11 Genius Ways to Repurpose Cheap Pool Noodles This Summer

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CK and GK love a good hack, especially ones that are easy, inexpensive, and give them a place to channel all of their ADHD-hyperfixation-energy. Jenny is great at finding imaginative solutions to common problems, and Caitlin loves any practical “a-ha” moment. When their powers combine, CK & GK are a reliable source for DIY hacks. Enter: the pool noodle. We were amazed by the versatility of pool noodles and how they can transform your home!

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You’ll hear genius pool noodle hacks that you can DIY in just a few minutes with a pool noodle, scissors, and some tape. We’ve got everything from keeping your kids safe and entertained to preventing car door dings in your garage. Check out the blog post for this episode here.

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Looking for more summer survival tips? Visit our Summer Survival Guide on the CK & GK Podcast website for a range of practical tips and resources for parents we’ve curated ourselves. 

Whether

• your kids are in year-round school or out until Labor Day,
• you’re working or a stay-at-home parent,
• you’re going on vacation or hoping for a few day trips around your town,

the survival guide caters to all the ways you summer. We hope our actionable tips and relatable content help our listeners have a memorable and stress-free summer experience.

The best support is a rating and a share.

Love,
CK & GK

Transcript

00:00:01 - Jenny GK
It's Tuesday.

00:00:06 - Caitlin Kindred
Did you get possessed by a ghost while you were.

00:00:08 - Jenny GK
Right, right.

00:00:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, goodness. We're so glad you're here. It is. It's officially. Well, not officially. It's unofficially summer, but it's officially hot, which means it's pool noodle season. And why does that matter? Because the dollar store, your dollar spot, any particular dollar shop that you go to, has pool noodles real cheap, and we're sharing hacks that you can use pool noodles for. So stock up, go buy, like, seven.

00:00:49 - Jenny GK
Yeah, pause the epi, go buy a bunch of pool noodles, and then come.

00:00:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Back for $7.42 and then come. Come back.

00:00:56 - Jenny GK
Okay, so let me. Let me just, like, tell you a dollar store story right now.

00:00:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:01:00 - Jenny GK
Okay. My husband John is obsessed with the new doctor pepper creamy coconut flavor. Have you heard of this?

00:01:09 - Caitlin Kindred
No.

00:01:10 - Jenny GK
Okay, so they make a doctor pepper zero with this creamy coconut in it.

00:01:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:01:18 - Jenny GK
And he, like, has gone nuts on it. Like, anytime he sees it at a gas station, he's buying that little 16 ounce bottle, whatever. So he says, can you look up and find where I can buy a twelve pack of cans, which will probably be much more affordable than these six gas station convenience store bottles?

00:01:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:01:42 - Jenny GK
So I am searching doctor pepper zero creamy coconut, and two places come up on where to buy this.

00:01:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:01:52 - Jenny GK
One is Walmart.

00:01:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Yep.

00:01:55 - Jenny GK
And the other one is family dollar.

00:01:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Yep.

00:01:58 - Jenny GK
That sounds like Heb. The very large, very powerful grocery store near Texas. Doesn't carry it. Target doesn't carry it. Walmart and family dollar.

00:02:13 - Caitlin Kindred
All right, head on over. And Wally's.

00:02:16 - Jenny GK
Well, I went to Walmart, they didn't have it. Oh, I went to Walmart. That's how much I love this, man.

00:02:23 - Caitlin Kindred
I don't.

00:02:23 - Jenny GK
But they don't have it, so I didn't have to give them my money.

00:02:25 - Caitlin Kindred
There you go. Yeah, I'm not a big Walmart person either. No judgment. People who are, it's just not my thing.

00:02:30 - Jenny GK
Oh, no, that's totally fine.

00:02:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Please.

00:02:32 - Jenny GK
Last week I talked about how much I love JT. Everybody has different things that they are standing for.

00:02:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Totally. Oh, goodness. So let's, uh. Let's do some.

00:02:43 - Jenny GK
Oh, sorry. Yeah, back to the show. Sorry. Back to the show, which is hosted by Caitlin, who we could call the wet pool deck, because I'm falling for.

00:02:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Like, the guy who jumps the fence and falls, right? I'm just picturing, like, my feet going right out from under me, just like they did in cabo, and I dropped my ice cream on the ground.

00:03:11 - Jenny GK
That's Jenny I'm thinking of Wendy Fevercorn. Walk, please.

00:03:20 - Caitlin Kindred
When do you puff fercorn? That's Jenny. She's my innocent, thoughtful sunfish.

00:03:28 - Jenny GK
Ooh.

00:03:28 - Caitlin Kindred
I know. Before we get started, I want to give a shout out to someone on Apple podcasts. Oh, I know, right? I did it right this time. Called symphonics, they said. I know, right? Lots of laughs. I really enjoyed listening to Caitlin and Jenny's latest podcast. They obviously have a great rapport with each other, but also provide some good advice for people looking for a new opportunity. I know there are a lot of podcasts out there talking about adulting, but you make it as easy as listening to these two. Nice work, eighties. Love that review. Thank you so much. Symphonics. Really nice one. You're always welcome to leave us a review. We like those. You can also send us a text if you want to, that's in the show notes. Just say hello. Yeah, let's get started. So again, in case you missed it, it's summertime, and everyone's summers are different, so I wanted to just not presume anything. People have year round schools. Some of us are doing the camp shuffle, which is what we're doing at our house. And we don't want to make any assumptions about what your summer looks like. Maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you're not on vacation. You have to work the entire summer. Like, all of those things are a very real possibility for any one of our listeners. So instead of offering a ton of, like, fun summer activities that are sometimes meant for parents who stay home all summer and have more time, we're just assembling some of our favorite summer survival articles into one page on our website. So if you go over to cknjkpodcast.com and go to resources, there is a page underneath that called summer survival guide, and you can find a curated list of articles to help you survive summer. We're talking about summer beauty activities for you to do with your kids. You know, sunscreen, which is important, things like that. That we know that people need help with. And not all the resources are great. And I promise you, none of the articles that I'm putting on there or that Jenny's sending to have put on. There are articles that have, like, a thousand stories before they actually get to the end of the show. Hang on.

