A great way to clean out your pantry and keep dinners new and exciting is to pick out a few ingredients from the pantry at the beginning of the week and find recipes that include them.  You’re using food you already have so you don’t have to bring more into the house and you are able to add variety to dinner.  Pick a recipe site like www.mairecipes.com and in the search bar type your ingredient and a list of recipes will come up.  Enjoy having an organized pantry and new recipes to serve. 

Baking soda can be used for more than baking or keeping your fridge smelling fresh.  Use baking soda the next time you need to remove stains from sinks, toilets or plastics like toys or outdoor furniture.  Apply a layer of baking soda and scrub with a damp sponge. 

Baking soda can also be used on walls to remove dirt and even crayon marks.  Make a paste with water and baking soda then apply to an old toothbrush and scrub gently on the wall.  Wipe clean with a damp sponge. 

In efforts to reduce the amount of chemicals used in the home, try using vinegar as an all-purpose cleaner.  It is safe to use around food and kids.  Vinegar also is good for removing stains on carpet. 

To make a bottle of your own vinegar cleaner mix 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water.  Mix it in a reusable spray bottle and use rags that can be washed and used over and over. 

Get rid of plastic grocery bags and invest in or make reusable bags to take to the store.  This will clear up space in what ever area you were storing the bags.  You can also save money for every bag you bring to the store, Safeway does .05 cents for every reusable bag you bring.  It’s not much but if you continue it will add up week after week.  Make sure to keep the reusable bags somewhere in the car so you don’t forget them when going shopping. 

A great place to start kids on a cleaning path.

My kids love to get the laundry out of the dryer and put it on my bed. They are small and it takes them a few trips to get 1 load transported. Recently, I put a stool in our laundry room and am now letting them move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. They think this is great fun, so why not teach them early?

I have started explaining to my oldest child, who is 5, how to sort now. It’s fun for her to sit in there and pick out the different colors. We make a pile for whites, darks, and the rest. Kids love sorting and learn from it- so why not get a bit of labor out of them?

We’re going to start working on folding things now and I hope to have all 3 kids doing their own laundry in the next year or two.