Laundry Piles and Mind blowing Detergent!

So in a house of 4, laundry only seems to stop for all of 5 minutes. I have specifically taken note of this and tried my best not to let it get to me! I had to come up with plausible and possible ways to keep track of it. I have said in the past, I am kinda OCD. Well, not kinda.

Finally, last week I was at my wits end. I needed a plan. I was tired of forgetting that there was laundry in the wash, especially when it came to having to do dipes. Everything was carted down to the basement and I started the great laundry wash. When I first saw how much of it there was...I did 14 loads of laundry, I knew we had way too many clothes, sheets, towels and blankets. I wish I could say that the cupboards were overflowing, but in all actuality, they weren't and we don't have much storage space in this house. I was exhausted.

Having children means you have a lot of sheets. So I knew there was no getting around to getting rid of any of those, but how could I make sheets disappear? I already change our sheets every week because the thought of sleeping on dead flaky skin freaks me out! And this task was getting daunting. So, I brought out the old crib method! Layering them! So for the kids...repellant pad down, sheets on top, and again and again. So, not really a laundry saver, but a time saver for us. All in all, I only have to make the bed 1x a month! Plus if any accidents happen in the middle of the night, we are only up for a few minutes instead of awhile!

A couple of months ago, I ran out of laundry detergent. Previously, I had it in my mind that I was going to make my own laundry detergent to see how much money we could save. A neighbor of ours in NC has been making her own for years. At first, I thought it was a little odd, especially when she had to order supplies to do it at the grocery store. So, I still wasn't that enthusiastic about it and loaded the kids in the car and ran to the store. Well, let me tell you. It was the first time in years that I actually had to pay full price for laundry detergent and I about fell over. So no more. I got home, got out the supplies and well 15 minutes later I had a gallon bucket full of laundry detergent! It really wasn't hard to make, since I had bought...ready to make supplies. Soap already grated, washing soda and borax that just needed to be heated, poured and measured, dawn, and water. Simple really.

So how is it fairing against store bought laundry detergent? I am finding that it gets our clothes much cleaner and the house smells wonderful! For those of you interested in the recipe, which does it in small batches and there is no need for a 5 gallon bucket, check it out! Plus you can add Dawn, though this recipe doesn't call for it, but hey any grease fighter in a house of boys and southern cooking isn't bad in my mind!

http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-to-make-homemade-laundry-detergent.html

Hush Bottles

Here in VA, I belong to an online mom's board where mom's can ask questions, share answers and offer helpful tips. On this mornings daily email, there is this mom that her husband just moved away, I don't know what for, but she works 3 days a week and is physically and emotionally drained with the behavior of her 2 daughters ages 2 and 4. Tantrums apparently are running amuck. So this particular "What do I do?" got me thinking about a post I had seen, where else but Pinterest, called Hush Bottles.

Hush Bottles work like a snow globe, but with glitter, water and glue. It's concept is that the wonderment of a child, whilst gazing into the bottle doesn't instantly hush and calm down but does it within about a minute watching the glitter whirl around the inside of the bottle before settling to the bottom. 

Pretty neat concept, if it works, but seems kinda "New Age". But hey, anything that keeps us calm, cool and collected is worth a try to me.

5 Things around the house that lead you to the loony bin that aren't your children, and friendly tips to help fix it

Around the house:

1. Flat Paint
Why oh why would someone ever want to put this on their walls. Wait we did before we had a dog and children. You just can't magic erase any blemishes. Save yourself some future headache and paint with anything BUT flat paint! What I have found that works, but doesn't leave you with those oily looking blobs, is Myers Cleaner. It is a natural cleaner that is sold in a concentrated formula and you dilute it. You need a spray bottle, put 1/4 cup of it in at a time and add water. This stuff is great at cleaning almost everything.

2. Baseboards and Crown Molding
These things just scream "Hello and and all dirt left around the house come and magnetize yourself to me!". I don't know about you, but it just doesn't matter how clean your home can be, but the second you see "yuck" accumulate on the baseboards (which in our house, only takes 30 seconds), it makes me feel like my house is dirty again. So I have tried the Bounce dryer sheet tip you see all over Pinterest and well, if your baseboards and molding aren't as smooth as a baby's behind, you end up with dryer sheet particles, so save yourself the aggravation and just bring out the good ole Dustbuster.

3. Stove Ledges & Hoods
Pointless in my mind. Yes, I love the convenience of not letting little hands play with the buttons and knobs, but come on, we all know it is just a reachable place rather than the ceiling of your kitchen for all the grease and nasties of cooking to gather. So, I tried the absurd tip of wiping it off with cooking oil and voila! It worked and actually makes life a whole lot easier because you only have to do it a couple of times in between cleanings!