00:05:53 - Jenny GK
None of them are pinterest pressure either.

00:05:54 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, no. Absolutely not. That's.

00:05:56 - Jenny GK
We're not. We're not sending anything that, like, requires being cute.

00:06:00 - Caitlin Kindred
That. No, we're not. No, there's no. None of that is necessary here. What are you doing out there? Can you not do that right now? Go around and ask the question. Just go. We're not. He wants to go see a lizard, but he's doing sign language like this. Who the fuck understands what the fuck this means anyway?

00:06:58 - Jenny GK
Also, like, this show is recorded. Just ask me so we can do it, and then I'll cut it out.

00:07:03 - Caitlin Kindred
Right?

00:07:04 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:07:05 - Caitlin Kindred
Anyway. Okay. Do I need to say any of that over again, or did I finish?

00:07:12 - Jenny GK
You finished.

00:07:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay. All right, so, um, let's get started with these pool noodle hacks. Some of them are actually really genius, so I'm going to start by sharing my sources for today. Um, one of them is by Elizabeth Narens for scary mommy. And the article title caught my eye. It is so great. It's called, the moms of TikTok are out here hacking the shirt out of pool noodles. That was great. And the other one is 27 pool noodle hacks that will improve your life. I don't know about that. Improve your life. Like, that's a little.

00:07:47 - Jenny GK
Improve your life.

00:07:49 - Caitlin Kindred
Improve your life.

00:07:50 - Jenny GK
That's what CK & GK Podcast is all about.

00:07:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Improving your life. By Marcia repke for the family handyman. Did you know there was a website called the family handyman? I did not.

00:07:59 - Jenny GK
No.

00:08:01 - Caitlin Kindred
I have to say this, too, and this is also on the scary mommy article. Please just practice good judgment. If we are borrowing TikTok hacks, there are certain things that we should do and certain things we should not. So if you're ever concerned about the safety of something, please just don't, you know, don't do it. Or ask a doctor. Whatever. Just putting that out there. Okay. So.

00:08:28 - Jenny GK
Right.

00:08:29 - Caitlin Kindred
A couple of these were actually quite brilliant. Um, so I've got 123456. I've got eleven that I really liked. Of those, 27, and the other ones that were from the moms. Okay. All right, here we go.

00:08:43 - Jenny GK
So eleven is a number you can make out of pool noodles.

00:08:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. You can just hold them.

00:08:48 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:08:49 - Caitlin Kindred
And they'll be an eleven. Yep. Okay. Door slam deterrent. What?

00:08:56 - Jenny GK
What?

00:08:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, this is from at L J F L O M. Mom. L J. Flow. Mom. I don't know. So she starts by, like, taking the pool noodle and hacking off, like, a foot long chunk of it.

00:09:15 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:09:15 - Caitlin Kindred
And then she slices it down the middle, like, length.

00:09:18 - Jenny GK
Now you got, like, a little bow.

00:09:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. And then she stretches it around the edge of a door, which I thought was really smart, like, so that when.

00:09:27 - Jenny GK
She shove it on there.

00:09:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, you just, like, open it up like a taco shell. And you just put it right on the. The door. Ah.

00:09:35 - Jenny GK
So when she slices it, she does not cut it all the way through.

00:09:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:09:38 - Jenny GK
One side is getting one side. Okay. Okay.

00:09:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Slit in the. In one side. Yes. I should have made that clear.

00:09:43 - Jenny GK
Um, no, you. You did now.

00:09:46 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. So you could. Some people were like, well, you could just put a towel over the door and it won't slam when you close the door. Well, yeah. Okay. But also, like, what if you have toddlers and little fingers can get pinched? The pool noodle will stop that from happening. So that's a nice little idea.

00:10:02 - Jenny GK
I think I'm gonna do it on my baby gate at the top of the hall. Yeah. Because when the dog opens it, first off, we don't have babies anymore.

00:10:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:10:11 - Jenny GK
The gate was just, like, built into the house, and it would require a lot of wall restructuring if I took it off. So we just leave it up.

00:10:19 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:10:20 - Jenny GK
But one of the dogs can open it and the other dog can't. But neither one of them can stop it from slamming.

00:10:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. So you could make it so that this is. It'll soften it at the very least.

00:10:32 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:10:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Smart. I also like this because this is, uh, same idea, but using it in the garage so you can prevent door dings on your car with strategic pool noodle placement. So same idea. Cut it. Cut it into a chunk and then, like, go down a slit. Don't. Don't cut the whole thing in half so that you have, like, two semicircles. Just make a slit down one side, and then you can put it on the studs of your garage. If your studs are exposed so that when you open your car door, it doesn't ding into the studs.

00:11:08 - Jenny GK
We could probably just glue it onto the wall, too.

00:11:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, you could. You totally could. And secure it with, like. And also, like, hardcore glue. Yeah.

