Oxy clean

"maybe you should use Oxy Clean. Oxy Clean gets the hard stains out," said my 4-year-old this morning.

And I thought: I think we need a break from TV.

What did parents DO before TV? Most (and I'm thinking this is approximately 99.7%) of the parents I know have some sort of TV-time or TV rules for their house. It needs no explanation: TV gives parents a moment of no-kids, and gives kids something to relax and tune out to. Do they need time to relax and tune out? Well, that's up to you. But Helena The Girl Who Would Not Nap really seems better after one or two Penguins of Madagascar. Actually, so do I. Have you seen it? It's hilarious.

Besides a break from TV that we obviously need, I'm thinking of a break from clutter. Those two things, TV and junk, take up more of my time than I care to admit. So little by little I'm going through my house, again, to just sort, reorganize, and rid the house of all of the stuff. And I thought you'd like to see some of the great items I love, that I've found. This month: organize kitchen, and make the best with the kitchen I have instead of waiting for the kitchen I want.

Have a grody knife block? (Take a look at your knife block--I bet it's got greasy dust and gunk on it.) Check this out from Ikea...a magnetic knife rack! And it looks cute on the wall, and then you can get rid of your grody (term for "gross") knife block and superfluous knives you haven't used since after your honeymoon.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00116901

How about something for those drawers full of utensils? This wonderful, cheap, useful item from The Container Store takes up the extra space in your drawer and organizes it... so you never have to search under or around that old organizer floating around in there now.
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/kitchen/drawerOrganizers/trays?productId=10006940&N=182


If you just take it one step at a time, you can do this. Parenting, organizing, and cleaning, saving money: these are all related. Step by step, you can succeed at any of them.

Also, when in doubt, Oxy Clean gets the hard stains out. That's what my daughter tells me anyway.