How to Fix a Scratch in Laminate Flooring

Back in July we installed laminate flooring throughout the downstairs.  We have yet to install the quarter round and that is why I haven't posted a full "reveal", but I did show you a little here and here.  Although durable and kid friendly life happens and things get dropped and we have had a few nicks and scratches.  The other day I was dust mopping in the living room and came across the deepest scratch yet.  A couple of months ago Matt came up with a solution that has worked and I am going to share our secret... a Crayola crayon!  In the past I have used markers on furniture, but the crayon works better because the wax fills in the gap rather than just coloring it.  

Step One:

Locate scratch and yell at every family member.

Step Two:

Find a matching crayon. I prefer Crayola.

Step Three:

Fill scratch in with crayon wax.

Step Four:

Buff with paper towel and you are done!

Recipe Organization

I had a goal last week and that was to organize my recipes.  This was no easy task and I spent HOURS doing it, but I am more than please with the end results.  I organized both my paper recipes and online recipes.  I love Pinterest, but without search options within personal boards I was searching through 350 pins to find that must have recipe.  The first thing I did was tackle the loose recipes and cooking magazines in three steps.  

Once I had my recipes divivded into categories I purchased a binder, page protectors, and Post-It tabs.

I found the cutest cover sheet and spine label from Banjelope.  I love it because it matches my kitchen!

Love the re-positional tabs.  I am sure that adaptations will be made over the years.

I created my own divider pages in Word and printed in a soft gray.  Again, obsessed with this coordinating. Someone help me. 

I used 4x6 photo pages for the loose cards. Clipped recipes were glued onto white sheets of paper (not pictured).

Adding the handwritten note that Grandma included with her famous cole slaw recipe is priceless.

Organizing my Pinterest recipes was time consuming and made me really hungry!  I created boards for each category as I did in my binder.  Now when I pin a new recipe I add it to the appropriate board.  This will reduce the number of re-pins and time spent searching in the future.

Although this project took me three days to accomplish I feel motivated to cook with organized resources.  And for the record this post contained the word "recipe" twelve times.  

Super Spot Remover Review

I am an avid pinner, but I will admit that most of those pins are just wishful thinking.  I picked up this chevron sweater dress for Madeline at a thrift shop for .52 cents! Can you believe that?!  I saw that there was a red waxy stain by the pockets, but decided that it was worth trying to save.

I have seen this pin a thousand times and decided to test it out.  All you need is blue Dawn dish soap, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide.

Mix one teaspoon of Dawn with two tablespoons of baking soda, and three to four teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide.

Apply to stain and rub a little. Because this was a sweater dress I kept the rubbing to a minimum to reduce pilling.  I let the solution sit for an hour, rinsed,  and then machine washed the dress.

Before

When I pulled the dress out of the wash the stain was gone!  I love that this super stain remover is inexpensive and uses ingredients that I already have on hand.  

After

Saving your Pennies

The other day I was reading a blog that listed all the ways you could save money and one of the suggestions was to stop using the dishwasher and hand wash instead.  Well, I love my dishwasher and that is not going to happen, but it did get me thinking about when the least expensive time to run my dishwasher would be. I looked at my utility website and it listed the rates and the most expensive time of day is from 2pm-7pm and the least expensive is from midnight to 8 am.  We bought a new dishwasher in January and it has a delayed timer!  I want to start utilizing this feature.  I also noticed that my washing machine has a delayed timer too.  I am not sure how much of a savings this would be, but I am going to track our electric bill over the next few months and see.

Keeping Sane around the Holidays

  With so much hustle and bustle around the holidays there are few things that I have done that have kept me sane so far.

1. Sticking to my deep cleaning schedule
2. Menu planning
3. Using organizational tools for my Christmas purchases

  Here are two of the recipes that I used this week.  Stuffed Green Peppers and Crock Pot Potato Soup.  I just cubed potatoes for the soup rather than using hash browns.  Next time I am thinking of adding bacon (hubby's suggestion).  

