that we can keep track from year to year what grew well, what was too much work, what we should have done earlier or better, whether certain items needed more or less sun, etc.
-Marilyn Powell
