Home Maid Simple

Tag: chores

  • How to use Fabric Softener to create Magical Mornings

    How to use Fabric Softener to create Magical Mornings

    This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. Follow #FastDrySaveTime to see how other bloggers are using the new Suavitel Fabric Softener
    What’s the recipe for a Magical Morning? 3 simple ingredients that include incredible scents, soft clothes, and more time! Thanks to Suavitel’s new Fast Dry fabric softener I’ve been able to create some pretty fun mornings lately. 
    When I did our first load of laundry in this house, it took 3 cycles before the load was sufficiently dry. 3 TIMES!!! I just was not OK with that. Since we had just moved, and took 3 days to drive out here, I really needed to do laundry, and I needed it done as fast as possible. Unfortunately I wasn’t seeing an end in sight after only getting 1 load done that first day. 
    I spent a lot of time over the next couple of weeks checking on the clothes in the dryer, finding odd places to hang still wet clothes, and finally sending Mark out to see if he could figure out the problem. As it turns out, the set up is just all wrong, and our dryer vents upwards. This had caused a huge blockage of lint in the middle of the vent pipe. Mark got the blockage cleaned out, but we couldn’t do anything about the direction of the vent. Of course it doesn’t help my feeling of being rushed that we also share our washer and dryer with the downstairs neighbor.
    When we were walking through Walmart one day, looking for treats for Princess R and Little Prince, when we also came across Suavitel’s new Fast Dry Fabric Softener. Fast Dry? I had to try it obviously. The scent – Magical Morning Sun – also pulled me in, because I needed some magical mornings with my littles that didn’t include trying to dry our clothes, and make sure everyone had clean clothes before school started. 
    This child! Her facial expressions totally crack me up. Even I don’t get that excited about doing laundry. The bright colors had her sold though – so much so, that we may have come home with a couple of bottles….
    Now that we had our fabric softener, it was time to get cracking on creating the perfect magical morning. It use to be, after we dropped the older two off at school we had to hurry home and check the laundry. Now? We take our time, because I know there’s no rush. The dryer can wait. 

    When creating our magical morning, I looked to Suavitel to see what ingredients I might need. Similar to what makes this fabric softener so great, our magical morning consists of the same ingredients.
    You will need:
    Soft Clothes – Your mornings can’t be Magical if you’re stuck in stiff or static-y clothes. So make sure you put on something soft before creating magic. It will be the best kind of magic. We like to use the best fabric softener to get the softest clothes. 
    Incredible scents – Next look for some incredible scents. One of the kids favorite things to do is stop and smell the flowers. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about our walks, it’s that the longer we spend smelling flowers, the more magical the rest of the day seems. Of course if you want to have a magical morning at home, you can just get those scents on your clothes. 
    Lots of time – Finally, you will need lots of time. Who wants to interrupt smelling flowers with running home only to do more chores. Come on, we all want to spend more time creating magic, so make sure you have the time! For me, I find more time by finding ways to cut time spent on chores like laundry. Suavitel claims to save you 30% of the time normally spent waiting for those clothes to dry (also saving you on energy costs, double score!)
    What’s your recipe for a Magical Morning?
  • Rethinking Bath Time

    Rethinking Bath Time

    *I received free product to review. All thoughts are 100% my own.*

    We are all making new years resolutions. We want to lose weight. Eat more healthy. Organize our home. Be more kind. Be a better Parent.

    The last one, be a better parent, is always on my new years resolution it seems. I always want and need to be better with my kids. During the year I tend to lose sight of what’s really important. Oh I have my core parenting values and ideas, but sometimes it’s the simplest of things that get lost in the hustle and bustle.

    For a long time now I’ve viewed bath time for the kids as a chore. It’s something that has to be done, but can take a lot of time out from anything else I need or just plain want to do.  I started scheduling baths out like a chore – everyone bathes on Saturday to be clean for church on Sunday, then we’ll switch out days during the week, but if someone is especially dirty it will be their night to bathe, and we’ll reschedule the week.

    The problem with that scheduling and thinking, was it never worked like I wanted. I still didn’t look forward to getting the kids bathed.  It really hit me when Tickle Toes sent me a soft hooded bath towel to review and sounded so pumped in their emails – I was thinking about bath time all wrong. When did I forget that this was time to reconnect with my kids each day? The dirty kitchen could wait, but my kids were growing every day. At the end of this year I will have an 8 year old – I can’t hardly believe she’s even 7 right now. It’s true what they say – you blink and suddenly your kids are all grown.

