Cleaning Tips and Tricks

Its SPRING! Don't let the snow on the ground the last few days fool you, the official first day of spring has come and gone. And to many people that means cleaning is in full swing. One of the best things about this time of year is throwing open those windows and letting the fresh spring air flush out all the stale winter air you'v been breathing inside your home. And of course it also means nicer weather, and if your like me, you may want a clean home but don't really want to spend those beautiful spring days cooped up inside cleaning.  Lately Iv been seeing tons of tips for cleaning that I thought I would share with you today. If you have any of your own handy tips please feel free to comment below.

Living room-

• Pet hair on the couch or car seat? Instead of vacuuming it simply get a rubber dish washing glove and a bucket or bowl of warm water. Dunk your gloved hand in the water, remove and gently shake off excess. Then wipe your hand across the couch/chair/car seat.  The pet hair will collect on the glove and off your furniture. Ya! To remove the pet hair from the glove just dunk it in the water again and gently swish around. When done just dump your water outside or down the toilet (I do the toilet because it wont clog like a sink drain due to the hair)
• Clean your baseboards with dryer sheets. This will help repel dust and hair, so you can crawl around less often cleaning them.
• Remove candle wax that has melted onto a wall by pressing tissue against it with an iron set on low. The wax will melt and adhere to the kleenex.

Kitchen-

• Want to make your stove all shiny and new again? Bust out the car wax. After giving your stove a through cleaning apply some car wax. Not only will it make it shine, it will also make messy spills easier to clean up.- just a note, I have a gas range and this works great. I do not recommend for an electric range. 
• Also great for making your gas range look new again. Take the dirty grates off, put in a large ziplock bag (you can probably only fit 1-2 grates per bag) add a few tablespoons ammonia and seal. Resist the urge to add more ammonia. Its not needed, its the fumes off the ammonia, not the liquid its self that holds the power. Set them in a garage or outside overnight. In the morning pull them from the bag and scrub with warm water and scrubbing sponge. Arn't they purdy?! 
• Coffee Pots need a good cleaning every now and then, but lets face it when was the last time you remember'd to put the cleaner for them on your list? Have no fear! All powerful vinegar to the rescue! Pour a solution of vinegar and water ( I use 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water) into your machine and brew up a pot. When Its done, Dump out the pot, pour another one in of just water and turn on again to filter out any remaining vinegar. 
• Polish your silver using a mixture of 1/4 cup baking soda, 2 teaspoons salt and 1 quart boiling water. Just soak silver and dry. 
• Remove streaks from Stainless steel with olive oil. Wipe on with a towel and buff to a shine with paper towels or newspaper. 

Laundry room-

• Make your dryer work better and last longer. We all know to empty our lint traps regularly but do many of us vacuum it out as well? Give it a try, you might be surprised by how much lint slips past the screen. Speaking of the screen, a few times a year its also a good idea to remove it and scrub it gently with hot soapy water. Dryer sheets tend to leave a waxy buildup that clogs the screen. Its also said that doing both these things on a regular basis could lower gas bills. Who doesnt love that?!
• Washing machines also benefit from a good cleaning every now and then, and it couldnt be easier! Dump in about 1/2 cup vinegar into your machine and turn on the hottest setting. You can either run it empty or add in a load of towels. It wont hurt your towels, in fact its good for them. It can remove odors and buildup in your machine.  It also removes odors from towels or anything you may have left in the washing machine for too long after running it.

Bathroom-

• Polish the chrome on your sinks after you clean them with baby oil. makes them shiny and new! 
• Want your bathroom to smell fresh without spraying air fresheners or lighting candles? Buy some essential oil ( I like lemon, coconut or sweet almond personally but there are tons of great choices). Whenever you put a new roll of toilet paper out put a drop or two of oil on the inside of the cardboard tube. Everytime someone uses the bathroom the scent will fill the room....the good scent not bad.
• Remove soap scum from a shower door by scrubbing with a damp dryer sheet. 
• Toilet stains can be removed with Coke or vinegar. Just pour into the bowl, let sit for an hour, scrub then flush.

One crazy concept to me that Iv read online is to get completely dressed (shoes and all) to clean your home. Why? Its said this will help motivate you to get moving.  If this works for you great. Go ahead, put on your heels and makeup and act like a good retro house wife and get to cleaning!  Or you could be like me, I like to clean in the mornings. I roll out of bed in my PJ's and no makeup, and clean the house first thing. I can get sweaty and dirty and having cleaning solution on my hands. Then I go upstairs, take a shower and start my day. That way, I emerge from the shower fresh and clean to a fresh and clean home as well. Its one of life's little pleasures.  Besides how many of you cant help but look at your hands all day after cleaning and wonder  if THEY are clean.  Maybe it is just me but even if my hand never touches the toilet bowl, and I wash my hands after cleaning everything, I still feel... well, dirty.

