The Power of the Sun!

I never imagined what the sun could do until I tried this! I'll never go back! I heard this idea from my dad awhile ago but just tried it for the first time the other day! The sun will bleach out stains in your clothing safely!!! As you can see we had a ton of baby clothes that were all stained. So I just layed them on our trampoline wet ( after they'd been through the wash), and let them air dry! It even took out some odd stains! And the best part, it's free! So give it a shot with your next stubborn stain!

Vinegar and the Microwave

I believe vinegar is my new best friend! It cleans everything, wither that's mixing it with dish soap or using it just with water it has so many uses. I know many of you have seen where you can put it in the microwave with water and heat it up for 5 minutes and it will soften all the stuck on stuff so you can just wipe it up...well I gave it a shot! Now my microwave wasn't really that dirty but it was all STUCK on pretty good so I thought what the heck, it won't do any harm in trying!! Here's the results!!

Make sure you clean your screen so you can see all the spots cause they're there...it was very easy to just wipe off though! I did have to use my nails to scratch a few off but it didn't take much!! So go a head and give it a shot all you need to do is...

1-2 cups water
1-2 Tbsp vinegar

put in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 5 minutes...wait...they wipe off!

REMEMBER!!! The water will boil in the microwave and has been known to bubble up and splash people after being taken out of the microwave so be safe...it will be hot!!!

After I was done with the inside, I dipped my rag into the vinegar and water and wiped down the outside! Worked well there too!! Make sure not to get your fingers in the water though, it will still be home (learn from my experience!!)

Swifter Refills

When I saw this great idea I had to give it a try! It seemed so simple and yet we spend tons to the swifter refills they have out there! All you do is boil the tip in a pot of water for about 20-30 seconds, then we a rag (to keep you from burning yourself) you twist off the lid! As easy as that!!! Then fill it with whatever solution you have! I used Mr. Clean multi surface (cause that's what I have on hand from a good deal awhile ago) and it seems to be working great and is for floors as well as bathrooms and kitchens! You can make any tip of cleaning solution to put in side then just pop it on and you're ready to go!!

My New Shout Stain Remover - Home Made

I'm excited that I have finally found something that works as a great stain remover for all our clothes and trust me when I saw if you have kids you will love what this stuff does!

Now the first time I used this stuff I was very impatient and didn't let it sit on there for very long before throwing it in the washer...I highly recommend waiting at least 15-20 minutes. I usually spray as I'm putting in the wash but now I just leave out the stuff that needs spraying and put it in the next load so it has time to sit! (the picture above is one that I didn't let sit but it's worked better on others that I let soak!).

So what is the magic stuff? It's as simple as 2 parts Hydrogen Peroxide to 1 part Dawn. Which means if you do 1/2 cup dish soap you'll do 1 cup Hydrogen Peroxide...Now the sit I read said to use the original dawn blue dish soap...I tried it with that first and yes it works great. Next time I'll be using just whatever I have on hand to see if it really matters :) Let me know if you try it before me and if it works or not!!!

Note: I more recently sprayed half and stain with shout and the other half with this mixture and the mixture did better then shout!! (and it's much cheaper which is wonderful seeing how we have to use it on everything with the two kiddos I have!!!)

Amazing Grout Cleaner!

Check this out! This is the grout in our kitchen which is such a high traffic area as all of us know and especially mine cause it leads to our side door where the kids are always coming in and out of!

I wish my camera would show it better but you can totally see where I stopped cleaning at. I wanted to just start with a small area so I wouldn't waste my time with the whole kitchen and it not work but I'll for sure be doing it to the whole kitchen tomorrow!! (hopefully it's nice so I can send the kids outside and open a window for venting)

All it is:

1/4 c bleach
3/4 c baking soda

Mix together to make a paste. Then I used my cleaning toothbrush to brush it on. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes and wipe off. I plan to steam clean them after I've done the whole floor to make sure I get all the chemicals up but it's so worth the work!!! I'll be sure to take before and after pictures to put them side by side so you can really see the difference!!

The Shower Doors

I hate glass/clear shower doors only because of the scum that builds on them. They would be beautiful if that didn't happen and we know everyone who uses it isn't going to squeegee after they're done. So I've done some research on what to do and I'm putting it to the test! First I tried cleaning it with a softener sheet. Here's the before and after picture...

