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10 Universal (and Frugal) Household Products to Own

August 6, 2015 By Will Lipovsky Leave a Comment

This list covers the 10 household products everyone should have on hand. They are cheap. They are versatile. They are useful. They are the must-have’s:

1. Hydrogen Peroxide

Many people have a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in their medicine cabinet in case they need to disinfect a cut or scratch. But hydrogen peroxide can also be used to sanitize surfaces, clean grout from your tiles or shower, and it can also act as a stain remover. If your bottle of hydrogen peroxide is sitting in the back of your cabinet gathering dust, try using it for a different purpose. Hydrogen peroxide is cheap to start with but it becomes even cheaper if you actually use the bottle without it expiring. 🙂

2. Shampoo

Do you have piles of those small hotel shampoo bottles stored away in a cabinet or drawer somewhere? Or do you end up throwing out your shampoo bottle when there’s nothing more than a couple ounces of shampoo left? Instead of getting rid of that shampoo, you can use it for a couple other purposes. Shampoo or conditioner is a great alternative to shaving cream, for instance. If your cuticles are in desperate need of softening, adding a little shampoo to a bowl of warm water will soften them right up. A tiny drop of shampoo also works wonders if you’re trying to remove an adhesive bandage as well.

3. Distilled Vinegar

Did you know that distilled vinegar can be used for more than just cooking? If you own pets, vinegar can be used to give your dog a gorgeous shiny coat. Create a solution that is 1 cup of white distilled vinegar and 1 quart water and spray or rub your pet’s coat with the mixture. It’ll save you a lot of money on fancy shampoos that promises to make your pets fur look nice and shiny. Additionally, vinegar is also good for getting rid of cat litter odor (just swish some around in the empty litter box). Vinegar also helps rid the smell of skunk if you or your pet has been sprayed.

Suggested reading: 5 Ways to Make Money if You Love Pets

4. Baking Soda

Baking soda also has many crazy uses. If you make a paste of three parts baking soda and one part water, you’ll have a great skin cream that’s cheaper than any store exfoliating cream. Additionally, baking soda can also be used to unclog drains as well as your pores. This will save you from having to call the plumber or spend money on expensive drain cleaner.

5. Plastic Bags

Do you have an overflowing collection of plastic bags? Sometimes it seems like every pharmacy, deli, convenience store, or grocery store hands them out. But plastic bags are one of the easiest everyday products to find a second use for. For instance, if you have a small trashcan in your bathroom or bedroom, don’t waste money by buying trash bags. Instead, use the plastic bags as impromptu trash bags. Plastic bags are also great to use as packing materials if you need to fill up space in a package.

6. Popsicle Sticks

If you eat a lot of popsicles, don’t throw away the sticks. While popsicle sticks are usually either thrown away or reused for craft projects, they can live on. If you’re planning on painting your house, popsicle sticks act as great paint stirrers. If you have a garden, popsicle sticks are also an easy way to mark your plants or keep them from slumping over in the wind.

7. Yogurt Cups

You might not think that yogurt cups can be reused in very many ways, but that’s definitely not true. For instance, you can use the empty cup as a place to start growing seeds. After you poke a couple of holes in the bottom, add in potting soil and the seeds. Once the seeds start to sprout, transplant them into a larger pot or the ground. Another great use for yogurt cups is using them to catch paint drips. If you’re painting, yogurt cups can also be used to hold small amounts of paint. Most yogurt cups are insanely sturdy.

Suggested reading: Is inexpensive food making you fat?

8. Aluminum Foil

Did you know that if you rub aluminum foil along rust spots, you can eliminate the rust? Aluminum foil can also help sharpen dulled scissors. All you need to do is fold a sheet of aluminum foil over a couple of times and cut through it with the scissors. However, aluminum foil is gentle enough that it can be used to polish chrome!

9. Newspaper or Magazines

If you still subscribe to the newspaper or certain magazines, old issues can come in very handing. Not only do they make good packing material, they can also be used as fire starters. If you’re painting certain areas of your house, you can also use the paper or magazine pages to cover areas you don’t want to ruin. Just don’t get distracted and start reading them instead of working.

10. Olive Oil

Olive oil is sometimes used by people as an alternative to shaving cream. Some people also make their own furniture polish by combining two parts olive oil with one part lemon juice or distilled vinegar.

Final Thoughts

How few products can you get by using? I only have about 10 in my entire house! It’s all about buying universal products to keep costs down!

Your To Do List May Be Longer Than You Think

May 22, 2013 By Jennifer Derrick 4 Comments

I read a lot of books and articles on things like brain science, psychology, productivity, and memory. One thing that tends to come up often as I read is that the brain sees any incomplete task or goal as part of your to-do list. Even if you aren’t consciously thinking of it, anything that you have left undone lingers in the subconscious and will periodically torment you until it’s finished.

This applies to everything in your environment including unpaid bills, an unfinished presentation for work, unread books, a Tivo full of unwatched shows, or hobbies that you started but never did anything with. You may not have these things on your immediate to-do list (in fact, they may not have been important to you for months or years), but your brain does. As far as your brain is concerned, these things all represent projects or goals that you started and have yet to finish. As such, your brain keeps them stored in your subconscious and periodically “pokes” you with reminders (usually, it seems, in the form of guilt or stress) that you have all these undone things to do.

It’s up to your conscious mind to assign priority to these things, which is why the things that are most immediate (finish that presentation for work, call the plumber, pick up the kids, shop for dinner, etc.) are the ones that get written down on an actual to do list. Those things get accomplished first. But your unconscious brain is still keeping track of those other things it thinks you have to do. Whether you realize it or not, they’re causing you stress.

