I love life hacks- those odd ball little tips that can cut your chores in half… the more the merrier! Here are a few that I have employed in our household:
Use a straw to hull strawberries. You can see this hack in action 🙂 It works! We got a flat of them and my helpers had so much fun helping me they had those berries done in no time! Extra bonus- they get to eat the strawberry “worms” that get pushed out of the other end of the straw and I get free entertainment!
Dryer sheets- keep them in the bathroom to scrub the bath or the toothpaste splatters off the sink. Wet the sheet, scrub and rinse surface. *BONUS* Smells fab
Wet wipes- stash some at the kitchen table. Grab those spills and outfit messes before they get a chance to do real damage 
Old (water proof) sunscreen- this stuff may not have the SPF power that it used to but it is still handy to coat hands when you have piles of hand washing or any other chore that requires hands to be soaked for long periods. Also good for long winters when frequent hand washing dries skin. It has more staying power than most lotions and will last through a washing.
Email- if you need to remember an important date email it to yourself and invite your spouse. This will give you an extra little insurance.
Text- same deal as above. My friend has a running text with her hubs for the grocery list. They both chime in and add on items as they think of them so when it’s time to shop they both have the list at their fingertips. Beautiful idea. Whoever is available can do the shopping or they can both go and split the list in half to divide and conquer. Brilliant!
Specific Containers- designate a container for specific places. I have a school bag. It travels from home to school but that’s it. It is not allowed to be anywhere else. It keeps me from searching for that *one item* that I need for class tomorrow. Repeat process for the library, running errands, pool or any other task specific activity.
Photo shelf- I had my hubby make a plain board shelf with a small 3/4 edge on it. He added some cute brackets and I stained the whole deal. I can rotate every single framed print that I own (or any other small display item) without redecorating the whole house and making new holes in the walls. This is super easy for seasonal changes too. I can just remove the pix and replace with any of the other 5 million I have stored away. My favorite thing is to add silk leaves for fall, fake pine branches and twinkle lights for winter and silk flowers for spring and summer. Extra bonus- no crooked photos!
Suitcases- I have a suitcase for fall decor. The suitcase is a nice mellow gold color and it reminds me of fall. I can pull that baby out and whip out fall decor in minutes. I just stand my sweet little suitcase nearby and as it matches the season I can keep it in plain sight! Yay! I hope to have a spring/summer suitcase too.
Keep a bucket of hot water handy on those heavy cleaning days. You could also just fill half of the sink with hot water. This works well for days when I am speed cleaning and I can just toss whatever needs washing in there and let it soak. When I go to wash it everything cleans up easily. You can also take the bucket with you from room to room and clean up whatever needs a good scrubbing.
I recently had to clear the frost from my car windshield but was out of washer fluid. I have done a vinegar/water solution in the past but my eye landed on the “sore muscle soak” solution I bought to help sore feet on our camping/hiking trip. It was a dollar tree item so it was cheap and we had already gotten our use out of it. Plus, it contained the ingredients I was looking for, alcohol and salt. I thought, why not, so I diluted it with water and added it to the reservoir. It worked pretty well! Considering it cost 50 cents I was pretty happy.
Hope you have a beautiful Saturday!
Hennekes At Home 