4. Tile Grout
I hate it. I have found nothing that will act as a repellant from this getting dirty. I am a freak when it comes to bathing in a place that remotely doesn't look or feel clean. I would rather not bathe! I know no matter which way you look at it it seems gross, but hey, I am the person that left for college, knowing that I was going to have to share a shower (ick by the way) with a CASE of Scrubbing Bubbles! In the past, before children I discovered a cleaner sold only at the Dollar Store called Awesome. You could spray it on walk away for an hr and come back with a toothbrush and a little elbow grease and in 20 minutes you were done. Now with kids, I don't have that hour to wait nor the 20 minutes to scrub. So I came across a "recipe" that works almost as AWESOMELY and takes you're done in minutes. Spray, walk away for 15 minutes, rinse.

7 c. of Hot Water

1/2 c. of Baking Soda

1/4 c. of Vinegar

1/3 c. of Lemon Juice

5. Cleaning the Fridge

Now I am not talking about removal of old food, that has never been a problem for me since, I am an expiration date freak. I know some will argue that it is a sell by date, but nothing is worse than putting non-curdled soured coffee creamer in your morning cup of ever so needed STAT Joe. I am talking about that food particles that accumulate everywhere and well those pesky hairs that if you have critters in your house, you definitely know what I am taking about, sticking to the crevices of the sides/bottoms of your fridge. Cheap and easy fix...That box of Saran Wrap that supposedly sticks to itself that you just can't bear to purge, since you found out its crap! Well it actually sticks to the shelves in you fridge! Boom, clean fridge no scrubbing except for the sides and seals of the door!

These are my main pet peeves! What are yours? I am starting a new quest of moving through the tips and tricks around pinterest that can help with the main cleanings of the house and if they really work or not and how long they last! Today, after I finish cleaning the bathroom, I am going to try the wax paper trick. Hello new science experiment!

Day 121: Non-Toxic House cleaning

We have finally said goodbye to almost all of our commercialized cleansers! Over the last year we have tried to go through our mini stock pile of commercialized cleansers. I wish I could say that this move was to save money or to help the environment, but it was because of my mother's hair! She has short naturally curly hair that every morning she sprays water on it with a squirt bottle. Well, Monk in all of his lock picking ways got into the cleaning supply cupboard and thought that it would be a wonderful idea to imitate Grandma. Not so great to have these around my mini-humans and their idle handles.

I have been on a quest to find the most natural ways of housecleaning that if they ever did ingest something it would be perfectly harmless and that the poison control people wouldn't know us on a first name basis. Turns out that all the natural cleansers on the market are not so non-toxically natural. What's the point then? Toxic is not natural and those natural prices sent me even further on my quest.

So as it would be, I had everything in house to clean our house naturally. All you really need is vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice and peroxide. And no, not all together. As it is, vinegar, baking soda and peroxide are all have anti-microbial properties and vinegar and peroxide are antiseptics. The lemon juice is just for fragrance and stain fighting! Duh who knew lemon juice just wasn't for mixed drinks and sun bleached locks!

I finally have it figured out. What combo to use for the walls & baseboards, kitchen counters and sink, toilets & floors, appliances and the other grossness that comes along with house cleaning. Pinterest has helped a lot with trial and error of some stuff, but when you can just turn to ONE bottle to clean most everything in your house HELLO genius! Yeah, I know that's the way my grandma used to clean but hey it saves us plenty and my kids probably won't like the taste of vinegar!

Some of the ways we use it...

1 c. Vinegar to 1 qt water warmed before use in spray bottle
-cleans & sanitizes the sinks, counters, toilets, shower doors, windows & carpet stains
-put it in a bowl in the the microwave for 6-7 minutes then wipe the gook of your microwave
- use it to clean your floors too, just double it in the bucket

1/4 c. baking soda, 1 tsp dawn, & 1/4 c peroxide added to the laundry is a great bleach that makes whites whiter and is safe on colors

sprinkle baking soda on a glass cook top and cover with a hot soapy rag for 15 minutes...goodbye stuck on's

sprinkle container filled with baking soda and a few drops of lemon juice make a great carpet refresher

vinegar on pet stains...goodbye when you blot them up and they won't go back there!

1/2 c baking soda 1/2 c. peroxide in the carpet cleaner instead of fluid, wash then vacuum up

1/2 c. baking soda, 1 tsp of lemon juice works great on tub and other stains as a paste

Now all we have to do is just buy some stock in Heinz for all of the vinegar I use and some in Arm & Hammer for the baking soda!