Make Every Drive Better With This Simple Car Accessory

PLUS: A creative solution for unruly shopping bags, the best cleaner to use in your oven, and more. PLUS: A creative solution for unruly shopping bags, the best cleaner to use in your oven, and more. July 14, 2022 [View Online]( Good morning! It seems like almost every time I have passengers in my car these days, I hear at least one comment about how nice my car smells. I’m happy to tell them all about my favorite car accessory, and I'll tell you all about it too in Today’s Good Thing. And if you have a composting setup at home, you won’t want to miss today’s Jillee’s Pick! I’ll tell you about a product I recently discovered that can speed up slow compost so you can stop stirring it and start using it. Jillee TODAY'S GOOD THING Make Every Drive Better With This Simple Car Accessory [A photo of Jillee in her car.]( For serenity during rush hour or a sweet-smelling commute, look no further than a car diffuser. It wasn’t long after I got my first diffuser that I started thinking about how I could bring those pleasant, natural aromas into my car. I had tried so many car air fresheners that I found overpowering, so I thought essential oils could be a better, subtler scent option. But the only car-friendly essential oil "diffusers" I knew of back then were DIYs like diffuser pendants. They worked well enough, but didn’t have the staying power I was hoping for. Fast forward a few years, and I finally found the little car diffuser of my dreams. Since summer is a popular time for road trips, I figured there's no better time to tell you about the reasons why this little diffuser is my favorite car accessory, and why it might become yours too! I’ve also got a few extra tips to share about how to use a car diffuser, when not to use one, and more. Learn how a car diffuser can make the time you spend in the car more enjoyable, regardless of who's behind the wheel, at the link below. [Make Every Drive Better With This Simple Car Accessory ➜]( Related • [17 Brilliant Hacks That Will Make Cleaning Your Car A Breeze]( • [9 Familiar Problems That Are Easily Solved With Essential Oils]( ⚡️QUICK TIPS⚡️ • If wasps have been hanging out around your house lately, these 7 tips can help you convince them to get lost. [Read more ➜]( • You don’t need an ice cream maker to make homemade ice cream—you can do it with a hand mixer and food processor. [Read more ➜]( • From wall panels to sprinkler heads to Wi-Fi routers, these 13 clever solutions hide all sorts of household eyesores. [Read more ➜]( WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT? Reinforce Your Reusable Shopping Bags [Photos of a box in a reusable shopping bag.]( If you wish your reusable shopping bags were sturdier, try this cheap and easy fix. One of the features I found most appealing about my favorite set of reusable shopping bags is the sturdy insert that keeps them standing upright. It's nice to not have to struggle to keep them open while I’m shopping or putting away food. If you’re tired of your own shopping bags toppling over, you don’t have to buy new bags—just reinforce them with some cardboard! One option is to find a cardboard box that's around the same size as your shopping bag, cut off the flaps and slide it into the bag. (If you can’t find a box that works, try cutting a long piece of cardboard to match the width of your bag, then fold it into a U shape so it covers the bottom of the bag and two of the sides.) Either way, your cardboard insert will keep your shopping bags standing tall and make shopping a lot less frustrating! SWAP THAT 🔄 FOR THIS A Simpler Approach To Cleaning Your Oven [A photo of a baking dish and pot of water in an oven.]( Oven grease requires a strong cleaner, but there’s less to worry about with this approach. Hardened grease and food splatters inside ovens are among the toughest messes to clean in any house. While most everyday cleaners aren’t strong enough to help much, that doesn’t mean a highly caustic oven cleaner is your only option. My preferred method for cleaning my oven involves only one strong chemical: ammonium hydroxide, AKA household ammonia. There are two key things you need to do to use ammonia safely: use it in a well ventilated space (I usually open a window and run a fan nearby) and avoid mixing it with bleach, because the two produce a poisonous gas when combined, and that's not good for anyone! Given that most oven cleaners contain a plethora of strong and potentially harmful chemicals, I prefer to clean my oven with one strong chemical I’m confident I can handle safely! Plus, the method is both easy and works like a charm. It involves putting a dish of ammonia and a pot of hot water in your oven and letting them sit overnight. By the time you air out your oven in the morning, those stubborn, hardened messes will wipe away almost effortlessly. Give it a try—I’m sure you’ll prefer it to using an oven cleaner too! [See the full tutorial ➜]( JILLEE'S PICK Give Sleepy Compost A Wakeup Call [Photos of Jillee with her compost bins.]( I’ve had a set of rotating compost bins in our backyard for a few years now, and my son Erik and I have both done our best to follow all the [golden rules of composting](. Despite our best efforts, the process has always moved painfully slowly. I didn’t realize there was a way to speed things along until I saw this [Green Pig Compost Accelerator]( on Amazon recently. Each bag contains 12 packets of enzyme-producing bacteria, which are the same microorganisms breaking down any compost pile, just in a more concentrated dose. Just drop one of the dissolvable packets into your watering can, add a couple gallons of water, then pour it onto your compost pile. The hungry bacteria will go to work to quickly break down the materials in your compost pile—in just 30 days, according to the package! I’ve only just started using it in my compost bins, so it’s still too early to say whether it's a home run, but the compost is already noticeably warmer—a very good sign! I suspect this Compost Accelerator is going to be the game-changer we didn't know we needed. YOUR ONE GOOD THING Don’t Let Cold Water Go To Waste Tammy from Mount Juliet, Tennessee has a great tip for saving water: "When I am filling up the kitchen sink, I catch the cold water in a repurposed gallon jug until the water starts to get warm instead of just letting it run down the drain. I usually get around a gallon of water or more a day and I use it to water my plants and fill up my bird bath! I am saving money and resources because in some areas water supply is an issue." I love this idea, Tammy—a gallon of water a day may not sound like much, but 365 gallons of water a year is nothing to sneeze at! [According to the EPA](, the average American family uses around 300 gallons of water a day, so you could save over an entire day's worth of water each year with this practice alone. Beyond the fact that it saves water, I also admire the mentality behind this idea. It makes me want to be more mindful about my own resource use at home, and that's never a bad thing! Have a great tip or trick of your own? [Share YOUR “one good thing” here]( for a chance to see it featured in a future newsletter! A FEW MORE THINGS... 🇫🇷 On This Day: In 1789, French revolutionaries [stormed the Bastille]( in Paris, a royal fortress and prison seen as a symbol of the monarchy's abuses of power. It was the first large-scale intervention of common people in the burgeoning French Revolution, and the anniversary has since become France’s national holiday—le 14 juillet, or Bastille Day—featuring Europe’s largest military parade. That’s So Cheesy: Over on our side of the pond, it’s National Mac and Cheese Day. The earliest mentions of dishes consisting largely of pasta and cheese date all the way back to the 13th and 14th centuries. Whether you’re a Kraft devotee or prefer to make your mac from scratch, these [5 tasty ideas will elevate your mac and cheese]( to a whole new level. 🤔 Wordle: [Solve today's 5-letter word](. What did you think of today's email? [Not good]( | [Just okay]( | [Loved it!]( 🏠[Visit the By Jillee Shop]( 🤗 [Join OGT Free]( Let's connect! [facebook]( [instagram]( [pinterest]( [youtube]( If you have thoughts, comments, questions or a tip or trick you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you! My inbox is always open, so just hit "reply" and let me know what's on your mind. See you tomorrow! Sending you bright ideas and simple solutions to help you create a home and life you love. My mailing address is: One Good Thing by Jillee 841 S. Main St. Heber City, UT 84032 If you're not happy please reply to this email to tell me why. 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