So as you can see...better but not great! All I did was use the softener sheet with a little bit of water. (not nessesary to do this...I won't be trying it again)

Then,

 since it didn't get rid of it all I tried mixing together vinegar and dish soap (which now I'm thinking why didn't I just try this first) (the website was specific about using dawn - blue kind...weird but I had some on hand so that's what I used, you might be able to try some other kind, let me know if it worked just as well).

You'll want to heat up the vinegar in a microwave safe bowl to almost boiling (mine was about 1 minute) and pour it into a spray bottle then add in the dawn. It's a one to one ratio  meaning if you do one cup vinegar you'll do one cup dawn. I did about 3/4 cup of each and that covered all the glass with a little left over. Since you need the vinegar to be hot there's no need to have extra cause you'll need to make a new batch each time you do it. Now head to the bathroom and begin spraying. I had to cover my mouth and noise cause the aroma was so bad but it's non toxic so if you can bare it go for it:) Then let it sit...for tough stains you can let it sit over night but I'm inpatient so I only let it sit for about 3 hrs ( I did side track myself and forgot about it until I put the kids to bed!) The best way to get it all off...get in the shower with a spunge and turn it on! I couldn't believe my eyes when I started washing it off...let me remind you, no hard arm work required! It's unbelievable (and better in person)!

WOW!! There is no water marks only a few scratch marks from what I'm guessing a razor from the previous owners trying to clean it! I'm sold and will never clean my shower any other way again!!!

Sensitive skin...

Update: so I've been using this for my girls for about 2 months now and it seems to be working just great for their sensitive skin!!! I'm so excited, I first only made half of what it called for in case it didn't work, I'm going to be making up the rest of it for sure!!!
The Zote bar was very hard for me to find...I ended up having Fresh Market order me some, they were amazing and it only cost me 50 cents for 1 bar and they got it in the next day!!!

Laundry is such a chore at our house and with my girls sensitive skin we have to be extra careful what we use as laundry detergent. I've been thinking for some time now that I should try making my own and see how they do with it (cause theirs is so expensive). So TODAY I'm running to the store to grab everything I need to make our own laundry detergent and the "better then shout" ingredients that I don't have on hand!

I've looked at a few laundry detergent recipes and have found one that looks the best to me. For the laundry detergent you'll need:

(my zote bar took me a long time to find so I didn't get a picture of it with the rest of the ingredients)

1 (4lb 12oz) box of Borax (in the detergent aisle)

1 (3lb 7oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (in the detergent aisle)

1 (3lb) Container of OxyClean (in detergent aisle - this is optional)

2 (14.1oz) Bars of Zote Soap (in detergent aisle)

1 (2lb) Boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (on the cooking aisle)

1-2 (55oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener (in the detergent aisle - this is also optional but it's what's going to help it to smell good and soften your clothes/towels)

Supposeably this makes quiet a bit so I'm first going to cut it in half to make sure it works with my girls skin...if not I can certainly use it for my husbands and my clothes. To make, just grate the bars of soap and mix everything together...easy as that (the best part!). Then all you need to add to your wash is 1-2 Tbsp to your load depending on if it's a small or large load. Can you imagine how long that's going to last!?! 1.

Shout Substitute

So I ended up having to run to the store the other day just to get some shout to clean out my girls clothes (cause kids have a tendency to get everything dirty). Then I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest (my new addiction) to make your own "Better then Shout" stain remover. I'm hoping it lives up to its name! I'll be whipping up a batch today and don't worry I have plenty of laundry to try it out on :)

Check out how to make you're own "shout" here!

Home Made Soap

So I went on a little adventure and decided to try and make our own hand/body soap! It wasn't too bad just a little busy but who cares if it's messy when it's just soap, it cleans everything it gets on, bonus!

So you start with just a bar of soup which I had on hand from some of the freebies that I get, start grating away. I ended up doing two bars because I doubled the recipe, I didn't want to have to do this multiple times. You need 1 cup of the bar (any brand will work great). Then you'll need 1 Tbsp of Glycerin, I got mine from my wonderful mother but I've heard you can also grab it at Target. If you don't see it on the isles ask your pharmacy, they might have it behind the counter. Next, you'll need 10 cups water.
After you've grated your bar combine it all in a large sauce pan and heat on medium until soap has completely dissolved. I then allowed it to cool completely before transferring it to my jug for storing. (it will thicken the long it cools, you could even let set over night).

