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3 Simple Tips To Help You Save Time In The Kitchen

How much time do you spend in the kitchen? There are times when I feel like I live there. Those are the days that I’d like to do a “Lisa Douglas” of Green Acres fame – clear the table of the dirty dishes, open the window and throw them out! Lisa takes “speed cleaning” to a whole new level!

In truth, there are ways to cut down the time we spend in the kitchen ⇒ and abandoning the mess is NOT one of them.

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3 Simple Steps To Save Time and Get You Out of the Kitchen Faster

1. Cooking Tip⇒ toss as you go. Put an empty trash bag or plastic food scrap bag in the kitchen sink or on the edge of the counter. As you cut food for your meal, and open up packaging, put the trash all in that bag. You will save steps and time. When you are done, just take the bag out to the trash and say “goodbye!”

2. Enlist help from your family. Let them crack open the eggs, stir the mix, set the table. “Many hands make light work.“

3. Double Up! Plan your meals with leftovers in mind. Some families are delighted to enjoy “part 2” of a good meal the next night. For those who require variety, just freeze the second portion to pull out for another day.

My favorite dish to double up on is chili. I make a big pot, which we have with toppings on night #1. The second night, it becomes a topping for hot dogs or as adelicious chili salad served on greens. Then I freeze the remainder to pull out for a meal 2 or more weeks later. Note that the real cooking only took place one time but three great meals were produced. Smart!

So how about you? Any time-saving advice that will get us out of the kitchen faster?

Enjoy!

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5 Small Storage Tips That Will Inspire Your Decorating

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What is there about organizing small spaces that appeals to me? I just love maximizing space so that when you walk into the room you say “wow!” Yes, it is the “wow factor” that tickles me.

So, here are 5 small storage tips I found that will allow you to rearrange a room to make it feel larger but with simple changes.

I had so much fun searching out ideas. See what I found and tell me what you like best.

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Small Storage Space Tips

Floating Storage – if you have limited surface space, put your walls to work for you and hang “floating” shelves. They keep your floor space free and direct the eye upward. Those blessed with high ceilings will have lots of fun with this!

Now this is the greatest discovery I made in the “shelving” category: a HIDDEN DESK! There are desks that fold up against the wall when you are not using them and “voila!” fold them down and you have a desk with shelving and storage space, too. One even doubles as a mirror!

I do not want to recommend a specific one, since currently I do not own one yet [I want one, though!] so let me give you the link to a page with many highly recommended folding desks => FOLDING DESKS

Mirrors – properly placed mirrors can optically “enlarge” your space. Bring the outdoors inside.

My mom made great use of this technique. We had a small family room with sliding glass doors going out into a lovely landscaped yard. She mounted two simple but very large mirrors on the wall across from those windows to “bring the outdoors, inside.” It was as if we had that lovely foliage throughout whole room. Just perfect!

Area Rugs – add brightness and definition to spaces with a new rug …. or two! This is a great technique for rooms where you do not want to clutter them up with a lot of furniture. Are you a floor-sitter? Cushy shag rugs make it so comfy!

Hard Working Furniture – use furniture that comes with hidden storage spaces. I love this idea. There are lots of ways that furniture can serve as storage, too. Tables with shelving underneath. Ottomans that double as storage boxes for toys, afghans or whatever. Stylish cabinets with hooks to hang things. Bookcases with removable decorative baskets are trendy.

Wall and Hanging Planters – adding live foliage to a room is invigorating. Rather than taking up counter top or table top space, mount or hang your planters.

Enjoy!

7 Tips You Can Follow to Keep Your Home Clean for Longer

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A clean home is everyone’s dream. You want fresh air and a decent homestead to enhance your experience after a tiresome day. For those who work from home, you will find out that cleaning your home often also helps you to be more productive. The same applies to students and everyone who needs a conducive environment to concentrate on their tasks.

