A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS--AROUND THE HOUSE

So this morning I was working on laundry and was once again reminded of a couple of laundry products I love. That got me thinking of what other household products I use regularly and am thankful for, so I thought I'd share. Maybe you already love them or will want to give them a try. Let me know what you think! SHOUT Color Catcher

When I get behind on laundry, it is easy to come up with a full load of whites or a full load of darks or towels. The trick is when I'm a laundry hero and I don't have a full load of darks or whites. That is where these come in handy. They let me do a combination load that keeps me caught up and doesn't ruin anyone's clothes. FYI--I always do towels/rags separately. They tend to make clothes look worn faster and sometimes shed towel fibers onto clothes that are a nuisance at best, disastrous at worst. I actually ruined a sweater drying it with towels. These are found in the laundry aisle.

BOUNCE Dryer Bar

I've tried Bounce sheets, Downy Balls, and every other dryer sheet I could find, all trying to find something that would help with pesky static cling. For awhile my static cling was so bad that my pajamas would actually spark in the dark. This has been my solution! The dryer bar lasts for a long time (I got the four month bar) and has cut down our static cling to almost nothing.

Just a note: The little tape things on the back to attach it to the dryer didn't work. Since I often dry clothes at night, it was quite irritating to hear the whole bar and base flopping loudly around in my dryer. My solution was was to adhere the base to the dryer with adhesive velcro--one side on the dryer and one side on the base. Haven't had a problem since.

DAWN Direct Foam

I've never had good luck with dishwashers completely cleaning dishes unless I practically wash them first. This stuff is great. A sponge (that can then go through the dishwasher), one squirt of Dawn Direct and the whole load of dishes are cleaned and ready to be sanitized. Easy and it lasts a long time.

EASY-OFF Glass Cooktop Cleaner

My glass cooktop is pretty and high-tech looking, but I actually cook on it--a lot--so I was having problems keeping it looking clean and well, high-tech. This product is great. I spray it on. Let it sit a few minutes and then clean it up. Much better than soft scrub and tedious scrubbing!

SWIFFER Dust & Shine

I purchased this product to clean the leather furniture that we bought from the classifieds. It was desperately in need of a good scrubbing and this said it cleaned and conditioned leather. It worked great for that but then I noticed on the back that it says it works for granite as well. I tried it and I LOVE IT. It makes my granite countertops so shiny and beautiful, they're almost like mirrors.

DIRT DEVIL Hand Vacuum

I have a lot of carpeted stairs in my house--sixteen plus a landing going down and eighteen plus a landing going up. I use this on the stairs and it is so much easier than hauling around a big vacuum. (Even better is sending a 10 year old with the hand vacuum down the sixteen stairs and a twelve year old up the eighteen stairs. It makes for a perfect little chore for the kids.)

EUREKA BOSS Pet Fresh Vacuum

We like our dog (some more than others), but I don't think I could live without this vacuum. When we needed to get a new vacuum, we looked at consumer reports to find out which one handled pet hair the best and the best one in our price range was this (we could have gotten a better one for around $1000.00. Can't do that!) It works great, is easy to dump out the dust and the filter can actually be sprayed off in the sink and dried making it cheap to operate.

So these are a few of my favorite household products. If you have any great suggestions, let me know! Happy cleaning!