Useful stuff!

Edit:  I don't know why, but in order to see the posted links, you have to hover your cursor over the empty space in the blog.  I have tried to change that to just SHOW the links, but I'm too dumb to figure out how to do that, so just hover your mouse down the page, and the links will show up.  Weird!

So, we all Pinterest, right?  I mean, I don't tweet or Instagram, but I absolutely Pinterest!  I'm convinced it has helped me to gain some motivation to keep my apartment CLEAN.  My house, when we left it, was a bit of a ... wreck.  A nasty, dirty wreck.  I'm ashamed at how bad it looked.  I TRY to keep things clean, but I'm just not a neat freak, I never have been.  I don't have the patience to try and scrub things to keep them shiny and sparkly, much as I wish it always looked that way!  I've always been the type that in order to have a clean house, I would need a maid.

Now, I wasn't ALWAYS like that.  When my husband and I got married, we lived in a 2b/2ba duplex about the size of this apartment.  I kept it pretty neat, for the most part, which was a Big Deal, because the room in my parent's house ... was NOT neat.  Yes, I was THAT girl with a mountain of clothes covering my floor (not quite sure what color my carpet was), torn out calendar horse pictures wall papering my walls, and cat hairballs in very strange places.

Fast forward to now.  I am DETERMINED to turn myself into a better person all the way around than I was.  More organized, more fit, more healthy, more kind, more smart, and more clean.  I've found that the key to staying on top of everyday tasks is to ... well, do them every day!  Imagine that.  It's hard, though, when you allow things to get so far gone that just to catch up is a Herculean task.  I'm bad at organizing.  Really bad.  My brain just doesn't think in an organized fashion (unless it's horse related, then it's a whole different story!).  In this regard, Pinterest is a life saver!  HERE are my 10 real life Pinterest pins I've used, and swear by.

1.  A dishwasher wand filled 1/2 with white vinegar, and 1/2 Dawn dishwashing detergent to keep in the shower.  Use it after every shower.  I've done this from day 1 since moving in, and it's AMAZING.  The tub is lily white and clean as a whistle.  Though I cleaned my bathroom once a week(ish) in my house, the tub was NASTY gross.  Soap scum so thick, you could barely scratch it off with a fingernail.  Black stuff permanently embedded between the grippy pebbles in the floor.  I TRIED to clean that thing; I used the everyday shower spray, scrubbed with a scrub brush, used a Magic Eraser, dumped bleach in there ... it just didn't come clean and that was frustrating.  Now, I'm not giving it the chance to GET dirty, I'm keeping it clean.

2.  This blog post on how to organize my bathroom:  http://www.lizmarieblog.com/2013/01/my-bathroom-organized/  I tried to organize it exactly like that, but size constraints limited me, so I have the baskets holding all my STUFF, and organized it like she said; a space for hair and a space for body.  I can actually find stuff now, and sort of know what all I have.  Lifesaver!

3.  How to organize my plastic grocery bags.  I keep them.  It's a sickness.  You can never have too many plastic grocery bags, especially when you have dogs and kids.  But they can be hard and bulky to store.  I found this pin that changed my life!  http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011/07/summer-social-guest-project-make_21.html  Now, I draw the line at doing arts and crafts on a Clorox jar, so I just put my handy dandy rolled up bags in a quart sized plastic bag to keep them contained.  This really works great!

4.  A cute decorative thing for the bathroom with travel sized soaps.  I bought an inexpensive glass jar from Hobby Lobby (like this:  http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/clear-square-canister-with-lid-592659/)  and I unwrapped my travel sized soaps from all the hotels we've been in on our last few trips.  It's a cool thing to have, and a great way to remember your trip without spending any money on trashy souvenirs you'll end up tossing on a future move, anyway!  This is the actual pin I pinned:  http://www.hometalk.com/518941/making-toiletries-part-of-your-bathroom-decor/photo/99807

5.  A great way to organize my favorite horse show ribbons.  My husband vetoed the idea of the string hang method, and I'm too cheap to pay someone to make a quilt out of them.  I might could have made a wreath out of them, but again ... where are you going to hang something like that?  So I bought 2 huge clear vases (like this:  http://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.H195147.html?item=H195147&ref=GAS&tpl=detail&cm_ven=GOOGLESHOPPINGFEED&cm_cat=For%20the%20Home&cm_pla=Decorative%20Accents&cm_ite=H195147-000-000&adtype=pla), and just shoved all the ribbons in there!  I put 1-3 in one vase, and 4-6 in the other.  I played around with them to show the buttons on some, the streamers on others, etc.  They sit on a big shelf next to my bed.  This one is an example of what I did:  http://ourlifetastesgood.blogspot.com/2012/05/great-way-to-display-horse-show-ribbons.html

6.  Remember when I said every day tasks have to be done ... every day?  Here's the pin that is helping me stay on track with that:  http://thegaddisfamilyadventure.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-always-have-clean-housewell.html

7.  Who doesn't like a wreath for the front door?  Mine were all SO old.  Eew.  So I made me a cute one with my last name initial in it.  It doesn't look exactly like this one, but I got the idea from it.  http://www.etsy.com/listing/121741614/chevron-burlap-white-wildflower-buds-and?ref=sr_gallery_40&ga_search_query=chevron&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all

8.  How to cook the perfect baked potato.  I've made them like this now a dozen times since finding this pin.  I never knew!  http://creatingnaturally.com/the-perfect-baked-potato/

9.  Motivational pics.  This one is one of my favorites, and one that's literally helped me on my quest to become a runner.  "You don't have to go fast.  You just have to go"  http://www.womensadventuremagazine.com/blog/musings/just-get-out-there/

10.  The recipes!  Oh heavens, the recipes!  I've pinned so many of them.  Lots I haven't made yet; I'm not a gourmet chef by any stretch of the imagination.  My sister is, though!  I pin things that look yummy, but when I see an ingredient list 15 lines long ... my ADD kicks in, and I go on to one that's more simple.  A few of them have been bombs, sadly.  But a few I've made a ton of times already!  Here's a few of my favorite recipes that get the Bishop family stamp of approval:
Black bean lasagna:  http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Black-Bean-Lasagna-Rolls-MyRecipes-245124?columns=1
Pot roast:  http://youretoocrafty.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-pot-roastever.html
Mexican chicken casserole (making this tonight, as a matter of fact!):  http://www.mjandhungryman.com/mexican-chicken-and-quinoa-bake/

So there ya go.  10 real life useful Pinterest pins I've actually used.  I pin a lot of cool pictures of interesting looking places to visit some day.  It's a great website!