Works-for-Me Wednesday....making my life easier edition

The other day my husband and I were talking about the "stuff" we own and how it affects our lives.  We've all heard the guys on TV, other bloggers, friends, and family talking about how some new gadget or machine has made their life so much easier...but is it true?  Do we really need new things to make life easier?

In some ways I completely agree!  I really enjoying having a washer and dryer and do feel that those make my life easier.  But I'll admit that I have, before, become caught up in owning new cleaning gadgets and they end up making my life more difficult and tying me down with lots of stuff!  That's not easier for me.

Here are some things that we do and don't own that HAVE made my life easier...some of them you may agree with and some of them you won't...but this is what works for me!  

1. Not using paper towels.

This was not something we actually did on purpose, believe it or not.  I had read of people who stopped buying and using paper towels and it sounded like a nice idea, but one that I thought would have to wait until we had the "right" cloth options.  That's what I thought anyway.  One day we ran out of paper towels and I just didn't buy anymore...we had a ton of paper napkins that did the job in a pinch and we really weren't ever using them so I thought I'd wait to buy paper towels until we ran out of napkins.  It has now been several months since we ran out of napkins.  I don't really know when it happened and certainly didn't notice until cooking bacon a few days ago and I wasn't about to leave what I was doing to go buy a roll of paper towels!  So we used a wire cooling rack.  The next time we used a regular dishrag (clean of course) and it worked great!  

2. Not having a working dishwasher.

I never thought I would enjoy NOT having a dishwasher.  We do have one, technically, but it has been broken for goodness knows how long and we just haven't had time to fix it.  While I do miss the convenience when we have lots of people over, I don't miss how many dishes we used to have and use!  Since we have to wash everything by hand, we only have 4 place settings.  This wouldn't have been enough to fill up our dishwasher and I would have felt bad using all that water for a very less-than-full machine, but by washing things by hand we use fewer dishes.  We also question every time we want to get out a dish...which has lead to less snacking!

3. Using "family cloth" in the bathroom.

If you aren't familiar with this, please check out these posts for more information.  This came as an idea from a fellow blogger and I am so happy with it!  Since I already wash cloth diapers, I can just throw them in with my son's diapers, but I've been known to throw them in with regular towels also.  The name is a bit misleading, I am the only one in the house that uses these and I only use them for....shall we say, "wet" trips to the restroom.  My family thinks I'm crazy and it's OK if you do too!  I love it!  The cloths are more absorbent, comfortable, and leave no paper residue.

4. Owning a steam mop.

We recently had to buy a new vacuum cleaner and while we briefly thought of shelling out major dough for a top of the line one for allergies (as the whole family has been plagued this summer something awful) we reconsidered.  We only actually have one room with carpet (which is hopefully going to be torn up this summer) and 3 area rugs.  It didn't make much sense to spend so much on something that would really only clean a handful of surfaces/floors in our house.  So we looked at steam mops.  I HATE mopping!  I really am not so keen on sweeping either, but it's necessary so it happens most of the time.  With the new steam mop I can vacuum the floors and steam mop in the same time it takes me to sweep/mop with normal methods.  But this way I don't have to worry about any nasty cleaners being harmful to my babies and I don't have to mess with a mop/bucket.  It works for me and I love it!

Those are just a few things that I thought of that make my life easier.  Maybe not always simpler...but definitely easier :).  What are some of the things you use/own that make your life easier?  

This blog post is submitted to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.