There's nothing like a nice, clean carpet -- it can be a perfect place for your children to play. Unfortunately, keeping that carpet clean can be difficult in a house filled with children and pets. Cleaning your carpet frequently may be necessary, but it can also be expensive and bad for your health. Instead, use a homemade carpet cleaning solution that is not only inexpensive, but also much safer for your health.
Everyone’s dressed, ribbons are tied into the hair of your youngest and even the boys have their hair combed. Now it’s time for a picture. What’s that? Oh, the blinking light indicating your battery is dead or your memory card is full? It happens to the best of us and it always happens at the worst time. Those pictures clogging up the memory card? They’re from last year’s Christmas party and that was six months ago. Yup, we’ve been there too.
To get organized for April 15, 2012, start now! There are several ways you can get yourself organized for tax season.
Being a mom is hard enough, but when you're disorganized, it can seem like the hardest thing in the world. Getting organized will make your life a whole lot easier. Here are some tips and tricks to start the new year off right -- organized and happy -- so that you can focus on what's really important, like your family.
Take Action Immediately
The real key to keeping paper clutter at bay is to handle it immediately. Putting it aside will only make the pile grow larger and discourage you from taking action later on.
I recently read about this study conducted by Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman. He believed we would all feel a lot better if we spent our time more wisely. He conducted a diary study with 909 women in Austin, Texas. He asked them to record all the activities they did during the day and then rate how happy they were while doing them. He then had them narrow the list to their least favorite activities.
Do you fall victim to the car pool “hurry up and wait” syndrome? Checking your watch every five minutes to see if you need to leave to pick up the kids, only to wait in line for 15 minutes?
Aside from pollen, trees and grasses outdoors, you also come in contact with dust and dander indoors. All of these can cause signature allergy symptoms -- runny nose, sinus pressure, watery and itchy eyes, earache, hives and breathing difficulties. Cleaning a room to be allergen-free can help alleviate some of your allergy woes. Armed with a vacuum and steam cleaner, a once-a-month deep cleaning can help control your indoor symptoms.
Cotton offers an inexpensive and durable option for clothing, but cotton garments also tend to wrinkle easily without proper care. Following a few extra steps during the washing process keep cotton clothes relatively wrinkle-free without much additional work. The exact care routine you choose depends partially on the type of cotton garment. While most people won't starch and iron a cotton T-shirt for casual wear, a cotton dress shirt might warrant a more extensive wrinkle-reducing routine.
As if doing the laundry wasn't already a nuisance, you sometimes have to worry about your shirts and pants emerging from dryer a wrinkly mess. You have several options to get rid of wrinkles, from breaking out your iron to simply acting fast and taking your clothing out of the dryer before it has time to wrinkle. Save time and wait until you have several garments before trying to remove wrinkles.
Allergies can make a sufferer miserable and when irritants infiltrate the home, there's no respite. One out of five Americans suffer from allergies, and if one parent has allergies, there is a 1-in-3 chance their child will be allergy-prone as well, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. The most common indoor allergens are pet dander, pollen, mold, dust mites and cockroaches. If you have an allergy sufferer in your family, it's vital to clean allergens from your home.
