About Shifrah Combiths | Page 17

Living rooms host so many of what become life's memories. But all that living means lots of people touching things, and spilling things, and sneezing on things...

Shifrah Combiths

Oct 21, 2019

The Twice-a-Year Checklist that Will Keep You Safe at Home

Here is a semi-annual of home maintenance tasks to check off, all in one place, to make sure your home is not only clean, but safe.

Shifrah Combiths

Oct 20, 2019

This Lesser-Known Dryer Setting Will Save You Hours of Ironing

Days and weeks go by while the flowery blouse and the flowy dress hang unworn... because you pulled them out of the dryer wrinkled and you just do. not. want. to iron.

Shifrah Combiths

Oct 5, 2019

53 Positive, Productive Things You Can Do While You’re Watching TV

If you're worried about spending too much sedentary time on the sofa while you're catching up on your latest obsession, here are some ways to integrate some small life improvements to your TV time.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 27, 2019

21 Smart Ways to Keep Your Living Room Clean, Forever

Here are some creative and attractive ways to set up your living room so it looks clean just about all the time.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 22, 2019

18 Small, Practical Ways to Get Your Home Ready for Fall

Staying in tune with the change of seasons helps in some small way to feel in sync with the Bigger Picture.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 20, 2019

Why It’s OK That I’m Re-Starting My Budget in September

Starting fresh allows me to take stock of exactly where I am right now and to move forward with purpose.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 19, 2019

Stick a Tennis Ball on the End of Your Broom to Make a Super-Powered Floor Cleaning Tool

This technique is safe for use on all kinds of hard flooring. And it's so handy that you may just keep the tennis ball on your mop handle for good.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 15, 2019

12 Top-Rated Amazon Finds for Cleaning and Storing Your Cast Iron Skillet (Starting at $3!)

If there was ever a cookware staple that could last well enough to be passed down generation after generation, it's cast iron skillets. Here are some top-rated Amazon finds that will help you keep your cast iron in good shape to last a lifetime and then some.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 6, 2019

This Might be the Quickest, Most Satisfying Weekend Project You Take On All Year

Here's how to chip away at whole-home organization while also still living your life.

Shifrah Combiths

Sep 6, 2019

7 Easy Mistakes You Can Make When Cleaning the Bathroom

Here are a few bathroom cleaning mistakes that, when corrected, will leave you with a speckless and functional washroom with far less work.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 18, 2019

I Discovered a Wildly Simple Way to Get the Inside of Your Fridge Sparkling Clean

While it's definitely possible to clean out your fridge in about half an hour, the task can be pretty arduous. Until now.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 8, 2019

9 Useful Ways to Use Up Food Coloring Outside of the Kitchen

Here are nine useful or fun ways to use your food coloring and bring the rainbow to projects outside of the kitchen.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 8, 2019

The 10 Easy Habits You Should Steal from Impossibly Clean People

These 10 guidelines can apply to any area you want to tackle, and will make every cleaning endeavor go just a little bit more smoothly.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 7, 2019

The 21 Best Travel, Laundry, and Packing Hacks of All Time

Here are 21 of the best hacks of all time—for packing your clothes, stowing your delicate jewelry, and doing laundry on the go—that will help you squeeze every drop of joy from those golden vacay days.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 6, 2019

5 Things in the Kitchen (and Laundry Room) You Need to Clean More Often

Cleaning routines are great, but when you're operating on autopilot, you can miss things that are plainly visible to anyone in a more present state of mind.

Shifrah Combiths

Aug 2, 2019

One Icky Reason You May Want to Put Dryer Sheets Under the Legs of Your Table

Dryer sheets, especially fragranced ones, have gotten a bad rap as of late. But these very same fragrance-laden fabric softeners are excellent at keeping one thing away.

Shifrah Combiths

Jul 28, 2019

4 Ways to Find Storage for Clutter that “Doesn’t Have a Home”

In a list of "rules to live by for keeping a tidy house," the topper would certainly be: A place for everything and everything in its place. But if you don't have an "in its place" spot to put things, you won't ever feel empowered to put them away.

