Archives for February 2016

Toddler Toy Storage

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

It’s a fact of life that, when you have a little kid, relatives and friends will shower that kid with toys. It doesn’t matter how much you vow to live a minimalistic toy lifestyle. If you buy not a single toy for your child, you will still find yourself living in a toy store. You’ll have the huge toys, the tiny toys, the toys with a million parts, the fuzzy toys, the teething toys, and — my personal favorite — the noisy toys. If you’re not prepared to flee and let the toys run amok in your house, then you need storage solutions that work for you and for your kids. Here are some of my current favorites. [Read more…]

5 Ways Ziploc Bags Can Make Life with Baby Easier

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Ziploc bags are a godsend when it comes to babies and their stuff. Never much of a bagger pre-kids, I now boast a full assortment of Ziploc bag sizes in my cabinet — with extra boxes of them stored elsewhere in case I run out! These beautiful bags can truly keep you organized and sane when wrangling your baby’s essentials: [Read more…]

Quick Tip: Having Cubed Bread Ready to Go

Now that you’ve got a homemade croutons addiction, you may be looking for a way to streamline the preparation process. An excellent way to increase your efficiency in the kitchen here is to cube a big batch of bread, toss the cubes into a freezer bag, and store the bag in the freezer. Then, when you’re ready to make croutons, just grab the quantity of bread cubes you need from the freezer. [Read more…]

Make It From Scratch: Fool-Proof Croutons

You know when you visit a fancy restaurant or even a Panera and you’re eating the real thing — freshly-made croutons. They are nothing like the tiny, dry, artificial-tasting cubes you pick up in the supermarket. They are also incredibly easy to make at home — no frying or flipping tiny pieces of bread. Plus, these croutons are so much cheaper than those grocery-store salad toppers!

[Read more…]

Making Multitasking Work For You

Remember all of those lofty goals and resolutions you made for this year? By now, you may have remembered one of the big reasons you didn’t meet all of last year’s goals — not enough time! Enter multitasking. [Read more…]

7 Baby Items I Thought I Needed . . . But Totally Didn’t

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

The new mom is faced with a dizzying array of “must-have” baby products. Before that first little guy or girl makes an appearance, you’ve likely accumulated mountains of baby swag — new stuff gifted to you, random secondhand stuff that everyone you know is happy to throw at you, and the stuff you buy on your own.

Here are seven things that I thought I needed (or that everyone else thought I did) before my son’s birth that are now off to a new life at Goodwill . . . [Read more…]

Quick Tip: Getting Your Perfect Amazon Price

If you’re a frequent Amazon shopper, you may have noticed that item prices fluctuate often and sometimes by a bundle of money. If you want to nab the best price for an item, try an Amazon price tracking site. [Read more…]

Setting Goals for Success

I am a firm believer in the importance of setting goals. Some people believe that creating personal goals is boring and stifling, but I find it to be a liberating experience:

Goals provide a sense of accomplishment. It is truly satisfying to cross a goal — no matter how small — off a written list! At the end of the week, month, or year, you can see just how far you’ve come.
Goals give you purpose. Have you asked yourself, “What should I be doing right now?” or “Is there something more important or more urgent that I should be doing right now?” Know that what you’re doing is exactly what you truly need or to be doing at that moment.
Goals reduce your stress. Write down your goals — and the dates by which you want to accomplish them — and you don’t have to worry about keeping it all straight in your head . . . or missing something.
Shared goals bring people together. Setting goals with your spouse, your kids, and your peers unites you in a common purpose and establishes you as teammates working together.

[Read more…]

Make It From Scratch: Baby Food

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Baby products come with major sticker shock. Of the many hefty baby expenses out there, one that really adds up over time is baby food.

When my son started solid foods at four months of age, I was baffled by the fact that a minuscule jar of mashed bananas — on sale! — cost more than a full-sized banana from the produce department. For standard Gerber fare, my supermarket wanted to charge me, on a good day, $0.50 per portion of Stage 1 foods, $0.60 per portion of Stage 2 foods, and $0.75 per portion of Stage Stage 3 foods. The Beech-Nut foods usually hovered around twice that price!

There was no way I was willing tho shell out that much money for groceries when a simple solution would allow me to have high-quality baby food for so much less — making my own baby food. [Read more…]

Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos: Part 2

This post is part [part not set] in the series Favorite Products for Banishing Kitchen Chaos.

Check out Part 1 of this series! Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

Big Containers

Baking is a breeze with these babies. A bag of flour fits with room enough for a scoop into a single one of these 5.5-quart containers. They’re great for storing your flours, sugar, rice, and more. Smaller containers are handy for confectioner’s sugar, coffee, pastas, dry beans, etc. They’re attractive enough — with a small enough footprint — to leave on the counter. [Read more…]