You’ve probably experienced this. Ever walk by that shelf of books you bought but haven’t yet read and felt guilty or thought, “Man, I’ve really got to get on that?” Or looked at your DVD collection and thought, “I spent the money for that video, I feel bad I haven’t watched it yet.” Or walked past that stack of bills you’ve been meaning to pay or bank statements you’ve been meaning to review and felt your stress level ratchet up just a bit? None of those things may have been on your conscious to-do list for the day, but your brain thinks they are (or should be).

This little phenomenon has implications for our financial lives. Many of us have a lot of stuff in hour house that we bought but have yet to use. We have books we haven’t read, games we haven’t played, hobby supplies for hobbies that never got off the ground, china we’ve never used, and movies we haven’t watched. Not only is all of this stuff taking up space, it’s likely causing us stress because our brains are constantly thinking, “Gotta use that, gotta play with that, really shouldn’t have bought that, what was I thinking,” and it eventually turns to a different message that says, “Gotta find the time to get rid of all of that, it’s taking up too much space, I’m an idiot for having spent the money on that,” until eventually you give in and either use it or get rid of it. But during all those months and years that go by in between, you’re experiencing a very subtle form of stress that eats away at you.

This makes the case for buying far less stuff. The less you own, the less you leave unused, and the less your brain adds to the to-do list. It also makes the case for taking care of your finances and not procrastinating. Even if something doesn’t seem urgently important to you (like getting a will made, for example), your brain thinks differently. It knows it needs to get done so you will be bothered about it until you do it.

If you’re already surrounded by unused stuff, untouched hobbies, or undone tasks, make it a point to deal with them. Either use or donate/toss the stuff. Make a move to actively participate in the hobby, or disregard it once and for all. Deal with your paperwork, or make a conscious decision that certain things don’t have to be done at all. The part of your to-do list over which you exert conscious control every day is tiny compared to the to-do list that your subconscious is harboring. Make it easier on your brain and free yourself from some stress by buying less, procrastinating less, and using what you already own to its fullest.

(Photo courtesy of robstephaustralia)

The Paradox of Stuff: Own Less, Use More

March 6, 2013 By Jennifer Derrick 7 Comments

Most of us tend to think that more is better, especially when it comes to our “stuff.” If two pairs of shoes is good, ten must be great. If a library of thirty DVD’s is good, a hundred must be better. If having fifteen board games provides a lot of entertainment, a library of fifty must provide even more entertainment. And on and on it goes, with many of us accumulating far more stuff than we can or will ever use. The funny thing is that our belief that more is always better works against us when it comes to stuff.

When you have too much stuff, much of it often languishes, unused, in the closets and cabinets. Why is this? Isn’t more better? Isn’t it better to have more choices? If we have more, won’t we use more? The answer is often no. Those who have less often get more use and utility out of their few items than do people who have multiples of things. There are a variety of reasons for this, but they all boil down to a simple truth: More is just more, not better. Here are some of the reasons why having more often means you actually use the items less often or not at all.

You can’t possibly use it all

You’re only one person or family. Can you really watch five hundred DVD’s? Can you really wear sixty pairs of shoes or carry fifty handbags? Can you ever play your way through five hundred board games? Can you ever use two hundred tubes of toothpaste? There is a limit to how much of anything you can realistically use before it goes bad, goes out of style, or you just don’t care anymore. There’s also a limit to how much time you have to watch, read, or play things. Anything beyond that realistic amount of stuff is just a waste.

You don’t know what you have

When you have too much, you often don’t use it all simply because you don’t know what you have. Unless you create a directory of some sort, it’s hard to keep up with massive amounts of clothes, shoes, media, games, and toys. When you say, “I’d like to watch a movie,” you can’t remember what you have or what might be on the bottom of the heap. When you think about putting together an outfit for a special occasion, good choices are ignored at the back of your closet because you can’t remember that they’re there. If you can’t keep track of what you own, how can you ever use it all?

You’re too overwhelmed with choices

Research shows that too many choices can be paralyzing. Rather than liberating us, too many choices can actually short-circuit our brains and lead us to simply make no choice at all. This happens with your stuff when you say, “I’d like to watch a movie,” go over to the DVD shelf and become so overwhelmed with everything that you own that you just say, “Forget it,” and watch whatever’s on TV. It happens with kids when they say, “I’m bored,” in a house full of toys. What they may really be saying is, “I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.” It happens when you decide to go buy a new outfit rather than sorting through the thousands of possible combinations you already own. When you have fewer choices, it’s much easier to decide what to use or do and then go do it. There’s no hemming and hawing over the vast piles of choices.

When you have less, you don’t have these problems

You know what you have and where it is. You know you can use it all because you often do. When stuff is brought into your house, it’s often as a replacement for a worn out item, or it’s only added after careful consideration of its merits. The stuff you have is stuff you need or really want, not just stuff you thought was good because “more is always better.”

The trick is to know how much is really enough for you. When you start to reach the point where you feel overwhelmed with choices, or you can’t remember what you already have, you’re getting too much. When you find yourself coming across things you haven’t used in ages (or ever), you’re getting too much. These are warning signs that it’s time to stop accumulating stuff and maybe even start purging so you get down to a level where you are getting reasonable use out of your stuff.

Stuff that’s never used is a waste of money and space. It’s also mentally tiring because you might constantly berate yourself every time you see those items piled up but not getting used. Try living with less and you’ll likely discover that the stuff you keep gets used to its fullest. You’ll save money, feel better, and have more free space in your house.

(Photo courtesy of garryknight)