I 'MAY' Try This - No. 2 (Paint Roller/Brushes in Fridge, Sponge Spackling & Other Tips)

There are few household chores/projects that I dislike more.  But, when you plan on putting your house on the market, it's inevitable that one of the pre-sale To-Dos is going to be refreshing/neutralizing paint.  A few years back we enlarged and updated the closets in the master and eldest's bedrooms.  In doing this, we installed Rubbermaid's adjustable systems and love their versatility.  Along the "getting it ready for the market" mentality, the closets we did not do back then, stick out like a sore thumb and to keep things looking cohesive...it's time to update our foyer, hall bath and pantry closets.

So, what a great opportunity to try out a few painting Pins from Pinterest, right?!?!

To start, I had to tare out the old closet bar & shelf (wood).  And boy, were THEY attached well!  So, needless to say, I had to spackle, sand and prep.  I'd actually also pinned some "wallboard repair" Pins and here is my two cents...

The awesome product that goes on pink and when dry, turns white, did work.  Is totally worth the extra few bucks per container.  When you have deeper gouges, it's nice to see when things have dried thoroughly.  Had I not had this product, I'd have prematurely sanded and caused the compound to have negative puckering.  I am not a fan of all the sanding dust so was totally up for a different method of getting things smooth.  Using a damp sponge to level out the compound did not work.  Maybe it was my technique, but I wound up with sand paper EVEN AFTER this method.  Sanding sponge blocks did work.  I actually would like to shake the hand of the person who thought this one up.  It produced even, professional quality end results without tons of work.  I purchased all grits (medium, fine and extra fine) and wound up just using medium.  Love them!
 

As for the next step, painting...
Cutting in, really wasn't too bad this go round all things considered.  Since it's a closet, both the ceiling and walls are the same white color.  However, to keep paint off the trim, there is no substitution for a good tape (I love Frog Tape brand).  A Pin I'll be un-pinning is the suggestion to use a spackling knife as a blocker, did not work.  No matter how firmly I pressed it against the wall, there was always seepage. :(  I do have to say, you should Pin this idea and that is to use one of these:

 

as a paint remover.  Diaper wipes do remove paint thoroughly.  They work like a charm doing double-duty.  Hahaha, pun intended!  Any little blobs that did wind up on the trim, wiped off fairly easily with a diaper-wipe.

Next up, and in between coats I tried out the paint roller/brush in fridge, which does work.  I actually have kept it in there to see how long it'll stay moist - I'm thinking it may push the Pin suggestion of 4 days.

I also have to give a shout out to the Pins that suggest writing paint colors and amount of cans needed to paint the room on back of light switches, which works.  I can't tell you how invaluable this has been...

I 'MAY' Try This - No. 1 (Baby Oil Gel/Shaving)

So I'm rolling out my newest brainchild...
the "I 'MAY' Try This" Month
Where I am ACTUALLY doing some of the Pins I've accumulated on Pinterest over the years.

First up is the Baby Oil Gel/Shaving Challenge.

Let's just say, letting my legs get hairy for this one was most of the work.  I have slow-grow hair so 'for science' they had to grow out for almost two weeks...ew!

To try and keep this as scientific as possible, for the next two weeks I shaved daily - my left with the baby oil gel and right with shaving cream (as the placebo), both legs had their own razor. 

A close-up of my leg, preshave.  You can see,
I have really blonde hair (barely visible, but for
sure you can feel it to the touch).  What's most
noticeable is how scaly my skin is...just call me
Reptile Lady, LOL!                                          

Here are a few things (post experiment) that I'll pass on to you.

The baby oil gel gunked up the razor unbelievable.  This honestly though, did not inhibit shaving.  It seemed as if while I continuing to shave, it would self-shed from the razor blade, but at the end of each session there was residue left on the blade.
The life of the blade did last longer (one of the Pinterest Pin claims).  I have continued to use the baby oil gel blade now into week three.  My theory is that the hairs are more moisturized and therefore less hard on the blade.
I did not notice a difference in closeness of the shave (a Pinterest Pin claim).  Over the following days, I also did not notice that the hair took longer to grow in (another of the Pinterest Pin claims). 
My leg became less scaly and skin, more soft.  I felt it was beneficial that as a side-effect the baby oil gel to shave wound up doing two jobs at once - a shaving aide and moisturizer (in one step).  I think that because I didn't wash off the baby oil gel after shaving, my left leg, for sure got a benefit.

See, less like the Reptile Lady!

So, if you are trying this method to slow growth or elongate the time between the need for saves...its a fail.  However, the fact that the skin on my legs has made such a transformation (and I'm now not having to deal with an additional job of using a moisturizer in my after bath routine), makes this a keeper!!!  I'd also like to add (and maybe a little TMI for some), that using this in my bikini area has been wonderful.  No after-shave red bumps anymore!  But, it does require washing the area a few times to remove the oil from your skin.

The School Morning Checklist

I'm not sure about you all, but our school mornings always seem hectic.  It could be that every inhabitant of my home is going in a direction and they don't have a map.  The biggest culprit of wandering around aimlessly is our school-ager.  What ever happened to being born with certain in-bred tendencies of taking care of one's self...oh, yeah.  That's right...we humans didn't come with that installed.  If you are like me, and totally envious that the local birds all seem to have an uncanny ability to build their own nest, eat their meals without the need for another hunter and travel without directions...here is an idea that I came up with:

 

The School Morning Checklist

 

A check in every circle would be every mom's dream...

 

 

I started this project out with a list of all the things that our child could do on his own (and to date chooses not to).  Let me just say, this evolved...and became descriptive to a fault.  From there I opened up Word and realized that the average size page wasn't going to work for us so it got bumped up to Legal.  I laid out the list with a means to check-off whether the item had been done or not and found a really cool backdrop for it all.  Hit print, will laminate it later and hang on the fridge.  Now if only, I'll be so lucky as to have someone follow the instructions. :)

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