• Disclosure Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Protecting Your Pennies

Buy Smart. Plan. Play

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • Trim Healthy Mama
    • What I Ate Wednesday
    • Recipes
      • Breakfast
      • Main Meal
      • Desserts
      • Snacks
  • Buy Smart
    • Discounts
    • Holidays
    • Sales & Deals
  • Plan
    • Holiday Treats
    • Cleaning & Organization
  • Play
    • Travel
    • Kid Activities
    • Gifts
  • About Me
  • Contact
  • Shop
  • Cart
  • Checkout

clean

Using the Fitbit to Keep My House Clean

September 2, 2018 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

Learn a simple trick that will get your house tidy and clean in small, 10 minute increments. Read about how I use the Fitbit to keep my house clean.

Fitbit Cleaning Hack - To make your life easier - Organizing and cleaning Your Home Fast

Simple Smart Watch Cleaning Plan - Done in Minutes
Fitbit Cleaning Plan for People that Hate to Clean
1 Genius cleaning hack using your Fitbit

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

I asked for a Fitbit a couple of years ago for Mother’s Day. I wanted it to help me lose some baby weight and to just keep me more active. Little did I know that I would also be using the Fitbit to keep my house clean!

Like many of you, my job keeps me in front of my computer for 8 hours a day. My Fitbit brought me a wake up call when I realized that without intentional exercise, I often would not clear 3,000 steps on a work day. I wanted to use my new fitness tracker to lose some weight that I had gained during my pregnancies. But could it also do more?

I quickly found a method for using the Fitbit to keep my house clean. It is a small time commitment every day, allows me to tidy or clean an area of my house and gets me off the couch. A perfect way to make the most of your fitness tracker!

My Fitbit Routine For A Clean House

You know that vibrating buzz you get on your wrist 10 minutes before the hour is up urging you to get in some steps?I have developed a simple routine for using the Fitbit to keep my house clean using that ten minute reminder feature.

When you are at home and the buzzer goes off, find a small cleaning task that you can start and complete in that ten minutes.

Cleaning Time

If you are home from 6 pm until 10 pm when you go to bed, that is 40 minutes of cleaning time every day. Even if you do nothing else, that is more than 3 hours of cleaning that you can get done during the week in small increments. 40 minutes a day may seem unreasonable but when you break it up into those small 10 minute segments, it is much more achievable.

These small increments of cleaning really add up when it is time to do a thorough cleaning on the weekend. If you spent time keeping up with small tasks all throughout the week, your weekend cleaning will be much easier and faster.

I also like to make the 10 minute increments that I create with the Fitbit to keep my house clean as productive as possible. With this I mean that I want to extend my cleaning time without having to do more work.

Here are a few examples:

– start a load of laundry so that clothes are washing after your cleaning time has ended, you can fold it in your next 10 minute increment.

-Start the Roomba to get your floors clean while you are cooking or bathing your kids.

-Start the dishwasher, unload it in another 10 minute segment

-Soak stove burners or grates, pour cleaner in toilets, spray cleaner in showers or sinks. Any task that you do that needs to start and then sit for a while.

What Can I Really Do in 10 Minutes?

A lot! I have been using my Fitbit to keep my house clean for months and love it. You will be shocked at all that you can do in just ten minutes.

Kitchen

  • load or unload the dishwasher
  • wipe down countertops and kitchen tables
  • sweep or mop the floor
  • remove any items that don’t belong (homework, shoes, toys and jackets are some things that end up in my kitchen)
  • Clean out the coffee pot or Keurig and refill the water
  • Sanitize the kitchen sink

Living Room

  • remove items that don’t belong (shoes always show up in mine)
  • organize toys (if your kids are young and you allow toys in the living room, tidy those up)
  • vacuum carpet
  • sweep hard surfaces
  • dust the furniture

Bedroom 

  • Make the Bed
  • Put dirty clothes in hamper 
  • Remove any cups and place in kitchen
  • Dust furniture
  • Sweep
  • Mop
  • Tidy bedside table

Bathroom

  • put toiletries and makeup in cabinets
  • wipe down countertops
  • empty waste bins
  • sanitize the toilet
  • clean the shower
  • sweep/mop the floors
  • remove any toiletries that are old, expired or not being used
  • place dirty clothes/towels into the hamper

Playroom

  • pick up toys and put them in their proper place
  • put broken toys or toys with missing pieces in the trash
  • start a donation bag for toys that are not being used
  • dust furniture
  • vacuum carpet

Office

  • remove papers or mail that you no longer need
  • organize or tidy any office supplies
  • wipe down or dust desk, keyboard and mouse
  • sweep/mop/vacuum floors

Garage

  • tidy anything that doesn’t belong (am I the only one that sets backpacks and other things in the garage when getting kids out of the car and then forget to go back for them?)
  • sweep out leaves and dirt that have accumulated

Car

  • remove things that don’t belong – I often joke that I could live for weeks in my car between all of the kid’s clothing for warmth, snacks, reading material, and toys. You can get everything out of your car in 10 minutes. Try it!
  • wipe down the dashboard and other hard surfaces to remove dust/debris
  • vacuum carpets

Try Using Your Fitbit To Keep A Tidy Home

I encourage you to use these tips like I do using my Fitbit to keep my house clean. I use the Fitbit Alta and really like the slim design of it. I have owned mine for a little over two years and haven’t had any problems.

