12 Toddler Chores

I love free child labor! (That's a joke.) But I think having my toddler help out with chores is a great idea for three reasons. One, it is a good thing for him to learn to help contribute to the family and be proud of doing so. Two, these are just good skills for him to learn how to do physically. Three, some chores he does help with really are helpful. I put together a list of 12 toddler chores in three categories.

The Actually Helpful Chores

1. Help with switching laundry loads. I hand him the wet clothes/diapers and he throws them in the wash.

2. Picking up toys.

3. Wiping off his high chair tray.

4. Throwing away dirty disposable diapers.


The Somewhat Helpful Chores

5. Help putting silverware in the dishwasher. He still gets derailed and tries to unload it too.

6. Help unloading the dryer. Sometimes the laundry goes from dryer to basket to floor to be stomped on.

7. Taking the garbage out with daddy. Eh, not helpful but it's still him feeling helpful which is important.

8. Flushing the toilet. Again, I can do this myself but it makes him feel helpful.


The Mostly Unhelpful Chores (These chores do slightly more harm than good;) )

(Let me preface this section by saying that I'd totally not let him "help" with any of these if he didn't feel so proud of himself)

9. Sweeping. That broom can be a deadly weapon.

10. Making the bed (more like climbing under the sheets and laughing.)

11. Folding dish rags. These puppies usually end up wadded up on the floor.

12. Holding cans and things in the cart at the grocery store.

Those are the "chores" I have my two year old help with. Do you have your kids help out around the house? How old are they and what do they help with? Share in a comment below.

A Home Divided

We are living in a home divided. Literally if I could just find the masking tape! We're entering a new era of our lives and are modifying the cleaning schedule just a little bit. The same practices of cleaning on commercials, general house upkeep, etc. still apply but we're temporarily rearranging responsibilities.

Truth be told, the bending and picking up clutter is starting to kill my back. I mentioned this to my sweet husband and we came up with a temporary solution to alleviate just a little of this up and down off the floor craziness during my last trimester. We split up the apartment into these awesome "final months of pregnancy zones" as illustrated by my poorly drawn charts below:

Disclaimer: my spacial intelligence is pathetic, so our floor plan looks almost nothing like this.

Zone #1 - The upper portion of the horribly drawn floor plan.

Master bedroom, bathroom, hallway and kid's room are all my zones. I do the clutter control in these areas.

Zone #2 - The lower portion of the horribly drawn floor plan.

This is sweet husband's clutter control area. I was most glad to rid myself of the living room clutter control since it was constant up/down, up/down, up/down.

Now, sweet husband DOES work outside of the home and he works quite a bit. To balance this all out:

Deep Cleaning: The vacuuming, mopping, scrubbing, etc. of all areas of the horribly drawn floor plan.

This is what I do. He helps with the clutter, but I still do all of the deep cleaning.

The Laundry: Imagine clothes all over the horribly drawn floor plan. I clean them.

I do the laundry. This means the bulk of the housework is my responsibility, but he still hooks me up with clutter control in zone 2 for the next few months.

So far this seems to be working great! But, I'm curious- if one person is struggling with their household duties, how do you, oh reader, rearrange the jobs?

Join me next time when I talk about childhood labor. I'm going to share some great toddler chores!

Bethany

Finding the Balance

Last week I rounded the corner into my third trimester and let me tell you - housework has been ridiculous. If I go on one of my cleaning frenzies I can barely move for two days because my lower back hurts so bad. Whine, whine, whine. I'm pregnant and housework is hard. You get the idea.

Bottom line, this week has been kind of a week of healing and recovery. I way overdid it last weekend and it took me several days to recover. I haven't mastered this whole pacing myself thing. I just clean/cook/etc. like a crazy person or I don't.

Am I the only one who struggles with finding the balance in housekeeping?

Smelly Cats

Do you dream about blogging? Apparently I do. Last night I conjured up some really helpful tips for eliminating cat-related odors from your home. I'm leaving out all the parts about trying to find a bathroom with a very full bladder in an empty mall and the parts about living in Downton Abbey, just to save time.

1. Give your cat an eviction notice. If the smells are that bad, maybe it's time that you thought about kicking him out.
2. No more litter box! You can Google cat potty training, I'm sure.
3. Make sure your cat wears a Gatsby cap. Most cat odors escape from a cat's head, so it's best to make sure they are wearing a cap at all times.
4. My personal favorite - get your cat a pleasant smelling scratch 'n sniff tattoo! You could get one that smells like bananas or grapes or whatever you want!

