The winner of the adorable camera strap donated by Little Precious Boutique is ahankins! Here is her winning tip:

One of the most successful housekeeping tips that I can share is what I call the Five-Minute Drill.  It involves my children and usually happens when there is clutter decorating my house and my stress level is high.  When I recognize the moment for a five-minute drill, I make the announcement to my children.  Whatever they are doing at that moment, they pause and come participate in the drill.  The rules are this 1) We have to work non-stop for 5 minutes as quickly as you can. No stopping! 2) You start by cleaning up anything that is yours and then you help by cleaning up other messes 3) You cannot ask “what do I do?” You just look and see what needs to be done.

It is successful in my house because I don’t do it daily and there seems to be some kind of challenge factor involved – the “drill” creates an urgency that my kids are buying into, so far at least!  I keep it fun and enthusiastic in tone, rather than angry or stressed, even though that is how I may feel.  Sometimes I set the timer for 5 minutes and other times (when I may need a bit longer than 5 minutes), I just keep track of time mentally.

This works for me. Now if I can just get my husband in on it!

Ahankins, please email us your with your mailing address and we will get it shipped out to you!

Our new topic of the week this week is parenting. I started it off with a riveting post about lice. GROSS! But it’s nice to know that others have been there and had to deal with it so I decided to go ahead and share it with you guys. I hope hearing my story helped in some way. And in case I didn’t get my point across in the original post, just remember, lice only like clean hair!

Submit your best parenting tips all week long for a chance to win some Lazy Loot! You can submit a tip in the comments, by contacting us, or by clicking on “Submit a Tip”. Let’s hear it ladies!