SNOW DAY=clean up tips

The other day we had our first snow day of the season!  It was the first time my daughter got to really play in the snow and it was one of those perfect days with my kids I will forever treasure.  We had a blast!
After fun in the snow, the last thing you want to do is have the big cleanup from coming in and tracking the snow everywhere, having damp snow pants gathering on the floor and dripping coats.  So, here are a couple of tips I could not do without when it comes to snow day clean up.

BOOTS!

I love this boot 'rest' that I got at Menards last year for about $8.  I keep it by the door so that as soon as we come inside we take our boots off and put them on the 'boot rest'.  I always add a rag towel to the bottom of the rest to help absorb the extra melting snow so that I don't have the boots sitting in a puddle of water by the end of the day. 

I've seen some people do similar things with putting a cookie cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet pan and it seems to work just as well.


GLOVES, HATS, ETC!

For all of the miscellaneous gloves, hats, scarves, neck warmers, etc, here is my go to trick for drying them and keeping all the melting snow off of my floor.

I take the spare pants hangers from my kids closets and use them to hang up the gloves and hats and everything else. 
Luckily, I have been blessed with a nice wash sink in my laundry room and have installed shelving above it so this works out great. 
I used to hang the gloves from the pants hangers and then hang them on my washroom doorknobs with a hand towel on the floor under them to catch the melting snow.  But the kids pant hangers is the genius trick that works wonders!
Hope you can use these tips to enjoy your snow days and not dread the clean up.

Happy snow day everyone!

Kids and Hand Washing

Have you ever seen kids more excited about washing their hands?

Well, thanks to the Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap System, my kids fight over washing their hands first.  It's great.  My only problem was they love using it so much, that I have to closely monitor them or I'll hear the soap 'rrrrrr' of dispensing 3 or 4 times before I can stop them.  But hey, whose to complain when the kids are gleefully washing their hands clean of dirt and germs.

However, it is super expensive to purchase the soap refills for the dispensers.  When I made a comment to my hubby about the cost of the refill on this wonderful soap system we LOVE, he simply said..."why don't you just pop the top off and refill it on your own?".  WHAT?!  I knew I married him for a reason...
So, here is how my wonderful husband taught me to refill this soaps for this system.

First, you slide a spoon under the cap and just elevate the spoon by the handle to pop off the top.

Refill with your soap of choice that you have previously purchased.  Pop the top back on and you are good to go.  Just insert it back into the dispenser.