Toy Storage - by Age

As my Little Miss is accumulating more & more toys, I've had to think of a way to store her toys but be able to access them if I need to. The big & bulky ones have been dismantled (where possible-some can't be pulled apart once they're assembled!) & put in large garbage bags with a sticker on the bag with the name &/or description of the toy & put away. The smaller ones (which I want to be able to access) I've decided to organise into plastic tubs, by age. That way, when we have younger kids that visit, we can easily grab some age-appropriate toys for them to play with.

Here's how I've organised the toys:

Wash &/or wipe the toys.

Write the age range of each toy (usually found on the box or packaging) on the bottom of the toy with a permanent marker/texter (I don't use stickers in case they get peeled off & end up in a little one's mouth). I usually write the age range on each toy when we first get it, before throwing the box away.

If there's nowhere on the bottom to write the age range, I write it on the side or somewhere else inconspicuous

I bought myself a whole lot of these great tubs from Bunnings. They come in different sizes, they're stackable, they have wheels & they are cheap. Perfect for storing all sorts of things

This particular size cost just under $10. 

So far, I've labelled the tubs with the ages:
Birth - 6M
6M+
12M+

Little Miss is at the 18-36M stage, so she's currently using her toys in that age range.

The toys' age ranges are sometimes quite broad. As an example, for toys that are recommended for 6-36month olds, I've put those toys in the 6M+ tub. That way, I know they're safe for children 6 months & over, but may not be safe for any children younger than 6 months.

I filled the tubs with the toys, stacked them & stored them in the garage. Out of the house but easy to get to if we need them.
Once we've finished using the toys again, they can be stored in the corresponding tubs easily because of the age range printed on the bottom, rather than trying to guess which tub they go back into.

I've found this storage system is working well for the moment. However, I'm not sure how many tubs I'll end up with in a few more years!

Organise your Greeting Cards

There have been times when I've found myself with a beautifully wrapped gift but no card to attach to it, & then I've had to rush off to a newsagency/shopping centre/supermarket to buy a card. I decided that, whenever I find beautiful cards whilst I'm out shopping, I'll buy them & keep them for future use. Those unique hand-made cards that you find at markets & at small gift shops are my favourites.

The challenge is, how do you store them?
I came up with this idea:

I bought this white box at Officeworks (a set of 3 different sized boxes cost about $20 - this one is the largest in the set). You can use a shoe box or any other box you may have around the house that is big enough to fit greeting cards.

I also had some previously used plastic A4 dividers

& I removed the old yellow labels from the tabs. I cut the dividers to size, so they would fit inside the box. (You can use traditional cardboard dividers if you like). 

I put a blank white sticker on each tab & hand wrote on each one.

Then I sorted through all the cards, grouped them & put them in the box.

I ended up with these groupings:

Baby (includes Christening, Birth, Baby Shower, Mum-To-Be, etc)

Birthday

Easter & Xmas

Get Well Soon

New Home

Sympathy

Thank You

Wedding (includes Kitchen Tea, Wedding, Engagement etc)

Various (any other cards, including blank ones)

& one for Stickers, Seals etc

You can label your dividers any way you like, depending on what cards you have.

I hand wrote on the tabs to give them a personal touch, rather than using my trusty labelling machine.

I did, however, use my machine to label the front of the box

It's neat & compact & stackable. Very practical!

The box is organised well enough for me not to have to spend too much time searching for the right card. Of course, there are cards that I can't buy in advance (eg. kids age birthday cards, Anniversary cards, Farewell cards, etc), so those cards won't be stored in this box as I'll buy those cards when I need them. But for most other cards, this storage box works quite well. 

I'm still trying to work out a good way to store my wrapping paper & ribbons, but I'll be sure to let you know if I come up with a storage idea for those. Feel free to share if you have a great idea that works well for you. 

Hair Clip Organisation

I was getting a bit frustrated every time I wanted to put a hair clip in Little Miss's hair. The storage I was using for the clips was not working out so well - I'm sure you'll all agree.....

This fabric bag with the clips attached to it, was hanging on the back of her bedroom door!

I decided to go through the house & see if I could find some inspiration.
Rather than buying a new storage container that would eventually be thrown out or take up room once we no longer needed it, I thought that using something "not for the purpose it was intended" would work just fine.
This is what I came up with. What do you think?

Much prettier & easier to use. I just had to make sure I put it on a high shelf in her room where Little Miss can't reach it.

It's amazing what you find around the house that's not being used. I only ever use the egg cup holder at Easter, which is perfect as Easter has just gone, & the little bowl is one of so many you can find in your kitchen. I'm sure once Easter comes around next year, I'll have to upgrade to a larger container so I won't need to use the egg cup plate anymore.

