Monday Must-Haves

Monday Must-Haves

1)  A Good Supply of Soft, White Washcloths - Thanks to my mom who gave us a stack a year or so ago, we have an abundance of soft, white washcloths.  At first I didn't know what to do with all of these washcloths, they hid out under our bathroom sink with only a few of them being used and washed every week.  Then a lightbulb went on and these have become our "green" and gentle solution for wiping the kids hands and faces down after meals.  I don't know about your kids, but there are many meals where we have faces that look like this:

We used to use paper towels we would wet to wipe them down, but that was not only irritating to their skin, it wasted LOTS of paper towels and didn't even do a very thorough job in cleaning them up.  The white washcloths are much gentler on their skin, can be rinsed and reused for both children (not to mention throughout the day), are washable for infinite uses, and for those messes that really stain - the white can be bleached!  This switchover may have added a tiny bit to my laundry load, but it saves us money from buying paper towels and the peace of knowing we're taking better care of our children's skin and the environment.

2)  A Day Planner - For my 30th birthday (yikes!) this past summer, my Auntie Carla & Uncle Trevor gave me a book by organizer extraordinaire Donna Otto called, "Secrets to Getting More Done in Less Time".  Her main solution to organization seemed to be having and USING a daily planner.  She paraphrases Mark Twain in saying, "Everybody talks about time management but nobody does anything about it."  By using a daybook she encourages you to make maximum use of your time.  Here is an excerpt from the book:

    "Did you know that most people are not able to explain in detail just how they spend their days and weeks?  They just know that they are "busy" with various "activities".  Try to pin these people down though with point-blank questions like, "How many minutes did you spend on the phone yesterday?" or "How many hours did you spend watching TV last week?" (my addition:  "How much time did you spend on Facebook or checking emails yesterday?) and they won't be able to tell you.  They are just winging their daily schedules and handling things as they come."

I can tell you this is how I handle time management most of the time.  I have an idea of our schedule in my head, but plans change and I end up forgetting some things.  Having a day planner where I keep track of our schedule and activities, even mundane daily tasks such as laundry, cleaning, computer work, helps me to see JUST where our time goes.  This has especially been helpful as a stay-at-home mom in helping me reprioritize where I WANT to be spending our time (at home together enjoying this blessed time in our lives) rather than where we sometimes END UP spending our time (running errands, overcommitting to too many playdates and activities).  In the past I haven't had a good daily planner, but I just received one that I am SO excited to use this next year.  Best of all - it was only $1.49 shipped!  It has a monthly and daily calendars for each month, plus space for writing notes and keeping financial records.

If you would like to see about getting one of these planners for yourself you can check out it out more here.  Don't forget you can personalize it to suit your style. 

3)  A Vacuum You Love - Seven years ago when we bought our house my parents bought us a Eureka vacuum from Costco that was on special for $99.  It was a fantastic vacuum and we loved it...that is until part of the underside where the brush is melted.  Seriously, it melted.  Thanks to Costco's generous return policy we returned that vacuum and bought another one that they currently had a $40 off coupon for.  Again we were happy with it...for about a year before the belt snapped.  Once again, off to Costco we went to return it and buy another one they had on special.  Another year goes by and bam...something went wrong with this vacuum (I can't remember exactly what it was) so once again we returned it to Costco.  It may seem we were taking advantage of Costco's return policy, but vacuums aren't cheap and I believe they should last you MORE than one year.  If they were willing to take it back, we were willing to see if they had a better quality product to offer us. 

About the 5th time this happened it occurred to me that maybe we should STOP buying the Costco coupon special vacuums.  Maybe we should RESEARCH vacuums and see about getting a better quality, longer lasting one, even if it meant not buying from Costco.  My research led me to Sears to buy their Kenmore Progressive, the #1 rated upright vacuum per Consumer Reports.  I was leary at first.  One because it wasn't bagless as we were used to and I wasn't sure if we'd be able to afford all of the bags we would need for picking up hair from two shedding dogs.  Two, I didn't like the fact that if we didn't like it, we would have to pay a 15% restocking fee upon returning it.  Nevertheless, I read hundreds of reviews (the ones from dog owners held more weight for me) and decided to take the plunge when we found a GREAT deal after Christmas.  It was a bit more than we'd ever spent on a vacuum before, but here we are 3 years later and we still love our vacuum and have had no problems with it!  My mom was so impressed with it she ended up buying herself one and let me just say, my mom is a VERY particular vacuum owner who takes her vacuuming SERIOUSLY.

Recently both my brother and also my brother & sister-in-law have both wanted/needed new vacuums and found a great deal on the Dyson DC28 Animal.  They bought it at Kohl's and thanks to price matching, coupons and opening up a credit card, each of them were able to get it for only $333!  A steal considering it retails for $600+.  In the October issue of Consumer Reports my Kenmore Progressive is rated #3 and a CR Best Buy and the Dyson DC28 is rated #10.  I can't wait to borrow one of their vacuums sometime and see if it can pick up more than my vacuum does!  It will definitely be an interesting comparison considering the price difference.

So today's Must-Haves was a little lengthy and in-depth, but I hope you may have learned a little something and that you will be ready to tackle the New Year with motivation to get organized and keep things clean!