00:11:18 - Jenny GK
If you don't use the whole pool noodle. I. Pool noodle. If you don't use the whole thing, it also becomes a parking guide. Right. You gotta line your door up in between this space.

00:11:30 - Caitlin Kindred
Space, yeah, exactly. Um, you can also. This guy says you could hear it to. You can adhere it to the studs with construction cement or a couple of nails. That's one way to do it. Or if you open the lift gate of your suv.

00:11:48 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:11:48 - Caitlin Kindred
And you. You can hit part of the garage, like the cross braces on the garage. Put pool noodles on the cross braces so that when the liftgate opens on your suv, you don't ding the lift gate.

00:12:04 - Jenny GK
Oh, my gosh. Speaking of. Have you seen those videos of the cybertruck cutting vegetables?

00:12:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my gosh, that's terrifying. Yes. What if it's your finger?

00:12:15 - Jenny GK
Right. So you need to put pool noodles on the corners of your cybertruck and.

00:12:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Your fingers, like when you were eating raspberries as a kid. And you just put your fingers. Or bugle.

00:12:26 - Jenny GK
Bugles. Yeah.

00:12:30 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm so glad we both went there. Okay. You can just use, like, you know, adhesive, double sided tape, duct tape, whatever, to hold it on the lift gate or not the lift gate of your car. Hold on the garage.

00:12:42 - Jenny GK
Don't glue it to your car. I was kidding about putting a pool noodle on your cyber truck. What you really need to put on your cyber truck is a for sale sign. Oh.

00:12:53 - Caitlin Kindred
How many of our listeners do you think drive a cybertruck? I'm going to go on a limb and say less than 1%. And that's generous. Okay. Toddler bumper.

00:13:07 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:13:09 - Caitlin Kindred
This is.

00:13:10 - Jenny GK
Do you wrap it around the toddler like a.

00:13:14 - Caitlin Kindred
Like a bubble suit? Like the suit in the Christmas story.

00:13:17 - Jenny GK
When he's like, yes, yes, yes, yes.

00:13:21 - Caitlin Kindred
No. This is from. She uses a red pool noodle under her kids fitted sheet to create, like, a bumper to keep the toddler from rolling off the bed. So you put it under the sheet so that now I. Bumper pulling. Yeah, exactly. So they can't.

00:13:41 - Jenny GK
Does it have to be a red pull noodle?

00:13:44 - Caitlin Kindred
It does not. My understanding is that it could be any color. Okay, let your kid shoot.

00:13:49 - Jenny GK
My only thing that you specify, she uses a red one.

00:13:52 - Caitlin Kindred
She uses a red one in the video. That's all I'm saying. Now here's my concern about this. And I might be wrong with this, but worst if you're a toddler, this is still an age of shoving things into your face, your mouth, whole. Right. Chewing on things. So I do have a little bit of a concern about a toddler starting to chew on that. And I don't know, having.

00:14:17 - Jenny GK
I feel like also maybe like a rolled towel could do the same.

00:14:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes. Yeah. I would agree with a rolled towel. That one I like more.

00:14:24 - Jenny GK
Duct tape it to keep it rolled.

00:14:27 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Or wrap it in, like, a couple of strategies, like saran wrap, a hair tie, something like that. I think the hair ties are really good idea. So I don't necessarily. Yeah, I. Yeah, no, it's another chewing hazard. You're right. So can you tell? It's been a long time since I've had a toddler. Right, moran wrap.

00:14:46 - Jenny GK
Well, I was like, toddler bumper. What is this? Like? I I can't put my arms down.

00:14:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, so another one. Bunk bed, ladder, buffer. This one I actually thought was a really good idea. Um, this is from Hatfield with an underscore at the end. You use scissors to cut the noodle or just use a knife. Like I've heard. Serrated blade is probably the easiest way to do this. Do this away from children and do it in overcutting.

00:15:14 - Jenny GK
We have a knife called the hardcore carnivore. I bet it would do a good job.

00:15:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Make our knives now. Oh, dear. Okay, so cut the pool noodle into the length of the rungs on your bunk bed and then do the same thing we did for the door where you cut a slit down part of the pool noodle and then you wrap it around the rungs of the ladder. I personally would be worried that they would slip off, so I probably want to secure them with, like, wrap some duct tape around that so that they don't zip tie. Zip tie would be another good one as long as you cut the edges off so it's not going to be pointy and hurt your kids. Right.

00:15:51 - Jenny GK
You can actually use a nail file. Oh, smart. Can use a sewing machine.

00:15:56 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:15:57 - Jenny GK
On the zip ties. Don't do it on your fingernails. If you haven't listened to last week's episode, go ahead and go back and do that and learn why my nails have been splitting for 40 years.

00:16:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Also, I would not recommend using your glass nail file on the zip tie. Use one of those crappy ones.

00:16:13 - Jenny GK
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. Little throwaway Emery boards. Sorry.

00:16:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Um, this other one I thought was pretty smart. Although it's like, this is a little bit of a stretch. The. The way that the scary mommy article described it was cheap, easy, endlessly entertaining toys. Endlessly entertaining is where the stretch comes in. So this is the at hand to son family. Hand sun.

00:16:37 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:16:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Not hands and hand son. Okay. All you need to do is cut your. Yes. Like, hands on. I bet that it's hands on family. More coffee. All right. All you need to do is cut your pool noodles into smaller pieces, like rings.

00:16:56 - Jenny GK
Your face was so good. Oh, yeah, that's what it says.

00:17:03 - Caitlin Kindred
What word did you use in the last episode? Smather.

00:17:06 - Jenny GK
Smather.

