Painless er... stainless steel

Four words: stainless steel shower caddy

I am normally a cheapskate, but my stainless steel shower caddy was worth the $25. It means I don't have to waste time or energy (especially hand intensive scrubbing) on trying to get the rust off of my shower caddy. Love it!

Touch it once

When it comes to cleaning -- touch it once!

This idea is from Don's brother, Rick Dowdle. I am not sure if he made it up, if he got it from his mom, or what. Cleaning is made a lot easier if you clean up along the way. For example, say I want to clean up the living room. I am tempted to take some of Stuey’s items and just toss them into his room to take care of them later, but honestly that makes another job for me to do. It is far easier to just walk a little faster and put the items where they belong. If I'm cooking eggs, instead of during the egg shells into the sink to rest until I do the dishes, I can put them directly into the compost container, which is under the sink. It seems like it would just be obvious, but it helps me when I consciously think of eliminating steps.


This book that I once read, The Art of Homemaking, suggested something similar. The author reminds us that it is easier to immediately clean up a jam jar that has stickiness on the outside, than it is to later clean all the services that it touched, and have to scrub the stickiness off. Good point.

Welcome to my new blog

When it comes down to it, I live to have unstructured playtime with my family and sometimes friends. Sitting and chatting with loved ones in my very clean house (having even been recently dusted), the table is set, and a tantalizing dinner is in the crockpot, etc. A scenario like this is a dream come true! It's not that this scenario never happens, but just like everybody else I am busy, along with other limitations (for me, hand power - tendonitis)! To better enjoy the best things in life, I have decided to make it my study to explore innovation in the art of homemaking. I want to keep things simple, and this blog is my place to store time-saving tips, money-saving tips, soul-saving tips, mind-saving tips, and anything else I decide to put on here. I will update whenever I feel like it, because the silliest thing in the world would be to have a blog on simplicity and homemaking complicate my life and detract from my homemaking. We'll see how it goes!

Do something that stays done

Mind Saver:

"Do one thing every day that stays done” -Emily Prusso

Emily Prusso is in our stake relief society presidency, and she came to speak to us during branch conference a few months ago. She says that laundry does not count as something that stays done -- in needs to be something like a journal entry or a project you are working on. It will bring a little bit of sanity to the daily routine that sometimes may seem repetitive. Genius!