Tips and tricks that are short on time but big on impact

Fresh in Fifteen

Have you ever imagined what life would be like if you could just snap your fingers and all misplaced items would magically go back to where they belonged? Sadly, only Mary Poppins can pull that off.

But if you break it into manageable steps, you can tackle even the messiest of rooms in 15 minutes. Let’s take your living room or den after a long Sunday when all the kids were home and bored.

Remove all items from all surfaces, including the couch (and under it), coffee tables, and end tables. (So that’s where that shoe went!) I like to use a laundry basket to gather all the items, especially those that don’t belong in that room.

Once the floor and other surfaces are cleared, the room seems easier to tackle. Now you can vacuum or wash the floors, wipe down any furniture with a damp microfiber cloth, fluff the pillows, and refold any throws. Before leaving a room that you clean, make sure to wipe down the light switches and door handles.

Now all you have left is to walk around the house with your laundry basket and return all  items to their respective places.

The Balabusta Boss

Quick Curl

With curls, every day’s a new adventure!  Curly wigs are so low maintenance… or wait, are they high maintenance?

Everyone wishes her wig required zero maintenance, but like all heads of hair, curly wigs will require a bit of love. There are some great products out there, but too much of anything is never a good thing. Ask your sheitelmacher which products are best for your wig; don’t use anything too heavy or sticky. Here are some quick tips to keep your curls looking natural without getting too wild.

• Buy yourself a water-misting spray bottle (Amazon’s finest).
  Mousse, curl cream, and leave-in conditioner all have to be used while the hair is damp.
• Brush your wig, then spray and scrunch, spray and scrunch. Each scrunch is a sort of squeeze to the hair, not a brush through. Keep in mind that running your fingers through the curls will cause the natural curl to separate.
• Curls feeling a bit wild? Spray a bit of water, then scrunch and hold each section of the sheitel from the bottom for about five seconds.
• Consider laying your sheitel on your dresser, not placing it on a sheitel head, to reduce fluff.
• If you really need to reset the curl, fully soak the wig, brush it, then run it through with some mousse. Hold the wig up with your hand, and squeeze and hold the hair while setting the mousse.

Tzipora Ehrman, Wigs by Tzipora

Photo Finish

Remember those days when we printed photos? When children’s school portraits were ordered in a variety of sizes, adorable cake smash pictures were blown up larger than life, and family vacations were documented by different trails and hikes?

You may still have a couple of boxes full of 4 x 6s, a couple 11 x 14s, and all the sizes in between. You’d love to have these photographs organized, accessible, and cherished, but alas, it’s a daunting, time-consuming project.

Here’s a fun and fast way to tackle it. Choose a container such as the Iris Deep Document Case. Lay out a few containers, each marked with a Post-it. You can separate the photos by year (2012, 2013, etc.), by range of years (2018–2020), by person (Zevi, Bassy), or even by event (Covid quarantine, Shlomy’s bris, Disney vacation).

Keep sorting directly into the cases, adding more categories or combining some together as you work. You can pause mid-project by closing and stacking the cases and continue later. Your hard work is being maintained and there’s no pressure to complete the project in one sitting. Once done, you can use a labeler to label the edge of the cases and give it that pro look. The best part is the walk down memory lane in the process.

Ruthie of Simplifized

Wine Away

Imean, we’ve all been there. We’ve opted out of the plastic tablecloth because it looks classier this way — think china on cloth, gleaming silver — plus, we have amnesia, apparently. And then, yup, that overflowing Kiddush cup, well, overflows.

Thanks to Esti for sharing this product that removes splatters in seconds when Motzaei Shabbos comes.

Paint Refresh

Don’t you love it when your home is newly painted? It looks so pristine and welcoming... until those inevitable scuffs, stains, and scribbles show up. But freshening up doesn’t mean waiting for a new paint job! The roller brush repair kit makes those fixes easy.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 919)