Annoying refrigerator odor? Offensive litter box odor? Fridge-It and its’ family of activated carbon odor absorbers is your answer!

I recently moved into a rental house and like so many others, found that once the smell of fresh paint wore off, the house had a few surprises for me. This included a refrigerator that no matter how much I cleaned it, still had a wet, musty smell inside as well as a lingering odor of cat urine in the family room. After trying many different products to get rid of the odors I was ready to chip in on a new fridge and replace the carpet. I was getting headaches from the fragranced air fresheners I was using and I could STILL smell the offensive odors underneath!

That’s when a friend of mine gave me a 2-pack of Fridge-It Cube odor eliminators. I thought she was joking when she said that these little purple cubes worked better at eliminating odors than any candles, powders or sprays. She explained that the fridge-it cube isn’t designed to cover up odors, it’s filled with activated carbon which is designed to trap the particles that make up offensive smells within the cube so that they are removed from the air completely and permanently. I did my homework and found this video which explains how activated carbon works to adsorb odor particles:

Armed with an education, I hung one cube in the back of my fridge near the air vent, and another underneath a side-table in the worst corner of my family room. Within an hour or so my refrigerator smelled like new! The family room took about a day to lose the odor since it was a larger space, but I was absolutely floored! These little purple cubes had saved me a lot of time, money, headaches, and hassle!

I followed the name on the cube and found that the Fridge-It cubes are available online at www.innofresh.com and are generally inexpensive at about $20 a six-pack. They have a whole line of odor absorbers for your home, pets, cars and more.

It’s summer vacation and the kids are driving me nuts! HELP!

It’s the same old story. I work from home, but when the kids are on summer vacation all work stops and my home turns into a full time daycare. I can’t afford to send them to summer camp and I also can’t afford to take my own summer vacation to play all day. The solution? Imagination. Between the kids imagination and my resourcefulness, we’ve found a long list of activities that keep them busy without breaking the bank. Here are my top 5 favorites:

1. Salt Dough – Possibly the coolest stuff since sliced bread, salt dough is easy for the kids to make and they love it! The ingredients are super-cheap, and you can add color and fun scents by mixing in dry kool-aid powder to the dough.
2. Wading Pool - Those cheap hard plastic wading pools are good for so much more than wetting your feet. They’re an emergency shelter in a waterfight. They’re an easily washable wrestling rink when filled with jello. And right after you wash it you can have your kids bob for mini marshmallows. Plus, fun in the sun is almost always followed by strangely subdued and exhausted children so naptime makes this one a double bonus!
3. Sock Puppets - Using a marker and whatever crafty supplies you have around the house, you and your kids can create the coolest to creepiest little sock creatures ever seen! Any box or window can be converted to a “stage” while they let their inner-thespians shine!
4. Dry Erase Markers – Whether you have a white-board or not, dry erase markers can keep kids busy for hours and they’re really easy to clean up. You can find a spare whiteboard at most thrift shops, but any glass surface will do the trick. Whether they’re playing teacher and student, drawing up plans for their latest invention, or just coloring for the pure fun of it, the re-usability of this office supply makes it a winner.
5. Box City – This requires a certain tolerance for a temporary mess, but large appliance boxes have always been entertaining for kids. Get a couple from your local hardware retailer and build a town!