(More) stuff I like

Hello there! I have high hopes that this is the last frigid day we’ll see here in Indiana – am I crazy to hope? Maybe. But it gets me through cause I’m looking forward to the 40’s next week! Break out the flip flops!

So I’ve mentioned once or 25 times I’ve been doing lots of laundry lately. Seriously the most fun thing EVER. I was reminded of a couple products I love while doing all this laundry and there’s a couple others I’ve been meaning to mention for a while.

I love hearing little things that people have around the house that work (and don’t work) for them. Some of these are spendy, some are pretty cheap – all I love. First up the laundry stuff, cause you know. That’s all I know right now.

Have you tried these little pellet things? They are little tiny bursts of smelly stuff:

You pour some into the washer with the dirty clothes and they really make them smell amazing. Way better than any softener I’ve tried. We love pulling out a towel a week after washing and having it smell so fresh. We use a little more than it says to and don’t use them on every load, but they really do work well. The aren’t cheap – a big bottle costs about $8 if I remember right, but it will last a while.

Sometimes I can be a lazy launderer (some would say smart launderer) – especially with the kiddo’s clothes. They’re still so small so I sometimes will wash them all in one load. I put one of these in with it and they soak up any colors that may bleed onto other things:

Sometimes they come out the way they went in – pretty white. Sometimes they’re really dark so I know they’ve done something. They’re fine to throw in the dryer too, so no need to pick them out of the washer. Let’s be honest here though – you still can’t go washing a red shirt and white socks together, but even then it does help. You know, if it happens “by accident.”

OK, enough about laundry.

We upgraded our phones a while back and I also upgraded my case. My husband first started using the Mophie case a while back and I was always so jealous of his constant fully charged phone. It’s basically a case that charges your phone:

And I don’t know how I ever lived without it. My phone would die at least once a day before. Part of the reason was it was an old phone, but part of it is that I just use my phone a lot. I’m on it all day long checking emails or social media stuff for the blog. These aren’t cheap in general but if you’re like me it’s worth the investment. They come in different charging amounts – I think one charges the phone 50 percent (it’s the cheapest), one does 80 percent and one does 100.

It’s also extremely helpful when traveling. Like this past weekend in Chicago – I was able to take photos all day and I just flicked a switch to charge the phone when it was low. You do need a special charger (that comes with it) and we have other devices that use the same charger, so that hasn’t been a bit issue for me.

Speaking of phones, a few of you recommended an app to me years ago and it kind of changed my life. I blogged about my desire to move from a night owl to a morning person a couple years ago and many mentioned this app – it’s called Sleep Cycle and it’s amazing:

So the app monitors your sleep patterns. It can tell (somehow) when you’re in a light sleep or a deep one. If I set my alarm for 7 a.m., it will wake me by 7, but sometimes if it notices I’m in a lighter sleep before that (you can set it for the time before 7 that you want – with 10 to 30 minutes before I think), then it wakes me up when in that lighter sleep state. So it may wake me at 6:35 or 6:45 or if I’m crazy tired it may just wake me at 7 cause that’s when I need to be up.

Does that make sense? From the very first morning I used it I was SHOCKED. I used to reset my alarm literally five or six times every morning. Now, 90 percent of the time I’m up when this wakes me. It is truly fascinating. It also keeps a record of your sleep so you can see what kind of night you had. It really is very cool.

I’m not sure if this one is available for androids or not, but on the iphone I believe it’s only a dollar. Let me know if you try it! (Here’s a link to there site.)

Finally, a little thing that’s helped to keep our kitchen sink less cluttered. A few months ago I saw a blogger talk about a drying mat in her kitchen (I can’t remember who it was) and I kind of thought maybe it would be a waste of money for me. Then I saw a stinking cute one at TJMaxx and stood there thinking, am I just wanting this because it’s CUTE or because I’ll really use it?

I figured I’d try it out because I have a habit of leaving clean dishes in the right side of our sink forever and never putting them away. They don’t dry well, they get wet again when I wash or rinse other stuff and then I end up washing them all over because I feel like they’re not clean.

SO. I bought the cute drying mat:

And I use it all. the. time. Every day. I actually tend to wash a few dishes instead of putting them in the dishwasher now. It’s nice and big so it holds way more dishes than the side of our sink, and they dry a TON faster. It also folds up and snaps shut so it’s easy to store away under the sink.

This one is the Harman brand and I got it for $2.99. I see them at TJ Maxx and HomeGoods every time I go in now. Love it.

So there you go, a few little things that I use daily that I’ve really come to love. Do you use any of these? Any great products you’re loving lately?

**You can see another list of stuff I like from a few years ago here. I still use every one of them. :)