Room of the Day!

Here is todays Bedroom checklist!!

• Your bed should already be made, but if its not, do that first!!!
• Change and wash your sheets and pillowcases
• Discard magazines and catalogs on side tables; store those you want to keep.
• Dust surfaces, including furniture, objects, and light fixtures
• Empty trash bins
• Vacuum floors

Happy cleaning!!

Room of the Day

Here is your bathroom checklist for today!!

· Clean toilets, bathtubs, showers, and sinks
· Wipe Mirrors
· Change and launder bath mats, towels, and washcloths
· Dust light fixtures
· Empty trash bins and wipe the insides and outsides
· Vacuum and mop floors


My tip: Why not make it a habit to clean up a little bit every morning while you are in there. Store a roll of paper towels in a cabinet, and after you are done doing whatever you do in the morning, quickly spray and wipe down your sink, counters, and mirrors. This will help keep your bathroom sparkly and looking great!! It only takes a quick second and you are already in there!!! Getting into little habits like these makes a world of difference for keeping your home clean.

Room of The Day

Its time to clean the living room. This is an easy one, and shouldn't take that long to complete. If you have older kids, get them involved. If they have toys sprawled all over the place, or if trash is left out on side or coffee tables, have them race to see who can properly put away the most things and whoever wins gets to pick out and help make dinner tonight or have their favorite dessert. You can make any game you want, this is just one that my own mom used to use when we were kids. After you get the floor and other surfaces cleared, start your checklist. As always, from Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook:

• Fluff and rotate sofa cushions - unless you are like me and don't have cushions that rotate!!
• Discard magazines and catalogs on coffee or side tables; store the ones you want to keep.
• Dust surfaces and objects, including furniture, light fixtures, and electronics.
• Sweep upholstery and floor.

It'll be a breeze!!! Don't stress if more toys accumulate during the day, its going to happen and you can't run around all day behind your kids picking everything up. Just re-organize a few times throughout the day. Remember what Phyllis Diller said, "Cleaning your house while your children are still growing, is like shoveling the walk while its still snowing." While this is most definitely true for messes, its still important to clean your house. Kids are absolutely no excuse to have a dirty house, just a messy one.

Room of the Day!!

It's Kitchen Monday and there is nothing as beautiful as a squeaky clean kitchen. Kitchens are the showpiece of our homes and it should look and feel that way. There is quite a bit to be done in the kitchen so feel free to break it up through out the day! Just make sure to do it all!!! From Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook is today's checklist:

• Wipe all your surfaces - sink, counters, refrigerator and cabinet doors, appliance exteriors, shelves, and furniture.
• Wipe the inside of the oven, microwave, and toaster oven.
• Flush drain with boiling water.
• Go through your fridge, pantry, and cabinets, and toss out any expired food.
• Dust light fixtures
• Wipe the inside and outside of trash and recycling bins.
• Sweep and mop the floor!

My advice -To help make your kitchen sparkle, and keep it that way, get into a habit of wiping out your sink and shining up the fixtures and also sweeping your floor at the end of everyday. Having things that really stand out as clean in a room will help inspire you to keep it that way. If you wake up to a beautiful, sparkling sink, you won't want to let all the dishes pile up in it!!! It works. Really.

Get to it ladies!!

All Natural Cleaning

Alright. Here's the deal. You could go to the store and buy the super cool, super new green products out there, but that could cost a lot of money! Soo... to save lots of money I am going to show you how to take 3 basic ingredients and clean your entire house!! It'll be awesome.
Most of these are adapted from the book Healthy Child Healthy World and also Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook but I changed a few.
These are your ingredients: White distilled vinegar(sold in gallons at the store), baking soda, and natural liquid soap such as castille or glycerin.

