Household Helps On A Shoestring

Let me preface...  while necessity is the mother of invention, I find myself needing things way too often to be in the inventing business.  At least half of these ideas were shared by friends and family.  The rest I either read about or discovered on my own after a caffeine-driven super-high.  But all of them have helped us in one way or another to save money, time and sanity.  Here's hoping at least one idea can help you too...  Happy reading!

• Plastic bedding/curtain bags...  repurposed into toy containers.  Travel shoe bags for the kids.  Sock storage, diaper bag organizer, beach bag snack container...  You can never fully know how this simple idea has revolutionized my life!
• Making your own foaming soap...  1/3ish liquid soap to 2/3ish water.  Pour both into a used foaming soap bottle, swirl to combine and voila!  
• Stretch your baby shampoo...  I have YET to buy baby shampoo.  And I promise, I do bathe the children regularly.  I've been using the extensive shampoo supply we got as shower gifts and stretching it using the above foaming soap technique.  
• Packing tape is almost as useful as duct tape!  Repair damaged books (I do at least three book repairs a week with the stuff).  Seal up Ziploc bags that you really don't want to come open (a la those that contain messy but fun mediums like hair gel).  Or use it to secure bubble wrap to the kitchen floor.  Or to cover over the holes in the sand/water table so beans don't cascade through them every time some scoop-and-pour-obsessed-boy sets to work playing.  This stuff is like gold I tell you!
• Come hither, contact paper!  Cut it to size and use it for place mats when eating out with your children.  Guaranteed they will not be able to peel the whole thing up like the store bought versions.    Tape it to your windows, sticky side out, for some fun art options.  Cut it to size when you need a quick and temporary adhesive name tag or label.  Protect labels you want to keep for a while by covering them in clear contact paper (I plan to do this when I start labeling things the kids have their hands on regularly, like plastic toy bins, or library shelves, or when we start working on sight words for things within their reach like "door").  
• Need crib rail protectors?  Use an old towel and secure with Velcro strips.  While the kids will be able to undo them with enough time and motivation, it is more work for them that simply pulling off the store bought kind.  Also, towels and Velcro can't be used as drumsticks (insert thunderous applause from Mama here).  Plus you can reuse the Velcro!  Velcro is also useful for keeping bookcases curtained shut, the bottom edge of mirrors/pictures safely secured to the wall, and hanging your brother upside down on the wall.  Just kidding about that last one, for now.
• Need corner protectors?  Use a square piece of packing foam, cut to size and then cut a slit for the table edge to slide into.  Secure with packing tape wrapped diagonally around the foam and the table for a temporary (and cheap) fix while traveling or visiting.
• Clothespins are a must...  I use them all the time.  For the usual things, like chip clips.  And mama things, like cord tie-ups for the blinds.  To display art on the kitchen blinds and art easel.  And to quickly cinch up art smocks in the back.  
• Recycle used containers!  Not only do the kids enjoy exploring empty containers, they test them out.  They build towers, play with them in the bath, use them in the sand box and water table, and often use them in their imaginative play.  And these "toys" are totally free!  PLUS they can be reused for arts and crafts.  Egg cartons can be paint wells, caterpillars and sorting tools.  Vitamin/medicine droppers are awesome for exploring color mixing, playing in the tub and art projects.  Spice bottles are the perfect size for little hands to explore, they make great shakers for glitter and powdered sugar, and they can be lined up by color or volume when filled with colored water for example. Broken play-necklaces?  Don't trash them, let your kids practice cutting in between the beads!  Then use the cut up pieces for burying/finding in the sandbox.  Or for filling up discovery bottles/bags (more on this in another post, we've currently got a few in process).  The trick here is to keep what's useful and rare.  Ditch the rest or you'll end up with shelves of stuff that don't get used often enough to justify the space it takes up.