Shifrah Combiths

Jul 26, 2019

There are 4 Ways to Dry a Swimsuit—But 3 of Them You’ll Regret

The thing that will make the biggest difference in your swimwear's longevity is how you clean and care for your suit—and especially how it's dried.

Shifrah Combiths

Jul 25, 2019

5 Things that Make Your Bathroom Look Messier Than It Is

Here are some common culprits that make a clean bathroom appear disheveled.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 25, 2019

I’m Changing the Way I Think About Dining Out—And It’s Helping More Than Just My Budget

Even though our family of seven rarely eats out without a Kids Eat Free promo, eating meals out at restaurants is expensive.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 23, 2019

A Reverse To-Do List Is the Smartest Way to Reach Your Big Decluttering Goals

Reverse to-do lists begin at the end of the day. Here are three rules to keep in mind as you're writing one.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 15, 2019

17 Things to Declutter Before Summer Starts

Embrace the in-between-ness of spring, put the winter behind you, and make room for the coming season.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 13, 2019

I Keep My Shelves Decluttered By Only Buying Books AFTER I Read Them

I decided to majorly thin out my book collection—but to my surprise, it wasn't something that made me sad. Instead, I loved the library I was left with.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 12, 2019

6 Things You Should Always Clean Before Dinner (and 7 Things to Clean Right After)

It doesn't matter how you divide the labor in your house—if you want a cleaner kitchen, put somebody on each of these 13 tasks.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 10, 2019

Why Your Space is Always Dusty: 2 Ways You Might Be Dusting Wrong

It's true: Dusting seems futile. But that's no reason to let it go. Here are two ways you might be dusting wrong.

Shifrah Combiths

Jun 3, 2019

Disney World Has a 30-Step Trash Can Rule That You Can Use to Declutter at Home

It takes a lot of effort to appear effortless. Disney parks don't become the "most magical places on earth" without an enormous amount of behind-the-scenes problem-solving.

Shifrah Combiths

May 26, 2019

44 of the Best Chores for Kids, by Age

You're letting them know that you trust them, you're counting on them, and that they're an indispensable part of their family unit.

Shifrah Combiths

May 20, 2019

The Best Plant for You, According to Your Birth Order

My generation grew up being told things likethere’s only one you. But I have to admit that it’s been jarring to discover—through astrology, enneagram types, and other fun personality quizzes—how much parts of me can be so eerily similar to everyone else.And isn’t that the value of personality frameworks? They give us parameters for understanding how we tick and help us navigate life with others and life in general.

Shifrah Combiths

May 14, 2019

My Great Aunt’s Laundry Trick Makes Coming Back From Vacation Painless

I don't get stuck in re-entry inertia with a suitcase clogging up our bedroom for a week or more

Shifrah Combiths

May 12, 2019

I Can Get You Addicted to Cleaning: Dopamine and the Checklist

Maybe I’m an addict. Like many list-makers, crossing things off my list makes me feel really good and makes me want to cross the next thing off my list, and the next. What’s really going on here? More specifically, how can we harness this reaction to make the sometimes arduous task of cleaning not only less irritating, but even downright tempting?

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

2 Completely Disgusting Reasons to Wash Before You Wear

A kids’ epidemiology book, its cover depicting an ominous microscope surrounded by an eerie sci-fi green haze, confirmed what my mother always told me: Wash your clothes before you wear them — or else. Or else what? Well, poisoning for starters. Seriously. In the medical mysteries book I read, a boy was slowly poisoned through his skin by his new jeans.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

How To Avoid Bringing Bedbugs Home from Hotels, Thrift Stores and More

Although they aren’t actually dangerous unless you’re allergic to their bites, bedbugs are pretty revolting. And, as we all probably know, infestations have been on the rise. Following are some ways to help ensure that these very unwanted guests don’t end up in your home. Here are a few ways you could unintentionally bring bedbugs home — and how to avoid them.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