The egg cup plate can also be used in the study to store paper clips & other little stationery items.....

Now if I can only figure out how to store her headbands. Any suggestions?

DIY - First Aid laminated quick reference guide

Here's an easy way to keep First Aid reference material handy, in case you have a need for first aid in your home. I had a newspaper article from the Melbourne Herald Sun that gave directions on what to do in various emergency cases for little ones, so I tore it out of the paper & have had it sitting in my tray on my desk for months. I finally decided that I needed to keep it handy, just in case.

I cut it up to about A4 size & had hubby laminate it for me.

He used Office One A4 laminating pouches

with our laminating machine

but you can easily have it laminated at an Officeworks store. It's now going to sit near our First Aid kit in the bathroom.

I hope we'll never need to use it!

There's a whole variety of First Aid literature that can be found in a lot of the baby/toddler books, parenting magazines, newspapers, pamphlets in doctors waiting rooms & so on, for both kids & adults. Whatever you have that is useful for you, have it laminated & keep it handy, stick it on a wall, keep it near the phone, wherever is easily accessible for you.

It's easy to use, easy to store, it won't tear & if it gets dirty, just wipe it clean.

I hope you never need to use it, but it's good to know that it's there if you need it.

Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show

For the garden lovers out there, this one's for you. Today was a warm (albeit windy) day in Melbourne & we decided to visit the International Flower & Garden Show at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton (apparently one of the top 5 garden shows in the world!). We arrived in the morning & by lunchtime, there were quite a few people around so it was a challenge to get about without bumping someone with our pram.

There were many avid green thumbs everywhere: looking at the beautiful outdoor garden displays, getting gardening tips from the experts, buying plants, sitting by the fountain & the lakes, enjoying the decorative flower displays inside the Exhibition Building & admiring the vibrant artwork displayed upstairs.

There were even stalls selling showbags (Burke's Backyard, Yates & Better Homes & Gardens were the ones I came across). Given that I do enjoy my gardening, I couldn't help but buy 1 or 2. There was a variety of goodies inside: vegetable seedlings, various magazines, fertilizers, gardening gloves, pest control, just to name a few.

The little ones weren't left out either. There was a Children's Garden that included a petting zoo, face painting, drawing & a Giant's house, but he was sleeping at the time we got there, so hubby & Little Miss tried catching some bubbles while I took a short break (don't kids love bubbles!).

Although we only stayed a couple of hours, you could easily spend the whole day there & it's probably worth staying all day to ensure you see everything. At $22 a ticket for adults, you may as well make a day of it.

I happily came home with some stunning red long-stemmed roses which were bought for the bargain price of $20 for 2 dozen. I decided to experiment a bit with my camera, & here's one of the photos I ended up with.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, whatever you get up to. Enjoy.

Book Review - "Spotless" by Shannon Lush & Jennifer Fleming

If you're after ideas on how to deal with household cleaning disasters, this is a fantastic book. Designed as a reference book, it's split into room by room chapters, making it easy to find what you're looking for. It's such a handy resource to have & it solves a lot of the problems associated with a household, including cleaning, smells, scratches, mould, & more.

Here are some examples of what you'll find in the book:

how to clean a smelly dishwasher,
how to keep your cupboards clean,
how to remove pen stains from fabric,
how to remove crayon marks from walls,
how to remove lipstick & make-up stains from your sheets,
how to remove yellow marks on clothes,
how to clean a barbeque,
how to stop squeaky floorboards,
how to remove beetroot stains from laminate,
& so much more.


The beauty of this book is that there's reference to a lot of household items (such as white vinegar, talcum powder, salt, milk, bicarb soda & lemon juice) which most of us have in our homes, & that are quite effective in solving a lot of the domestic challenges that come about in the house.

Of course, you can still buy some of the supermarket products which you find useful & that work for you, but it's good to know that, just in case you run out of those chemical products, there's bound to be something in the pantry that will help keep your home "spotless"!

Great Day for a Walk - Right?

I thought I'd share a funny story today, though it wasn't funny at the time!

After a very rainy night & a showery morning, I decided to go out for a walk this afternoon, as it was a warm day, the sun was out & it hadn't rained in a few hours. I put my tracksuit pants on, a singlet top, my runners, organised the pram with water & snack for Little Miss, grabbed my keys, mobile phone & sunglasses, & off we went.

What a beautiful opportunity. I was planning no more than about half an hour around the neighbourhood. 20 minutes into the walk, there was a brief shower but a few steps later had stopped, so I detoured through a different street so I could keep exercising. Why waste an opportunity, right?

About 2 minutes later, & about a 10 minute walk from home, the showers started again....& then became rain. Well, my Baby Jogger pram was put to good use. My beautifully blow waved hair was getting wet, I was getting wet, my sunglasses were getting wet (what did I bring them for?). Being a 10 minute walk away from home became a very quick 2 minute jog in the rain.

