Some Helpful Tips

What parent couldn't use a few helpful tips every now and then? I know I surely can!

Pinterest is probably my favorite place to get great tips, but I have also found very useful ideas in parenting magazines. The only problem is, that I usually dog-ear the page, or "pin" the idea, and then forget to actually implement them. Dangit.

Here are a couple super-easy ideas that I thought I'd pass along. Now it's your responsibility to actually do them. :)

Finish All Your Meds
Any doctor will tell you that the "Golden Rule" when it comes to antibiotics is to FINISH the entire prescribed amount. Don't just stop taking your meds when you start to feel better.

So, to help me remember if/when I've taken my meds, or if I've given meds to the kiddos, I write down the days of the week along the top of the bottle, starting with the first day that I start the medicine and ending with the last day that I am supposed to take it.
Then each day after I give/take the medicine, I cross off that day of the week.
No more guessing about how many more days, or if you've remembered that day. Easy, peasy!


Mark What Is Yours
Summer is just around the corner, which means lots of days splashing around at the pool.
Whether you have a community pool, or you're going to the beach, the best way to keep track of your toys/goggles, etc. is to write your name on them.
Sounds so simple, right?

But sometimes it's the simplest things that make the most sense.
Now, when we go to the pool, I won't have to wonder if the rocket toy that the random kid is playing with belongs to us. I can just say, "Honey, can I see that rocket for a second?" And if it has "HECKMAN" written on the side of it, I know immediately that it's ours.

I also do this with goggle straps, towel tags, buckets and shovels and anything else that I've spent money on and would like to get at least one season's worth of play out of it. :)


Getting Clean After The Beach
I have a friend who always teases me saying, "I bet when you get home from the beach, you don't drag one bit of sand inside your house."

Well, I don't know about "one bit of sand" but I've gotten it down to where you certainly wouldn't know I had 2 kids and 2 adults playing in the sand all day. Here are my tips:

1. Obviously, if there's a shower at the beach, use it before you get in the car. At least to rinse off feet and legs.

2. If there's not a shower, I will often carry a gallon of water in the trunk and use it to rinse off feet before climbing back in the car.

3. When Parker was a baby, I used the baby powder trick where you simply dust their feet and legs with baby powder and the sand miraculously comes right off! It's quite amazing.

4. When we get home, both kids strip down in the garage (or in the laundry room) and immediately put their bathing suits in washing machine. I then load in all the beach towels and any other sandy clothing and start a load of wash.

5. We empty out the car and immediately vacuum it out with our Dustbuster.

Just a few simple steps that will eliminate a lot of clean-up work after a long day at the beach.

Corralling Art Supplies

This can apply to all areas of your household, but for this post, I'm going to show how I corral our art supplies.

I find it to be so helpful when I contain "like" items together in one space using similar storage bins.

I have all of the kid's craft supplies in the laundry room cabinet. This allows me quick and easy access to things when the creative mood strikes!

By grouping them all together in one place, and then separating them out into bins to organize "like" items together (e.g. all the crayons and markers in one bin, all the painting supplies in another bin, etc.) helps me find what I want very quickly and easily and helps everything look clean and organized.

It also allows me to only grab one bin when we want to color, or one bin when we want to paint, rather than having one giant "craft" container.

I hope these tips were helpful. I'd love to hear some your favorite household hints as well.

Have a great Tuesday!