Laundry Tips: Is Your Dryer Too Slow?

January 23, 2015 / Simple Cleaning Tips / 0 comment

Is your dryer slow to dry? Try these simple tips to get clothes dryer, faster: (Note-These are not meant to replace good maintenance of your dryer by a professional!)

Lint Trap Issue #1– Check the lint trap. Between every use, you should remove the lint that is trapped there, but there may be some lint still caught down inside. Use a lint trap brush to get in there and remove all that gross lint!

Lint Trap Issue #2 – This is something I did not know about until recently, but if you use dryer sheets when drying clothes, they can deposit a substance on your lint trap that will make it more difficult to filter the lint, making your dryer work harder. Just scrub that lint trap with warm soapy water and a scrub brush, rinse thoroughly, and allow to dry before placing it back in the dryer.

Lint Trap Issue #3 – Check the vent that leads from the lint trap to the outside – the air is pushed outside and some of that lint can be carried through, or there may be something blocking it from venting properly. Check the outside while the dryer is running; see if anything is hanging out of vent, if sufficient air flow is coming out. If there is no airflow, and you can’t remove it with your hands, you can try using a shop vac to suck out the blockage. You may need to call a professional to service the dryer and the vent outside.

Throw the Towel In (Literally!) – Finally, if you just have an old dryer like I have, the element that heats just may not be doing as good of a job anymore! So toss a clean, dry towel in with your wet load of clothes. It will help speed up the drying process!

Thanks to WTLV-TV’s First Coast Living for inviting me on to share these simple laundry tips!

A Round-Up Of The Diva’s Favorite Household Tips

September 30, 2016 / Simple Cleaning Tips, Simple Ideas, Simple Video / 0 comment

In honor of her LIVE appearances at the 2016 Fall Jacksonville Home + Patio Show, the Diva is sharing her favorite, simple household tips! Come out and say “Hi” on Sunday, October 2 at 11:30 a.m. – The Diva will be cooking things up on The Jacksonville Magazine Cooking Stage! If you plan to go to the Jacksonville Home + Patio Show, use promo code DIVA to get a discount on your tickets when you buy online! Buy Tickets HERE.

How To Fold A Towel For Easy Stacking: Tired of your towels flopping over when you try to stack them? The Diva makes it easy! Check out the tip – Click Here

How To Get Your Dryer To Dry Faster: Is it taking forever for your clothes to dry? Try this little tip from the Diva – Click Here

What To Do With Dryer Lint: If you do laundry, you know it always produces lint! You can leave the lint (along with old thread) out for the birds to use in their nests! Or check out this simple tip from the Diva – Click Here

The Secret Way To Make A Room Smell Great! – Try adding a Febreze Car Vent Clip to your air conditioning vent in a room – rarely do people look up when they enter a room, so it is a great way to make a room smell great, without being too heavy a scent! Available at Pubix, Target, Walmart and more. Or, you can also add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to your air conditioning filter when you change it out every month.

Simple Way to Clean Blinds: Tongs & Microfiber cloths! Wrap a microfiber cloth around each end of tongs, secure them with rubber bands, and you have a simple tool to clean those blinds! Toss the cloths into the wash when done!

How To Clean Large Amount Of Silverware: This is my FAVORITE Simple Holiday Survival Tip! Click Here to see how to go from tarnished to clean, without having to do all that hard polishing! (And you have to watch my Simple Holiday Survival Series before the holidays!)

How To Clean A Wooden Cutting Board: Lay the board on a clean work surface. Sprinkle the cutting board with salt. Using half of a lemon, place cut side down on the board and rub in a circular motion, combining the lemon and salt. The salt gently removes any built up grime, and the lemon naturally sterilizes the wood.

How To Clean Your Hair Dryer: Prevent your hair dryer from blowing up with this SIMPLE tip! Click Here

Thank you to WTLV-TV’s First Coast Living for having me on to share these tips!

Simple Tip To Dry Clothes Faster

November 15, 2014 / Simple Cleaning Tips, Simple Ideas / 0 comment

This is one of my favorite tips to speed up the drying process, because I really dislike doing laundry!

Simple Tip: Baking Soda – The Unsung Hero!

