Creating A Laundry System For Faster, Cleaner, & Cheaper results

A well-thought-out laundry system will keep your clothes ready to wear and take less time. Here are some tips for getting control of your dirty clothes:

1. Treat stains as soon as you notice them. Learn something about the chemistry of stain removal. It will save you lots of money and time.

2. Learn how to use your washing and drying appliances. Read the manuals and follow directions. Select the right cleaning products for your appliance and water type (you might want to have your water tested and may need to purchase a water softener if it’s especially hard).

3. Take clothes out of the dryer immediately and fold or hang them. You may hardly ever have to iron if you observe this simple rule. If you forget to take your clothes out of the dryer, throw in a damp towel and re-dry five to ten minutes to remove wrinkles.

4. Dampen a washcloth with liquid fabric softener and toss in the dryer. It’s cheaper than disposable fabric-softener sheets and works just as well.

5. If you go to a laundromat, set up a caddy with all the products you need, including a stain treatment kit.

6. Sort ironing by the temperature required. Dampen as you go. Have on hand the following products for fighting stains and learn how to use them: acetone (not nail polish remover), ammonia, bleach (for both white and for colors), club soda, color remover, dry-cleaning, solvent, enzyme pre-soak, glycerine, hydrogen peroxide, oxalic acid solution, paint remover, petroleum jelly, sodium thiosulfate or sodium hyposulfite (get at a photo store), and white vinegar.

Here are four more tips to further speed along the weekly wash:

1. Have a basic mending kit handy. If you do your laundry at a laundromat, be sure you take it with you to do small mending jobs while you wait.

2. Kids mean more repairs and more laundry. Look for shortcuts. Use fusible bonding fabric, iron-on patches, a button puncher, and else anything that’ll save time and effort.

3. If the laundry has really piled up, you can go to the laundromat and get it all done at once (even if you have laundry facilities at home). If you’ve got 10 loads to do, you can fill up 10 washers and dryers and do all 10 loads in the time it takes to do one. Go at off-peak hours so you don’t have to wait for a free appliance. You’ll go home with everything washed and folded and only a few things to iron or mend when you get home.

4. Limit items that take special care such as old linens and handmade items and make sure you really enjoy the extra work it takes to keep them.

Popularity: 19% [?]

2 Reasons Why Not Forgiving People May Feel Good To You

Being the kind of person that does not like to forgive anybody may come across as an appealing option for at least two reasons.

1. It makes you feel invulnerable. Not forgiving gives you an aura of invincibility. When you refuse to forgive, you gather strength by humiliating the person you accuse of humiliating you.

The strength you feel from striking back at someone who hurt you may not be entirely illusory. You may force him to think twice about re-injuring you and reduce the frequency with which he tries. Of course, you might inflame the conflict and provoke him into attack again; but your tough, retaliatory stance may also intimidate him and show him who’s the boss.

2. It lets you blame others for your own failures. Not Forgiving lets you blame others for your own failures and transfer to them whatever it is you curse in yourself. It helps you ward off the shame and humiliation that come when someone gets too close to the unflattering truth about you.

You conveniently blame the other person for all your troubles, when the problem may be you - your inability to take the initiative, ask for help, or say no. It replaces the emptiness inside you with a surge of elation.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Lost Your Keys Lately?

Sometimes we need help remembering where we put things. Most of us have at one time or another lost our keys, glasses, checkbook, or that piece of paper we had just a second ago. Have you ever stopped to think about why we misplace these items so often? Usually it’s because we aren’t paying attention when we put them down. We’re distracted, and putting something down is not what we’re focusing on. Misplacing things has nothing to do with how old we are—only with how busy.

Choose One Place

How can we prevent ourselves losing things we need and save ourselves the aggravation, not to mention wasted time, that goes along with it? The best way to remember where things are is to always put them in the same place, what I like to call a forget-me-not spot. Why? we can apply “over-learning” to help rev up our recall for where we put things. If we always put the items we need, such as our wallet, keys, and glasses, in the same place, we don’t need to pay attention to where we put them, as they will always be in that forget-me-not spot. Here are some tips for using a forget-me-not spot:

1. Pick a convenient place. Your forget-me-not spot should be conveniently located so you will really use it. At home, I think the best place is near the door you use most frequently. At your office, the best place is most likely somewhere on your desk.