The moral of the story. If you're going to be outdoors & don't have a quick way of getting back home, don't go too far. More importantly, even though there's sunshine, look up at the stormy grey clouds in the sky before going on that well-intentioned walk. Those clouds are the warning sign telling you to stay home & have a cup of coffee & a biscuit instead!!

PS. Toddler in pram was kept wonderfully dry but jogging mummy was wet & sweaty with frizzy hair!

Recipe - Orchard Crumble

This is an Annabel Karmel toddler recipe that is absolutely scrumptuous. It's super easy to make & is delicious to serve for adults as well as kids. Give it a try:

• 2 large sweet apples (such as Pink Lady), peeled, cored & diced
• 2 large pears, peeled, cored & diced
• 85g plain flour
• 45g unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature 
• 45g demerara sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 3/4tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4tsp salt 
• 4tsp granulated sugar (I used raw sugar)

Preheat the oven to 200 (180 fan-forced).
Put the fruit into a small saucepan & cook gently for about 15 minutes until soft.

Put the flour in a bowl & rub in the butter until it looks like crumbs; add the demerara sugar, cinnamon & salt.

Remove the fruit from the heat, stir in the granulated sugar. If you're making this for toddlers or small children, you can use less sugar, or leave it out, as the fruit is sweet & the crumble topping has a bit of sugar in it.

Divide the fruit mixture into 4 ramekins

& sprinkle them with the crumble topping.

Bake for 20-25mins.
Cool to warm before serving with a little vanilla custard, or just on their own.

They were so good, that I made an adult version for hubby & I by adding a bit more sugar & putting a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. Some double cream would also be perfect on top. Yummmmm!

Tip - Cleaning Stains from a Rug

I was so annoyed with myself today. Little Miss has a new cream coloured rug in her room & I make a point of being careful not to get it dirty when I walk in there. Well, don't ask me how, but I somehow managed to get soil stains on her beautiful rug today, & I was beside myself.

Hubby asked me if we have a carpet cleaning spray (we don't), but I just kept staring at the black stains on the rug. There would have been about 6 or 8 blotches staring up at me.

It took several minutes before I gathered my thoughts & remembered I had seen Sharon Lush on A Current Affair, talking about stain removal around the home. She kept mentioning bicarb soda, white vinegar & water, so I decided to experiment, as I needed to act quickly.

Here are the details:

Put half a teaspoon of bicarb soda on each stain &, with a brush, lightly start to brush on the stain in one direction, then in another direction, so as to displace the soil embedded in the pile. You can brush a bit harder as you go.

If it's a light stain, it should disappear.
If it's persistent, put another half a teaspoon of bicarb soda & repeat the process.
This removed most of my blotches, but unfortunately I had 2 tough ones that didn't want to go.

That's when I used the vinegar & water solution.
Mix 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle & spray the stains lightly. Grab the brush & brush lightly (as before) in different directions but without being too harsh so you don't damage the rug, until the stain finally disappears.
It's a bit of trial & error, but it did seem to work for me.

Once it's dry, give it a good vacuum (I'll be doing that tomorrow), & it should look as good as new.

Just wanted to share. Do you have any great cleaning tips you'd like to share? Any triumphs that came about after a moment of panic? Feel free to leave me a comment.

My new George Clooney coffee machine

I love a good cup of coffee (cappucinos & cafe lattes are my favourites), but a good home-made cup of coffee is rare. I haven't had a good one in quite some time....until now.

Hubby was generous on the weekend (he had some rewards points he wanted to use up!) so while we were all out on a shopping trip, he decided to also purchase a DeLonghi Nespresso Latissima+ coffee machine, which I lovingly refer to as the George Clooney coffee machine.

This coffee machine is wonderful. You pop in a coffee pod, press a button or 2 (depending on what coffee you're making) & your latte, cappucino or short black is ready so quickly that there's no time for multi-tasking.

Cleaning the frother is ultra-easy, as all you need to do is press a button & it's done for you. Any milk left in the frother can go straight in the fridge, to be used within 2 days.

I am yet to work out how to make a hot chocolate, but I've been told it can be done. I'm sure you could even make a cup of tea, but I'll have to experiment a bit. My first task is to learn how to make a baby-cino for my Little Miss, so she can join me when I have my "mummy-cino".

Thanks to one of my gorgeous girlfriends, who happened to visit last week, & who recommended her Nespresso machine. A week later, after quite a bit of research, I'm finally enjoying cappucinos at home.

A special thank you to George....oops, I mean hubby! And the red colour makes it extra special.

Has anyone else bought or received anything lately that has made life easier or sweeter? Feel free to share. I'd love to hear about it.