Amazingly Easy and Simply Making Life Easier
Posted by terrepruitt on December 17, 2011
I am so impress I have to share AND comment:
I love the list of 25 clever ideas to make life easier. So amazing. Some of the ideas I have seen before, some of them were new to me. The are all pretty awesome. I love the straw and strawberry idea. Kind of funny using a straw to “pit” a strawberry. Saves you from having to buy a tool for it. Someone try the walnut on the wood and tell me if it REALLY works. And for how long? I mean I am thinking that it is just the oil from the walnut that moisturizes the wood so the scratch is concealed. I bet you could use any oil to do that. Regarding the TV, I guess if you HAVE to get crayon marks off a TV or computer screen you would be desperate enough to try WD-40. Otherwise no way. I can’t imagine putting WD-40 on a monitor.
I do know how to get crayon or wax off the carpet. It might even work for other fabric. Use an iron and a paper bag or any type of rough paper. Put the paper bag over the crayon/wax and then run the hot iron over it. The heat from the iron melts the crayon/wax and the paper absorbs it. If it is a lot of crayon/wax it is not a quick fix, but it works. I had a melted candle spill onto carpet once and I was able to get it all up with this method. But it took me a couple of weeks. I didn’t sit there for long, long periods of time. I would probably do a bag at a time. Eventually it all came up.
I love the apple idea. I can’t wait to try that. Seems like that would work. The old, “put lemon (or citrus) on it” doesn’t work for me because it DOES leave a lemon taste. I don’t care for my apples to taste like lemon. Wouldn’t it be fabulous to pull out a pillow case full of the entire sheet set? I like that idea, but my hubby does do the sheets like shown here and he gets them completely flat. I have mentioned before how I can’t tell the difference between the flat sheet and the fitted sheet.
The bowl does kind of help the volume of the iPhone. But you may know I have a little blue speaker, so I don’t need a bowl. Ingenious use of a wet-wipe container–storing plastic bags in it, but I just use a plastic bag to store my plastic bags and it works pretty good too!
I really want to hear from you to know if some of these things really work. Can you really get sand off your skin by using baby powder? Then how do you get the baby powder off? Sand? Or water? Which you could have just used to get the sand off in the first place, right?
I would imagine that putting a velcro strip on the wall could help store a lot of things besides just soft toys in a child’s room. Ok, I LOVE the wrapping paper idea. It is pretty smart to use the ceiling of a closet to store wrapping paper, but my closet ceilings are REALLY high. I actually have a wrapping paper holder that hangs in my closet.
I have heard of using a nylon over a vacuum cleaner hose to find stuff. GREAT idea! I recently heard of cutting Xs in a shirt box to make a cupcake holder. Another GREAT idea. I love the magnetic strip for storing bobby pins, but I honestly didn’t realize that other people used bobby pins any longer. Shoes in a shower cap. Great idea. I use plastic bags. The ones that the newspaper come in. Or ones that might be around certain product you buy.
Plastic cups in a muffin tin held in place by a magnet as a craft caddy . . . . dare I say it? That is pretty crafty! Love the use of bread bag closure things as power cord labels. That is smart. But my bread comes with wire twists. I have seen the ice cream cone cup cake thing before. Have you ever tried that? I have a friend that told me about popcorn in a regular paper bag in the microwave. However I don’t buy paper bags and I have never wanted to put my food in one that I might have gotten from a store purchase. A tension rod to hold spray bottles is a nice idea, but my cupboards aren’t that tall. Are yours? Mine could have hanging bottles AND stuff on the “floor”.
If I made hard boiled eggs, I would so try making them heart shaped. But I don’t. I also don’t have such fancy muffin tins. But I bet it would work with regular muffins tins. Aloe Vera in ice cube trays. Oh my. Will someone remind me of this when I get a sunburn? This is GREAT. Think of how wonderful that would feel. I hear angels singing. Gutters as planters. Nice idea. And it is brilliant to use egg cartons to hold ornaments. Fantastic!
So that is my take on the list. What about you? Have you tried any of these ideas before? Are you going to? I really want to know about the walnut and how long that lasts.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Michele said
Hi there, what a fun list…I can say that baby powder at the beach is an amazing trick, from personal experience it is like magic. My mother-in-law could have used the x cut in a box for cupcakes recently, as she sent them to my kids from PA through the US mail last week and were a little smooshed when they arrived! But still edible! They may have been prettier if secured to the box. I now have a few tall cabinets might have to try the tension bar for the the spray bottles. Thanks for sharing!
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terrepruitt said
Ok, so what gets the baby powder off?
Thank you so much for checking out my post.
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Michele said
hmmm, I don’t think it has ever been a problem…maybe most of it rubs off with the sand – you really don’t need to use much.
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terrepruitt said
Another friend commented that the powder just gets absorbed. Fascinating. How did someone discover this? Who says, “Oh, I am sandy let’s put baby powder on it?” Huh? WHO thinks of that? Too funny.
XOXOXO
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Angelia Sims said
Oh!!! I love these ideas. Some of them really blew me away. Sooo cool!! I have used baby powder at the beach. It works great. Some kinds of sand just don’t wash off very well. This really gets it off. Especially right before you get back in the car. And you don’t have to wash the powder off. It soaks back in the skin of brushes off. So it does work. 🙂
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terrepruitt said
I was curious about what got the powder off. Interesting! Thanks!
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pegbur7 said
Thanks for sharing all those nifty ideas. I’m sure I’ll use a few (if I don’t forget them). Do you have tips on how to remember the tips? LOL
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terrepruitt said
Yes, put them in a calendar program. Ha. In the beginning of summer have a reminder that alerts you about the sand, a reminder at the beginning of strawberry season, etc. Or print it and hang it somewhere. But yeah, basically I always forget all these handy tips too! That is why I post about them.
You post to document your fun-filled life, I post so I don’t have to seach a recipe book for recipes and a notebook for tips. Ha!
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suzicate said
i love when I come across tips like this! I often earmark things on my computer like common household uses for vinegar or baking soda.
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terrepruitt said
I always earmark stuff, but then I forget to use the list. I am finding that when I put things on my blog I DO remember and I refer to it often! For my soups and banana cookies, I just use my blog!
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