However, it is not easy to clean your home often and maintain it. We know that it takes numerous hours of tiresome work to get your house clean and in order. You, therefore, need to ensure that once you have cleaned your home, it stays neat for a longer time. This post teaches you seven unique ways to keep your house clean for a long time.

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With these tips, you will save yourself time and resources you put into regular cleaning. We do not mean that you should leave your house to get dirty. When you have the skills to maintain a clean room, your home will stay neat for longer.

Here are seven simple tips that will make your cleaning easier and last for more days.

1. Do a Part of Laundry Each Day

I hate doing laundry, but I want my clothes to be clean every day. That is where the problem is – a big one. You cannot have clean clothes to wear until you have cleaned them. Every day, as you take a bath, you change your clothes. It is easy to throw the attires you take off into the laundry basket, but it is hard to get to work on them.

Maybe a tight schedule can also make you pile up your clothes for the weekend. By the time you get the time to wash, you will realize that the clothes are overwhelmingly many. However, the main problem is that the more clothes you pile up, the dirtier your house will be. When you take off your workout clothes, you need to wash them immediately to avoid the stench from the sweat. Washing a few items a day will help to keep your home tidier and fresher.

2. Put Doormats at the Entrances

IT may seem a simple negligible accessory, but you will see the difference when you get the doormats for your home. Each entrance to your house needs one. Buying a mat only for the main door is insufficient because you may go outside through the other uncommonly-used doors, and when you come back you enter with dirt.

To ensure that your home stays clean for longer, all your doors will need a mat. When you go out, dust your feet before entering the house. In this way, you prevent the little by little dirt from piling up and making your home unclean in a short time.

3. Clean Your Pets Regularly

Pets like cats and dogs shed off fur quite often. You may need to vacuum or sweep your house regularly to eliminate the mess. Apart from being an activity that consumes a lot of time, the mess can make your home ever dirty.

One solution to keeping the house clean for long in such circumstances is to make sure that your pet is clean all the time. You can brush them outside your house every day or every second day. In this way, the pet will shed less often in the house. You will enjoy a clean home for a longer period before you need to vacuum it again.

4. Throw Rugs on Top of Your Carpet

In your living room, where there is heavy traffic in the house, your carpet gets dirty faster than in other places. When this happens, you need to clean it or call carpet cleaners to ensure the house remains clean and tidy. However, the process is time-consuming and at times expensive to maintain a clean carpet.

A simple solution is to use small rugs on top of the carpet. Instead of taking out the whole carpet, and leaving your c13 plug and other power cords exposed, you only pick the rugs for cleaning. In this way, you minimize the possibilities of electric accidents while reducing the number of times you have to clean your carpet in a season.

5. Recycle or Get Rid of Paper ASAP

We receive mail, food wrappings, and all forms of paper in the house daily. When left unattended, the documents can pile up quickly and make the whole house messy. Whether it is the food wrappings in the kitchen or mail in the living room, you want to sort everything up as soon as possible to avoid inviting household pests.

Get rid of waste paper immediately, shred the junk mail, and sort and keep the invoices, bills, and relevant documents safely. You will keep your home cleaner and manage your responsibilities appropriately.

6. Clean After Each Meal

Whether it is dinner or a snack in the afternoon, the table, kitchen, and some utensils will get dirty. You have to clean immediately to ensure your home is tidy. Regardless of how small the task may seem, you need to do it quickly. It will also keep off insects from storming your home.

7. Keep Things Where They Belong

While moving around the house, you will stumble upon items that are laying in the wrong positions. You can see socks near the door, children’s toys near the TV cabinet, and utensils in the bedroom. It is standard for homes with kids. You need to tidy up as you move.

Carry all lost items and put them in the right places. Doing so does not only help to keep your home tidy but also reduces your effort when doing massive cleanup over the weekend. You can also help someone who has misplaced something in the house by putting them back in their appropriate positions.