I really like the fitbit app which allows you to join in with friends and family for challenges to keep you engaged and encouraged. It also tracks your progress so that you can see the weight that you have lost and your activity over days and weeks.

And if you prefer a larger face than the Alta, there are lots of different Fitbit models to fit your individual preferences. Let me know how using the Fitbit works to get your home cleaner!

How to Clean Using a Fitbit in just 10 minutes

 

Filed Under: Cleaning & Organization, Plan Tagged With: clean, fitbit, home, organize, schedule

LOL Doll Storage Solution

June 30, 2018 by Stacy Craft 2 Comments

Who would have thought that a tiny little doll with microscopic shoes and accessories would take the little girl world by storm? My 4 year old is completely obsessed with LOL dolls. She walks around with the collector’s guide telling anyone that will listen about all the dolls that she wants. As her collection grows, so does the mess. I wanted an easy LOL doll storage solution that would organize all those small pieces but still be easy for her to access.

LOL Doll Storage Solution for Organization

(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)

LOL Doll Storage Solution

My first thought was to use a hanging toiletry bag with clear pockets. I still think it would be a good idea, especially to hold a lot of the dolls. I may end up trying it if our collection continues to grow. My daughter has requested “all the LOL dolls” for her birthday. I’m not facilitating that request but if I know her grandfather, I may have more LOL dolls than I want very soon!

We usually set the dolls up on her play table or the kitchen table for play time. When trying to come up with an LOL doll storage solution, I decided that we needed something that would work well on top of a table. Something with lots of compartments is important because of all the tiny pieces.

I spend what feels like hours per week looking for a lost LOL doll shoe that is smaller than my pinkie fingernail. Desperation was setting in for an LOL doll storage solution that would keep all of the stuff in one place.

LOL Dolls Tackle Box Style

I bought 2 different boxes to see what worked best for our stash of dolls. Here is how it went!

Larger Tackle Box Organizer

The larger box worked better with the regular size LOL dolls. I liked that the interior plastic inserts can be removed so you can make some larger compartments for the dolls and you can keep smaller ones available for shoes, clothes and accessories.

LOL Doll Storage Solution Large Tackle Box

Smaller Tackle Box Organizer

The Smaller Tackle box came in a set of 3.  These are a lot smaller than the larger ones and work best with the LOL little sisters and accessories.

LOL LIttle Sisters Doll Storage Small Tackle Box

Hope this helps you reclaim your house from the tiny army of LOL dolls that has overtaken it. If you have a ceramic tile tub that toys have also taken over, check out my post on how to fix that.

How do you organize your kid’s LOL doll stash?

Filed Under: Featured, Play Tagged With: clean, dolls, kids, LOL Surprise, organization, play, Toys

Bath Toy Organization Hack for Ceramic Tile Showers

April 17, 2018 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

Easy bath toy organization hack that works on ceramic tile walls. 

Bath Toy Organization Hack

Toy Takeover

If you have toddlers you know that the bath toys take over a bathtub hard and fast. Typically I love watching my kids find fun and joy in something as simple as a bath, however, the mess drives me crazy. In the past I had used those little suction cup scoops to organize toys but when we moved, I found that the suction cups will not stick to ceramic tile. I needed a bath toy organization hack to help rescue my tub.

Bathtub needs toy organization

Bath Toy Organization Hack

You can easily take your tub back with a simple, common bathroom item. A shower rod! If your bath organizers won’t stick to your ceramic tile, just hang a shower rod on the back side of your tub. I bought all of my stuff from Target, including the tub scoops.

Keeping your tub free of toys - organizer

Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information. 

What You Need

Shower Curtain Rod – Check to see what size you will need.

Bath Toy Scoop (or two!)

That’s it! Just Hang your rod, fill your scoop with toys and hang the handle of the scoop over the shower rod. You will want to make sure your rod is close enough to the back wall to catch the handle when you drape it over. I hung ours about 3-4 inches from the wall. So easy!

Look at that, a clean tub!

Clean tub using toy organizer

I hope this bath toy organization hack helps you keep the bathtub kid clutter to a minimum. Now someone else could probably take a shower in there without having a sea of Mickey mouse squirters and rubber duckies floating at their feet!

Do you have a great hack that you use to organize bath tub toys?

Filed Under: Featured, Plan Tagged With: clean, frugal, kids, organization, Toys

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Subscribe & Never Miss a Recipe!

A Little About Me

Hey - I'm Stacy! Join me on a journey to buy smart, plan and save so that you can also PLAY!

Copyright © 2021 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in