How To Make Your Own Lavender Laundry Detergent

Homemade laundry detergent isn’t just about saving you money (although it’s definitely a budget friendly move). In this day and age, when most of us are so far removed from the process of how our necessities are made, there’s something thrilling about making something that you need. If you’d like to try your hand at it, here’s how I made mine.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

How To Keep the Laundry Mountain Monster from Eating You Alive

Anyone else at war with piles upon piles of laundry? It never occurred to me how much motherhood and laundry go together, but here we are! While it’s still an uphill battle, I have learned that some things (when I actually do them) help keep the relentless laundry situation under control.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

Implement a One-In-One-Out Policy — Now

Once the joy of giving and receiving has died down, we often find ourselves with, shall we say…more things than we had last month. While you may not be ready to do an all-out purge, it’s the perfect time for a mini-purge through implementing a one-in-one-or-more-out plan.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

The Best Cleaning & Organizing Rules I Learned from My Mother

Now that I have my own home and family to care for, the things my mother taught me about cleaning are not only valuable because they came from her, but because they are nuggets of wisdom probably passed down through more than two generations. They’ve stood the test of time and they sure make my life easier and my home cleaner. From my home and family to yours, here are the best cleaning and organizing rules I learned from my mother.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

4 Household Management Apps I Can’t Live Without

Using technology to help manage the household can add up to a good amount of time and money saved—not to mention a significant reduction in things (paper calendars and planners) and clutter (all those papers!). Here are the top four apps I’d hate to live without. YNAB stands for “you need a budget.” And let me just say: You do. You can read more of my thoughts in Basics of a Household Budget that Works.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

The Great Big, Real-Life Pantry Cleanup (& How To Do Your Own)

Try as I might to achieve that perfect pantry look (you all know what I’m talking about), I still have errant boxes of cake mix and plastic bags of who-knows-what-anymore from the bulk bin. Recently, the hodge-podge of things I knew I had but couldn’t find and the creeping lack of space drove me to the point of yet another Great Big, Real-Life Pantry Cleanup.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

The Great Debate: Cloth or Paper Towels?

Newcomers to my home can’t ever find my paper towels. That’s because they’re hidden in the pantry so the cloth towels and rags I have are the first line of defense against spills and messes that need to be wiped. Here’s how I use cloth and when even I reach for a paper towel. When and Why I Use Cloth I use a rag for wiping off the kitchen counters and the table.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

The Absolute Best Way to Clean Grout

I vacillate, when it comes to grout. Sometimes it’s que sera, sera, and sometimes it’s all-out war: baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, OxiClean, toothbrushes, grout brushes, elbow grease, and five million moppings to clean the residue with fans to speed drying times in between rounds. But ever since I’ve discovered this completely awesome way of cleaning grout, I almost look forward to doing it, and really, it’s another kind of life-changing magic.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

Try the “Complete the Cycle” Cleaning Method for Instant Results

Having a home that’s generally in order pretty consistently— not to be confused with “perfect all the time”— is in large part a matter of habit. One such habit which has tremendous impact is one I call “completing the cycle.” Here’s how you can practice it at home. Completing the cycle is a synergistic mix of Leaving Things As You Found Them and Not Leaving Things That Can Be Done Now For Later.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

Why Keeping Only the Clothes that “Spark Joy” Is Magical

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing has revolutionized my thinking about decluttering and spurred me to action in a way that, for once, doesn’t feel like I’m spinning my wheels. Marie Kondo tells us to ask one question when deciding what to keep: “Does it spark joy?” and I’ve been asking this while going through my entire wardrobe. Here’s why I think it’s the best decluttering question ever.

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019

Five Houseplants Even I Haven’t Killed

I wish I’d inherited my mother’s green thumb. But truth is, when it comes to plants, if it’s alive in my house it’s probably pretty hardy. Here are the five types of plants that have survived even my hands. White birds of paradise. I love big, dramatic plants, and I had to have one on each side of our bed. I’ve lost track of how many palms and peace lilies I went through before giving up. Then I found these white birds of paradise and they are so happy!

Shifrah Combiths

May 4, 2019