Tag Archives: smart home

It’s a new week. Let’s start it off right! Making little improvements in our home can have a lasting impact throughout the rest of the week.

Go make your bed.  I know that no one will even know you made it besides your kids and husband, but I promise that when you head to bed tonight it is much more comforting to see a made bed than the disheveled mess it was in the AM.
Buh-Bye stinky sponge. One of the worst smells is the smell of a stinky sponge. Bascteria filled sponges have no place in your home. Every two weeks you should be replacing or more regularly thoroughly clean your sponge. There are numerous ways to clean & disinfect the sponge. Try some of these ideas, or toss it and start with a new one this week.
Clean that microwave – without chemicals, please! Water and a bowl – that’s …

With the economic strains we’ve all endured these last few years, total home remodels aren’t typically within our plans. Smaller home improvements are now more within a Smart Mama’s budget.  A less expensive way to “remodel” a room is through its light fixture(s).  Changing the light fixture in a room can often dramatically improve the room’s appearance without breaking the bank.Capitol Lighting, aka 1800Lighting.com, is a Smart Mama’s resource and guide for all things lighting. 
Walking in and around Capitol Lighting in Boca Raton, FL you instantly wonder why you haven’t been here before. We often settle for the large hardware store when selecting a lighting fixture for our dining room – the room that tends to get the biggest fixture in our homes.  Yet, at 1800Lighting.com or any of Captiol Lighting’s 8 showrooms you’ll see so …

Keep your home a Smart CLEAN Home this New Year!  Microwaves are common household appliances and often get more use than a traditional oven.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 90% of American households have one!  The appliance was invented in 1946 by Percy Spencer whose 1st “microwaved” food was melting chocolate!  Yummy!  Nowadays we use it for far more than melting chocolate.  We cook, warm, reheat and defrost foods on a regular basis.  It’s our go-to appliance, therefore it’s probably the appliance getting the dirtiest the quickest!

Keeping that, often most important appliance, clean can be a challenge.  Cleaning your microwave should include NO chemicals.  Have you ever cleaned it with an all-purpose cleaner to then smell it’s chemical cleaner scent for many uses thereafter as the remaining cleaner burns in the appliance? Yuck!
Clean It!
Here’s a quick way to stick to that resolution –keep your microwave …

On your mark. Get set. GO!
Back to school time is here!  Some of us have started. Some are anxiously waiting.  Regardless, we all spend these weeks transitioning into the new school time schedule.  It’s nerve-racking, but being a Smart Mama can increase your chances of a successful morning!
Here are 5 ways you can be a Smart Mama and keep the school mornings running smoothly:

Lunchboxes ready!Start on this the moment they get out of school.  Figure out what they would like for lunch the next day (that is if you even give them an option.) Start preparing lunches at your 1st free moment that afternoon/evening.  If space allows, keep the lunchboxes in your fridge overnight.  If not, place the refrigeration necessary pieces (i.e. sandwich, yogurt..) aside in the fridge to easily stuff in the lunchbox in the AM.
Breakfast ready!  Part of our after dinner routine for my daughter …

I dare you.  I dare you to go into your child’s closet, or better yet your own, and find 5 pieces of clothing that either still have tags on them or essentially are brand new.  I’m thinking of those items that you bought and NEVER wore.  Maybe they were never worn because of style changes, size changes or because you forgot and now you just don’t need them anymore.
What’s a Smart Mama to do?  Take those 5 items and make a few dollars!  You deserve it!  By selling these pieces you can gain closet space and make some money to buy new pieces that you’ll actually wear!
For over 10 years I have sold

Up to 70 percent of remote controls are coated with illness-causing germs and an estimated one in five of these bugs are dangerous, drug-resistant strains, say University of Arizona researchers. – iVillage.com
What would you rather lick: a toilet bowl handle, bathroom door handle or a remote control?  Sorry to tell you, but the remote control is the worst! A study by University of Arizona concluded that a television remote control holds more bacteria than the others.  Gross!  I wouldn’t recommend licking the others, though!
Why do you think our television remote controls get so infested?  We are constantly using them.  We use them while we eat, just after we sneeze or blow our nose.  It drops on the floor and we pick it up without cleaning it.  We shake someone’s hand and then we pick it up again.  Essentially it gets tossed and touched all the time.  Unfortunately, …

A morning routine. I love it. I get very type-A at times and like to have things scheduled out to the last minute. Enter 2 children into that dream and it essentially flies out the window. With my near 5 year old, Isabella, a routine is necessary, it’s just not as precisely followed as I would like. During the summer months she goes to bed by 8 and is normally up by 7:00. Not bad. My 3 month old is a bit different, but not much – we’ll get into that a different day.
Isabella wakes up hungry – I promise I feed (or attempt to) her a healthy, yummy dinner an hour or so before bedtime. Typically, the 1st battle of the day is deciding what she wants for breakfast. I don’t play short order cook in the AM, but I do allow

This week I’m honored to have Joanne, interior decorator extraordinare, as well as high school classmate, provide some great tips to you on creating a mom-nook, instead of the man-cave we dreadfully close our eyes to.  
I am so honored to be guest blogging on one of my favorite and most useful blogs! Thank you to Caroline, a very wise mother, amazing blog-mama and good friend from high school! As an interior decorator and mom of two, I blog mostly about home décor tips, ideas, inspirations and client projects on my blog: Homestyling101 (http://homestyling101.blogspot.com) and tweeting at @Homestyling101

