WFMW — Shark Steam Pocket Mop (It Really Works on Your Floors!)

Excuse me for just a moment while I become an infomercial. Pretend I'm yelling at any point you like.

I love my new Shark Steam Pocket Mop!

I've been cleaning the wood floors in my kitchen and dining area since last November on my hands and knees. I'm a little tired of it and it was always a temporary thing. I just didn't know the best option, and I was afraid of buying any of the cleaners for wood flooring since they all have warnings on them that they might damage your floor.

I've been using the Swiffer Wet Jet for the linoleum right off the garage that extends into the powder room, laundry room, and walk-in closet; the area right inside the front door; and both kids' bathrooms. I've also been using it for the ceramic tile in our bathroom. I figured that if I bought this Steam Pocket Mop that I could use it for all the flooring in my house and never have to buy the cleaner or pads again, thus saving money in the long run.

Bed, Bath & Beyond sells the Steam Pocket Mops and I had a 20 percent off of one item coupon. (By the way, did you know they honor expired coupons. It doesn't matter how old they are!) This is the Steam Pocket Mop that swivels so you can use both sides (they do make a less expensive one that doesn't swivel and doesn't flip), but the items you get with it are a little different than the infomercial on tv. It doesn't come with the extra-large mop head or pad, but it does come with two of the triangular and standard pads instead of just one of each, plus it still comes with the duster pad and carpet glider. I also got to use a coupon, so it was definitely a good deal.

I used it today on all my floors and I loved it. It was quick and easy and worked fantastic. I was especially pleased how it left my wood floors looking.

I'm not usually sold on the tv items, but this is definitely a great product and it works for me!

Go visit We Are THAT Family for Works-For-Me-Wednesday.

Organization — Laundry Room

Technically it might be a reorganization since we've lived here ten months now, but if I never actually organized it in the first place and it just sort of happened, am I really reorganizing it, or just finally organizing it? Rhetorical...no need to answer.

You might remember I mentioned in my Pantry Overhaul post that when I work in one area it usually ends up affecting another area as well. This one was no exception and ended up causing changes to happen in the front coat closet.

There is a door that separates the laundry room and the walk-in closet from the rest of the house. This is the back side of it that I showed you when I did the pantry post, totally unrelated to the pantry and obviously the items that got organized as a bonus.

On the wall to the right I have a utility sink, my washer, and my dryer. I am standing with my back to a window and to my immediate left is an open doorway to a large walk-in closet. You also would have seen this in my pantry reorganization post. I was using the tops of the shelving, and you'll notice that at the very bottom of the picture that we had coats hanging on this side of the 'L.'

I've always used the other side of the closet to hang up the clothes when they come out of the dryer before they get taken upstairs. My coats and Hubby's coats hung in this closet, and the kids' coats and jackets hung in the front coat closet.

To make this makeover work, I had to move our coats out of this closet. I decided that our coats would now hang in the front coat closet and the kids could keep theirs in their closets.

I moved one of our adjustable-height tables in from the garage and kept it at the lowest setting. I hung all of the extra hangers up on the now-empty rod.

I have desperately been needing a folding surface. You know why? Because laundry baskets are a really bad idea in most cases. Until we were in the apartment here in Michigan (waiting for our house to get finished) I hadn't had a laundry basket for probably 8-10 years. My laundry areas were in the hall central to the rest of the house, and in Virginia it was in the kitchen. I had to fold and put away immediately. Now I need the large laundry baskets just to move the laundry to the second floor.

The problem was that I would throw all the towels, underwear, and socks in there and then not fold them for a long time. They would sit in my bedroom floor waiting. I needed to fold everything as soon as it came out of the dryer. I also needed to sort it downstairs rather than have piles all over my bedroom waiting to be sorted out for all the kids.

Tonight I didn't have much to fold, but I'll show you how it's going to work since I've done a few of these things before. Here I had folded all the towels except for the load that wasn't done in the dryer. In the interest of not causing life-long embarrassment to my kids, I waited to fold their underwear and socks until I took the picture.

After I have folded everything into stacks on the table, I'll put the kids' things into their own Sterilite basket. Even when I didn't have laundry baskets I used to do this at the dryer, but for some reason I haven't been here. I need to find a basket of some kind around the house that I'm not using to keep here for the lonely socks until their mates show up.

When I'm folding and I don't need the baskets over at the table yet I'll keep them stacked over on the dryer. I tidied it up so they'll fit nicely.

That clear basket holds my mesh laundry bags for delicates.

I've been mulling different ideas around in my head for a while, so I definitely think this will work for me. I'm pleased with the outcome. I know I'll be glad not to have laundry piled up in my bedroom, clean or not.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

Menu Plan Monday — September 7

With the exception of the Chicken and Rice Casserole, last week was a bust. So let's just skip the narrative and head straight into this week's menu plan, okay? Okay.

Monday — Steaks on the grill. Hubby does a great job with these even though we don't have them very often.

Tuesday — Hamburgers on the grill. I'm putting the pressure on Hubby this week with the grilling. I've mentioned before that he makes a nice, juicy burger. He's sitting with me while I type this so he can tell me how he does it and I can share it with you.