I didn't have any cute storing containers for my soap so I just cleaned out a milk cartoon and put it in there. I didn't have any funnels to make this an easy process so my mom and I put our heads together and came up with this:)

 I just punched a hole in the bottom of one cup and used another to scoop it out! Worked great!! I now have a TON of soap stored and ready for when we run out!

The Shower Head - Clean at last

Who doesn't love to take a shower? It's seriously my time to relax and I feel so good afterwards. So I wanted to get the best out of my shower and that's not going to happen with the head looking like this.

So I started searching for something to clean it. Guess what they said, vinegar! I swear everything says vinegar and baking soda is the magic for cleaning anything. So I'm putting it to the test. If it can clean that crap off mine it's will work for any ones!
I just filled a bag with vinegar and tied it on with a rubber band! As easy as that...

Wow check that out! Wonderful...now I'm off to shower!

Glass Stove Top

I am so excited for this because my stove looks worse than this! I have tons of rings around my burners and it's driving me nuts. So I found this simple solution...baking soda! I will never under estimate the poor of baking soda and in a post coming up I'll give you a list of all the things they claim it can do.

So first you get a bowl of HOT water and soap mixed in. Soak a rag in it, in the mean time sprinkle baking soda over the area. Pull out the rag, ring out SOME of the water/soap and place over top of baking soda. Allow to sit of 15 mins (longer if a lot is caked on). Then gentle rub around the surface with the paste made by the baking soda. That simple! Enjoy!!

Pots and Pans

So for some reason it seems like everything is about my kitchen, maybe that's because I love being in it now! But there are always things that can be cleaned and fixed up in there. So I found this awesome blog that had this post about cleaning your pans...check this out!

That's totally how my pans look! So what's the recipe to clean it you ask? Easy just baking soda and hydrogen peroxide! Take about 1/4 cup baking soda and pour in the peroxide to make a paste, rub it on the area you wish to clean and ta da!!

I'll totally be trying this out this week cause all my pans could use it and whats the use of buying new ones when I can clean up the old ones I have that work just fine!!

Cleaning Your Microwave

So of coarse I find this handy tip AFTER I have already cleaning my microwave. We had a party this weekend so I cleaned it out but maybe it will help with all the stuff in the cracks, worth a shot!

Fill a bowl with water and a dash of vinegar, place in the microwave for 5 minutes and allow the steam so soften the stuck on goodies. Then CAREFULLY (and I mean really carefully, cause water can be known to boil even after being taken out of the microwave and burn you, ouch!) remove the bowl and wipe down the microwave with a damp towel! Ta da and nice clean microwave!

So what are you great cleaning tips? Anything you learned while growing up or just through experience? We'd love to hear them all ( cause really who likes to clean, anything to make it easier would be great!)

A Day At A Time

So for my cleaning tip of the day I thought I'd let you all in on a secret. I pick each day and concentrate on that cleaning for the day. For example Monday's are laundry day and vacuuming Tuesdays are for the bathrooms (while Megan is having a bath...talk about multitasking!) and so forth. Figure out what works best for you. Make a list of the things that need to get done each week and break it out between days. Let me know how it works for you!

Cleaning

So I've ran into the problem of trying to get my house clean as a new mommy. It's been such a struggle. The laundry is never done completely and I don't get to a new load until my husband is out of clean underwear. The dishes pile up and it takes two loads in the dishwasher before they all get done. I always feel like the house is a mess and I never get to those things that I want do like that decluttering that extra bedroom or getting our storage under control. I'd even love to take the time and get more scrapbooking done. So I've come up with a few things that's going to help me get more organized and cleaned up in my home.
One goal is to always have the dishes done after dinner. This is where I'm going to start this week, my kitchen. I always feel like the whole house is a mess when just the kitchen is and since we are trying to save money I'm always cooking from scratch which means the kitchen is very well used and cooking in a mess kitchen is such a pain.
So starting tomorrow I'm cleaning the whole kitchen and making it a goal to have all the dishes done before we head to bed!

What's your tips on keeping the kitchen clean? How do you get the family involved (including dad) with cleaning up after dinner? Does everyone put their own dishes away? I'd love to hear all your great ideals.