I was running errands this morning with Sis while the boys were in school, so today’s post is a conglomeration of tips and other miscellany that I thought you might appreciate from our running about. So hop in and buckle up: let’s run some errands!

Okay, finding where to put your Starbucks sippy cup while you push your shopping cart around Target is hardly the stuff of Greek tragedies. Let’s face it: it’s a first world problem, I know…

But when I ran into Target today to grab Castile Soap (we’ll revisit why later in the post), I ran into my friend Lynn. And perched there in a handy dandy little cup holder was her twenty ounces of goodness.

You might consider me a little too easily amused, but I thought this contraption was fantastic. So I asked her where she got it, and she motioned, “Over there.” I thought she meant the dollar section at the front of the store, but then I clued in that she was pointing to customer service.

You can ask for one at the customer service desk, and they hand it over. Just return it when you’re done. Nice!

This solves a problem for me, too. Since the holder can be clipped on the cart anywhere, it is perfect to attach to the body of the cart to keep cute little grabby hands from getting scalded!

Well done, Target. I’m a fan.

Okay, then it was off to Wallyworld. We have a solid slab on two walls of our shower, and I like to reseal the caulk a couple of times each year to keep the seal good. I do not love the idea of water leakage, and it’s a simple bit of maintenance. The problem for me is, most silicone caulks require like a 24-hour dry-cure time.

Ouch.

But this one by GE is water-ready in three hours! Nice! [Incidentally, do you see that little yellow and black tool on the bottom row, far right? It’s a grout scraper, and at just a few bucks, it’s worth it to get the old grout out easily.]

Then as I walked a little farther down that same aisle, I saw twelve-packs of foam brushed for $1.50!! I use these foam brushes all the time and have often bought packs for the kids’ class projects. But I usually pay about $5 for a twelve-pack from the craft section or Michael’s, so this was a fortuitous find indeed! Nice!

And speaking of thrifty finds, I love the 47- and 97-cent card section. Because seriously, ?I love you and I want to send you birthday greetings, but $4 for a card? It just pains me. I’d so much rather put that money towards an actual gift. Please tell me I’m not the only one??

Sis agreed and helped me out by enthusiastically pointing out every card with a doggie on it. [Yes, that was us barking on the hallmark aisle today.]

And if you want a decent chuckle, you could watch the uptight manner in which I organize my groceries on the checkout belt. I put heavy items first, refrigerated and other like-items together, fruit second-to-last, bread last… It seems perfectly logical to me. That way nothing gets smushed. [Again, please tell me I’m not the only one??] I won’t even begin to regale you with my dishwasher loading regimen. 🙂

Okay, so we’ve come pretty much full-circle, back to the Castile soap from Target. Like many of you, I’ve jumped on the homemade laundry detergent bandwagon. I like the dry detergent because there is no cooking and mess. It’s simply a matter of grating the soap (you probably use Fels-Naptha) and mixing the dry ingredients.

But I read recently of a couple of people using Castile soap, and since it comes in lovely scents (lavender, peppermint, etc.), I thought it would make a perfect add-in to my mix! At $5 a bar, it was a little steep. They do sell decent sized liquid bottles at Target if you make liquid homemade detergent, but I hear you can get pretty big bottles of the liquid for relatively little at natural food stores like Earth Fare.

So as well as Fels Naptha, I added the Lavender Castile Soap to this batch. And after a first couple of loads, my laundry room smells just lovely. Nice!

Okay, so thanks for joining me on my errand-running adventures today! I hope you gleaned something useful. Thanks for stopping in, and have a glorious weekend! Wheeeee!