00:17:09 - Caitlin Kindred
You guys, we're so professional. We're really good at teaching other adults how to be an adult, a grown up, because I say things like hand sun instead of hands on, which is clearly what it is. Anyway, this family used. They cut their pool noodle into, like, rings, and then they used them to. You know, kids can play in the tub with them. They stacked them. They made them into little, like, giant necklaces. I thought this was kind of weird, but if you're constantly having bath toys and your kids are young enough to be entertained by rings, why not? Why not, right?

00:17:45 - Jenny GK
That is like a good fine motor and hand eye coordination practice of, you could use just regular rope if you like, nylon rope. If you burn the end and keep it from fraying, that would also give you a hard stop that the kids could then use to thread through the rings.

00:18:08 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, I think that works for maybe a season of your kid's life. It's not a thing that you could give to your seven year old and be like, here, play in the duff with these rings. No, you're done. Okay. This one is one of my favorites. Probably my second favorite one. A DIY sprinkler. I loved this. At Grace sharer patches up one end of the pool noodle with, like, some sort of adhesive, like water tape, like, whatever that tape is that you like. The guy in the infomercial slaps onto the leaking boat or whatever. Like that. She takes the one end of a hose, uses that kind of tape to shove it into a pool noodle, and attach it there. And then she takes some scissors, and she stabs the mess out of this pool noodle, and all of the water comes flying out of the pool noodle like a sprinkler. And I thought it was so smart.

00:19:05 - Jenny GK
That's amazing. Flex tape.

00:19:08 - Caitlin Kindred
There it is. Love it. Okay.

00:19:12 - Jenny GK
Um, I like the idea of stabbing it with the scissors too, because when you said DIY sprinkler, I had envisioned, like, using a drill.

00:19:21 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah.

00:19:21 - Jenny GK
No, the holes. That is not as cathartic.

00:19:25 - Caitlin Kindred
No. And also unnecessary if you do that with a pool noodle. Shrimp. Let me get my drill for this styrofoam. I have no upper body strength. Okay. All right. Keep your plants cool with this one. This is Ennyjoe eight. She says, for plants and pots, you can use pool noodles standing vertically to fill the container to about three quarters of the height of the container. And that way, you don't need as much soil in your largest containers, and you're helping with drainage. It's like the same reason why you put rocks in the bottom of a flower pot, because it helps the draining better. But this is even better because it's. You don't have to like, it's not gonna be so heavy when you set this up. That was.

00:20:15 - Jenny GK
I feel like it's a good thing to do with your pool noodles after your dog chewed it. Or not really holding up. Like, no one's gonna see it.

00:20:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Right, exactly. And that was a really good idea.

00:20:24 - Jenny GK
It reminds me of that dish that you sometimes see people make on the Internet in a springform Pam, where they put the rigatoni. Yeah.

00:20:33 - Caitlin Kindred
Words. And.

00:20:33 - Jenny GK
Yeah, they put the sauce and then.

00:20:34 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:20:35 - Jenny GK
Cut it into pie. I would never do that because it takes so long, but it always looks pretty.

00:20:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Right? Who's got the energy to do that with rigatoni again? Bugles? You just, like, shove the rigatoni noodles on your fingers and you. That's the way I would do it. It would be a disgusting meal. Nobody would want to eat it because my fingers all in it. I do wash my hands before I cook, but it's still, like, you're gonna. It's.

00:21:03 - Jenny GK
Have you seen that siren live skit where John Goodman is the host and he's a chef?

00:21:09 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, my. This is already.

00:21:11 - Jenny GK
Yeah. And he's, like, being this Louisiana cook, and he says, yeah, I always spit twice in a dish. So that a little bit of me going to you or whenever you made with love. Yeah. Every dish has a little bit of you in it. Then.

00:21:25 - Caitlin Kindred
Ew.

00:21:27 - Jenny GK
Twice. And every day.

00:21:28 - Caitlin Kindred
So gross. Oh, my gosh.

00:21:30 - Jenny GK
And it's on that bit that Phil Hartman did where he was the anal retensive chef.

00:21:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:21:36 - Jenny GK
He would, like, throw his trash away by wrapping it in foil and then in a garbage bag and then, like, stapling it shut. So he's, like, having this guest chef who says, I spit twice in every.

00:21:45 - Caitlin Kindred
Dish, and he's, like, completely panicking.

00:21:48 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:21:50 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, that's pretty funny. Okay, this is.

00:21:54 - Jenny GK
It's from 1994. It's probably 30 years old.

00:21:57 - Caitlin Kindred
I was gonna say, phil Hartman's been gone for a while now.

00:22:01 - Jenny GK
Yeah, he died a long time ago.

00:22:03 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh. Oh, goodness.

00:22:05 - Jenny GK
But there's a good podcast about his death. Oh, I listened to it within the last couple of years. I'll see if I can find it. We can put it in the show.

00:22:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Here's the podcast about Phil dying. Speaking of death, pool noodle hack for trampolines. I am not a fan of trampolines because danger. But if you have one and you have.

00:22:37 - Jenny GK
When I was growing up, we had a kid fall on ours and break his collarbone.

00:22:41 - Caitlin Kindred
Literally.

00:22:41 - Jenny GK
This was before everybody was so litigious, and so it was just like, yeah, jumped on trampoline, broke my collarbone. That's just life.

00:22:48 - Caitlin Kindred
Oopsie doopsie. We should.

00:22:49 - Jenny GK
Now I'm like, I wouldn't have a trampoline if you paid me. No, if someone gave it to me, I would give it back.

