{Random} Tip Tuesday

I love the Tip Junkie's link-up party on Tuesdays, and while I don't have any tutorials or terribly cool projects to share, I thought I'd show a few new additions to my home {and routine} I find pretty creative...and quite helpful!

First up - ANOTHER USE FOR A WOODEN DOWEL

Purchased at Michael's for under $1, it now keeps little hands out of the row of drawers in the kitchen.

The bottom 2 drawers house all my plastic baggies, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, etc.  They were sooooo tempting, and soooooo much fun to pull out and leave all over the kitchen floor.  Drove me crazy!  But, I didn't want to spend $$ on the child drawer locks, and wasn't quite sure how I'd keep all 4 drawers closed {and for those who think I can't count, what appears to be drawer #2 and #3 - from the top - are really 1 deep drawer}.  For under $1...DONE!  And, if we weren't in a rental house and I had a painted/color-coordinated kitchen, it could easily be spray painted.  I've thought about painting it red.  We'll see.

Okay, Tip #2: Easy sippy cup clean-up

Why I didn't think of this earlier??!  We have the nifty little baskets that hold the nipples for bottles or sippies, and in theory, they're great.  But also, it's a pain to sort through everything to find the nipple that goes with the correct cup, since we all know they're never interchangeable.  Alas, an easier way!

 Unscrew the lid, pop the nipple out of it, and stick the nipple INSIDE of the cup/bottle!!

It goes in and comes out easily, yet won't fall out on its own.  Turn the cup upside down, place on the top rack in the dishwasher, and the next morning {at least at my house}...VOILA!  A clean, sanitized sippy and there's no searching for the correct nipple.

Sometimes the simplest things make me the happiest.

Okay, and last but not least, a yet-to-be-tried, but-in-theory-it's-AWESOME!  I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

So....our 3 year old sleeps pretty well, plays in his room before he goes to sleep as well as (most mornings!) when he wakes up.  Once he moved from the crib to the big boy bed, we had a little issue with him coming out of his room.  So, we {humanely} started locking him in. {we have a doorknob cover on the inside of his door so he can't open it.}  It's worked great.  He could care less it's there, plays in the mornings, and then lays down on the floor, looks under the crack, and sings, "Mom-my. Come get me." when he's done.  Again, he doesn't care.  Husband, however, apparently does.  He's mentioned several times recently that we need to take it off...yet he's long gone for work when G comes sauntering out of the room at 6:15.  A little too early for this Mommy.

Anyway, he's 3 1/2.  Obviously he can't tell time yet, so saying he can't come out until ___ time won't work.  In some magazine (???) I remember seeing these cute little nightlights that you could set the time, and when they turned off the in the morning, that was the child's sign it was okay to get up.  Cute, but $$. 

And I'm cheap. 

So, that got me thinking.  And gathering supplies we already had, so this project has cost me nada...especially important in case it's an epic fail tonight.

Electrical tape, a nightlight, and an outlet timer. {if your nightlight doesn't have a light sensor, you can omit the electrical tape}

Cover the light sensor with the electrical tape {so, in theory, it would stay on all the time}.

Next, set your timer to the current time, and then choose the times you want it to turn on and off.  For this model, you push down the "buttons" when you want it on, and leave the rest of the "buttons" up.  I have it turning on around 8:30pm (bedtime, give or take) and turning off at 7:30am.

Then, plug it in:  

And then plug in the nightlight:

Probably not as cute as the model I saw in the magazine (really wish I could remember where I saw it...) but hopefully it will work just as well.  For a WHOLE lot less money.  Even if I had purchased all items necessary, it would probably be under $7...but already having them on hand makes the FREE even better!!

Update:Well, while last night started off great - he was asleep in about 10 minutes.  Nearly unheard of on days he takes a nap.  And he seemed excited that there "weren't any more shadows"...hmmm.  Don't know what that was about...he'd never mentioned shadows before.  Anyway, so he slept all night like a champ...until I heard his door open this morning.  At 6:06.  AM.  Apparently we didn't get the whole "it's not time to get up until the light is off" thing.  Sigh.  So, we'll try again tonight.  With the door knob child proofing back in place.  =)



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