What can you do in ten minutes?  I’m not necessarily suggesting the amount of times you can hop on one foot or juggle three balls with just your right hand.  I’m thinking about in and around your house.  If you suddenly lost Internet connection and your smart phone went dead (yes, I hear the gasp) what could you actually get done?  Maybe straighten out one child’s sock drawer or make some sense of the canned goods in the pantry.  You could possibly do both.
We see the days of June Cleaver and wonder how she always stayed so calm and had a fresh pie coming out of the oven.  Yes, it was TV but real life wasn’t too far from the Cleaver’s.  The advent of technology has brought us so much progressive, time saving tools, but simultaneously given us tools to distract us from our responsibilities (ahem…Facebook.)
Smart Mamas …

Got stains?  I’m sure!  What home doesn’t?  We’re covered in grass, ketchup, paint and general “what on Earth is this” markings here!
Wondering what this Smart Mama uses?  I recently tried and fell in love with Stain Solver!  This organic powder cleaner, available at StainSolver.com, can be the lifesaver for not just your clothing stains, but for general laundry, tile & grout, kitchen areas, carpets and outdoors like your patio and more!
I used it on my daughter’s lunch box that has been through the war & back, and I am so impressed with what just 2 hours of soaking accomplished!
Stain Solver is hosting a Spring Cleaning Sweepstakes! The grand prize winner can win a $1000 gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond! Be sure to head over to StainSolver.com to enter!
I received a complimentary sample of Stain Solver to aid …

As a mom, I fear what’s lurking out there when children and teens use the internet.  We, Smart Mamas, need to be watchful for our children, just like when we bring them to the park and are carfeful that they are always safe. We teach them not to talk to strangers, and how to handle bullies and more.  Now, we need to teach them proper behavior at the “online” playground, the Internet.  I’m sharing a great piece by BitMoms.com, including access to a superb guide that provides excellent information on ways to protect our children online.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to join BitMoms.com. Leticia, Chief Bit Mom, shared information on this community in June.  I continue to strongly recommend it for all Smart Mamas who are interested in staying on top of the latest information regarding …

There is nothing that makes me gag more than the smell of a stinky sponge.  Okay, maybe there are a few other items or situations I’m not remembering, but a stinky sponge is up there.  I hate the smell you get just being near it and especially the smell of your hands after using it.
We know as Smart Mamas that a traditional sponge should be changed every 2 weeks.  But as it recently happened to me, the smell can appear in just days.  I’m too cheap to throw away a 3 day old sponge. I’m sure you are too!
What is the smell?
According to every site I have read, a stinky sponge is the result of a bacteria ridden object, typically fostered through a wet environment.  Can’t not keep a sponge wet, can you?
How does a Smart Mama get rid of the smell?

I placed the …

Empty your pockets and what do you find?? Better yet, empty your purse! As a mother, all sorts of things cram every crevice of our pockets, whether in our pants, diaper bag or purse! We could all be very successful in Let’s Make a Deal … remember when the contestant would get $100 for having a nail file!  Now think of the number of coins you find lodged between gum wrappers and coupons in your bag.
Today I want you to think about those pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters that you find in all those pockets.  What do you do with them at the end of the day, while doing laundry or switching out purses?  In our Smart Home, we have 4 separate containers ready to receive the change.  Two traditional piggy banks collect the pocket change in our bedrooms and a non-traditional 5 gallon water container sits …

This classic repetitive chant is a perfect distraction on traffic filled days. This morning we faced fierce rain and tons of traffic on our way to camp.  A long drawn out game of “We’re Going on a Picnic” helped distract both mommy and the kid!
In the classic game players take turns repeating “We’re going on a picnic and we’re going to bring…” Each player adds a new item that starts with a different letter of the alphabet.  You begin with an item that starts with the letter A. The next player repeats the chant, the letter A item and adds a B item. You continue chanting the chorus, repeating every item in alphabetical order that has been included thus far and then your added a new item.  It’s a great game can get humorous a times when Grandpa and a llama are included in the picnic!

Today’s Smarty Pants Mama is Leticia, Chief BitMom for BitMoms.com.  Today Leticia is here to discuss the importance of keeping our families safe online and the free resources available through BitMoms.
These days everyone is online and while the internet is a treasure trove of resources, it can also be dangerous for our children.  Kids unknowingly share too much information about themselves by not setting their privacy controls on Facebook.  Peers can anonymously cyberbully through Formspring and saying the mean hateful things can crush a classmate’s self esteem.  And did you know that your kids may be engaging with strangers in your own living room? Gaming platforms that automatically connect to the internet are a way for strangers to invite themselves into your children’s lives through multiplayer gaming.
As a mom of two children, one of my most important jobs is to protect them.  Whether …

Wedding invitations, doctor’s appointment card, birthday invitation, CVS receipt, munchkin’s artwork, Tot-Lok magnets, random photo magnets, grocery list, and other random magnets: What my fridge looks like on a good day! A magnetic fridge provides you with a place to display and organize papers – the key word there is organize! My fridge looks like a tornado came through and threw-up!
Today I will tackle this fridge door! I will throw away the invitations of events that have already passed, old receipts, and the hodgepodge of other unnecessary random things!
I’ve done some searching and have found some items that will help my fridge door become and stay more organized. A start with any fridge door organization is to have the proper tools – magnets! Currently I have a random assortment of magnets. From my college days (beer openers) to the various calendar magnets sent …