Simple Dresses for Clothing a Three-Year-Old Girl

Does she want to wear leggings? Jeans? Pants? Tights? A cotton dress works with any of those options. My 3yo loves to TWIRL, so the secret there is to only get dresses with drop-waist twirliness; that way she can run, jump, play, climb without it getting in her way. This is her latest everyday dress. I have Gap credit so it's free to me, but for the a few bucks more, you can get 2 similar dresses at Old Navy.

Floss and brush teeth right before a shower

Maybe everyone's been doing this forever, and I'm a little late to the party?
It feels really great to floss and brush before I get in the shower, because when I step out, I feel SUPERCLEAN.
Additionally, I am bad about flossing, so attaching it to an existing routine means I floss regularly.

Velcro detergent cup to the side of the washing machine

A few weeks ago, the measuring cup for the laundry detergent mysteriously disappeared.
My husband joked that we should Velcro the next one to the side of the washing machine, so we don't lose it. I thought that was a brilliant idea.
This only makes sense if you use the same detergent all the time, or have a lot of little Velcro stickers. I put the fuzzy side on the machine and the hook side on the cup, but it probably doesn't matter much which goes on which.

Write the remaining balance on the gift card at checkout

I have lots of gift cards with store credit, and I tend to use them pretty regularly. In order to keep track of how much is left on a card, I often ask the cashier (at the time of purchase) if they have a price-tag-making machine (those little handheld things), and if they can use it to print out a sticker with my remaining balance. That is the best way to get the remaining balance onto your card, because pen wipes off too easily, and marker can be large and forever. The sticker can be peeled off OR you can write a new balance over the old. I usually also write the date of the balance, so I know when a card was last used. Some gift cards lose balance when they aren't used, so you have to be careful about that.

World's Best Cat Litter

I love World's Best Cat Litter; we've been using it since we first got our kitty 5 years ago. It's a clumping litter made of corn, which means that there's no mining issue (if that's something that concerns you). It's flushable, if that interests you, and it's safe to eat, for what that's worth.

What I like about it particularly, though, is that it's quite good at clumping and odor control. We use a litter locker, which means we scoop the clumps, so having scoopable clumps matters.
No matter what litter you use, you're bound to smell a cat's fresh deposit (unless you use an F.O.R.A., like we do), but once the litter has absorbed the material, the scent from the litterbox is a gentler scent than the overbearing perfumes from a Fresh-Step-type litter.

What reminded me of writing this post is that I saw a full-page ad in Entertainment Weekly for a rebate program they have going on right now. Yeah, a cat litter ad in a media periodical IS WEIRD, right? But still, $12.99 back for what I buy anyway. You too; follow this link.

Extra Freezer

We rent, and our refrigerator is probably 25 years old or so. The freezer is not large.
With two small children, there's a lot of food that we need to be able to cook on-demand, and we also need some flexibility about when to cook the meals we'd like, which is why we use frozen vegetables more than fresh. Other frozen staples include chicken nuggets, popsicles (in the summer), hamburger patties, pork loin (bought on sale), chicken breasts, pizza, and pasta dishes. Our affection for Costco means we shop less often (which is KEY with little kids!) and we need more room for what we buy.

Enter the extra freezer. It makes it easy to stock up on stuff, and if you have an infant and pump breast-milk, you actually can have room for that storage as well.
I saved money and energy costs by not getting a "frost-free" freezer, but I think if I had it to do over, I'd go with the frost-free. Defrosting the freezer isn't a hassle, but all that frost build-up is annoying on a day-to-day basis.

Loading the cherry into the pitter upside down

I just tried out the cherry pitter my mom gave me last year, and it's really amazing. The instructions say to load it with the stemless top facing up, but I found that if I loaded the cherry by threading the stem down through the holder and splatter shield (posh!), then the pit pops out attached to the stem, and there's no lost/attached cherry flesh. No need to de-stem this way, too!

Roasting frozen vegetables in the oven or toaster oven

My husband and I love that we can shake frozen vegetables onto a foil-lined tray, spray with olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper, then pop the tray into a preheated (circa 400F) oven or toaster oven for about 10-15 minutes and voila! Delicious roasted vegetables.
This is incredibly easy, and has made dinner so much less daunting.

My mom mentioned to me the other day that we could just put some chicken thighs on the sheet with the veggies, and holy moly, that worked too!

Febreze Odor Removal Appliance

You would think they could come up with a catchier name.
Anyway, the F.O.R.A. is a fan-with-filter contraption that plugs into, and hangs from, an outlet.
We have a cat, and we have our F.O.R.A. plugged in right above the litterbox. I didn't realize just how good a job it was doing until I went a month past due to change the filter, and it became less effective and I could smell what I wasn't smelling before. Namely, not just the litterbox, but the diaper pail in the other room! This device is near the door to the baby's room, a door left open whenever the baby is not asleep. The F.O.R.A. has been eliminating the diaper pail smell in there as well, which is pretty impressive to me.

Most people would be annoyed to pay $20 for an electric air freshener, but it's really effective and it doesn't leave any scent at all - no cloying cover-up scent. It won't purify the air, and it has a limited radius, but for pets or babies, this thing is great.

Costco: for electronics

Costco is great for lots of things, but lately we've discovered how particularly good it is for electronics. I recently had to get a new laptop, and a salesguy at a local computer store actually recommended Costco over his own place, because Costco includes a 2-year warranty for all its electronics. They don't have a huge selection, but they had exactly what I was looking for, which is what matters.
We also just this week bought a new TV through Costco: again, not a huge selection, but exactly what we wanted at the right price with the warranty included.

Sending Recyclables to Preschool

My toddler's preschool actually wants our plastic bags and toilet paper rolls! I make a point of saving them and sending them in every week. It's nice to know they're going to get reused, which is better than recycled. I use plastic bags to line all our small trash cans, but we always have more bags than we need, even though my husband and I both always carry a reusable bag with us to cut down on the tide of plastic bags.

Repurposing milk cartons

Of course, you can take two milk cartons (the waxy cardboard things) and cut off the tops and fit them together to make toddler building blocks.
When you've had enough of that, try making each box into a little storage box. I've been doing that lately, and I'm excited about the growing collection. I haven't decided whether to keep the repurposed-chic look, or decoupage them into a less-busy looking collection.

Dustbuster in the kitchen

This is actually an idea I got from my mother-in-law. She keeps a dustbuster handy in the kitchen, so she can quickly clean the floor. This, in a house with an infant and toddler, is genius.
I have the latest in Black & Decker Dustbuster technology, and I use it almost daily (should use it daily) to clean up all the food scraps the kids get on the floor. I suppose a dog would serve the same purpose, but the dustbuster doesn't need to be taken for walks.

The 'buster is so helpful, I have even granted its charger precious kitchen countertop real estate. It's worth it to have it handy like that.

Lists!

I make to-do lists all the time, and I have to make a small travel to-do every time I leave the house on errands, or else I get utterly derailed. I am a list fanatic.
So it is appropriate that this first post be a list.

Below, a list of post topics I expect to write - things that I'm excited about these days:

YMCA membership
The book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"
The ARRA COBRA Premium Reduction
Extra Freezer
Kitchen laundry basket
Costco
Sterilite plastic containers
Boston Organics
Dustbuster
Zoo membership
Repurposing milk cartons and cereal boxes
Frozen vegetables
TiVo
Ask Metafilter
Sunshine Kids Radian 65 carseat