I hope you find these tips helpful and are able to reduce your home's cat-related odors!

What is one of your more eentertaining dreams lately? Do you have any helpful tips (sarcastic or otherwise) tips for eliminating pet odor?

15 Tips to Make Your House Look as Amazing as Mine

Housekeeping, frugal living, cooking; my hobbies. When I say "hobbies" I mean that I am actually really bad at them and want to be way better at them. When I say "hobbies" I mean that I pin a lot of pins on Pinterest about these things. When I say "hobbies" I mean I Google lots of articles about them and think, "I want to do that!" I am able to come up with some legitimate solutions, sometimes. Cooking Once a Month is working out great (so far) and my homemade cleaning supplies are great. I also still try to clean on commercials, and I really am way better of than I used to be. Even so, I still have weeks like this where everything is a disaster and I feel like I'm sinking in it. I'm not gonna lie.

So, without further ado, here are 15 tips to make your house look as amazing as mine!

1. Have your toddler throw dry oatmeal everywhere. If you don't have a toddler, just throw it in an indiscriminate manner in every room. Don't vaccuum for two days.
2. Reuse your towels! By that I mean don't wash your towels and scramble to find one that was hanging over the back of a chair after your kid's bath last night.
3. Spill stuff. Wipe it up, but don't realize it's still sticky till later when you set an important paper on it.
4. Always have at least one thing crammed into the back of your fridge that shouldn't be there.
5. Only get rid of the kid's cave art when the landlord is coming over.
6. Mix your lights, whites and darks. (Husband commentary: "...and the reds.")
7. Stack anything that doesn't have a place on top of the fridge.
8. Clean out your oven infrequently enough that you have to Google how to clean out your oven when you do.
9. Definitely do NOT put your cups/plates/bowls in the same order in the cabinet every time.
10. Wait three months before deciding if old mail should be thrown away.
11. I strongly recommend avoiding putting all your groceries away when you get home. Leave a few on the counter or table.
12. Have a catchall drawer in every room where it's nigh impossible to find anything.
13. If you don't feel like folding laundry, toss it in a bin or basket for later.
14. Only do laundry once a week, or one load as needed. The as needed load goes straight into the basket/bin. (Husband commentary: "I think you're being too generous here.")
15. Have 15 hangers for 45 items that need to be hanged in the closet.

There it is, folks! Now your place can look just as great as mine- you'll be a true work in progress in no time!

Have a great Wednesday!

Bethany

5 Ideas to Reduce Waste

I hate throwing trash away. For one, I feel like I'm just wasting money when I am throwing away so much stuff. I also think we can do better for our planet, so I like to figure out what I can do to throw less stuff into landfills.

1. Recycle! When purchasing things, try to figure out (quickly) how much of it you're going to be able to throw into the recycle bin.
2. Have a bigger recycle bin than a garbage bin. Doing this has helped me be more conscious about what I'm throwing away that could be recycled.
3. Reuse and repurpose. This may sound a little nutty, but I like to reuse things like aluminum foil if it doesn't get messy while I'm cooking. If I'm just covering a casserole, and no food transfers (or very little), I fold that foil up and reuse it. I also like to repurpose old jars and things to store food and homemade cleaning supplies when possible. (If I have nothing to put into it, it gets tossed or recycled to reduce clutter.)
4. Do without. Learn to live with less! This is a hard one for most Americans, but I think it's helpful. If you consume less, you have less to throw away. 
5. Switch to reusable when it's convenient/practical for your family. You can switch to unpaper towels, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, cloth napkins, stop using paper plates/cups/silverware, use reusable snack bags, and even use cloth toilet "paper." 

These are five things you can do to waste a little less, and even doing some of them in small amounts can make a difference. 

Once a Month Cooking - Grocery List

Here is the final part of my short series on Once a Month Cooking. We are loving the meals. So easy, and we've been loving how tasty all the meals are. I want to wrap this thing up by sharing my grocery list and giving you an idea of what supplies you might want to have on hand. Then I'll update in a month and let you know how it worked!

Below is the grocery list. Unfortunately, I lost the completed copy and this is one from when I just started putting the list together. It will, however, give you an idea of what I brought to the store with me.

Finally, I just want to mention a few supplies that I used to get this done:

• Freezer bags (quart and gallon)
• Labels 
• Permanent marker
• Saran wrap
• Tape
• Measuring cups/spoons

That's it! I thought of the labels as an after though, and the only labels I could find quickly were name tags. Now all our meals are awfully cordial before they go in the oven!

Happy cooking!