DIY and Life Hacks – Crazy Jess

I feel like I start out every blog or vlog with the same note about how I’m so sorry it’s been so long since my last post…and I truly am. But life is crazy at the moment (more info on that in the coming weeks)…however in the meantime, I did want to share what I have been up to in an attempt to try to cut the chaos in our lives the best I can.

So with that said…

I am in no way a perfect homemaker, wife or Mom. I’m the first to admit that. But I have implemented a few life hacks in to my weekly routine that have definitely made a huge positive impact on my anxiety, stress level and sanity. When my home is cluttered or not organized I feel very overwhelmed, but at the same time I’m always so busy that some weeks I have a total lack of control of the chaos. Even though the thought of being lazy and not doing these things is appealing sometimes (ok all of the time, after all I have many hours of Real Housewives of ____ on my DVR to catch up on), I remember how less stressful and anxious I will be in the upcoming week once it’s all done and push myself to make them happen.

1) 👚 Wardrobe Planning

I plan out the outfits that Baby K is going to where for the entire week, and sometimes I do this for myself as well, although inconsistently. I always do this for him though. Doing this once a week for the next seven days is a huge time saver and makes our morning routine so much easier.

2) 🥘 Weekly Menu Planning

My chef hubby hates to stick to a planned menu but I really like it because I always know what we are to have and when. This allows me to make a corresponding grocery list and results in only having to go to the store once a week rather than multiple times. It also helps hold me accountable for my diet and what I’m eating. Failing to plan results in me making poor food choices and as far as I have come post op after having gastric bypass that is not good and will not help me make it to my final weight loss goal. It’s also perfect for those days you get home and your brain hurts and you don’t want to have to think about anything you just want to automatically know what to cook and get to it. We then write down the weekly menu on the notes section of our dry erase calendar in the kitchen and mark off what we cooked. This also allows us to move things around when necessary in case our day doesn’t go as planned.

3) 🍎 Scheduling Grocery Pick-Ups/Shopping Online

This, hands down has been a saving grace for us lately. After we decide what we are going to eat for the week, I then log in to our favorite grocery stores website and place an online grocery order for pick-up. Not only is this a HUGE time saver, in that I don’t spend an hour mindlessly going up and down each aisle with no plan on what I’m buying, but it’s also saved us huge amounts of money as we are strictly sticking to what’s on our list for the week. Since we have started this, we spend only $50 a week on groceries, where before we would spend anywhere from $100-$150 (in multiple trips throughout the week) because we weren’t planning effectively. This is a must try if you haven’t already done so.

4) ✅ Daily/Weekly Goal Setting/To Do List Making

Some weeks I am not as adamant about marking everything off the list but I do have a daily/weekly to do list that is on the wall in the kitchen. It is framed so we can use a dry erase marker and mark off what we have gotten accomplished for the day/week as we go. I have it broken down in to tasks to do daily, and tasks to do on a certain day of the week such as laundry, cleaning, miscellaneous to-dos etc. See below an example of the one I created. My husband and our family make fun of me for this but it really helps me stay organized and I feel a sense of accomplishment as I get to mark off something from the list each day.

5) 👖 A Laundry Schedule

Like all families I found that we were literally drowning in laundry. Dirty piles, clean piles that need to be folded, piles that we can’t remember if we washed or not, piles that were folded but never put away etc. What we realized however, is that the reason we always had so much laying around is because we were consistently waiting until everything was dirty and then trying to do a laundry marathon in one day washing six loads of laundry back to back. That is total insanity! Who has time to wash, dry, fold and put away six loads of laundry in one day? I’m over it by maybe the second load if we are being honest. So, we developed a laundry schedule which has us only doing one load of laundry a day and that one load is washed, dried, folded and put away all in the same day so it’s not nearly as overwhelming. It’s been amazing and I haven’t run out of clean clothes yet since trying it.

