May 23, 2016 by Krista

How to Keep Your Kitchen Clean

Hey! Thanks for stopping by today! I’m so did! Do you have a kitchen? Yeah? Well, then you know how difficult it can be to keep a kitchen clean, right?

I’ve got 3 ravenous boys and a husband with a ginormous appetite. Our kitchen is THE room in our house where we spend most of our time. It’s a busy place and there are dishes and crumbs abound. The refrigerator seems to have a revolving door, but that’s not to be shown up by the pantry’s strict open-door policy.

I don’t have time to constantly be running around, keeping my kitchen clean after my insatiable boys eat yet again today. I’ve got more important things to do than be on crumb patrol! You too?!

What you need is a routine. A system. A schedule. When I started using a schedule, all my stress vanished. I didn’t feel like I had to keep everything spotless all the time anymore because I knew that it WAS clean.

It’s okay if there are a few dishes in the sink or the counter isn’t constantly spotless. They will be taken care of and I know they haven’t been sitting there for days. Nor will they be left there for days either, which may or may not have happened in the past…

Our kitchen is lived in, but it’s also clean! The first thing I changed was doing it all myself. I don’t do it alone anymore. My boys have their parts to help keep clean. Between all of us, it’s quick work to keep the kitchen tidy. We use these three things to help keep our kitchen clean.

3 THINGS I USE EVERYDAY TO KEEP OUR KITCHEN CLEAN

KEEPING A KITCHEN CLEAN MUST-HAVE #1

Good, strong trash bags are must-haves in our kitchen. I need a bag I can trust to keep our trash contained and that there won’t be leaks! That’s the worst, right? Hefty Ultra Strong bags are great for keeping the garbage where it belongs. The active tear resistant technology offers better puncture resistance so leaks don’t happen.

KEEPING A KITCHEN CLEAN MUST-HAVE #2

A good strong, safe cleaning solution. I use vinegar, lemon, baking soda and hydrogen peroxide as my main cleaners. They are great cleaners and there’s no harsh chemicals that will mix with our food or my kids. I use a 2:1 ratio of vinegar and water with a tablespoon of lemon juice (or lemon essential oil) as my basic multi-surface cleaner. It’s simple, cheap, safe and effective. That’s how this momma likes it.

KEEPING A KITCHEN CLEAN MUST-HAVE #3

Cleaning rags. I like to use cotton rags like these ones. I just throw them in the washer when I’m done. We save money by re-using them, it’s better than paper towels for the environment and I don’t have to worry about them tearing in the middle of a mop up or counter scrub down. The best part? No nasty sponges sitting around, stinking like crazy!

THE SECRET TO KEEPING A KITCHEN CLEAN

So what kind of schedule will help you stay on top of everything? You’re in luck! I’ve got the perfect printable for you! I’ve broken it down into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks. And there’s a BONUS weekly schedule to help you make sure you don’t miss anything in your quest to keep your kitchen clean.

For the monthly and quarterly tasks, I assign a specific date and schedule it into my calendar so I don’t forget about them. For example, I clean out the freezer on the 15th of January, April, July and October. At least that’s my goal.

Want your copy of my How to Keep Your Kitchen Clean printable and the BONUS weekly schedule? Clicking the button will take you to the download page where you can save and print your schedule to keep your kitchen clean!

Have you ever tried a weekly cleaning schedule before? If not, give this a try! I promise you’ll feel like you spend less time cleaning up after everyone else; and, somehow, it’s easier to keep your kitchen clean!

May 11, 2016 by Krista

Egg Throw Painting

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #allEssentials #CollectiveBias

WELCOME! I’m so glad you’re here!

Do you let your kids be kids, even when they get messy and their clothes get dirty? Do you have the confidence that you’ll be able to get those clothes clean again?

With three boys in our house, things get messy. In fact, things are pretty much always messy. There’s an endless supply of dirty dishes, toys on the floor and the laundry… oh, the laundry. There’s so much laundry. And these aren’t just dirty clothes, they are rough-and-tumble, explore-the-world, stains-on-everything kind of dirty.

