DIY Chore Charts with Scotch® Expressions Tape

Last year I shared a '30 day Organised Home Challenge' on my Facebook page.  One of the challenges I shared was making a chore chart to help with morning routines and getting jobs done around the house. A friend Rae shared her cool chore charts she made that she uses with her three children. Here are a couple of pics of them…

So when I was contacted to take part in another Scotch® Expressions  Tape Promotion ' Back to School' and asked to share a chore chart DIY I knew just what to do thanks Rae! These chore charts are super easy and quick to make, and by using pegs you can easily update or change jobs for each child. And kids will really like using them as anything tactile always appeals (pegs are great for little one's fine motor skills too). And it's easy for parents/caregivers to see which jobs still need to be done...

DIY Chore Chart

You will need

* one wooden board per child- these boards were at Spotlight and were only $2 each on sale when I bought mine! 

* Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape or Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape tape 

* Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape or Scotch® Expressions Magic™Tape- all from Warehouse Stationery

*wooden pegs- you can find these at Spotlight, Warehouse Stationery or Dollar Value type stores

*alphabet stickers- again you can find these at the above stores

*marker pens

Step one: using either the Scotch® Expressions Duct Tape or Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape tape  (I used the Scotch® Expressions Masking Tapes), cover your board as in picture below

Step two: using either the Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape or Scotch® Expressions Magic™Tape (I used a Scotch® Expressions magic tape) tape a horizontal line across the top of the board (leaving enough room for your childs name above). Then tape a vertical line from the horizontal tape down the middle of the board to the bottom.

Then if you would like to divide your board into 'am' and 'pm', tape another horizontal line of tape roughly half way down the vertical line. 

Using your alphabet stickers stick the letters of your child's name up the top, and then stick on 'TO DO' and DONE' under the top line. I just used a black marker pen to write 'am' and 'pm' in each section of the board.

Now using a marker pen write the chores you would like your children to do each morning. 

Here are some of the chores I thought of for my three children aged 3, 5 and 7 (some are just for the older two kids). Each day I will aim to put 3-4 chores on each section of the board.

am jobs

Brush teeth

Brush hair

Make bed

Pack lunch and drink bottle

Pack swim bag

Tidy bedroom

Empty dishwasher

Wipe table

Tidy bedroom

pm jobs

Unpack school bag

Set table

Clear and wipe table

Sweep floor

Fold washing

Put away washing

Tidy lounge

The rest of the pegs I'm storing in an old sifter I've got in our kitchen- easy access to the pegs, and I've put some blank ones in as well so I can write new chores when I think of them, or as school sports and after school activities change each day/term.

And Rachael from 'A Snapshot of Life' shared a pic of her chore chart she made after seeing mine when I was working on them on my Instagram page- I like how she typed up the chores and stuck them on pegs- much tidier than mine! She used the same Scotch® Expressions Duct tape that I used to cover some of Amelie's school books the other day- love it!

And if you would like to make some of these yourself, or take part in the Scotch®  Tape Promotion ' Back to School' by submitting your own Tape creations (you'll be in to win a $100 Prezzy card if you do!) then head over to the Scotch Australia and New Zealand Facebook page where you can enter via the Facebook app!

I’m also giving away a bag of Scotch® Expressions Shipping Tape, Scotch® Expressions Masking Tape, Scotch® Expressions Washi Tape plus some other Scotch® Expressions goodies this week on my Facebook page- to enter leave a comment on the post about these chore charts on my page. 

I hope you enjoyed reading these ideas for a DIY chore chart-I have two more blog posts to share as part of the promotion so stay tuned! 

Thanks for reading, 

Megan

Using Decorative Tapes at Home

This is my last post as part of my series of ideas for using the new Scotch® Expression Tapes,   I have had a lot of fun thinking of ideas for each of my posts- it has been pretty challenging getting them all done during one of the busiest months of the year (school holidays/going away trips) but I have enjoyed sharing my ideas with you!  So here is my last post with a few ideas for using washi tape and the new Scotch® magic tape in your home. As I said in my first post I've been using washi tape for quite a few years for all sorts of things so this is a pretty easy post to write...

I used the magic tape (a matte repositionable tape) to label my containers in my pantry.