Lets start in the Kitchen -

• All purpose cleaner - Equal parts water and vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon of liquid soap. Optional - You can add some lemon juice for added power and a fresh scent or a couple drops of your favorite essential oil(be sure to check its toxicity first) and check here for safety precautions. Lavender boasts excellent antibacterial properties.
• Vinegar is a great cleaner and disinfectant on its own, for cleaning items that have touched raw meat, chicken, or eggs wipe it with vinegar and then with soap. You can also use a solution of hydrogen peroxide and water.
• Microwave cleaner - Place lemon slices and 8 ounces of water in a microwave safe bowl, heat for 3 minutes, let sit for 3 minutes and then remove the bowl and wipe it down.
• Coffee pot cleaner- After working in a couple restaurants, I picked up a few tricks. Throw a few lemon slices in the pot, fill it with ice, shake it up a bit, let it sit overnight, and rinse in the morning!
• Refrigerator cleaner - Baking soda and water. Using anything with a scent can absorb into your food, plus the baking soda will take out any odors!
• Floor cleaner - To be used all over you house on any hard surface floor. A bucket of hot water, liquid castille or glycerin soap, lemon juice or vinegar, and a few drops of essential oils if you want.
• Soft Scrub for sink (and tubs)- 1/2 cup baking soda and liquid castille soap. Slowly pour in the soap until it turns into paste.

The rest of the house-

• Glass cleaner - A 1:2 vinegar to water ratio in a spray bottle.
• Drain blaster - Pour 1 cup baking soda down the drain followed by 1 cup vinegar. Cover tightly with a scrunched up wash rag, let sit it a little bit and flush with boiling water.
• Air fresheners - A couple drops of your favorite essential oil or your favorite blend and water in a spray bottle! Works just as well!!!
• Toilet bowl cleaner - 1/2 cup vinegar into bowl. Let sit 20 or so minutes, scrub clean, and flush. This disinfects and removes odors as well.
• That strong odor from diner, or the cat box, or whatever else stinks! - Set a small bowl of vinegar in the room. It's a natural deodorizer.

I think that about covers it. Yes, vinegar stinks, but its smell goes away completely once dried and you can combat that smell with lemon juice and essential oils, plus they are beneficial in their own right. Also, adding hydrogen peroxide into some of these will boost its cleaning power, as peroxide is a natural bleaching agent and antimicrobial.

So there. I hope I have now inspired you to throw out your toxic products and make your own, or at the very least, go to the store and buy all natural cleaners!!!!

Project Embarrasing Pantry

I really can not believe I am posting these pictures. I am soooo embarrassed!!! But... since its my new life and all, I thought I would give you guys some major inspiration in case you have a closet, or pantry, or cabinet, or something of the sort that looks like this!! This actually didn't take me very long to do... for months of accumulation you would think it would take forever to get through, but it didn't. My pantry was so bad that I had several duplicate items because I could never see what I actually needed and didn't need from the store, so I tried to do it from memory and what I thought I remembered seeing. Here is what it was..... (I wish I was joking and I swear I didn't alter it in anyway to make it seem worse).



After 3 bags of trash... and sooo much wasted and expired food....

I hung up a small legal pad with double sided sticky tape and put a pen on the top shelf so I can keep better track of items I need. That way, when I am running low on something or I am out of it completely, I can just jot it down while I'm in there!!!

Ugh! I feel so tired of talking about cleaning because, well, so far its all I've done. But it is essential and that's why I am going to do one more post about it tomorrow!! Yay! Ha! Of course it will definitely come up here and there and there will always be the room of the day(except tomorrow because its Saturday!!!). But anyway, tomorrows post is pretty informative. I am tackling my under-sink cabinet, which unfortunately looks a lot like my pantry did, and I am going to list recipes for all natural cleaners using mostly just baking soda, white distilled vinegar, hot water, and liquid castille soap! This is now officially what I am switching to!!! So anyway, don't miss that post!! It's gonna be a good one!

Room of the Day... a little early!

Technically its Friday because its after midnight here, and I wanted to get the post up for any early birds that like to clean in the morning. Today is Dining/Laundry room day. Since laundry rooms are not in Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook I'm just gonna have to tell you what I think should be done!! Take it as you will..... ha!

Dining Room(if you have one)

• Dust surfaces and objects, including furniture and light fixtures
• Vacuum upholstery and floor

Simple enough!

Laundry Room

• Dust lint off of washer and dryer (a used dryer sheet works great for this)
• Clear lint trap
• Empty trash bins
• Sweep and mop floor

....That seems about right! Speaking of the laundry room, lets talk about how often laundry should be done!!! Well, uneconomically every day is ideal. If you have a load, wash it. Laundry really isn't that bad!!!!! I promise!! If you are anything like me, your laundry piles up for sometime before you realize no one in your family has clean underwear and you finally get to it! Whoops! Evidently I am doing a bad thing. Laundry needs to be done every 3 days minimum to help fight the buildup of bacteria, mold, and other nasty things. Because of the skin cells, bacteria, and other nasty things, make sure you are washing your hands after you go through dirty laundry!

