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.

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.

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.

Pool Noodle in Bed

My husband found this post about traveling with kids, suggesting to bring a pool noodle along to slip under the sheet at the edge of the bed to give kids a reminder not to roll off the bed. My 3 year-old is sleeping in his old converted crib. It has three walls and is open on the front. Like his brother, he likes to sleep on the edges of the bed; so, we bought one of those bedrails that slips under the mattress, but only extends partway down the bed, giving him a spot to climb into bed from. He prefers to sleep with entire body on the pillow across the width of the bed - but lately, he's gotten too long to do that. This meant his head was getting shoved into the net portion of the bedrail, making him look like a fish caught in a net. I've coaxed him into lying lengthwise now. Yesterday I removed the rail and slipped in a pool noodle we bought. After a nap and a full night in bed, it seems to be working.

Mommy Tips: The Blog

I've found, developed, stolen, or otherwise obtained numerous little tips that help make my day more efficient and running smoothly. The smoother things go, the more time I have to spend with the kids and the more sanity I have left at the end of the day. After debuting them on our family web site, I'm going to post them here to their own blog. Please feel free to disagree or add new ideas in the comments section.
-Becky