SANITY SAVER: Water Magnets

As part of my New Year's Resolutions I hope to increase my water consumption and decrease juice consumption.  I am a confessed juice-aholic.  I like to drink juice.  Exclusively.  This is two fold problem.  One, I am taking in alot of extra calories and sugar that I don't need.  I have been trying to curb this by diluting the juice I do drink.  Two, juice costs money.  Water is free.  As a MONEY SAVER I should drink water and not juice.  It is recommended that every adult consume 8 glasses of water a day.  This seems a monumental task when you currently drink zero.  The deal I have made with myself is that if I can drink 6 glasses of water in a day, I will reward myself with 2 glasses of juice.  Sounds fair right?  So how do I keep my sanity, motivate myself and keep count of how many glasses I've had to drink at the same time?

Water Magnets!

All you need are the numbers 1 through 8 stuck to the fridge.  Each time you fill your glass with water, place the corresponding number at eye level on your fridge.  Voila!  A perfect reminder and motivator.  My sanity is eased already.  I borrowed this idea from the Peaceful Mom.  She made some beautiful magnets but bought all the supplies she needed from the store.  I decided to use what I had on hand to make my magnets.

The How-To:

Note: If you already have numbered magnets, the little plastic kind for kids, then just use those.  You don't need to get crafty since you already have "water magnets".  If you wanted you could get out the glue gun and jazz them up or bedazzle them or what ever you'd like to make them pretty and motivating.

1. Write out the numbers 1-8 on a sheet of paper.  Any paper will do.  I used heavy card.  I also went online to look for pretty numbers that I could print out.  I couldn't find any.  Instead I opened "word", found a font I liked and printed those out.  I also have a neat program (by Broderbund - I am not affiliated with them.  I just like their products) that allows me to add borders.  So I added a pretty floral border to all my numbers.  You can of course draw your own border, have your kids draw one or glue the numbers to a nice background cut out of a magazine.  The choices really are endless.  There are MANY free options here.

 

2.  Cut out your numbers to the size and shape you'd like.  Could be a star shape, square shape or oval shape as I've done.  They look more like eggs really.  I chose a shape that was narrower than a piece of packing tape.  In the next step you'll see why.

 3.  Sandwich your numbers between two pieces of clear packing tape or many pieces of scotch tape.  This is a cheap and easy way to laminate them.  My  TIME SAVER tip is to line up all your numbers on one long piece of tape and add one long piece to the back.  

4.  If you have any free magnets (the kind that businesses often give out as advertising) cut up one or two of them.  You'll need 8 pieces.  Use your glue gun or crazy glue to adhere the pieces of magnet to your numbers.   If you don't have free magnets, or any you'd like to cut up, you could use a magnetic potato chip clip to hold your number.   Or you could use a magnetic photo sleeve.  Look around your home and see what creative solution you can create with what you have on hand.  Leave me a comment below on what you achieved.

5.  Place magnets on fridge.  And you're done!  You may now begin drinking water, motivating yourself and saving your sanity!!

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Tomorrow: "SANITY SAVER: Reduce and Reuse"