Source: tasteofhome.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: pearls-handcuffs-happyhour.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

I hope that you are using tools that work for you and are having a stress free holiday!

Let's Talk about Trash

Older picture of the kitchen. Updated here.

Here is where my trash can has been since we moved it- on the side of the island. A functional spot, but not pretty to look at. I thought a stainless steel simplehuman would be nice, but was flabbergasted at the prices! While browsing Pinterest I spotted this:

Source: bhg.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

I have a corner cabinet with a lazy susan that is under used. It houses my mixing bowls and colanders and those were moved into an adjacent cabinet.  I googled instructions to remove the top shelf of the lazy susan leaving just the bottom one. It took two trips to the store to purchase trash bins that would fit, but I am very pleased with the results!

The Corner Cabinet

The recycle bin is the one with the blue tape.
A different color can would have been better, but white was only available.

We are saving our pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house.
I also used grip liner to keep the cans in place.

During a big clean up I rotate the appropriate can for ease of domestic duties.

The new set up is more efficient. The recycle bin used to be in the pantry. It makes more sense to be near the trash.  The total cost of this project was $8.50 for the new trash cans. Not too shabby. 

Schedule House Cleaning?

I do all right with the day to day cleaning and keeping things picked up, but it is the deep cleaning that gets my mop in a knot. This house is big and last time I deep cleaned it took me two weeks working one room at a time.  One of my fav blogs is Clover Lane and I noticed that she had a cleaning schedule. How smart is that?  

Source: memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Instead of taking 14 days to deep clean I am going to take 14 weeks. I posted my schedule by the command center. I will make modifications when needed and highlight when the task is finished. 

This week is the Master Bedroom, so I better get started!

Mt. Laundry

This is a weekly occurrence. I like to wash all the laundry on one day, fold the next, and put away on the third day. This lazy system works for me. I know that a lot of people (my mom and father-in-law) do a little each day, but if I did that my kids would not have a cool mountain of clothes to jump in! What is your laundry style? 

My Favorite Cleaning Tool Goes Green

I LOVE my Swiffer Wet Jet, but I did not love the cost and waste of the disposable pads and cleaning solution. When our house was on the market I rocked my Swiffer and cleaned my floors a lot. We had hardwood and laminate in every room but the bedrooms. Here at the new house I have linoleum in the kitchen, bathrooms, and foyer. The best part of moving was that my house did not have to be spotless all the time and time for more economic cleaning! I replaced the disposable pads for microterry inserts that can be thrown in the washer. I had some leftover FuzziBunz inserts from my cloth diaper days, but you can purchase them here for a reasonable price and free shipping! I use the medium size.

I just added two strips of velcro and machine sewed them on. If you do not own a sewing machine you could use the iron on velcro tape.

Now for the solution. I found this tip on YouTube and it WORKED! I added my own solution and now I am cleaning my floors for practically FREE!

Waste Free Lunches

I know that this school year is wrapping up, but I like to think ahead. This year Wyatt went half day and ate lunch at home, but next year he will be packing every day. This frugal momma is making his lunch every day like my mom made mine. Recycling is a cause close to my heart. My husband thinks that I am the trash Nazi, but it only takes a little effort. Most weeks my family of five only has one to two 13 gallon bags of trash. I like to buy in bulk which also reduces the amount of trash and we do not use disposable tableware, napkins, or baggies so when I saw these I was DELIGHTED! This is exactly what I was looking for and when I found a similar container for the fraction of the price at Walmart I was doing the happy dance! These Ziploc containers are only $2.37 for two. Hubby is already using them for his lunch and they wash up well in the dishwasher.


We will be using these utensils from Ikea. You get 16 pieces for $1.99 at this price if one goes missing it is not the end of the world.


Cloth napkins


Klean Kanteen


Lunch bag that will fit everything. We have this bag in the orange and we are going to put the Klean Kanteen on the side as opposed to the included plastic bottle.


I have been reading this fun Bento blog, Burnt Toast. Jennifer has some great ideas! For more information on the benefits of waste free lunches go here.