Let me also say this... If you do not have Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook, get it! Now! Seriously. It is over 700 pages of amazing information. All the information about taking care of your house you could ever, ever need. It also has excellent tips and tricks for all things home related. I can not express how much I love this book. It retails at $45.00 and its worth it, but check out amazon.com or ebay to get it for cheaper. It would make the PERFECT gift for a new home owner, new wife, or someone living on their own for the first time. And it has some really great pictures of Martha's own homes, so thats a bonus. 744 pages of excellence... go get it!

Room of the Day!

Its Thursday and that means its time to clean the bedrooms!! Once again, from Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook, these are the things that need to be done today after basic everyday upkeep!!

• Your bed should already be made, but if its not, do that first!!!
• Change and wash your sheets and pillowcases
• Discard magazines and catalogs on side tables; store those you want to keep.
• Dust surfaces, including furniture, objects, and light fixtures
• Empty trash bins
• Vacuum floors

Happy cleaning!!!

A clean house!!

Synonymous with That! Mom is a clean home. Now first, let me say that there is a big difference between a dirty home, and a messy home. While I am not a fan of either, I would much rather have my home be clean and messy than dirty and neat. After doing some research and reading I am more determined than ever to keep a clean home. Here is an interesting tidbit for you: Did you know that 85 percent of our homes dirt comes in from our shoes? Think about what is in that dirt. Allergens, lead dust, bacteria, feces, chemicals… the list goes on. That’s especially scary for those of us with small children who spend a lot of their time on the floor and then stick their hands in their mouths. Especially carpeted areas where those things cling to. So let’s start by ALWAYS taking off our shoes or designating a pair of shoes for indoor use only that have never been and never will be worn outdoors. Buying a cheap pair of shoes from a Superstore is way less costly than the damaging effects dirty shoes can have. Slippers are great as well and there is really a variety of styles to choose from, and many are just like shoes.

Get a cleaning schedule!!

Part of my new life is my new cleaning schedule. I’m going to start with the kitchen on Mondays because it seems like after the weekend the kitchen is always the biggest mess. Then the living room on Tuesday, bathrooms on Wednesday, the bedrooms on Thursday, and laundry/dining rooms on Friday because those tend to need the least amount of care. Use this schedule with me or create one that is better suited for your family. However, each day I will be discussing the things that that need to be done in The Room of the Day based on my schedule. It is easier to designate a day for each room because you will not feel nearly as overwhelmed. Of course, basic upkeep will be required daily for all the rooms, but for the most part these rooms only need to be cleaned well once a week. Here is a list of things that needs to be done daily per Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook. (Which is now my essential guide to all things home related… check out Amazon.com to score a great deal on your own.)

Daily:
· Make the bed- it makes the room feel more orderly and makes it less likely that you will let messes pile up around it
· Manage clutter – when leaving a room, do a quick scan to check for things that should not be there.
· Sort the mail- in my home the mail piles up quickly. Sort the mail as soon as you bring it in.
My tip: Make a mail sorter out of empty cereal boxes or any box of its kind. Cut off the tops where the flaps are cover them in a pretty paper and then glue 4 on top of each other and write on each side what their purpose is: Outgoing, needs attention/bills, personal, and other such as magazines, catalogs or weekly newsletters. You can also cut them to size from small to x-large. Place them on a table by the door, a kitchen counter, or wherever you drop your mail at.
· Clean as you cook
· Wipe up spills while they are fresh
· Sweep the kitchen floor- do this every evening after you finish cleaning up after dinner.
After a few times of making a conscience effort to do these things, you will fall into habit and do them automatically.

Since today is Bathroom Wednesday let’s talk about what needs to be done weekly also from Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook.

· Clean toilets, bathtubs, showers, and sinks
· Wipe Mirrors
· Change and launder bath mats, towels, and washcloths
· Dust light fixtures
· Empty trash bins and wipe the insides and outsides
· Vacuum and mop floors

Now Super Moms… Get to it!!!!