Saturday, May 5, 2007

Wall Mounted Hair Dryer


I had grown weary of find a good spot for the hairdryer in our main bathroom. Its neatest incarnation was with the cord wrapped around the handle and then placed in a basket on the counter. That, of course, meant having to unwrap and replug the cord every time we used it. Leaving it plugged in and resting on the counter was ugly and potentially hazardous with 2 young boys in the house. I loved the convenience and safety of the wall mounted dryers that are ubiquitous in hotel rooms nowadays, and I thought we could surely find something similar for our bathroom. It wasn't easy as no local retailers carried such a thing. Eventually I found a dealer online who hooked us up with an Andus wall mounted dryer. Jason installed it and it is always handy, but never in the way.

Friday, May 4, 2007

Hand Towel Ring


Our small half-bath doesn't have a towel bar and our plaster walls are notoriously hard to mount things upon, so we've never tried to mount a nice one. We've been using a 3M hook with their Command adhesive strip. It sticks to the walls well, but also comes off easily without leaving a mark or residue. We have several by the front door for coats, keys, umbrellas, etc. However, their slick plastic surface doesn't grab onto hand towels well.

Jason and I can usually balance them on the hook, but the boys struggle which usually leaves the towel crumpled on the floor underneath the hook. To fix this, I sewed a white plastic ring onto the towels. The ring fits on the hook, so the boys can easily hang up the towels.

Neck Pillows for Headbands


I found that a neck pillow is a great way to keep my headbands together. They don't get tangled. They are easy to view and grab when I'm rushing around in the morning. I can throw the whole thing quickly in a drawer, but it is pretty enough to leave out.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Denture-Style Toothbrush Cleaning

To clean the grime of old toothpaste off of our toothbrushes, I invert them in a cup of water and drop in two effervescent denture cleaning tablets before I go to bed. In the morning, I rinse them off, and they're good to go.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Car Coupon Organizer

I used to keep coupons in a plastic card file, but it was clunky to take to the store. I went to Office Max and found a small accordion-style file folder. I've divided it up into sections by the most popular stores I shop at and then some general categories. Besides coupons, I keep gift cards and shopping lists, gift ideas, etc. there. I keep it between the 2 front seats in my minivan and at long stoplights I will often sort through it, looking for expired coupons. It's always there when I need it and I save lots of money having these handy.

Hanging Easter Eggs


We've seen these around town, so this year we decided to hang plastic easter eggs from a little tree in front of our house that had yet to bud or bloom due to our late Spring. It made the barren tree much more festive. I threaded kitchen twine through holes in the bottoms of the eggs with a "needle" that I made out of a doubled over length of thin wire. I knotted the two ends of the twine together inside the eggs to make a loop of twine. I closed the eggs and hung them on the tree. They can be saved for next year as long as the twine holds up.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Lime Guacamole

I found that squeezing fresh lime juice on my homemade guacamole helps preserve the color and tastes great. I typically mash up one ripe avacado, mix in a dash of granulated garlic, kosher salt and ground pepper to taste, and then squeeze a quarter lime wedge over the whole thing.