February 28, 2014 / Simple Cleaning Tips, Simple Ideas, Simple Kitchen Tips / 0 comment

Baking soda – that little orange box that sits in your pantry – is more than just part of a baking recipe. It is a great cleaner and freshener! And don’t forget, baking soda is an inexpensive product to use. Try out some of these simple ways to freshen up your home:

Freshen Fridge and Freezer

We all know you can stick a box of baking soda to get rid of smells in your fridge and freezer. You just pop open the top of the box and place it in the back of your fridge, replacing it every 30 days. Did you know Arm & Hammer makes a specially designed, non-spill box? It only costs $.10 more than the regular box ($.95 versus $.85 a box). Bonus Tip: When you replace that box after 30 days, pour the used box down your kitchen sink disposal and let sit for 20 minutes to freshen it up!

Freshen Your Towels – Get The Stink out!

You can add a cup of baking soda to every load of wash to freshen the smell of your laundry. Have really tough odors, like towels that smell like mildew? Simple Solutions Diva has a tried-and-true way to remove that stink — Click Here!

Freshen Your Carpets & Couches

For Carpets – Sprinkle baking soda on carpets ½ hour before vacuuming. The baking soda absorbs the smells.

For Couches And Other Fabric-Covered Furniture – Make your own fabric spray! Use a spray bottle filled with 1 T. Baking Soda, Warm Water, 10 drops of your favorite essential oil. Shake well until baking soda is dissolved. Lightly spray your couch and let dry. It will smell a little like the essential oil, and the stinky smell will be neutralized.

Clean Coffee And Tea Stains

Have a favorite coffee/tea cup or pot that is stained? Just mix up a ¼ cup baking soda in 1 QT warm water and soak the cup or pot. You can also make a paste with baking soda and water and lightly scrub.

De-Stink Those Dental Appliances

Grossed out by your night guard or child’s smelly retainer? Mix a 1/2 cup of baking soda with one cup of water and soak those dental appliances to remove food particles and smell. You can also dip your wet toothbrush into baking soda and scrub the appliance and let it sit for a few hours.

Thank you to WTLV-TV’s First Coast Living for inviting me on to share these ideas! Here is the video from First Coast Living:

Simple Ways To Fold Shirts, Towels and Fitted Sheets!

March 28, 2014 / Simple Cleaning Tips / 1 Comment

Before I became Simple Solutions Diva, I always wondered if there were secrets to doing things that would make life a little easier! I found a few simple solutions to some very vexing laundry issues and thought I’d share them with you! (FYI – Laundry is my LEAST favorite thing to do!)

Fold a Shirt In Seconds!

Sounds crazy, but I saw this video by Dave Hax on YouTube and was intrigued. This guy folded a shirt in under 2 seconds! Well, I had to try it – I’m not going to attempt to recreate the video, because he did it so well, so I’m sharing his video below. And yes, I can now fold a shirt in seconds. I love it!

Fold A Towel For Optimal “Stackability”

One of the best parts of staying in a luxury hotel for me? I get to choose from a beautiful stack of fresh, clean bath towels! Why so wonderful for me? Because when I open my linen closet at home for a towel, this is what I see:

Kind of a mess! So I looked up how to fold a towel so it would stack easily and look good!

1) Start with your towel on a clean bed or table.

2) Fold towel in half. 3) Fold bottom 1/3 of towel. 4) Fold top 1/3 of towel. 5) Fold towel one more time to make a square.

My Towels Before And After:

Tame The Fitted Sheet!

This is a hard one, because fitted sheets are just difficult to fold! Try this simple tip to fold them:

1) Fold sheet in half, tucking the fitted corners of one side of the sheet into the other side, so four corners become two.

2) Fold sheet again, tucking the one fitted corner into the other corner, making two corners into one.

3) Fold 1/3 of the sheet side without the fitted corners.

4) Fold the rectangle in half.

5) Fold that rectangle into a small square.

BONUS: My Top Three Favorite Laundry Tips

Tide To Go Stick – Always have a Tide To Go Stick with you to pre treat stains as soon as they occur.

Get The Grease Out! If you get a grease splatter on clothes while cooking, tackle it immediately with Dawn dish detergent! It actually releases the grease from the clothing so it when you wash it in the laundry, it will lift the grease out! Use a Q-Tip to liberally apply Dawn directly to the grease spot, then wash as usual.

