Everyday Simple

Back in March, I decided to do some spring cleaning in our office. After sorting through and organizing our bookshelves, closet, and desk, I was left with several hefty binders full of documents and papers that still needed to be cleaned out. Even though we're pretty much paperless now, we had a ton of old documents, receipts, pay stubs, etc. stashed and filed away. After going through everything and deciding what we needed to keep and what we need to toss, we were left with this:

Two gigantic piles of paper, every bit of which could be thrown away. In comparison, the pile of things we needed to keep was tiny; everything important now fits nicely in one small accordion file folder. It's so much better than having six huge notebooks stuffed with paper.

For a while, this pile of paper just sat in a bag in our office closet. A lot of it contained personal information and needed to be shredded, but we didn't have our own shredder at home. And then I read this blog post from IHeart Organizing where Jen mentioned that she took her papers somewhere to have them shredded. And a light went off. Of course there would be stores that would have shredding services! After a quick Google search, I found out that most home office stores - like Staples and Office Depot - offer shredding services for a small fee. 

Staples is closest to us, so that's where we decided to go. According to their website, any Staples with a Copy & Print Location will offer shredding services. We called ahead and were told that they charge by the pound (79 cents/lb of paper). We went through our two big piles of "to-be-shredded" paper and pulled out anything that didn't have personal information in it. That was tossed into our regular recycling bin at home. The rest we hauled to Staples. 

Staples partners with a secure shredding company to perform their shredding services. This company will come in during regularly scheduled times to shred all of the paper in the bin. The offices I've worked in have partnered with similar companies to shred documents and materials, so I'm pretty confident in the privacy and security offered with this method. 

So - handy tip in case you've got a bunch of paper you need to have shredded and you are short one personal shredder at home! I was this close to throwing a bonfire... I'd get rid of the paper and have a party all at the same time. It was a win-win scenario in my mind.

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Let's add another post to our May traveling series! Today I wanted to talk about packing lists. When I was younger, my best friend and niece (who is my same age. I have a big family, and my mom and older sister were pregnant at the same time. Father of the Bride, anyone?) came down to stay with me for a few weeks. Her mother (my sister) had sent her with a list of everything she packed so she could check it off and make sure she hadn't left anything when it was time to go home. Even back then, little youngster though I was, I was remember wanting to immediately be that organized and write down my own packing list.

Although today I don't make my own personalized list of every item I pack, what I do like to have is a generalized list of everything that I need to pack. This is because I will always - always - forget to pack something if it's not written down. It's just what happens. I'll have to buy something at the store when we land, then lug it back home and add it to the growing collection of "things I already have but had to buy again because I forgot it" pile. Though I do always make sure to bring my bathing suit even if there isn't the slightest promise of a pool because, without fail, the one time I don't bring it will be the one time a hot tub/pool/natural water spring/or whatever is nearby. I've tested this theory - it's never failed. No bathing suit = everyone goes swimming but you. 

Back to lists! I found this pad at World Market and I've used it every single time we've left for vacation:

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It's from Knock Knock, so if you can't find it at your local World Market, you can purchase it online. My "What to Eat" pad is from the same company and I love them both. Underneath the BASICS tab, right at the very top of the packing list on the far right, I've added a few items personalized items that aren't included, but other than that this baby has it covered. It even has a checkbox for sleeping mask!! At the end of our trip, I quickly scan through the list to make sure I've got everything I packed, and I almost (almost) never leave anything at the hotel. 

In an ideal world, I would scrub down and clean my bathroom and keep it spotless and shiny every day of the week. As it happens, our bathroom is often a war zone. Makeup, dirty laundry, and towels that don't always end up on the rack are the usual suspects that keep our bathroom from staying organized. Mondays are typically my day of the week I schedule out to clean them. This Monday, with a little bit of free time on my hands, I decided to give our master bath a major scrub down. I cleaned the light fixtures, organized the closet, rearranged our cabinet drawers, and finally (finally!) got down to cleaning the one thing in this bathroom I've never been able to fully get to before - our shower doors. 

Oh I clean our shower doors often. We have a squeegee that we run over them after every shower. But we've had soap scum and hard water stains collected on the edges of those doors since we moved in. And no matter how much I scrubbed, no matter what I took to them, those stains just wouldn't go away. Here's a little dramatization for you: 

This is a little worse for wear (most of it is just dried water that splashed up earlier), but see the water/soap stain line that runs right down the edge? That line never goes away and it's always bugged me. A while back, I'd pinned a cleaning tip on Pinterest that suggested using a fabric softener on glass shower doors. I went back to my pin, but the link had expired. So I googled a bit and came across this article on Apartment Therapy. I read through the comments and one person mentioned wetting the fabric softener before using it. So I went down to our laundry room, grabbed a couple of dryer sheets, wet them, then took them back upstairs and went to town on those shower doors. 

Last but not least, I used the sheets on our sink faucets per another suggestion on Pinterest. This particular faucet is in our guest bath. The sheet cleaned it up pretty nicely - it's so sparkly now.

Using fabric softeners to clean your shower doors or faucets isn't something I would necessarily recommend using on a regular basis. A lot of people might be worried about the chemicals contained in them. For me, it worked great on getting rid of very tough, set-in stains. If you have a problem like that, give it a go. For more greener, more natural home cleaners, check out this post by How Does She. They give you a list of all-natural cleaners and disinfecting solutions you can to clean each room in your house.

ps: If you're local to Arizona, check out the flyer at the end of this post. My friend, Katie, is throwing a fundraiser for breast cancer tomorrow down in Mesa. She's put a lot of heart and soul into it and it's going to be a fantastic event. Check it out and help support her wonderful cause!