But it’s important to me for my kids to have the chance to explore and have adventures. This world is so amazing and I want my kids to discover that. I want them to play with bugs and make mud pies and climb rocks and trees.

I need a laundry detergent that can keep up with my family. I know that my kids can play and explore and I can handle any stains they might pick up on their adventures.

And that’s where all® Fresh Clean Essentials™ Fragrance Free comes into play in our house. This new detergent is sulfate free and gives a powerful clean without the harshness. I love to use sulfate free shampoos – they leave my hair feeling clean and strong. I knew I had to try this detergent on the adventures that my boys wear on their clothes. I love that my boys can be rough and tumble kids and I can let all® Essentials™ worry about getting their clothes clean again!

With my active boys, I have to find active and creative ways to get them to practice learning games. Little N is starting to learn colors and it’s good review for Little J too. And we couldn’t leave Big J out of all the fun. Because throwing eggs is naughty and sometimes it’s fun to be naughty!

EGG THROW PAINTING

Materials:
– 12 eggs
– Pair of scissors
– bottle with a narrow neck
– toothpick
– container for the eggs
– paint (I like to use washable paint, because, well I’m not completely crazy)
– canvas or poster boards
– plastic drop cloths for super easy clean up

Directions:
1. Empty the eggs by poking a hole approximately the size of a dime in one end of the egg with the tip of the scissors. Gently tap the scissors on the egg until it breaks. Use your finger to clean the cracked egg shell out of the hole. If the membrane in the egg didn’t break, pierce it with a toothpick.

2. Tip the egg so it sits on the mouth of the bottle with the hole pointed down into the bottle.

3. Gently tap a hole in the other side of the egg. This doesn’t need to be a big hole, but you do need to break the membrane.

4. Blow into the hole you just made in the egg to push the egg yolk and white into the bottle.

5. Wash out the egg shell and set it to dry in the carton. You don’t have to let the shells dry, but your paint will be a little runnier if you don’t.

6. Fill the eggs with a tablespoon or more of paint. The more paint, the bigger the splatter and the cooler the effect. Also, the bigger the mess. But it’s super easy to clean up. I suggest washable paint, just to make things easier.

7. Lay the plastic drop cloths out over your work area. I definitely suggest doing this outside, but if you’re super brave you can try it in the shower. Or the garage maybe. It would be pretty easy to clean it up in either of those spots.

*Optional Step: you can let your kids put stickers or spell out their name with tape on the canvas. After they throw their eggs and the paint dries, remove the stickers or tape and you’re left with some cool negative space art.

8. Set the canvases or posters up on the drop cloth. I found that hanging the drop cloth on the fence and then setting the canvases up against the fence worked out well. You can lay them flat too. The paint will have more of a splatter pattern without the drips. This is good if you have a little one that isn’t very consistent with throwing yet. They can drop the eggs instead. The biggest thing is to make sure there is something solid behind your canvases.

9. We did this one at a time, because I was trying to get photos, but it would’ve been more fun to do it all at once. Pandemonium is fun, right?! You’ll want your kids to stand close enough to hit their canvas each time they throw an egg. We found the eggs were actually much harder to break than expected. Which meant we could throw each egg multiple times, and that was fun.

10. Let your kids throw the paint-filled eggs at their canvas. We used a dozen eggs and each boy got 4 eggs. You can let them use a paint brush (or their fingers!) after they’ve thrown their eggs to finish off their masterpiece if they want.

11. Let the paint dry. Display your little painters’ works of art.

Clean up is as simple as throwing the drop cloth in the trash and a load of laundry in the washer.

I love knowing that with all® Fresh Clean Essentials™, my kids and I can do these messy projects together. And it’s super easy to get it online at Walmart.com! I can focus on having fun and being in the moment, not worrying about if I’m going to be able to get their laundry clean. And I’d much rather make memories than worries.

