Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Works for Me Wednesday



Managing Sippee Cups

When I had toddlers who drank exclusively from sippee cups, I purchased 4 or 5 for each child and wrote their names on the cups with a permanent marker. Every night I would put all of cups in the dishwasher or hand wash them (believe it or not, I used to not run my dishwasher every single day!). Each morning I would refill all 4-5 cups per child with water, diluted juice, or milk and put each child's cup on a separate door shelf of the refrigerator. Done! No more fixing sippee cups all throughout the day.


Now that my children are older, they choose one clean cup each morning. I have their names written on these cups with a permanent marker. After each meal or whenever they have a drink, they place these cups in a certain spot on our island. They use the same cup all day. If I didn't do this, I would probably have 25 dirty cups by the end of the day, plus I would have to run our dishwasher more than once a day.


Another tip.....I keep all of our sippee cups, plastic drink bottles, plastic drinking cups, and plastic bowls and plates in bottom drawers in our kitchen. This allows my younger children to unload the dishwasher--the unbreakable items are stored in an area that they can easily reach. This also allows them to get a cup or plate on their own.


One last tip....to prevent me from having to run the dishwasher more than once a day (I run it at bedtime), we use paper plates for either breakfast, lunch or sometimes both. For dessert after supper, my children know to ask me if they need to use a paper or plastic (washable) bowl or plate. I make my decision based on dishwasher space availability.


For more tips visit We Are That Family.

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for this idea! I need to solve the problem of 25 cups in the sink at the end of the day, so much appreciated! :)

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  2. I love the sippee idea of writing their names on them and then filling them all at once! I really need to do something about the amount of cups my kids use. I probably wash all the glasses in my cabinet every night!! Great ideas!

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  3. Thanks for the ideas, I ran the dishwasher 3 times yesterday.

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  4. I am doing just the opposite...NOT buying paper plates, etc except when we have a large number of guests. And yes, we run the dishwasher 3 and sometimes 4 times a day. But I have 11 people eating here around once a week and we cook all meals from scratch.

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  5. that's a great idea!

    I started pouring all our milk into a jug with a spout thing on it so my older daughter can fix milk for herself and her sister.

    I really like the idea of fixing them all at once too :)

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  6. LOL, we think a lot alike. Cup management is one of my drafts for WFMW. We do things a little differently than you do, so you'll have to come over and see what we do, when I get around to posting it.

    Blessings,
    Kimberly

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