Spring Cleaning

Hello everyone! Bet you thought I was dead right?!  I know its been a while since my last post. What can I say? Life takes over and Im just along for the ride.  It seems like everything and nothing happened all in the span of a few months. We have been crazy busy, but not so much with anything I felt you all would be interested in reading. I started painting the base boards in our home (hopefully a tutorial with tips coming soon). My little girl was sick for almost a month, then was teething, got a tooth (ya!) and promptly started working on the next tooth (sigh). No rest for the weary I guess.

My next few posts are going to mostly be dedicated to the super exciting, always fun topic of cleaning ( you're laughing right?) Ok, so maybe fun and exciting are not the best word to describe it.  I also apologize in advance that these posts are probably going to be lacking in fun and exciting pictures too. But hey, I didnt think anyone wanted to see my messy house anyway.

Sadly its a fact of life that house's get dirty and we (in my house that's 'I') end up needing to clean. As you know we recently purchased a home. Where we used to live was maybe 1200 square feet of space to clean. Now its almost double that. And while I love our home, I feel like its a constant battle to clean. I felt like I was just running in circles, without a plan. I would clean the same things all the time and then one day look up and realize I hadn't vacuumed the stairs since....well since we moved in. If you have any pets you may have the joy of knowing that their hair loves to accumulate in the carpet of the stairs.  Let's just say, Ewww.  I hate stairs with carpet. When house hunting it was one of the top things on my do not want list. Some how we ended up with them anyway. Its not so much that I hate the stairs, or the carpet. I hate vacuuming the furry creatures that start growing on my stairs.

I needed a plan of attack. I searched the web for cleaning schedule that worked for me and found, nothing. Maybe its just me but so many of the schedule's I found were over kill. I mean who needs to clean their baseboards every week?! While I would agree cleaning your bathroom often is a plus, I also dont think it needs a deep cleaning every week either. Once a month or so seems good enough to me. Besides, who wants their hand shoved in a toilet every time they turn around? Not me. Dont get me wrong, there are things I do almost everyday. I try to clean the kitchen after every meal, sometimes easier said then done though. And I try to walk around and pick up clutter a few times a week too. But I needed a plan for the bigger jobs.I wanted things to be spaced out. A few jobs a week would be perfect, after all I also have a child to take care of (as many of us do) and a dog, and a boyfriend, and cooking, and work and projects to finish and... well you get the idea. I like to live life as it happens.  Not clean constantly.  Also my week nights are already slammed enough with things to do. So the last thing I want to do is break out the toilet scrubber on a Tuesday night.

So I made my own schedule. It goes something like this-

HOUSE CLEANING CHECKLIST
	WEEK 1		WEEK 2
	Laundry		Laundry
	Vacuum upstairs		Sweep/Mop
	Clean Kitchen		Clean bathroom(s)
	Wash bedding		Vacuum downstairs
	WEEK 3		WEEK 4
	Laundry		Laundry
	Dust		Wash Bedding
	Clean Kitchen		Sweep/mop
			Vacuum downstairs
	WEEK 5		EVERY 2-3 MONTHS
	Laundry		Clean oven
	Clean Microwave		Clean windows
	Clean Kitchen		Clean dishwasher
	Clean Fridge		Clean (inside and out) cupboards and drawers
			Vacuum edges and stairs
			Wash throw blankets
			Clean window coverings
			Clean out closet Move Furniture and vacuum

Fresh Breath Doggy Treats

In case you missed the memo, I love my dog. I often refer to him as my first born child.  My boyfriend and I even call him our son and cant plan a family trip without him...yes weird I know.  Not that weird however if you knew my fuzzy little guy. He thinks he's a person, and is very attached to us. So since I love to cook, and love my son, its only natural that I would combine the two. I have to admit I don't make homemade treats for him as often as he would probably like, but that doesn't mean that he isn't spoiled. I mean have you seen his bulging belly? Not to mention the monster hair all over my bed?!

I have a few different recipes Iv used but we will start with the all important breath fresheners.

Ingredients you will need:

• 1 cup dry oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/4 cup peanut butter (crunchy or creamy is fine)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup dried parsley (or mint)

1. preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine all your ingredients and mix well.





 3. Lightly flour your counter and rolling pin.  Roll the mixture to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut mixture using a cookie cutter of your choice or simply cut into squares.The ones made here were for Christmas, thus the ginger bread men...

4. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes, then flip them and bake for another 20.  Remove to cool.  By the way don't worry about spacing these out on your cookie sheet, they don't really expand much at all. So cram that pan full!  Your puppy will thank you.

These keep for about a month in an air tight bag or container.... though Iv never had them stick around long enough to find out!

-Also as a side note, making these dog treats for Christmas presents are a great idea. Practically everyone I know owns a dog, and they all complain about their little friends bad breath. I make a few batches and give them to Monsters furry friends as a gift from him!