Check out more fun ways to let your kids be kids and get their clothes clean again with all® Fresh Clean Essentials™.

March 25, 2016 by Krista

Cut Your Paper Clutter for GOOD While You’re Spring Cleaning

This post brought to you by Fellowes Brands. The content and opinions expressed below are that of While He Was Napping.

Hey! How are ya? I’m glad you’re here today!

Is the weather starting to warm up in your neck of the woods? Mother Nature can’t seem to figure out what she’s doing in so many places right now. But we’re not gonna let that fickle sunshine mess with our mission, right?

We’re on a declutter mission and spring cleaning is in full swing! Right! Right? Wrong?

In my house, it’s DEAD WRONG. Between being out of town and then sick, I’m just trying to keep up with the laundry and dishes and get rid of the germs! But I am trying to work in some spring cleaning too.

I’ve been working in my bedroom lately. That’s the catch-all room for us. Company’s coming? Quick! throw all the stuff on the counters into this box and put it in mom’s room! There are boxes full of

piles of mail
school papers
papers from church
things my husband brings home from work
all the other counter clutter

There’s a lot of paper clutter that gathers in the kitchen and gets dropped in my room. I have the intention of going through it later… but the boxes pile higher and I just can’t seem to get through it.

Well, I finally did it!! MY ROOM IS CLEAN!

I know, I sound like an 10-year-old girl trying to convince mom to let her go out and play with her friends. But cleaning my room is still a pretty big accomplishment for me sometimes. So, now I’ve got a system that will help keep the paper clutter out of my room and where it belongs.

How I’ve Organized Our Paper Clutter to Keep it From Taking Over

Mail is sorted when it comes through the door. Junk mail is trashed. Bills are put into our “needs attention” paper tray. And anything that needs to be filed goes into the bottom paper tray. Then I file it when I get the chance, usually once a week.

I started a file box for each member of our family and that’s where I keep all the school papers, papers from church they want to keep and any paper mementos (graduation programs, certificates, or other important papers) or things like cards. These file boxes stack and store in a corner of my closet.

Important papers – anything for insurance, retirement, or other long term investments – go into our file box where we put the mail that has been filed. I just added a few more folders to accommodate those things as well.

Other counter clutter is cleared off each night and the owners of said clutter are expected to take care of it. The biggest offender of that one is… my husband and I’m a super close second. Our island is the catch all and it makes the rest of the kitchen feel even messier than it is. Simply clearing clutter off the counters each night had helped us keep our kitchen cleaner over all. It’s a win-win!

The Right Tools Make a Difference

The best way I’ve found to keep the junk paper clutter down is to shred it as it comes into our house. Take care of it before it becomes a problem. I love our Fellowes 79Ci shredder! It’s got a patented 100% Jam Proof System that eliminates paper jams and powers through tough jobs. I don’t even have to open most of the junk mail to shred it and get it off my to-do list. The Heavy-duty Cross-Cut blades that can handle up to 16 sheets of paper, as well as staples, paper clips, credit cards, and CDs.

I really love the 20 minute run time, which allows me to get rid of all the clutter all at once. It’s a one-and-done deal. But, my favorite feature is the patented SafeSense® Technology, which automatically stops shredding when hands touch the paper opening. I don’t have to worry that my kids are going to get hurt. Of course, you should still take safety precautions and children shouldn’t operate the shredder, but I love the extra safety feature.

With an Energy Savings System that maximizes shredder energy efficiency 100% of the time – both in use and out of use it’s okay to leave it on in standby and your power bill won’t skyrocket. The SilentShred™ Technology means I can shred papers during the most productive time of my day: Nap time.

You can find the 79Ci at Amazon and Office Superstores. Suggested retail is $239.99 and it’s totally worth knowing my family’s identity is safe when we shred with our Fellowes 79Ci shredder.

Check out this awesome infographic on organizing your space and increasing your productivity!