He doesn't put anything in the hamburger patty to start with, and we usually use between 90 and 97 percent lean meat. He starts out with the grill on high, and when he places the patties on the grill he puts a thumb indention in the middle and fills it with Worcestershire Sauce. He also pours a little all over the rest of the patty. He uses a fairly thick burger, about an inch thick, and cooks it for four minutes on high. Then he flips them, coats them again with Worcestershire Sauce (sometimes if he thinks ahead when he places the burgers on at the beginning, he'll squeeze both sides of the burger so it will have an indention; otherwise he just pours it all over the patty at this point), and cooks them for another four minutes on high. Then he turns the heat down to medium, flips the burgers, and cooks each side for about three minutes each, sometimes longer (three, three, two, two). We like our burgers medium-well with no pink.

Wednesday — We always make enough Burgers for leftovers!

Thursday — 5-Minute Southwest Layered Salad.

Friday — Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot Pie. You know, since I still haven't made it and have all the ingredients in my freezer just waiting.

Saturday — Chili Parmesan Chicken.

Sunday — Eat out since we ate in all week! It's also the first night of Awana. It's going to be a busy day!

Go check out The Organizing Junkie for more great menu ideas and recipes.

Come back and see my next post — how I reorganized my laundry room!

Biscuit Jar

Or do you say bisquit?

This little biscuit jar came from an antique shop in downtown St. James, Missouri. My grandparents used to come visit us when Hubby was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, which was about three hours from our home town in Arkansas. When Hubby was overseas in Saudi Arabia in the early '90s, they came to visit me at least once. We walked the shops downtown one Saturday.

I wouldn't have known this was a biscuit jar unless my grandma had told me. She had a long-time friend that had a large collection. I just thought it was cute when I saw it in the store so they bought it for me that day.

It's missing the handle that would have gone from the knobs across the top. They were usually in a woven style. It is from Japan, and from looking at others on ebay it is majolica and probably dates around the '20s. Once I found another one exactly like it, but the auction ended when I wasn't at home and I didn't win it.

It has some yellow staining that makes it look dirty in the picture, but it isn't, and even though there aren't any cracks there is crazing all over the jar and lid.

I still think it's just as cute as can be.

I'm not much of a knick-knack kind of girl, but this is one of those treasures that will be with me forever.

This post is linked to Show and Tell Friday hosted by Kelli at There is no place like home.

Enjoying...

Crisp, clean white sheets on the bed.

New Ikea striped Euro shams with a hint a blue and a touch of red, a little white and some khaki, all of which will match my three identical (except for color) duvet covers.

I switched from the very pale blue I've had on since sometime in the spring to the khaki/tan color in preparation for fall. The weather has been so cool the majority of the summer it doesn't seem like it should be time yet, but I know it's just around the corner.

I knew when I saw this new sham pattern at Ikea a few weeks ago it would be perfect for my bed, especially since I didn't have any decorative pillows yet. I'd been holding out for just the right ones. I love it when it all comes together, and I especially love that they will match all three duvet covers (the other is white) and I can leave them out all year.

Now to paint over that builder beige on the walls...

WFMW — [IN]PLACE SYSTEM File Tote

This week is a themed Works-For-Me-Wednesday — our best organizational tip. Now I don't know that this is my best one, but it's one I haven't shared before.

A few months ago Laura (The Organizing Junkie) did a review on the new Peter Walsh [IN]PLACE SYSTEM. I love Peter Walsh, so I checked it out the next time I went to OfficeMax.

I'm using the File Tote as my 'launching pad' if you will. It houses all of the current papers that I need to have my hands on. I can also grab it as I walk out the door, and it's made of durable plastic so it doesn't get banged up.

I bought some very cute striped folders to go inside, just to jazz it up. Here are the five file folders I have inside the tote.

HOT — during ball season, this had the kids' ball schedules, field locations, and phone numbers. Now that Awana will be starting up, I'll keep the list of weekly activities and theme nights. That's just an idea of what might be in this folder.

TO DO, CALL, ETC. — This folder has the things in it that I need to take care of soon, but just couldn't at the moment I first put my hands on the piece of paper, probably when it came in the mail.

COUPONS — This holds large coupons like the ones that come from Bed, Bath & Beyond, or maybe sales flyers. I use my new Couponizer for most of my coupons.

BILLS TO PAY — Pretty self-explanatory.

TO FILE — This folder holds copies of the bills I've paid and also things that come in the mail that need to be filed without action. I file the things in this folder when the tote starts getting a little cramped for space.

Personally, I'm excited about this week's themed Works-For-Me-Wednesday. Go check it out at We Are THAT Family.

This post is also linked to The Organizing Junkie's Command Central Round-Up.

Organization — Linen Storage when you have no Linen Closets

Of course it came from Ikea! This was one of our first purchases when we went last November.

It sits on the second floor loft, which is a central location for all the kids. Our towels are kept on the shelf in our master closet, right off of the master bathroom.

I can't keep towels and washclothes under my bathroom sink. It gives me the heebie-jeebies. I'm funny that way. Sounds better than saying weird, too. So that area is limited to all the other things in a bathroom that need to be put away — cans, bottles, hair dryer, etc. — everything except toilet paper. I can't keep it under there either.

Go ahead and call me weird.

This is where we keep most of the extra bedding and pillows. It's on a back wall in the rec room. I've tried putting folded sheets between the mattress and box springs, but unless you barely fold them, it makes the mattress all lumpy and lopsided.

Our kids only have one set of sheets, so they get washed, dried, and put right back on. It saves money because I don't have to buy more sheets and storage space because I don't have to find a place to put them. My kids also don't like to use the flat sheet. They'd rather just use a blanket or duvet. I think they're weird, too.

But I'm not saying which side of the family I think it came from.