I also use it to label containers that go to school for bake sales and the like rather than writing straight on the container.

We use our pantry doors as a bit of an art display wall so I love using washi tape to stick the pictures to the doors.

It's Valentines Day next week so I taped this heart onto a wall by our dining table and made some more washi tape heart stickers  as well.

I bought some new mascara the other day (I buy it probably less than once a year) so I had the idea of taping a bit of magic tape on it and labelling it with the date so I'll know how old it is (apparently it only has a shelf life of 3/4 months!!) 

I also had the idea of using washi tape to make a bookmark type thing just by folding over the tape about 2cm higher than the book and sticking to the other side of the page.

And here are a few more cute ideas I've found on blogs and pinterest-I have heaps more ideas on my 'I love washi tape' pinterest board as well :)

More kitchen labelling and decorating

http://www.sisterssuitcaseblog.com/2012/04/washi-tape-week-day-1-kitchen.html

Washi tape shelf edging

http://www.auntpeaches.com/2013/04/washi-tape-shelf-edging.html#more

A stripy washi wall!

http://www.annkelle.com/my-washi-wall/

Label wine glasses at a party

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/268808671481396667/

Use for gift wrapping - this is how I wrap most of my presents now!

http://www.vitaminihandmade.com/2011/06/i-love-this-tape.html

So I hope you've enjoyed my series of Scotch® tape posts- all of the tapes are at Warehouse Stationery or Fishpond so have fun and get crafty!

Megan x

Here are my other Scotch® Tape blog posts...

Getting Crafty with Scotch® Expressions tape

Washi Tape Craft Party

Washi Tape Kids Art and Crafts

Washi Tape Back to School ideas

Decorative tape ideas in the Classroom

A Washi Tape Dollshouse

My Pinterest Home- Ikea Plate Shelf

I pin a lot of photo's on pinterest of kitchens with cute shelf units/plate racks - like these ones below 

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/48343395971421975/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/48343395971409819/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/48343395971428864/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/48343395971421973/

and I now have my very own vintage style/colourful plate shelf - I am LOVING it!

I shared these photo's on my Facebook page last night but thought I would share them on here as well for any of you not on Facebook. I ordered this Ikea Stenstorp plate shelf from Akia.co.nz after a helpful person on Facebook told me the name of it as I have been wanting a kitchen shelf unit like this for ages but didn't know quite how I was going to get one! Akia takes orders for any Ikea products you want then they buy it and ship it to you so it takes a month or two to get your item sometimes but it's definitely worth the wait! Here are some more pics of the shelves...

This is the first post in my new series for 2014 'My Pinterest Home' - I'm going to share ideas for organising and display as well as interior design ideas from Pinterest and how I incorporate these ideas into my own home.

http://www.pinterest.com/megsmousehouse/

Megan x

Organised Home Challenge: Meal Planning

It's been a little while since I wrote my last 'organised home challenge' post- just over a year actually! The last one was just before I had Jack and there has not been much organised home stuff going on since then that's for sure. But with Jack now nearly 1 and my eldest starting school I am hoping to make my life a little more organised again. I was inspired to start some meal planning after reading this post on the blog Modern Parents Messy Kids.  I was also reading Annabel Langbein's cook book Free Range in the City and she mentions meal planning and having a weekly plan eg: chicken on tuesdays, slow cooker wed night etc which really appealed to me. The other reasons I want to get into meal planning are

• we cook the same meals a lot and forget about all the other meals we can also cook
• it was taking me ages to choose meals for the week when I did the grocery shopping
• wanting to be more organised so we have all the ingredients we need for dinner and it is at least prepared during the day (if not cooked)
• want to do more cooking of double meals so every 2nd week we don't have to do actually do a lot of cooking
• trying new recipes
• giving the kids a wide variety of meals so they get used to different ingredients and food from different places - I love the idea of having themed dinner nights eg: Mexican night-eat nacho's, listen to mexican music (thank you YouTube!), look on a map to see where Mexico is, have little flags, learn some Spanish words eg: please, thank you, make up a menu etc.

So first off I made a big list of all the meals we already cook or want to cook and sorted them into

Mince, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Lamb, Fish, Pasta, Pizza, Eggs, Salads, Vegetarian and Soups. I used some of our recipe books, my recipe file and searched online for recipes too. 