    I have spent the last month rethinking our bath time routine. How could I use this time to relax and just spend some time with my kids, as kids?  
     I was hoping I’d have this awesome list of ideas for you to retake bath time, but I don’t. It’s as simple as 
    • Putting down the phone or book
    • Ignoring the clock
    • Grabbing a toy
    • and making believe. 
    Instead of rushing through soap, shampoo, rinse, get out. I let them enjoy having fun in the water again. Instead of sitting idly by, lost on my phone in facebook and begging them not to splash water, I grabbed some toys myself. 
    When you spend time interacting with kids on their level, following their lead – you may just find your inner child again. 

    After bath time is fun too, especially with the Tickle Toes hooded towel. It is a nice soft towel, with bright colors, and a plush hood. After having so much fun together in the tub, she loved getting wrapped up in her new towel and refused to get dressed. Instead of becoming impatient, I let her still be a kid, and just relax in the comfort of a warm soft towel.

    Princess R loves it so much, she has started wearing it all the time including wrapping up in it in her bed for a little extra warmth every night.

    Discount for Home Maid Simple readers
    Tickle Toes is offering my readers 10% off their order through the end of January.
    use code SIMPLE at  checkout

  • Growing Up and Doing It Yourself – Chore Cards for kids {Giveaway}

    Growing Up and Doing It Yourself – Chore Cards for kids {Giveaway}

    Chores. We all have them. We all need to do them. We all try to avoid them (you know you do!).  Part of living in a home with others is learning to share the space so everyone is comfortable.  The home is just the beginning though. I personally feel what we learn in the home, will reflect in our relationships with our coworkers, community, and extended family.
    Being a parent and needing to teach the basic essentials of living with others can be a daunting task sometimes.  We may resort to anger, yelling, tears, bribes and eventually just doing things ourselves because we’re the only ones who can do it right. All we manage to do with those choices is deprive our children of learning important life skills.  Having chores helps teach kids about responsibility. 

    For awhile now we’ve been doing a Daddy Dollars/Mommy Market rewards system.  It was working for awhile. The kids never knew when they would get Daddy Dollars, but they started asking to get them, and would only do things if they got a Daddy Dollar out of it.  I didn’t want them learning a sense of entitlement, and only working to get something. I want them to learn that doing chores and helping others out can bring them joy and others. The whole feel good for doing something good aspect.

    So we’ve been trying out these “Hands Around the House” by 3R Cards – a product made by moms for moms.  What I really like about the Hands Around the House is that the idea behind it is to teach our kids how to live in a community.  The first community we join, and I feel is the most important is our family.  We just learn so much in the home that will shape who we are and the choices we make throughout our life.

    The “Hands Around the House” by 3R Cards is a chore system based on 3 R’s

    • Responsibility
    • Respect
    • Reward

    Although I’m not a big fan of using rewards as a means to get my kids to do something, I do believe in setting goals to work towards. I like to use the rewards to set goals the kids can work towards, or as a family we can work towards.  For example, this weekend we were blessing Baby Prince, which meant a lot of family coming over to our house. So yesterday we pulled out the 3R chore cards and got to work cleaning the house. We were all working towards the same goal, a house that could welcome company and make the time with them enjoyable. 

    The Princesses have never been so excited about chores as they are using the 3R cards! To start getting into the routine, we are only doing 1 chore a day so far, but Saturday the Princesses decided they wanted to do as many as they could. So I let them pick a chore, complete it, and then pick another one. I tell you what, our home has never looked good so fast, with all of us still happy at the end of it.  Out of all the chore cards that come in the Hands Around the House set, I’d have to say Making Lunch has been the favorite. They get to spend a little time in the kitchen with mom, and they get that immediate gratification of food when they’re done.
    The least favorite, or most difficult to accomplish has been Clean up the Toys. It feels almost too broad, and since all the kids make the toy mess, it almost seems – dare I say it – unfair. When that chore is picked I usually still have to help accomplish it, but I no longer have to fight for it to be done.

    We have yet to use the Rewards cards that came in the set, but that’s because our Mommy Market is still stocked and working pretty well as an extra treat for doing  the work.

    ~Giveaway~

    Are you ready for a giveaway?
    Mompact is sponsoring the following Growing u and Doing it Yourself giveaway
    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    *I received this review opportunity as part of MomPact.com. All opinions are my own.