00:22:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. It would immediately go in the buy nothing Facebook group. Okay, no pinch trampoline springs. If you have springs again, cut the noodle to the length of the springs, cut a slit down one side, and then put it over the spring of the trampoline so it doesn't pinch anybody. Wrap it with tape, so. Or zip ties so it doesn't come off. And you can secure your trampoline springs so that you don't get pinches with them. I just repeated myself in three different ways. Choose the one that makes sense to you.

00:23:33 - Jenny GK
It would be fun to see a trampoline get crushed in the back of a trash truck.

00:23:39 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm picturing right now the episode of the office where Michael is going to jump onto a bounce house. But they do tests first on a trampoline with watermelons.

00:23:53 - Jenny GK
Oh, yes.

00:23:54 - Caitlin Kindred
And their face is when it's off. Yeah. And it immediately lands on Stanley's car and destroys. It's like an exploded watermelon on all the way back. And that episode is actually about very severe mental health issues. So I don't want to make light of it. But right now, then the next thing that Michael says is take apart the trampoline and stick it in the baler, which he's not supposed to eat. So there's that. Okay.

00:24:22 - Jenny GK
We've talked about this before, that the chiefs put out, um, about their announcement of their season, and it goes week by week against their opponent. And it's a hydraulic press pressing different items that represent that opponent.

00:24:40 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, I haven't.

00:24:41 - Jenny GK
So, like, on the week that they're playing the chargers, there's a bowl of iPhone chargers in the compressor, and then, you know, it gets smashed and pieces fly everywhere. The week they're playing the browns, it's just full of Tootsie rolls.

00:24:59 - Caitlin Kindred
It's good. That could go either way. I do like Tootsie rolls. I know I'm one of, like, the only people in the world who likes them, but I really do like them.

00:25:06 - Jenny GK
Oh, I love them.

00:25:08 - Caitlin Kindred
You do?

00:25:09 - Jenny GK
Yeah. I do not like the white ones, but I do like the yellow and the green. But I. I'm a. I love Tootsie rolls. They're great for a road trip because they don't melt.

00:25:20 - Caitlin Kindred
And if they do, that means they've all. Yeah, they're. They've all been congealed and. Yeah, that's super Tootsie roll.

00:25:25 - Jenny GK
Doesn't sound so bad on a road trip. Yeah. Tootsie roll. I'm taking it.

00:25:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, roll like them.

00:25:30 - Jenny GK
No, they. They melt and they get gross. So do reason have those on a road trip?

00:25:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. No reason are good. But anyway.

00:25:41 - Jenny GK
All right, sorry.

00:25:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Next one. Pool noodle boot storage. We've talked about this before.

00:25:46 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:25:46 - Caitlin Kindred
You just cut them into the length of your boot and then you shove them into your boot and it helps your boot keep the shape. Love that one. It's a good one, this one. This add on from the family handyman says, also great for drawing mukluks.

00:26:02 - Jenny GK
So if you happen to live in Chicago and you have snow boots, this is a great way to help them dry.

00:26:08 - Caitlin Kindred
But turn them over on the.

00:26:11 - Jenny GK
If you live in Austin, you don't own snow bloops, let alone need to dry them.

00:26:16 - Caitlin Kindred
I have them because they're a carryover from when I lived in Denver. But otherwise, no, I would not have them here. No. Okay. Hanging clothes. This one, I actually thought I having a hard time picturing it, and then all of a sudden it makes sense. So when you are hanging up, like dress pants.

00:26:37 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:26:37 - Caitlin Kindred
You know how you hold up? You put them over the rung.

00:26:41 - Jenny GK
The bar of the hanger.

00:26:42 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes, the bar of the hanger. And then they can crease on that. That's annoying. So this person suggested taking the pool noodle, cutting it to the length of the hanger bar, and again slit down the middle, wrap it around the hanger bar, put something on it so that it doesn't roll off. And then you put your pants over it and it won't crease. But that takes up a lot of space in your closet. So I don't like it as much.

00:27:11 - Jenny GK
But when you get your pants dry cleaned.

00:27:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:27:14 - Jenny GK
The dry cleaner has that, like, little cardboard tube.

00:27:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Tube, yeah.

00:27:18 - Jenny GK
So this is like a really big version of that, which could. Could make sense for specific pants. Right. Like, I wouldn't do it for every pair of dress pants. My husband has jeans that's gonna take up too much space. But, like, the pants for his suit or his tuxedo?

00:27:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Like something like that.

00:27:39 - Jenny GK
Exactly.

00:27:40 - Caitlin Kindred
Right.

00:27:40 - Jenny GK
Like, you can give up that much closet space because you're now making it so that you don't have to iron the tuxedo pants because they're not worn often enough that they will have the paint. They will have the crease.

00:27:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. So it would keep the crease you want it to have if we're still doing the crease down the middle.

00:27:56 - Jenny GK
Right, right.

00:27:58 - Caitlin Kindred
But it's not going to have an additional one across.

00:28:01 - Jenny GK
One across your knees. Yeah.

00:28:03 - Caitlin Kindred
I just. I don't like how much space that takes up. But you're right. Like, for one or two things, it seems fine. Okay. This one is my favorite. This is the last one I have. Floating beverage barge.

00:28:20 - Jenny GK
I just love the idea of beverage barge. This is great alliteration.

00:28:28 - Caitlin Kindred
Cut short lengths of.

00:28:30 - Jenny GK
How about instead of floating, we call it buoyant boit boyent.

