1. Recycle – Yep. You know how to do it, but do you actually do it? The easiest way to recycle is to make sure you have a designated area to do so. Need ideas? Check out these nifty ideas:
   

   How to Set Up a Home Recycling Station that Works

   Martha Stewart Recycling Center

   Hidden Kitchen Recycling area

2. Upcycle – I love doing this. Seriously. And I don’t mean doing the crazy stuff, like turning a car into a refrigerator or something. I mean simple things, like reusing binder clips, or embroidery hoops, or even litter boxes. For more Upcycle ideas check out my Upcycle Pinterest page.

So the next stop on my Spring Cleaning journey is my bedroom dresser drawers. They were a mess. And it always takes me forever to find stuff anyway, so I hunted around for things to use as drawer dividers or some type of separation tools.
As I’ve mentioned before, the best thing to do is to start by shopping your home first. So I poked around my basement and the back of one of my closets, (I’ve got to put that one on the list!) until I found these spring loaded drawer divider things that I forgot that I had!

I have a love/hate relationship with my two cats. They are fun and affectionate and really don’t care what I look like, or how off-key I sing or if my socks match, as long as I feed them. (I have a couple of friends like that too). But their hair gets everywhere, and although I have hardwood floors, it can be a real pain to keep the furniture clean.

In my continuing quest to organize stuff in our home, I had pushed cable organization to the top of the list. Both my husband and I have a couple of laptops, not mention various video game systems each with its own set of cables. I was tired of not being able to find the correct cable when I needed it, or resorting to a dusty game of twister when something blew behind the TV and spending an hour trying to find the right cord, before I could troubleshoot the problem. These ideas helped us, and maybe they’ll help you too!

image from unpluggd

“Hey babe? Have you seen an aluminum foil ball about yea big?” I gestured with my hands as my husband looked at me blankly and shook his head.

“Where was the last place you had it?”

“Oh, it was in the dryer. Have you seen it?”

eyebrow raise. blank stare. smirk.

“Uh..no.”

Sexy is pretty much used to my crazy household experiments, so nothing really phases him anymore. Now, obviously,

I am really scared of the ingredients in things like Liquid Plumbr and Liquid Snake and some of those hardware store chemicals out there. Almost all of them contain sodium hydroxide (a.k.a.-lye) which is highly toxic if it comes in contact with your skin, hair, eyes or breathing passages. Not to mention what it does to the environment once it’s out of the house, it basically kills all kinds of wildlife in its path and alters the ph balance of rivers and streams.. Some of the chemicals always come back up into the sink or tub and inevitably make it’s way on to our skin or into the air of the bathroom. Not.taking.that.chance.

For everyday sink, tub and shower clogs we do the following at the House of Brown:

I love binder clips!  They’re cheap, come in all kinds of sizes. and can be used for EVERYTHING! I was just noticing the other day just how many ways we use them around the house. There are a million and one uses for these things, but here are 12 of my favorite…

1. Holding snack bags closed
2. holding the ends of my twists when I’m styling my hair
3. Keeping a towel on my shoulders when I henna my hair
4. Cord keeper
5. Put at the end of the toothpaste tube so we get out every last drop
6. Holding photos
7. Hold hair accessories together when traveling
8. Clothespin
9. Keeping index cards organized
10. DIY money clip
11. Book mark
12. Keeping my ID/Train pass handy

Lifehacker even showed a video of a guy who made an iPhone dock out of binder clips check it out…

I get busy. Sexy and I are BOTH busy. And sometimes the dinner dishes don’t get done till the next morning. (We’re human, it happens.)Last week I picked up my cast iron skillet which had been left in the sink from the day before and the sink looked like this…

eeewwwww.....

Now I know what most of you are thinking… there’s no way those “natural” cleaners she’s always talking about are gonna REALLY clean THAT!

Think again my friend

The night before I go on a trip, I check the weather for the destination’s forecast, and plan my outfits for the whole week. I narrow down my footwear to what I’m going to wear on the plane, a pair of sneakers, 1 pair of heels, and a 1 pair of black flats. I decide what size suitcase and what carry on to bring, and what will go into each. I stay up late planning, and prepping, and funneling various oils, creams and conditioners into travel-size containers with the precision of a chemist. I try to get cash and packets of oatmeal ahead of time, so I won’t have to deal with the high prices of food and $5 ATM fees at the terminal, and I reserve a parking space near the airport. This process usually works out pretty well, and I get to my destination ready to relax or work or whatever. Pretty savvy right?

BUT…

For some reason, getting up, working out, and getting out of the house and to the office by 9am on a daily basis completely eludes me. I don’t hear the alarm, nothing that I want to wear (or can fit comfortably) is clean, I can never find at least one of my shoes, my phone isn’t charged, I forget to feed the cat, (who in protest, has thrown-up on my yoga mat). Sexy is ALWAYS telling me to slow down after hearing me yelp out in pain from accidentally slamming one of my appendages into a stationary object. I walked halfway to the subway once when I realized that I still had 3 twists in a roller in the back of my head, I forgot my earrings, and the alarm company was calling me because the alarm was going off because I’d left my keys in the door and it had swung open.

Then it dawned on me.

Why not approach every (week)day as if I had to be on a plane, leaving at 9am? Hmmm. With some modifications, this just might work.

So here’s my top 10 list of how to get through the week a bit smoother. I have tried this and it actually works!

Thrifty Jinxy posted this tip this week, and it’s right up my alley! Several of you have also commented that you do the same thing. Just mix Baking Soda and vinegar and voila! Clear Drains! For the details, click here.