"Grab and go" travel bag

I have something in my house that I haven't seen on any other site yet, and it's so simple and useful I thought I would share. I can it a "grab and go" bag. Inside of it, I keep the cords and adapters We would use while traveling that go to the various electronics we might take with us. Right now it has an extra ipod shuffle charger, 2 extra UBS charging cord that fits the various e-readers in our house (a Sony e-reader, a Kindle keyboard, and 2 Kindle Fires) as well as both my phone and Philip's, 2 USB wall plugin adapters, a car USB adapter, and a travel surge protector (that has 3 regular plugs and 2 USB). It usually also has at least 1 battery charger and some extra rechargeable batteries as well. Depending on where we're going, I can also toss in all 4 e-readers and my camera. I personally use a small backpack for it. Because we usually have at least 2 cords to everything (somehow) or cords that can be used for multiple devices, this works really well for us. Keeping it all in a small backpack means it's all kept together and easily grabbed on our way out the door, and doesn't get left in the car where the heat can mess something up. Since we've started taking the dogs with us more, I may add in an extra leash as well.

Since we don't do a lot of long-distance travel, it may seem odd that I have this put together, or that it wouldn't get much use. It actually gets used a lot. Whenever we have appointments that may mean a wait in a waiting room, I take it with us, and make sure the readers are all in it. I don't always make sure they are charged, though. Oops. Yeah, I'm an imperfect mom, I admit it, and I'm ok with that lol. All we have to do is find a plugin and we're set, though. The battery charger is kept in there mostly so I know where it is. I have another one I keep in my desk drawer as well.

Does anyone else have something like this? What do you keep in it?

Simple organization tip!

So, I went to Dollar General with a simple goal in mind: finding myself some sort of cheap small tubs to organize the hall closet's piles of junk. In one corner was a pile of bar soaps, with a mound of spare toothbrushes and extra toothpaste next to it. Shaving kit bags were piled on the top shelf filled with extra disposable razors, and there was a large bin in the top of the kids' closet with even more spare toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as disposable travel toothbrushes (just add water... toothpaste is already applied in a powder form) and hotel-sized soaps and shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles. mixed in among the entire mess were the few perfume/cologne bottles we own, and a few samples of others. It was 2+ shelves worth of MESS. So, at Dollar General, I found some "shoe-box" sized tubs for $1 each. I got six, and only used 4 in the closet. I even condensed the hair clipper blades (and one of the clippers) down into a tub with my razors. I wish I had some before pics! I didn't even think about it, though! 

Whew!

What a fun evening! Had strawberry shortcake with the kids.... A first for them! Then, I had fun showing them how Ivory soap puffs up if you microwave it. It cools off really quick, and then crumbles into powder really easily. We're low on body wash, so I melted the powder into a pot of water (roughly 4 cups of water? IDK, I just put some water in the pot.) and added what was left over from my last attempt at body wash. The last time, it came out chunky and snot-textured. After some reading, I realized this means I didn't melt the soap well enough and there wasn't enough water. That batch is cooling right now. I'll know tomorrow how it comes out!

I was inspired by the Ivory, and looked up if Fels-Naptha soap would react the same way in the microwave. It does, kinda. It's not as dramatic a PUFF (it ends up looking like slightly over-risen bread) and it takes a LONG time to cool down, but IMO, it's worth it. After it cooled off, I broke it into small pieces and run it through my (tiny) food processor to powder it. It doesn't crumble quite as easily as the Ivory. As I was powdering it, I slowly added in the other ingredients for making my laundry detergent (super washing soda and 20 Mule Team Borax) and then mixed them up really well when I was done. Still have Borax left over from the FIRST batch of laundry detergent I made in January. I've made 3 batches so far this year, only needing to buy the fels-naptha for the second batch. So far this year, counting this batch, we've spent roughly $20 on laundry detergent, and I think this will last us until August, at least. Still had about 1/3 of the last batch left, so maybe a little longer than that even. Sure beats the hell out of spending $15-$20 a MONTH on laundry detergent! Considering making some to sell, but I am so getting a cheap-o microwave to use out in the garage and a bigger food processor if I do! The smell is HELLA potent.

I can't remember if I posted about it or not, but Philip and I got the guts ripped out of the old console TV we got. We were also given another one with a swiveling base. Not sure what we're gonna do with #2! I'm thinking shelf, but not sure just yet. Need to get sanding on #1 and figure out what colors I want to paint it. Debating between a medium stone-grey or a more brown-grey color, and no idea on what color trim yet.

Hmm... I should start making this blog a once a week goal, at least to start out with!