Then I made up a blank table with a weekly plan (This might not work out every week but at least its a start!)

Mon- Lamb or Pasta

Tues- Mince

Wed- Chicken

Thurs- Beef or soup 

Fri- Fish, Pork or Sausages

Sat- try new recipe or cook a treat meal eg: steak

Sun- easy meal- eggs, soup etc

You can download my (very simple) blank weekly meal plan here- I've also got spaces for trying a new desert each week (really need to learn some more desert recipes as apple crumble is pretty much my only one!)  and baking for the week.

So I thought I'd share my list with you- you could copy and paste it and modify to suit your family if you want.  Some meals in my list have links to a recipe online and as I share/find more recipes I will link to them here. 

I found lots of recipes on the websites below plus a few more like Masterchef, other TV cooking shows and celebrity chef websites too like Jaime Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Annabel Langbein. 

http://www.realstock.co.nz

http://www.foodlovers.co.nz

http://foodinaminute.co.nz

http://www.taste.com.au/

http://www.foodie.co.nz/

MINCE

• Cottage pie
• Meatballs with noodles and tomato sauce
• Meatloaf with mash and peas
• Lasagne
• Homemade cheeseburgers
• Nacho’s MEXICAN
• Taco’s MEXICAN
• Spaghetti Bolognase ITALIAN
• Baked potatoes with mince and cheese
• Chilli Con Carne

CHICKEN

• Chicken Fajita’s MEXICAN
• Slow baked italian chicken (Donna hay recipe)
• Roast chicken with roast potatoes and peas
• Chicken Noodle and Pea soup 
• Chicken drumsticks baked in oven with morocCan seasoning with couscous and roast vegetables (onion, carrot, pumpkin, capsicum, courgette) MOROCCAN
• Crumbed chicken drumsticks with homemade coleslaw
  http://chelseawinter.co.nz/crumbed-chicken-drumstick-recipe/
• Chicken cassoulet FRENCH
• Chicken stir fry with asian egg noodles and vegetables ASIAN
• Chicken Curry (Butter chicken/korma/balti/rogan josh) with naan bread INDIAN
• Chicken Schnitzel
• Chicken Pita Pockets
• Chicken Parmagiana ITALIAN
• Chicken Fricasse FRENCH
• Chicken Fried Rice ASIAN
• Chicken marylands/drumsticks, tomato and olives casserole
• Chelsea Winter Italian chicken and potato bake with mozarella and vinaigrette
• Roasted chicken breast with creamy herb sauce
• Gypsy Chicken
• Chicken Tenders Wraps

BEEF

• Beef and guinness casserole
• Whole scotch fillet with sauce vierge 
• Crumbed beef schnitzel, noodles and corn/peas combo
• Beef stir fry with rice and vegetables ASIAN
• Steak with creamy peppercorn sauce and potato gratin (Annabelle Langbein recipe)
• Steak Sandwiches
• BBQ Sausages
• Hearty Beef Minestrone
• Beef Bourginon
• Curried Sausages
• Beef and Vege Pot Pies
• Crockpot Potato and Sausage Casserole
• Tomato and beef casserole slowcooker recipe
• Creamy mustard sauce beef stir fry

PORK

• Pork sausages, cannellini beans and tomato stew 
• Pork chops, noodles, and peas
• Roast pork
• Pork belly
• Bacon bagels
• Pork Pops with sweet chilli sauce
• Pea and ham risotto
• Hot Dogs
• Scotch eggs

LAMB

• Roast Lamb
• Butterfly Lamb
• Lamb cutlets/lamb rack-with potato rosti's
• Greek style lamb kebabs GREEK 
• Greek style Lamb Steaks with cannellini mash GREEK
• Lamb and rosemary Potato Pie
• Moussaka GREEK
• Moroccan lamb stew MOROCCAN
• Lamb Kofta’s GREEK
• Greek style meatballs in tomato sauce
• Lamb wraps
• warm lamb salad
• Slow cooked lamb and lentils

FISH

•  Crumbed or pan fried fish, french fries and peas or salad

PASTA

• Macaroni cheese with bacon
• Carbonara
• Tomato and olive penne pasta 
• Pea and ham rissoto
• Sundried tomato and cream penne pasta
• Ravioli

