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!