00:28:35 - Caitlin Kindred
I like buoyant. That's how I'm gonna say the word after I've taken out the beverages that are in it and consumed them. Bu it. Beverage barge.

00:28:45 - Jenny GK
All I have had to drink today is coffee. Why did I say buoyant scientist? And it kind of ruined the whole thing. Because I really wanted to make the emphasis on the words.

00:28:59 - Caitlin Kindred
Put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable.

00:29:02 - Jenny GK
No, I just made up a word.

00:29:04 - Caitlin Kindred
I just needed to say that line. It's fine. Okay.

00:29:09 - Jenny GK
Beverage barge.

00:29:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Beverage barge. I like that better. You have to leave that in, by the way.

00:29:15 - Jenny GK
Oh, I'm staying.

00:29:19 - Caitlin Kindred
You cut short lengths of pool noodles to fit a plastic bin. So you want.

00:29:25 - Jenny GK
And then again, like a storage bin.

00:29:26 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah, like a storage bin. And then you wrap. You can. You're gonna put each of the pool noodle pieces on the lengths of. Of the outer edge of the storage bin. Okay, then. Or actually, this is even better. Don't cut it. Don't do the slit down the middle. Cause that's not gonna help it. Instead, just make it so that it fits the edge. And then you're gonna put a bungee cord through the pool noodles.

00:29:51 - Jenny GK
Okay, so this is like letting your kids thread the needle through little rings, only those rings now are like, 22 inches long.

00:30:00 - Caitlin Kindred
Right. So you're going to thread your bungee cord through it. And then when you put your beverages in the plastic bin, the pool noodle pieces will help your beverage barge stay buoyant.

00:30:16 - Jenny GK
That is hilarious.

00:30:17 - Caitlin Kindred
Yep. And if you take a little piece of the noodle, you can, like, wrap it around a piece of, like, rope or something. So you can just grab the little donut and pull the beverage barge towards you.

00:30:33 - Jenny GK
Yes.

00:30:33 - Caitlin Kindred
It's easier to grab that way. I love this. So that was. This is me trying to describe things that are highly visual in an audio medium.

00:30:48 - Jenny GK
Hey, it's worked for me. I haven't seen any of them, and I'm getting good pictures in my mind.

00:30:52 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, great. I hope you guys are visual people, because you need to be. So I did eleven things. A lot of them are protecting doors, protecting your children, and protecting your mental health. By having a beverage barge, you're welcome.

00:31:08 - Jenny GK
Beverage barge.

00:31:10 - Caitlin Kindred
Let's take a break. Oh, dear.

00:31:20 - Jenny GK
I wonder if that could be the name of a band company. A band would be good. I'm thinking a company that, like, floats down the river and sells drinks to people who didn't bring their own to float.

00:31:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Buoyant beverage barge.

00:31:40 - Jenny GK
Yes. And people will be like, oh, the triple b is coming.

00:31:44 - Caitlin Kindred
But then it's also triple b, like, better business bureau, so, you know, it's vetted. I might be a little slap happy right now. Just saying.

00:31:57 - Jenny GK
All right, let's talk about what we're obsessed with. And my obsession is reflective of some tragedies that have happened in my life recently.

00:32:07 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, no.

00:32:08 - Jenny GK
I am just really obsessed with owning my own carpet cleaning machine. I know. If you don't already own one, this should be something you are saving towards. It's just a lifesaver to be able to spill something and then go get the cleaning thing out of the garage or closet or whatever and just clean it up.

00:32:30 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:32:31 - Jenny GK
There was a time in my life where I had to rent it, and you would be like, ugh, I got a stain. I got a hand. Scrub this.

00:32:39 - Caitlin Kindred
Or you're like, me and you won't even rent it. You're just like, nope. I guess it is what it is right now.

00:32:43 - Jenny GK
Yeah. Yesterday I spilled red soup. You know what I did? Went to the garbage cleaner and just clean it up like it was nothing.

00:32:53 - Caitlin Kindred
That's so nice.

00:32:54 - Jenny GK
It was great.

00:32:56 - Caitlin Kindred
I own a green machine, which is the. Like.

00:33:00 - Jenny GK
Yeah, that's it.

00:33:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. But it's for smaller areas. I have used it to clean the couch. Game changer. Lifesaver. Game changer. Best thing ever. And it makes the couch smell better.

00:33:13 - Jenny GK
Like, oh, yeah.

00:33:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Because the couch is covered in feet and butt, and in our house, dog. Dog and food. It's just gross. So, yeah, I'm with you. I need to. I need to. Do you have to send me. Send me the one that you have. I'll add it to the list of items, but also I want to purchase.

00:33:33 - Jenny GK
Yeah. And now we're buying a tile cleaner.

00:33:35 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, smart. I have a steamer. I have the steamer. Oh, I love that thing. I used it for steam cleaning the tiles because we have woodluck tile in the house, and it's great. Except that those little grooves in the woodlock tile keep dirt. Keep it so you can mop the floor and you think it's clean, and then you steam it, and you're like, oh, my God, this is so nasty. Like, not even. Just, like, the steamer. Mop we're talking like, yeah, it's so gross anyway, because we have, like, the.

00:34:11 - Jenny GK
The steam mop.

00:34:13 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:34:13 - Jenny GK
I want the one with the brushes.

00:34:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yes, you do.

00:34:17 - Jenny GK
Okay, your turn.

00:34:20 - Caitlin Kindred
Part of the research I was doing for this curated surviving summer page is, like, activities for parents to do with their kids in the heat of summer. We're talking about things like, when it's raining and you can't go outside, what do you do when your kids say they're bored for the 14th time and you have screen time limits, what do you do? This one was whatever makes you happy. Happy hour. Ooh, you had me at happy hour. First of all, I love a good happy hour.