Red Wine Wipe Out – Remove fresh red wine stains with this little trick! Placing the stained fabric on a safe surface, sprinkle baking soda on the fresh stain. Cover the entire stain with the baking soda – not too thick! Next, sprinkle vinegar on the baking soda. The baking soda will bubble and you should see the stain change color (kind of a dark green or dark blue). Allow this to sit for a few minutes, then rinse with cold water, then wash as soon as possible. If you pull it out of washer and stain is still there, soak in a solution of 1/3 cup vinegar to 2/3 cup water. Wash again.

Simply Clean Your Pillows!

Clean Your Top Loading Washer

How To Remove Mildew From Towels

Simple Tip To Store Linens

Thank you to WTLV-TV’s First Coast Living for having me on to talk all about laundry!

Simple Organization Ideas Around The Home

January 19, 2016 / Clear The Clutter / 0 comment

When people think of organizing, they tend to think of big organization projects they need to do around the house – like clean out the closet. But sometimes, organization can be very simple! Decluttering a little and having simple ways to store items may be all you need around the house. With just few items, for as little as $1, you can have simple organization!

Hair Band Holders – As the mom of girls, I can attest that hair bands must be related to rabbits – they seem to multiply fast and are everywhere! Try this simple trick – use a carabiner (or some call them D-Rings) to hold them together and keep them in one place. Easy to hang on a hook in the bathroom!

My daughter also uses one as a key chain that easily can attach to her purse!

Bathroom Storage – A trio of glass candle holders on a small long platter make the perfect storage for Q-tips, cotton balls and small personal items.

Baskets, either wooden or plastic can also work for larger items like towels or toilet paper storage.

School Supply Storage – The kids need supplies like pencils, crayons, scissors, but those can get messy really fast! Try using wire tea light holders for storing them on a worktable or shelf.

Jewelry Holder – I love my earrings, but they can get tangled and separated in my jewelry drawer. Try using ice cube trays to store pairs of earrings together – they are stackable in a drawer!

Pantry Storage – Simple plastic storage works perfectly for open goods like crackers, rice or dried beans that need to be protected from humidity and bugs. Or use stackable plastic storage for spice packets, napkins, Potatoes or onions makes things neat and organized.

Beach Toy Storage –Use a mesh laundry bag to carry kids beach toys to and from the beach. The mesh allows you to rinse off the toys for easy clean up and you don’t take the beach home with you!

Simple Car Cleanup –Turn a small plastic cereal holder into a trashcan perfect size for the car! (This can actually fit between two seats!)

Thank you to WTLV-TV, NBC 12 First Coast Living for inviting me on to share these simple tips!

Putting Pinterest To The Test: Make your Own Bleach Pen

March 30, 2013 / Putting Pinterest To The Test, Simple Cleaning Tips, Simple Video / 0 comment

The Pinterest Pin I’m testing here, Make Your Own Bleach Pen, originated from the website MeAndMyDIY.com. You can Click Here to find the written instructions!

About Simple Solutions Diva

October 11, 2010 / / 0 comment

SimpleSolutionsDiva.com — The Simple Solutions Diva herself, Laura Morey!

Simple Solutions Diva is Laura Morey; a mom, wife, car-pool queen, domestic goddess, and all-around expert on how to make things simple around the house.

A while back, Laura stopped trying to be perfect — it took too much valuable time away from what is really important: her family. Now she is sharing some great tips and shortcuts that will help you keep it simple too!

Here on SimpleSolutionsDiva.com, Laura Morey hosts how-to videos to make life easier, whether it is a simple recipe, a DIY project, or just a great idea for organizing.

She is a featured lifestyle segment contributor to WTLV-TV’s (NBC/Ch12) First Coast Living, and has been featured on CafeMom.com. Be sure to check out some of her most popular video series, “Putting Pinterest To The Test” and Cooking With The Kids”!

Laura Morey, Actor:

As an actor, TV host, spokesperson, and product specialist, Laura has the unique ability to present ideas or products in a fun, energetic manner. She connects to the viewer with her charm, warmth and that winning smile.

Laura Morey On CafeMom.com

Laura Morey was featured in the video series, CafeMom Solutions, for CafeMom.com. Click Here to View!

Everything I use or mention in this blog I have bought with my own money. If I ever get anything for free, or the post is sponsored, it will be clearly stated.

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