January 29, 2016 by Krista

February Journal Calendar Printables

It’s that time of the month… no, not that time of the month! It’s time for a new Journal Calendar and the February Journal Calendar is here! February will be here before I turn around – which I do a lot around here with three busy boys – so now is the time to print out the February calendar! How did you do with your January calendar? I’ll admit there was a week I had to go back and fill the whole week in one Saturday night… but that’s what I love about this system. As long as you don’t get too far behind, you can play catch up pretty easily. I got so wordy a few times I didn’t have space to draw a little picture, which made my inner amateur artist a little sad. Maybe I talk too much? Hmm… So, let’s cut the yammering and just get to it.

FEBRUARY JOURNAL CALENDAR

You can download the PDF file of both pages (only one is pictured above) for the February 2016 Journal Calendar. The two pages are combined into one file, so you only have to download once. Missed out on last month’s calendar. That’s okay! It’s never too late to start! And if you want to print last month’s journal calendar and try to go back and fill some of it in, you can do that too!

Why is the Journal Calendar so amazing? Because it’s the easiest way I have found to keep a daily journal and it takes less than five minutes a day. I’m a busy momma and as much as I like to write, I don’t often have the time to sit and write a journal entry each day. With the Journal Calendar, I can capture the highlights and get a pretty complete picture of what my day, week, month and year has been like… It’s usually full of laundry… without feeling like I’m leaving other things unfinished because I was trying to write in my journal. Here is what my January Calendar looks like so far… pretty cool, right?

DOWNLOAD THE FEBRUARY 2016 JOURNAL CALENDAR!

January 15, 2016 by Krista

Declutter Paper From These 9 Things for a More Peaceful Home

This post brought to you by Fellowes Brands. The content and opinions expressed below are that of While He Was Napping.

Did you make a new year’s resolution to declutter your home? Yeah, me too. I started in my bedroom… the black hole of our home. Or maybe that’s the garage…? In any case, it’s where things go to die. It’s the catch-all room. People are coming? Quick, throw all this in Mom and Dad’s room and shut the door! Which is really sad, right?! It’s definitely a bit of a hazard at best. So, we are on a mission to declutter this year. I’ve already completed one ‘declutter paper’ mission!

One of the first boxes I came across in my room was full of papers. We’ve moved this box three times, and I’m not sure it’s been unsealed since move number one. Like, why do I still have this at all, right?! When I started looking at them, I realized why I didn’t just pitch the whole box. Some of the papers are things I do need to keep – hey, that’s where the car title is! – and some of them need to be disposed of in more than just a simple trash can. That’s where my Fellowes 79Ci shredder came in so handy!

I got to looking around my house and realized that we have a lot of paper clutter. With all the holiday cards we just received, Christmas and the explosion that comes with that, the end of year mail that companies like to send and things that Big J brought home from school, we had stacks of paper hanging around that didn’t really need to be there. So, I decided to clean out these 10 places one afternoon and I can’t believe the difference it’s made.