00:35:01 - Jenny GK
Regardless, we have taught kit about happy hour. He can only have Capri sun between three and six, and so he'll ask like, oh, is it happy hour? Be like, no, sorry, it's not happy hour. And sometimes he'll remember it. It's too late. I'm like, oh, no, 602. Happy hour's over.

00:35:16 - Caitlin Kindred
Happy hour's over. You lost that deal. I'm all about the happy hour because it allows me to do my thing with fun people and still be in bed by 09:00. This is why we love it so much. Now, this is a different version of happy hour, although if it gets implemented at my house, which it may very well, I will be imbibing during this time.

00:35:40 - Jenny GK
Just putting that out there, that's what makes me happy.

00:35:43 - Caitlin Kindred
This right this moment. And dad, have a whatever makes you happy. Happy hour, as in, this is the 1 hour of the day before dinner where the kids get to do whatever it is that they want to do. Now, we're not talking. It's screen free time. Okay, but this is like, you want to make a mess and go play in a mud puddle? Go for it. You want to make your own chalk for the, you know, chalk drawings on the street. Do it where you want to play with ice and food coloring. Whatever it is, I don't care. 1 hour. Be as messy as you want, as clean as you want. Do whatever you want. We're gonna be outside. I'm gonna just let you do it. Because it's during the witching hour for kids, right? We all know what the witching is.

00:36:37 - Jenny GK
You're so cute. We call it the arsenic hour at our house.

00:36:43 - Caitlin Kindred
It is definitely the. Holy crap. Your meds have worn off, and you're hungry and tired. Like, it's the save me hour. It's not a happy hour at all.

00:36:55 - Jenny GK
It's the no. Mommy needs this someone at our house is getting arsenic. It's them or me. I don't know.

00:37:05 - Caitlin Kindred
So I just love the idea. That was great. I'm going to link it in this episode's blog post, but you'll also be able to find it under that surviving summer page on our website. Again. Go to ckngkpodcast.com, go to resources and find the surviving summer page and you'll find it there. So funny.

00:37:27 - Jenny GK
Okay, time for the jam.

00:37:30 - Caitlin Kindred
Do it.

00:37:31 - Jenny GK
This was a conversation I was having with a man who was married. He is the parent of one of the girls on Abigail's flag football team.

00:37:44 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay.

00:37:47 - Jenny GK
And they had just won the season.

00:37:51 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, nice. Yeah, that's right. You told us that. That was great.

00:37:54 - Jenny GK
Whole deal.

00:37:55 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:37:56 - Jenny GK
And we are at the traditional you won a flag football game place dairy Queen, the Texas top sign. And we're sitting there and John and I say, hey, let's go get a beer after this.

00:38:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Nice.

00:38:16 - Jenny GK
It's early enough in the evening. And so I invite this dad, and I was like, oh, you want to come with us? We're going to go get a beer. And Abby and his daughter have played on the same team for a long time. He's very active in the team. Like, we have a good relationship.

00:38:29 - Caitlin Kindred
Sure.

00:38:29 - Jenny GK
And he says, well, I would love to, but my wife is at home with our sick son.

00:38:36 - Caitlin Kindred
Mmm.

00:38:37 - Jenny GK
And it is my job to bring chick fil a to her. I said, oh, that's awful. I said, yeah, she actually had to call into work. You know, she's a nurse and she works the night shift. And so in order for me to go to this game, she had to call in so that she could stay home with our sick son. Oh, well, she should just said that she was working from home that day.

00:39:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Oh, grown.

00:39:09 - Jenny GK
Yeah. He says, oh, I'm totally gonna make that joke. Food first.

00:39:15 - Caitlin Kindred
Food first. Yeah, shove first. Shove a chick fil a into her hands.

00:39:19 - Jenny GK
You hand her the bag of food first. And then you say, hey, guess what I thought of. You shouldn't have called in. You should have told them you're just working from home.

00:39:30 - Caitlin Kindred
I love that jokes. But, yeah, you can only make them when she has the food in her hand, right? Otherwise she's going to rip your face off.

00:39:38 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:39:38 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:39:41 - Jenny GK
Mine is, but this is just a life lesson. Food first, then jokes.

00:39:47 - Caitlin Kindred
Food first, then jokes. Always. Especially for your wife. If you are a partner of a person who is identifying herself as female and you want to make a crass joke about something, first, make fun of.

00:40:03 - Jenny GK
Her having to call in to stay home with your sick kid while you went out.

00:40:06 - Caitlin Kindred
You got to go out. Exactly. Yesterday, for me, it was tacos. I want a taco first. Then we can have a discussion about other things. But first, tacos. Tacos are always a great shove food into wife face, just not like the cake at the wedding. You don't actually physically shove it into our face, but you do hand her the taco, and then you ask for your golf day. All right, so mine is my son. We're. We're back into animals these days. Like, we go through phases, right? It's Godzilla, then it's Pokemon, then it's back to Godzilla. Then it's a show called Pinky Malinki, which I don't know if you've ever seen this show on Netflix. It gives, like, family Guy vibes for.

00:40:55 - Jenny GK
Kids.

00:40:57 - Caitlin Kindred
Where, like, there's these random things that are happening.

00:41:01 - Jenny GK
Oh, like little cutaways?

00:41:02 - Caitlin Kindred
A little bit. Yeah.

