Tips and Tricks #25

Things are getting busy here in Lewisville!  I've started a new series called Straighten it up Saturday.  It's all about my need to get my house organized, my way.  My way means cheap and easy by the way.  My very private, messy areas will be revealed and re-organized.  I'm show you my step by step process to get these areas clean and organized, and along the way I'll share my budget friendly and sometimes homemade organizers and tools!

 Today, though, we continue on with our Tips and Tricks Tuesdays!  I need days like this, don't you?  Sometimes, I'm just amazed at all the great ideas that are out there and wonder how in the world I've gotten by for so long without doing it the smart and better way!  It's a miracle, I tell you!  Most of the pictures found here can also be found on my Tips and Tricks board on Pinterest, so if you need a little more information or a friendly reminder, you can go there.

Now on with the show!



Tip 1.  How do you update an older piece of furniture?  I love this idea of painting older dressers in the "ombre" look that is so popular right now.  To do it inexpensively, choose your colors from a paint chip card with various shades.  Buy the samples of each color and paint the drawers only.  What an easy project with high decorative impacts.  I see this happening in my girls' room in yellow!

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 Tip 2.  Ok, another laundry tip, and we just love laundry, don't we?  I've known about this for years and my husband has enjoyed the benefits of this tip when it comes to keeping his undershirts white.  To keep those sweat stains from appearing on our white shirts, sprinkle baby powder into the armpit area and iron it.  The powder blocks the body's natural oil that seep into the fibers of our clothes and produce stains.  Good to know.

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Tip 3.  I love good decorating tips.  So many times we fail to think outside the box when it comes to our everyday furniture pieces.   When you have a need for function and fashion, use what you have in new ways.  We always put dressers against a wall, but here, this dresser used as a footboard is brilliant. 

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 Tip 4.  The holidays are coming and with it, we'll all be busy baking and cooking.  My kids love decorating cookies.  It's like coloring for them but they get to eat sugar in the process.  I'm guilty of coloring frosting and giving them a bowl with a butter knife to frost cookies.  Isn't that the way it's supposed to be done?  Well, this is definitely better and easier for them. Grab those squirt bottles from the dollar store for icing (or a plastic baggie with a small hole in the corner for frosting) and let the kids' creativity shine all over their cookies. 

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Tip 5.  This is a great alternative to the key hidden under the door mat or under a potted plant. Yikes, those aren't even safe alternatives anymore.  This mom came up with a great plan to glue a rock on top of a medicine bottle.  Put the key in the bottle and bury the bottle somewhere in the ground with the rock above ground.  If you forget/lost your key, look for the rock.  Great idea!

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I hope you enjoyed today's tips.  Sometimes, someone else with an idea will spur us on to think and tweek that idea to make it our own and work for us.  Love when that happens.

Have a great everyone!

Blessings,

Lisa