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In Summary

Cleaning is an endless process. To maintain a clean house for longer, you need to ensure that everything is neat at all times. Some of the activities may seem simple and short-term, but they are effective in making your house ever-clean and reduce the workload on the heavy cleaning day.

Thanks to our guest author, Jessica Smith, for inspiring us to keep our homes clean longer!

More great tips=>>

Enjoy!

How Declutter Your Desk Quick With These 5 Simple Tips

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It happens to everybody: in spite of your best efforts to keep your work-space neat and organized, eventually you’ll find yourself facing a mess and unable to locate anything. You need to declutter your desk quickly and here are 5 simple tips to show you how!

These helpful tips should allow you to reduce the amount of clutter on your desk and keep everything looking tidy, allowing you to get everything you need to get done completed on time.

1. Create a Filing System

For starters, all that loose paperwork needs a place for quick retrieval later. Create a filing system that allows you to instantly access important paperwork because you’ll know exactly where it is.

Create this filing system based on the needs of your specific job. If you frequently must refer to specific document types but don’t remember the titles well, then a category based system would work best. This way you can remember approximately where it is before you start scrounging the desk.

If you frequently find yourself needing to pull specific documents, then an alphabetical system is ideal. The point is to make sure that when you need something, you know exactly where you put it.

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2. Use Inboxes and Outboxes

Keeping a stack of paperwork you have to fill out, or otherwise requires your attention is a good way to serve as a reminder that there is work left to do. Having an outbox of completed documentation feels good. You are accomplishing something! Be sure to keep the most time-sensitive documents at the top of the stack and set aside a certain time each day or week to tackle your inbox in order to make the most of your time and focus.

3. Create a To-Do List

Rather than simply depend on your memory, only to have it fail and leave you frantically comparing due dates to figure out what needs to be done first, keep a to-do list of tasks that need to be completed somewhere visible on your desk. This could be in the form of a physical notepad or set up on your Outlook or other office applications – even using Microsoft Notepad as a ‘to-do’ list can serve to keep yourself organized and productive. This can also help to save space by preventing all of your urgent work stacking up out in the open lest you forget that they need to be done.

4. Electronic Documents Storage

Reduce paper documentation by using cloud storage systems such as Dropbox or Google Drive.

This method will pay off in the long run by saving time on having to run documentation from one place to another by hand or running off copies on a sometimes faulty office copier.

5. Electronic Fax

Electronic faxing services allow you to fax information as easily as sending an e-mail. Using an electronic fax system saves you time by no longer requiring you to print out the document and then send the fax… or wait in line if it happens to be a busy office fax.

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By taking a little time to organize, and following this basic advice, you can save space and, in the long run, save hours of time that would normally be spent hunting down documents in a cluttered desk or picking up paperwork that got accidentally scattered or waiting on unnecessary print jobs. For those of you who are in management positions – encouraging these practices will also help to improve workplace efficiency and productivity in the long run.

Enjoy!

This is a condensed article taken from an earlier post by Brennen Kliffmueller. From a young age, it was clear Brennen was slightly OCD and now he is an organization king. He is always finding new ways to streamline his daily tasks and work as a content creator for FindAFax.

Quick Shopping At Amazon Using Search Filters

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Did you know that it is possible to filter your searches when you shop on Amazon? Let’s face it, the huge assortment of products they sell is endless. Sure, it is lots of fun to browse Amazon but not everyone has the time. To streamline the process, Amazon has provided efficient ways to narrow your search so that you can quickly find just what you need.

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I use this tip most often by searching 4 and 5-star review items. The reviews on Amazon,written by verified customers, are a great help. Why would I buy an item that is so-so when I can find one that is the best in its class. If 500+ verified customers loved it, I probably will, too.