PIZZA

• Homemade Pizza’s

EGGS

• Bacon and egg pie
• Breakfast dinner- eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, breakfast sausages
• Omelette
• Boiled/poached/scrambled eggs
• Cheese, bacon and spaghetti pie
• Eggie Surprise (poached egg on toast with spaghetti on top)

SALADS

• Chorizo and potato salad 
• Caesar Salad 
• Greek salad
• Potato salad

VEGETARIAN

•  Falafel with pita bread, salad and yoghurt dressing MIDDLE EASTERN
•  Quiche with bread rolls and salad/peas/beans
•  Frittata 
•  Vegetarian Chilli
•  Vegetable soup with yoghurt and olive oil, garlic and herb topping with cheese on toast 
• Corn fritters with sweet chilli sauce

SOUPS

•  Chorizo and lentil soup
•  Chicken, vegetable and pasta soup
•  Minestrone 
•  French onion soup FRENCH
• Chicken Noodle and Pea Soup

Easy kids meals

• Picky-tea- boiled eggs, sausages, cheese, carrot and gherkin sticks, sausage rolls?
• Sushi

The other thing I've finally done is set up a master list for my grocery shopping- I shop online with Countdown.  I was re-inventing the wheel every week adding the same stuff and the same amounts to my basket so now I can just add all of that straight away and then add any other extras we need plus the ingredients for dinners. Can't wait to see how much quicker it is next week having that done!
Have you been doing any organising lately or have any organising you want to do? Or do you have  a favourite dinner or desert recipe on your blog that you'd like to share? Or just some more ideas for meals or categogories?  Leave a comment and you'll be in to win this cute tea towel set :)

Thanks for reading and happy organising!
Megan

Organised Home Project 6: Eco-friendly Cleaning

Hello all, I hope you've had a good week. This week's challenge is more of a cleaning one than an organising one but it's definitely one that makes the house feel really good! After reading 'A Home Companion' by Wendyl Nissen I've been thinking a lot about having a more eco-friendly and healthy home so I got stuck in this week to making some home-made cleaners. I really enjoyed making them - it was like being a kid again mixing up potions and making 'perfume'! - and it's going to save a lot of money by buying less cleaning products.

Because it's an organised home challenge, here are some 'before' and 'after' pics...

Before

and After!

For the recipe's I used this liftout written by Wendyl (it came in an issue from the NZ Women's Weekly last year) as well as Wendyl's 'A Home Companion' book and a few other online recipe's.

To make the cleaners I made this week you'll need a few 'ingredients'.

-baking soda

-vinegar

-lemons

-essential oils- lemon, eucalyptus, lavender, orange and tea tree oils

-eco-friendly baby bath wash (I used Eco Store's)

-eco-friendly dishwashing liquid (I used Eco Store's again here too)

First I made some lemon dusters- I really enjoyed making these and maybe I'll even dust more now that I have a cute jar of them to use!

Then I made some spray cleaner- so far I've used it for the bench and the high chair, as well as cleaning the oven top (which it worked a treat on) and also my craft desk which had glue stick bits and other grubbiness on it and it looked good as new after using the spray.

Next I made some anti-bacterial spray which smells divine (my hubby used to complain about the smell of the Dettol germ spray as it is pretty strong!)

Then I made up some more baby wipes spray. I use this with flannels by just spraying the flannels with the spray.  I still use baby wipes as well but I'm going to try to use the flannels and spray a lot more. 

I also use Honeychild cloth nappies (which I mix with using disposables) so for when they get a bit stinky I made up a spray of just a cup of water and 10 drops each of tea tree and eucalyptus oils  It's a good spray for cleaning the toilet too. 

Next up I'd like to make some dishwasher powder and some laundry detergent but I'm going to need a few more ingredients for those ones.

Because I love having a crafty project for each of these 'challenges' I thought I would have a go at making some crochet dishcloths. I have seen them on heaps of blogs but have never used them, in fact I'd never heard of them until I started reading blogs! My sister was even asking me if I was going to crochet around a sponge as she had obviously never heard of them either!! Thanks for the ideas and comments on my blog post yesterday about them - I went to the knitting shop and bought some cotton yarn and made a cloth using single crochet stitches last night. If you want to have a go there are heaps of patterns and ideas here and also here.