Example Laundry Schedule:

Monday: Colors
Tuesday: Towels/Linens
Wednesday: Darks (Hubby’s)
Thursday: Whites
Friday: Baby K’s Clothes
Saturday: Delicates
Sunday: Darks (Mine)

6) 📖 Reading/Less Screen Time

I love to read but most people don’t know that about me. Why? Because I’m always so busy they have never actually seen a book in my hands, or if they have, they have seen it took me 12 months to read it. Reading is a stress reliever for me that for so long I didn’t make time for. I have found now that I am reading every evening instead of falling asleep to my Facebook feed that I’m sleeping a lot better at night. Coincidence? Maybe. But it’s currently working for me so I’m going to go with it. It’s also helping me knock out quite a few books on my “must read” list.

So that’s it. That is my current top 6 life hacks to cut the daily/weekly chaos of a full-time working, wife, mom and human. What are some of your life hacks that save you time and sanity during the week? Share below!

As always, thank you for reading and I hope you will subscribe if you aren’t already. I can promise you mediocre posts on an inconsistent basis that you definitely won’t want to miss out on regarding, makeup & beauty, saving money/good deals, life post-up weight loss surgery, foster parenting, being a wife and mom and other general life musings. LOL 🙂

Until next time,

XOXO Crazy Jess 😘

************************************ Stay tuned for a future post update post on these Future Goals listed below (maybe 2018 resolutions?) to see how I did or what I did to make them happen.

– Blog/Vlog Topic Planning & Post Scheduling

– Hosting my first Giveaway

– Increasing my blog/vlog traffic/following

Hey Peeps,

Today’s post is not going to be about a good deal or sale, nor is it going to be about makeup! Shocking, I know. While I was putting together some last minute touches to the nursery I thought I would share a life hack I use that may be common knowledge to some but it has annoyed/stumped me for years!

You all know that I love a good deal and saving money so naturally when it comes to home decor purchases I always find my home treasures at stores like Ross or HomeGoods. Although the great deals are amazing, the most annoying part about shopping at these stores are those dreaded price tag stickers that they put all over their items. The absolute worst is when they put a price tag sticker on the glass of a beautiful picture frame or mirror especially. I used to spend hours trying to scrape that mess off. No matter how carefully I attempted to remove the sticker it would leave gross residue and paper strips all over the place. Ewwwww Gross!

I know what you’re thinking. “Why don’t you just use some Goo Gone?”. That’s a brilliant idea. However I never seem to have any Goo Gone in the house for some reason when I need it. I don’t know where it goes. We buy it, use it once and then it’s MIA. It’s also expensive too by the way so then I definitely don’t want to re-purchase it. Then there was that one time where a bottle leaked all over the Pantry cabinet and it made me mad so I vowed never to buy it again…but I digress.

My point here is that I found a trick that works wonderfully well when you are in this predicament and is pretty simple since you should typically always have this product in your house at all times.

So here it goes…here is my process for dealing with this annoyance.

Step 1: identify the object in question (in my example today it is a new picture frame from Ross)

Step 2: find a bottle of glass cleaner. I typically use Windex or a generic form of Windex.

Step 3: spray Windex on top of the price tag sticker. You are going to want a generous amount of Windex, so three to four sprays should do the trick.

Step 3: let this Windex sit on the dreaded price tag sticker for about 5 minutes

Step 4: take a dry paper towel and wipe the sticker and Windex concoction in a circular motion. In doing so, you will notice the sticker and the residue easily wipe away from the glass. If it doesn’t then you either did not use enough Windex OR you didn’t let it sit long enough so you may need to try it again.

Step 5: keep wiping until all sticker residue is gone

Step 6: insert your photo or artwork in to the frame, hang it and you’re done.

(Note: this artwork is not my own. This was a free printable nursery art graphic I found on Google).

This life hack has made my life so much easier. Maybe it’s common sense or knowledge to some of you, but for years I would rack my brain trying to figure out the cleanest, fastest, and easiest way to get rid of those darn price tag stickers or the residue they leave behind when you don’t have any Goo Gone on hand to do so (as you just realized I hate Goo Gone thus I never have any).

So that’s it. That’s my life hack for today, hope you enjoyed this wealth of knowledge I’m sharing with you. If not, just roll your eyes and laugh at me for being so dumb it took me 33 years to find an easier way to tackle this issue.

Until next time,

XOXO

Crazy Jess