2. Make sure it can hold all your things. Your forget-me-not spot should be something that can hold the objects you want to put there. It can be a drawer, a shelf, a bowl on a tabletop, or a box. I once heard about a woman who had a table in her foyer painted with images of her keys, wallet, and glasses. While it probably worked well, it’s not really necessary to go to so much trouble! Plain or fancy, make sure your forget-me-not spot can fit all the objects you need it to. It’s also nice if there’s extra room for small items you may need to remember to take someplace, such as a book you need to return to the library or dry-cleaning receipts.

3. Get into the habit of using your forget-me-not spot. If a forget-me-not spot is going to work for you, you really need to use it. This really is a case of use it or lose it!

Popularity: 26% [?]

3 Ways To Help Keep Your Relationship Steamy

Keeping a relationship “hot” may be one of the highest priorities that a relationship must take in order to keep the passion going. Regardless of how much love you have for your special other, you should spend time and energy by keeping up with what excites you both sexually.

1. Have adventures with your lover. Don’t just keep making love with the same old routine and in the same old bedroom all of the time. Make love at the beach, in the car, or rent a hotel room for the day. Keep it sexy! Couples that always seem to have passion in their relationships know that they must keep things hot in order to keep things alive with passion.

2. Why not break the rules? Ask yourself: What ruts have we fallen into and how can be get out of them? Explore changes, even small changes, in which you both feel comfortable. Do not nix ideas automatically; instead, be willing to experiment with videos, sex toys, and magazines.

3. Learn what pleases. I’m not talking about what pleases your partner, but also what pleases yourself. Know what you enjoy most in bed and find out what your partner enjoys most in bed. Talk about it. Don’t be afraid to practice on each other new things and if something comes along that makes you feel good, then let your lover know.

Popularity: 22% [?]

2 Goal Setting Tips To Help You Become A More Successful Parent

Be Specific: Write down every goal you have and put boundaries around it so that you will know when you have achieved that goal. Saying “I’m going to be a better manager,” “I’m going to be a better parent,” “I’m going to get a better education,” or “I’m going to get a new house” simply isn’t effective. You must specifically and clearly identify your target. The more details you give, the more likely you are to get excited about your goal and develop the passion that enables you to focus on reaching that target.

If you decide that you are going to be a better parent, for example, you must determine “better than what.” Better than being too tired after work to spend time helping with homework? Better than being impatient and yelling at the children over every little thing? Better than never saying “I love you”? You can see that this procedure doesn’t get to the solution quickly enough. Instead, decide to spend time with your child, be patient, and hold your tongue - except when it comes to saying “I love you.” Get specific!

Try To Make Goals Measurable: Not every goal is measurable. For example, you can’t specifically measure how much your self-esteem has improved, although you may know and feel that it has improved. However, putting measures on a goal helps you to realize at any moment where you are in pursuing that goal. For example, if your goal is “I want to be a better parent,” how can you know when you have reached “better”? Instead, write some smaller, specific steps that move you toward the larger goal of becoming a better parent. You can set up steps such as the following:

• I will tuck my children into bed lovingly and carefully every night this week and spend those last few minutes talking with them.

• At breakfast, I will be careful not to be uptight or grouchy. Instead, I will be pleasant and cheerful and assure my children that today is going to be a good day.

• This week I will spend at least one hour in one-on-one time with each of my kids, doing something that each child particularly enjoys.

At the end of the week, give yourself a checkup to determine whether you’ve completed each particular step. If you successfully reach your mini-goals each week for several weeks, you will see measurable progress toward your larger goal. (Yes, you have become a better mom or dad.)

Popularity: 5% [?]

Change Your Life Forever: 5 Steps to Setting Goals

Would you like to know a simple ’step-by-step’ system of setting goals that can enhance every area of your life, and for as long as you live? Do you have the courage to set goals that will change your life beyond your wild dreams? Of course you do, but nothing will happen if you do not back your plan with action!

There is an old quote by Walace D. Wattles that goes “An ounce of action is worth more than a pound in theorizing”. In other words, you may be an expert in writing goals and making plans but unless you actually follow through with those plans you will never reach the levels of peak performance that you desire.

