• If you don`t have Ziploc bags around your house, I highly suggest you consider it. I`ve found them extremely useful both in my personal and business life. Here are a few of the ways, I use them.

• Store individual portions of snacks for kids in the littlest ones, the sandwich bags. This makes it worth buying that giant (cheaper) bag of chips or whathaveyou and separate it into small Ziplocs, no more scarfing the whole thing or dealing with stale snacks. Plus, kids can easily grab one and you don`t have to worry that they are taking too much . . . and you can save time by tossing one into their lunch if they are heading off to school.

• Keep puzzle pieces in one place. I store each puzzle in it`s own bag. You could cut the picture off the box and stick it in the bag too, but my sons are still using the board type puzzles, so I just keep the backboards all in a basket, along with the bags of puzzle pieces.

• Pens, pencils and markers will never escape again! You know how your best pens always vanish out of the pencil holder on your desk? Guess what? It`s because it`s so easy to snag one, so if you stick them in a Ziploc bag, you don`t have to worry as much about them going missing.

• The biggest Ziplocs work very well for storing things like report cards, assorted bits of paper, etc. all in one place. Obviously, this isn`t the ideal method of dealing with paper, but if you have a bag in the car to toss all this stuff into, your papers won`t get soaked the next time a kid spills juice in the glovebox.

• I keep all those little bits and grits that come with cables and wires, the adaptors, the screws and such from the computer, etc. in small Ziploc bags. This makes it virtually impossible to lose all those very hard to find pieces.

• When you are cooking, make a double batch and freeze half in a Ziploc bag. You can lay them flat in the freezer and they take up very little space.

• If you`re doing coffee break cookies, where you have just 10 min. to do everything, do your mixing in a Ziploc bag and you`ll have nothing to clean up afterwards, not to mention, kids can squish and mush and you don`t need to worry about sticky hands.

• Speaking of squishing and mushing . . . here`s a fun way to occupy little ones. Mix a cup of boiling water with a packet of plain gelatin. pour into ice cube trays and add a drop of food coloring to each cube. Let set in the fridge and then let your child pick which colors they want and put them in a bag, seal it up and let them squish away. Not only is it tons of fun and lets you have a few seconds of peace, it`s actually educational as they learn about color mixing.

• Wet wipes go nicely into a sandwich size Ziploc bag and can be carried anywhere. To tell you the truth, I use them just around the house. I buy one package of wet wipes, then have a bag with a handful in every room of the house, making it easy to clean up the frequent messes that two toddlers make.

• Make leftovers fun. Whenever you have something kinda mushy like refried beans or mashed potatoes, put them in a Ziploc to store them in the fridge. The next day, cut a little hole in the corner of the bag and use it to write messages on their food or plate. Makes leftovers far more appealing!

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. They`re useful suckers and you can wash and reuse them, too. And in the day to day life of being a work at home mom, we could all use a little help!

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