After reading Angela's 'Eight household habits' I put up a hook in our kitchen for the cloth- much nicer than draped all over the tap getting smelly- thanks for the tip Angela :)

So if you're inspired to make some of your own cleaners now I've made up a little giveaway prize to help you get started...

...a ball of cotton yarn to make your own dishcloths, a tea tree oil soap,  tea towel, spray bottle and some cute sticker labels.

To be in to win...

 * leave a comment telling us about some organising you have been up to lately (leave your URL if you've posted about it) 

or *leave a comment telling us some thing(s) you'd like to do this year to make your home a bit 'greener" 

 or * tell us some of your eco-friendly cleaning tips

You can leave a comment on my mousehouse facebook page under the link to this post if you're a non blogger :)

I'll draw the winner next Friday the 25th March. I still have heaps of ideas and projects for my 'Organised Home' challenge but as I am nearing my due date I'm just going to start posting them whenever I can rather then every Friday as I think some weeks I'm going to be a little bit busy soon!

Thanks for reading along and joining in the challenge so far, have a great weekend :)

To see more of my 'organised home' projects, click here

Megan x

Edit: have just come across Sarah and Cat's "Gift of Love" appeal for mums and children in Christchurch- they are asking for knitted/crochet dishcloths among other things- check out their appeal here http://sarah-redgingham.blogspot.com/2011/03/gift-of-love-appeal-update.html

Organised Home Project 5: A Civil Defence Kit

Well, I have finally got my civil defence kits done! Now that I'm into my last month of pregnancy (yay!) I've got to say my energy levels have dropped a lot and I am taking a lot longer to do things than I normally would!  We have had heaps on lately and I had a wedding in the weekend to video and make DVD's for- all finished today thank goodness!

Anyway, I've had civil defence stuff all over the baby's room for the last few weeks so I finally got it all together today into a big plastic bin for the garage, and three backpacks in case of a quick evacuation- type scenario.  It's really hard to think of what you would really need and to imagine having to actually use it but it makes me feel good to know that I've at least got some of the basics organised and bought a few things that we might need one day.

Payless Plastics was having a sale last week so I went in and bought a large bin, a 20 litre water container, a bucket and some rubbish bags. I used this list to refer to for things to get..

http://www.getthru.govt.nz/web/GetThru.nsf/web/BOWN-7GZTZF?OpenDocument

I also went through our camping stuff and put our little gas BBQ and some spare canisters in there, a radio, a small tarpaulin, some cans of food (need to get more), toilet paper, a couple of water bottles and some snacks. 

I also got three backpacks and packed one for each of the girls and one for me and my hubby.

I put in a woollen jersey for each of us, a change of clothes for the girls, nappies etc for Stella, water bottles and snacks, a couple of blankets and those silk liner sleeping bag type things that we used back when we were backpacking, and a first aid kit and some toiletries. I also put in a few family photo's and photocopies of our insurance policies and birth certificates. 

I sorted out all our medicines and first- aid stuff in the weekend and made three kits up- one for our family car, one for the house and one for our civil defence kit. I've decided to enrol in a first aid course later in the year as I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to first aid and would really like to have some skills and be confident that I could help my own family and others too.

Well, another project down, just hope I don't have to actually use this one!

For more ideas, Meeks from Juggling Motherhood has written a really thorough list of ways to get your family prepared for a disaster- check it out here.

There is so much amazing fundraising happening for Christchurch at the moment- it's really heartwarming to see kiwi's and people from all over the world contributing to the Red Cross and other charities supporting the victims of the earthquake. My pillowcase and toilet bag sets are on Trade me now- you can check them out here along with so many other cool handmade things up for auction with all proceeds going to the Salvation Army and Women's Refuge.

Pink heart set

Blue star set

The winner of the nappy wallet from 'the nursery/getting ready for baby challenge' is Notchka- thank you everyone for your comments and tips.

I'm not going to do a challenge this Friday but will be doing one next week- will let you know early next week.

Thanks for visiting, if you have any more civil defence ideas/tips we'd love to read them :)

Megan x