1. Make a choice: First look at each section of your life and really choose what you want to have in those areas. Let your mind go and write down your desires no matter how far out of reach they may seem at the moment.

2. Be specific: Leave no detail left behind. Don’t just write “I wish to make more money from my job next year”. Rather, write “By December of next year I will have increased my income by $20,000” These are real, tangible goals, that are clear enough to materialize.

3. Set deadlines: If you notice the above example, I specifically set a time-table for my goal. Setting deadlines cannot be stressed enough. Your subconscious mind is like a calculator. You cannot just push in half of the equation and expect to get the answer; you must give a clear concise instruction to get your answers.

4. Form your plan: If you have followed steps 1 – 3 then you will have a list of everything you wish to change in your life and exactly what you want out of those changes with clear concise instructions along with solid deadlines. It is now time to form your plan by writing everything you will have to do to achieve your goals. Be bold, yet realistic.

5. Take action: Do you know what the number one cause of failure is in most people’s lives? The answer is never taking action. We develop these comfort zones and become afraid to step out of those boundaries and really go after our goals. We know that we must change; we know that we have to follow our plan to be happy, but seldom do. Do not let your written plan of action go to waste. Start immediately on working towards your goals!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Clearing Your Head Of Limiting Beliefs

If you believe you can’t possibly live your dream on your own, without someone else changing or helping you, you’re probably not living your dream right now. If you see yourself as a failure, you probably aren’t focusing on the possibility of being wildly successful. On the other hand, if you believe it is your destiny and your right to be tremendously successful, you have your eye set on that goal.

What beliefs do you have that get in the way of living your dream? Start by making a list of beliefs that stand in your way. Here are some examples:

1. I’m not qualified; I don’t know how; I’d have to have a college education.
2. It’s too hard; I’d never have any fun if I worked as hard as my dream would require. I need to relax.
3. I have to wait until…
4. Someone else should take care of me.
5. I don’t have what I need to get started.
6. I don’t have a sharp-enough mind or memory.
7. It’s too late to start all over; I’m too old.
8. I have to wait for inspiration to strike.
9. I can’t afford it.
10. Something or someone else has to come first, before my dream.

Popularity: 8% [?]

A Powerful Tool For Success: Conditional Acceptance

Love, acceptance, and approval are the most powerful tools of reinforcing a human being can experience. When an individual has an attitude of partial approval or partial acceptance of others, an attitude of conditional acceptance develops. Statements such as, “I’ll accept you when…,” create hurt, anger, fear, and distrust. When you attach unreasonable conditions within a relationship, your opportunities for accomplishment and enjoyment diminish. An attitude of conditional acceptance creates resistance to healthy communication with others.

When you go to a restaurant and order a full-course dinner are you satisfied with a partial meal when you ordered a complete dinner? Of course not. Settling for being partially accepted as a person is not enough because it doesn’t provide enough emotional and physical nourishment. Conditional acceptance hinders your self-respect and creates resistance toward growth and change. If I allow myself to be partially accepted as a person, or accept others only on a conditional basis, this reduces the trust and comfort needed to achieve effective communication.

There’s no need to place a limit on the amount of love and energy you give or receive. You don’t have to settle for being accepted as a partial person. How often have you heard the statement, “She/he has a great body?” Don’t let anyone reduce you to a bunch of parts - hair, nails, skin, arms, or legs. What about the person’s other qualities, such as being competent, cooperative, conscientious, genuine, honest, faithful, forgiving, judicious, noble, persistent, sensitive, spirited, straight-forward, well-adjusted, thoughtful - to only mention a few? When you’re not appreciated as a whole human being, you become discouraged and your self esteem and confidence suffer.

Start accepting and confirming yourself as a total physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual person. Start behaving and believing that you are unique, a “crown of creation.” When you expect more of yourself you’ll get more! When you communicate through a negative self-image your message lacks confidence and determination. Conditional acceptance breeds mistrust, fear, and rejection. This condition also creates damaging self-talk, decreasing self esteem and producing non-harmonious relationships.