00:41:03 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:41:04 - Caitlin Kindred
Okay, pretty funny. There has not been a reference to Conway Twitty, which always happens on Family Guy, and I always love that, where Peter just, like, drops everything. He's like, ladies and gentlemen, mister Conway twitty. No, it's so great. But Pinky Malinki is an obsession. Also, shout out to Retta, who is the mom. Rhetta is donna from parks and Rec, and she's on Pinky Malinki, which is so great.

00:41:28 - Jenny GK
Oh, wow.

00:41:28 - Caitlin Kindred
I actually like Pinky Malinki. I think it's funny. And now we're back on animals, and.

00:41:34 - Jenny GK
Apparently, the favorite animal right now, this has diversified interests.

00:41:37 - Caitlin Kindred
Yes.

00:41:38 - Jenny GK
This makes him a very interesting person.

00:41:40 - Caitlin Kindred
It does. It also demonstrates ADHD in its finest forms of the hyper fixation.

00:41:47 - Jenny GK
Yeah, I was just gonna say, because he's not interested in all of these things at the same time.

00:41:51 - Caitlin Kindred
No. It is an obsession for weeks on end, and then it will shift, and you don't know when it's gonna happen, but when it does, all of a sudden, the other things have been completely forgotten about. Right. Now, again, we're back on animals, but this particular animal is a white tiger. Now, he's obsessed with calling it a king tiger. Apparently, that's a thing. I didn't know it was a thing, but I guess it is.

00:42:15 - Jenny GK
So, yes, when I lived in Japan, they had the white tiger circus, and now we know, like, circus is terrible. Like, do not go to a circus that has real animals. Yeah, but, man, this white tiger circus was cool.

00:42:28 - Caitlin Kindred
I'm sure it was.

00:42:30 - Jenny GK
You know, those tigers probably need therapy.

00:42:32 - Caitlin Kindred
Now, but I'm sure they do. There is a white tiger at the Austin Zoo, which.

00:42:39 - Jenny GK
The Austin zoo. The Austin zoo, like, has basically an.

00:42:43 - Caitlin Kindred
Animal race and a white tiger. Yeah. A really big pig and a white tiger and some monkeys and bears, like.

00:42:50 - Jenny GK
A couple of gerbils that people turned.

00:42:51 - Caitlin Kindred
In and a goat area. Yeah. So we're obsessed with white tigers. Anyway, yesterday we're reading this animal encyclopedia that he has, and he did the tiger page, and then he turns the page to squirrel monkeys, and he's very quiet for a moment, and then all of a sudden he just goes, dad, a squirrel monkey will wipe a pee. I don't even know what he was gonna say after that because I just immediately started laughing because.

00:43:36 - Jenny GK
But just the females.

00:43:41 - Caitlin Kindred
A squirrel monkey will wipe a pea. Not, I think he was going to say something about how he learned on wildcrats that they do it to, like, repel mosquitoes or something. Didn't even let him get sorry because I was just like, what? It's so quiet. We're all just calmly reading our books for the evening on my bed, our bedroom, and he just, dad, a squirrel monkey will wipe a pee. And I just, I couldn't let him get any further. I thought it was so funny because it just felt like it completely came out of nowhere.

00:44:23 - Jenny GK
Right? It did.

00:44:25 - Caitlin Kindred
It's so quiet. And then you start talking about wiping pee on something. Like, what?

00:44:28 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:44:29 - Caitlin Kindred
And I looked over, not wiping pee.

00:44:32 - Jenny GK
But squirrel monkeys wiping pee.

00:44:35 - Caitlin Kindred
A pee. Just. Just a pee. And my husband just doesn't handle any sort of, like, he always says if he could handle blood, he would have been a doctor, but it's not blood. Like, it's any bodily function. Like, he just doesn't want to talk about it at all. It's totally not okay for him. So when I look over this one, he's like, oh, God. Like, what needs.

00:44:58 - Jenny GK
No.

00:45:01 - Caitlin Kindred
Meanwhile, I have the maturity of a 7th grader, which is why I was teaching 7th grade. And I think this is hilarious. I'm like, tell me all the fart stories because I think they're funny. Because they are. And Sam, like, then he knows that I'm cracking up, so of course he can't. Like, he has to repeat the same line 15 times because that's what you do. You have to beat the joke until it's completely dead when you're seven. But, oh, man. It was just one of those moments where I was like, I don't even know. It's just going. And I don't care. Like, this is. It doesn't matter because this is the.

00:45:35 - Jenny GK
Best lead up to anything.

00:45:37 - Caitlin Kindred
It could have been. It could have been about, like, on a DNA test tube to cure cancer, and it wouldn't.

00:45:43 - Jenny GK
It doesn't matter.

00:45:44 - Caitlin Kindred
It doesn't matter. It was just so funny.

00:45:46 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:45:47 - Caitlin Kindred
So making. Yeah. Making jokes about urine without even realizing it. This is why seven year olds are the best. Cause they just say funny things without intending to anyway.

00:46:04 - Jenny GK
All right, well, don't wipe. Don't wipe. He. Or a pee. Or some pee. Or the pee. Your pee. My pee.

00:46:16 - Caitlin Kindred
No. All right.

00:46:19 - Jenny GK
Okay.

00:46:19 - Caitlin Kindred
Is that your good choice?

00:46:21 - Jenny GK
Yeah.

00:46:22 - Caitlin Kindred
Yeah.

00:46:24 - Jenny GK
When you're deciding what facts about squirrel monkeys to share, make good choices.

00:46:34 - Caitlin Kindred
I don't even have anything. I'm just done. Bye.