How To Shop Amazon Using The 4 – 5 Star Reviews

First, I enter the search term in the window. Let’s say I am buying a toy to give as a birthday present. I type in the search window “toys for 1 year old boys.”
Next, because that brought up 9,000 selections, I clicked on the 4 stars and up filter on the left side of the page which reduced them to 4000.
I also clicked on “Birth to 24 months” and that narrowed it even more to the top choices of 2,000 possibilities. The first page or two always have great selections!
Before buying, I read some of the reviews to see what the customers did and did not like about the item. By the time I order and receive it, I have made a wise purchase. It’s great!

Try it for yourself. I just did a search for office products, in general. I had nothing specific in mind and I was curious about what would turn up if I searched Office Products 5 Star Reviews. It gave me a fun assortment of their very best office equipment, accessories, furniture and even some teacher and school supplies. Take a look!

Are you interested in anti-aging beauty? Check out Anti Aging Skincare 5 Star Reviews.

So go to Amazon here and play around with the searches for yourself. The more specific your search description the better but be sure to also click the top row of stars under “Average Customer Review” in the left sidebar. That will get you the best assortment.

What do you shop for most often online? I find that more and more I prefer the time-saving convenience of online shopping over going to stores. Do you?

Enjoy!

Do you love to shop online? Use the 5-star review search on Amazon to find the best choices FAST! #Amazon #tips #shopping Share on X

How To Thread A Needle By Hand The Easy Way

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Threading a needle sounds like such a simple thing to do but, for many, it is not. Needle threading requires a certain amount of dexterity with your hands. If you find yourself often saying that you are “all thumbs,” this may be a challenging task.  

It also requires excellent vision. With or without glasses, it is helpful to be able to SEE the hole in the needle and the end of your thread. When I was a little girl, my mom would call to me with “bring your eyes over here” when she was attempting to thread a needle. She had fuzzy vision and mine was 20-20! I’d get that needle threaded for her in moments.
Now, even with glasses on, it isn’t quite that simple for me to do but I have a trick that helps me so much that I wanted to share it with you.
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When you are threading a needle, hold the eye of the needle over a light colored surface. If you hold it over a dark background, the hole will disappear. You may never find it. Holding it over something white or very light will make that hole so much easier to find.
So here are the simple steps for threading a needle by hand:

1.Do you wear eye glasses for reading? Get them and put them on!

2.Cut the end of the thread with a clean cut, on a slight angle.

3.Lick your forefinger and thumb lightly to dampen them.

4.Run your fingers along the thread to bring the end to a better point.

5.Hold the needle in the middle with the eye of the needle (the hole) over a light colored background, in good light.
Tip: do not allow the end of the thread that you are guiding through the eye of the needle to be too long. If it is shorter it will go through easily. Only have a little bit showing at the end of your fingers so that you can control where it goes. 

6.Aim the trimmed, dampened end of the thread at the eye and push it through.

7.Pull the thread through to the other side and pull both ends even.

8.You did it! Ready to sow.

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Do you know how to tie a knot at the end? Not sure? Here is a very simple video to help you. [If you are reading this by email, click the title of the post to come to the blog. You will be able to view the video there!]

Got any sewing tips to help beginners? Share them with us in the comments!

Enjoy!

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Easy Way To Keep A Cup Of Coffee Hot Longer

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Hey, coffee lover, this tip is not going to set the world on fire (pardon the pun) but it sure will brighten your day if you are not already doing it. This is an easy way to keep your cup of coffee hot, longer.

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How To Keep Your Cup Of Coffee Hot Longer

A very simple way to keep a cup of coffee hot longer is to put it into a pre-warmed cup. All you have to do is fill the mug with hot water, right out of the tap, let it sit for a moment or two:

Turn on your tap water to “hot” and let it run till the water steams.
Fill your coffee mug with the hot water and wait one minute.
Pour out the hot water and repeat.
Pour out the hot water for a second time and fill your mug with hot coffee. Now that your mug is pre-heated, the coffee will stay hot much longer.

Another nifty idea, put a sweater on your coffee mug! You can make your own or buy a handmade crocheted cozy for your mug ☑️ CROCHETED COFFEE MUG COZY

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Enjoy!