Overcoming resistance is difficult when one is discouraged and demotivated. Taking risks is not a high priority for the person who experiences conditional acceptance. When the person is disheartened and discouraged they may say, “Why trouble myself with anything? With my luck I was bound to fail. I’m not getting anywhere.” These statements are signs of frustration and hopelessness. Conditional acceptance creates discouragement and resistance toward change and growth. Unconditional acceptance creates encouragement, warmth, and understanding in relationships. Resistance to growth is eliminated when one is unconditionally accepted.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Is your marriage time-starved?

In one particular way, a relationship is just like a small baby. And although a baby is a very strong and resilient creature, without food and nourishment it will surely die. In the same way, couples who are living a time-starved lifestyle finds that their relationship dies unless they feed it emotionally.

You may have heard the term called “The 2 day marriage” before. This is a term that describe the hundreds of thousands of couples all over the world who are both so locked into their careers, mixed with the tasks of raising the family at night, that the only time they get together is on the two days of the weekend.

Although these 2 days may sound like fun and relaxing times to most people, couples find that even these weekends seem to drain their marriages of emotion and closeness. This is because so many of the forces of the weekend marriage try to suck the energy out of it.

During the week the schedule if full with work and then taking care of the kids, and of course sleep. But on the weekends, it seems that we have to take care of all of the other little tasks that we couldn’t get to during the week.

Stephanie, a married mother of two says “When we have much less time then we don’t give anything to ourselves, and of course we don’t have time for each other, and the stresses we face make it easier for us to turn on each other. My husband and I found each other arguing every chance we had, even when we set aside time on the weekends. Something had to change.”

We still love each other, but the distractions of our lives cause us to stop doing the things we know to do to take care of the relationship. So what is it that couples that are left with only time on the weekends do to heal and ultimately enjoy a better relationship?

One important way of getting close and dealing with time issues in a marriage is to take care of yourself. Successfully married couples who get in only a couple of days per week to be together made it a priority to take care of themselves as individuals and made sure that they each got t heir important needs met.

They understand the fact that if they do not give to themselves love and self attention, then they will not have love and attention to give away. Let’s put it another way: A little less for the relationship in the short run means a lot more for the relationship in the long run.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Are You A Non-Forgiver?

A growing body of research demonstrates that chronic negative emotions such as bitterness, cynicism, mistrust, and hostility - all expressions of not forgiving - sap your energy and undermine your mental and physical well-being. A recent study found that subjects who were instructed to rehearse unforgiving responses to a violation experienced elevated blood pressure and increased arousal of the sympathetic nervous system.

If these physiological effects are chronic and intense, they could compromise your immune system, increasing the risk of cancer or infectious diseases, or building calcifications in the coronary arteries leading to cardiovascular disease.

Refusing to Forgive may isolate you not just from the person who hurt you but from those who have done you no harm. Mistrust is like blood seeping from a wound, staining everything it touches. Morbidly absorbed in the injury, you may push everyone away, even those who care for you and want to help you heal. Unable to open up to them, or even admit that you welcome their support, you’re likely to stand firm but alone.

Stabilizing and strengthening yourself requires more than a shot of indignation. You need to turn inward and make sense of the injury so you can go on with your life. You need to reach out and develop more nourishing connections with those who are there for you, or who would like to be there for you. There’s a difference between nursing your wounds and binding them, a difference between destructive rage and constructive anger. When you don’t know the difference, not forgiving becomes your reason for being.

Learning To Forgive May Not Be Easy

Giving up the brute arrogance of not forgiving is hard work. You need to dismantle your pride, learn humility, and stop blaming others for your share of the problem. Most of us have suffered violations that seem unpardonable. Refusing to Forgive seems to demonstrate our courage and wisdom - our strength, our self-respect, our right to justice.

The truth is, however, that refusing to forgive offers only a superficial balm for our wounds. It may give us a temporary rush of power, but it doesn’t permit a clear, measured, self-sustaining response. It doesn’t release us from our preoccupation with the offender or provide anything more than hatred to rebuild our injured pride. It gives us a veneer of protection but doesn’t really make us any less fragile or more fulfilled as human beings.

In the end, Not Forgiving is just that - a negative force, a way of not being engaged in life. It is a sorely limited, constricted, hard-hearted response to injury that feeds on hate and humiliation and diverts us from the greatest challenge of all - to make peace with ourselves so we can feel whole and happy to be alive.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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