DECLUTTER PAPER FROM THESE 9 SPOTS FOR A MORE PEACEFUL HOME

The mail collection. This was a HUGE offender. Since we’ve been on Winter Break, there were more people bringing the mail in everyday. And we were getting more mail the last few weeks too. I try to go through the mail when I bring it in and throw the junk in the trash. My husband and boys bring it in and set it all on the counter top. We had little mail piles all over the counters before I realized what was going on. This is a pretty easy place to start to declutter paper in your home.
The junk drawer. I am the big offender here. I like lists. Lots and lots of lists. Shopping lists, to do lists, phone number lists, calendars, gift lists, food preparation lists, you get the idea, right? I’m terrible at taking my notes and just sticking them in the drawer to sort through later. So, I went through them and recycled the irrelevant ones. The ones that still had worth went into a small basket in my drawer so I can actually find what I’m looking for until I can come up with a better filing system.
The desk. Our desktop computer is in our dining room and is shared by the family, although Mr. Napping and I use it the most. We both are terrible at leaving papers on the desk. and it’s not a big desk to begin with so whether they are bills, misprints from the printers or doodles that the kids bring us, the paper clutters up the desk in a hurry. I filed the bills that needed to be kept, shredded the ones that were already taken care of and recycled the extra papers and envelopes. I put the misprints in our scrap paper collection and the kids will bring us more doodles on those some other time. The doodles spend a few days (or weeks) on our art board and then they are recycled or filed to save. It’s condition was not conducive to productivity at all!
The laundry room. The offender here was all the tags from new clothes my family had received for Christmas. I had a small pile on the dryer that never made it into the trash. It took about three seconds to throw them out and my boys stopped knocking the little plastic pieces on the floor every time they walked passed the dryer.
School papers. I never realized just how much paper I brought home from school, but if it’s anything like Big J brings home… my poor mama! And I’m dreading the day it gets multiplied by more than one boy in school. Usually I go through his backpack when he gets home and his Friday Folder as soon as he walks in the door. All through the course of Winter Break I kept finding more school papers though. I recycled the unimportant stuff and filed the things I wanted to keep in his school box.
My planner. I still use a paper planner. My husband balks at this, but I like the tangible aspect from holding the paper and physically writing things down. It helps me remember important dates and commitments better. But I had a lot of extras stuck in it too. So, I cleaned out notes, receipts, cards and invitations and my planner is much easier to carry around now. I can even see all the tabs now!
My wallet. I don’t save receipts if I don’t have to, but for big purchases and expenses that I need record of, the receipts get stuck in my wallet. Christmas put more receipts in my wallet than usual and it was a bit of a mess. I filed the receipts I needed to keep and put all the Christmas gift receipts in a ziptop bag in my planner. All the others I got rid of.
The car. All those receipts I don’t save… yeah, a lot of them are on the floor in my car. They start in the console with the plan to take them in and get rid of them. But, somewhere between leaving the store and getting everything and everyone inside it ends up on the floor of the car. My kids leave their papers in the car too. It’s awesome how much better cups fit in the cup holders when wads of paper aren’t stuffed in them.
Diaper bag/purse. If you don’t have a diaper bag, I’m mildly jealous. Sure I like being prepared for whatever might arise when we’re out, but it’s just one more place to collect clutter too. And the latter seems to happen more often than not. Our new rule is that no papers go in the diaper bag… we’ll see how long we can stick to that! No diaper bag? Apply it to your purse.

When it’s time to declutter paper, a good shredder is a must-have to ensure your information remains safe. I absolutely love my Fellowes 79Ci shredder! It is great for anyone balancing busy schedules and seeking time-saving solutions. The design is sleek and the power is amazing. It’s got a Patented 100% Jam Proof System that eliminates paper jams and powers through tough jobs and it’s heavy-duty cross-cut blades can handle up to 16 sheets of paper per pass in addition to staples, paper clips, credit cards, junk mail and CDs. Such a time saver when you can feed handfuls through at a time! And with an extended 20 minute run time for increased productivity you don’t have to worry if you’ll ever finally shred the whole pile of papers you have just waiting for disposal. You’ll be able to declutter paper and so much more!

My favorite feature of the Fellowes 79Ci shredder is the patented SafeSense® Technology which automatically stops shredding when hands touch the paper opening. It’s such a sense of peace to not have that concern hanging over my head with all my little ones around. I also really love the SilentShred™ Technology that offers ultra-quiet shredder performance. We can still have a conversation while the junk mail and paid bills are shredded. While we usually keep our shredder off and unplugged, the Energy Savings System feature maximizes shredder energy efficiency 100% of the time – both in use and out of use.

You can find The Fellowes 79Ci Shredder at Amazon and Office Superstores with a suggested retail price of $239.99. Are you on a mission to declutter paper from your home? You won’t regret using the Fellowes 79Ci Shredder to help protect sensitive information on my declutter paper mission!