Works for Me Wednesday: Puzzle Storage

My daughter loves puzzles. Getting them in and out of the game closet tends to wear the boxes though. Plus someone always ends up stepping on it, causing the sides to rip. For ages I attempted to tape the boxes back together, only to find puzzle pieces scattered on the floor of the closet. I've come up with a better solution: ziploc bags!


I cut out the picture of the puzzle and put it and the pieces in a ziploc slider bag. (Slider bags are all-important here. I tried it with the regular bags, but my 5 year old didn't always close the regular bag properly, and I'd end up with puzzle pieces scattered from the dining room to the closet.)

All of the puzzle bags are kept in a small-ish storage tub, and it makes for easy in-and-out of the closet. Plus, getting them all out at once saves trips to the closet every ten minutes when she's done with one and needs another.

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Works for me Wednesday: Recipes in a flash

I have several recipes that we really like, but they require lots of spices and/or ingredients. One of the ways that I speed up preparation is to blend the dry ingredients in advance.

I collect and combine all of the dry ingredients as if I am making the recipe. Instead of continuing with the recipe, they are stored in a Ziploc bag in the freezer, labeled with the recipe name.

For example, one of our favorite recipes is Moroccan Chicken, which requires about 10 different spices. Preparing the spices in advance cuts the prep time tremendously. For this particular recipe, I make 4 or 5 bags at a time, using the small "snack size" Ziploc bags. When I begin making the recipe, I just take out the bag labeled "Moroccan Chicken" and my work is more than half done.

I make Amish Friendship Bread every 10 days, and bread making day doesn't always fall on a day that's convenient. I speed up the process by combining the dry ingredients at a time that is convenient for me, usually a few days in advance. Again, it cuts the prep time tremendously.

Works for me!

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Works for me Wednesday: Headphones

All four of the computers in our house are in one centrally located room. Skeeter and I decided to do it this way deliberately, since all of the computers have internet access, and we felt it was unwise to have internet access is not-easily-supervised rooms.

But with having them all centrally located, it can be quite annoying to listen to Sass playing her game, Spyder playing his game, and Skeeter listening to his music all at the same time. Now, instead of listening to everything at once, each person has his or her own set of headphones. Whenever someone is doing a "noisy" activity on the computer, it's time to plug in the headphones. The volume is set internally (by me) at a level where they hear the game just fine, but they can also hear me if I'm talking to them.

Today Spyder played a Nancy Drew game at the same time that Sass was playing a JumpStart game. I was able to listen to the radio rather than the cacophony of sounds and we were all happy. :)

Skeeter has a really nice, noise reducing pair. The children each have an inexpensive pair, so that I won't be upset if they get broken (as happened to Sass when she sat on hers).

We've been using this system for a few months now, and I wonder why it took me so long to think of doing this. Life is much more peaceful for us with headphones!

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Works for me Wednesday: Distributing treat bags

I wasn't planning to participate in this week's WfmW because I shared my best tip last time. But I was reminded of this one when I visited another contributor.

One of the ways we use to send off the party with a bang is to put the treat bags in a large box and wrap the box in wrapping paper several times (I usually do it 20 times) using different types of paper. The children sit in a circle and we play hot potato with the wrapped gift. Each time the music stops, the child holding the box gets to unwrap a layer. Just continue until the box is completely unwrapped, then let the children open the box and take a bag.

For obvious reasons, it's best to use bags that can be sealed, like patterned Ziploc bags or decorated paper bags that have been stapled shut. :)

It's a great way for the children to feel like they're also involved in the present-opening, rather than just being a spectator. We let the birthday boy or girl work the CD player (with help from mom or dad).

We've also used this for Halloween parties and Christmas parties when we're going to be distributing treats to the children.

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Works for me Wednesday: Gift tags

I find that as my children get older, they are invited to more and more birthday parties from casual friends. These friends are ones that they see at classes or functions, so the children know each other, but the parents don't necessarily know them well enough to put a name to a face.

Our solution for these situations? Picture tags! Now I use my digital camera and color printer to make an oversized tag (usually about 4x6 total) with a picture and a Happy Birthday and "From Sass" or "From Spyder" inserted.

The (rather boring) example pictured above was done in Paint, but I've also used Word, and even a blank email. Just print and cut it out. I use one of my patterned scrapbooking scissors, just to make it a little cuter. And of course, my children are much cuter than Mr Skookum Man. :o)

I've done this since before I had my nifty digital camera though. Pre-digital, I would get duplicates of cute snapshots of my children and attached one of them to colorful card stock paper using scrapbooking tape. I'd use one of my scrapbooking pens and a few stickers to liven it up and say "Happy Birthday."

We always get comments on how cute the tags are.

Works for us!

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Works for me Wednesday: Filing paperwork

Skeeter and I have always had a huge problem with paperwork. There's just so much! We used a filing cabinet at first, but we could never find anything right away. And, let's face it, I hated pawing through all of those folders.

Enter, three ring binders.

Now, all of our paperwork is kept in three ring binders. Bank statements, mortgage statements, cell phone bills . . . every bit of paperwork that we need to keep is three-hole-punched and put into the three ring binders.

We use three of them -- one for banking matters, one for bills, and one for tax deductible receipts. Most of the paperwork we get is already 8.5 x 11, and it's a simple matter to punch the holes and put it in its proper binder.

For those that aren't already the proper size -- usually tax deductible receipts -- I tape them onto a sheet of paper that is the correct size. This method has the added advantage of giving me an easy space to write the tax deductible reason if it's isn't readily apparent.

Easy, organized, and compact. Works for me!

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Works for me Wednesday: No more cooking odors!

Do you ever think, "I don't want to make ______ because it always make the house smell like _____!"

Me too! There are several dishes that I used to I avoid making because it made the house smell like grease or chorizo or what-have-you.

I have now discovered the secret to keeping those less-than-wonderful scents at bay -- vinegar!

Pour a cup of vinegar into a cup or bowl and set it near the stove. (I use a Pyrex measuring cup and set it in the center of the burners on the stove.) The vinegar will absorb the odors and your house won't have the lingering smell hours after dinner is over!

Check out all of the Works For Me Wednesday Kitchen Edition at Rocks in My Dryer!