So to kick off week two of our 2 Weeks project, I have decided to start with the bathrooms. Bathrooms are the place we use to get the grime off ourselves each day, so it stands to reason that our grime might stick to some things in there. Cleaning the bathroom is easier than it might seem, but you do need some "specialized" equipment to make it even easier. Here's my list:
A few cloth baby wipes
Baking Soda
Vinegar
Lemon Juice
Kitchen Gloves
Window Cleaner
Scrubby Sponge
Peroxide/Water Spray
Broom/Dustpan
Bucket & Mop solution
Okay, to start I will tell you that if you mix equal portions of Hydrogen Peroxide and water in a spray bottle, you'll have a fantastic shower cleaner. The rest of what we're doing is 1st grade science, and my kids are fascinated by it.
I always start in the bathroom by removing things like garbage cans, step stools, soap pumps, and bath mats and placing them outside the room. Then I dump some baking soda, vinegar and lemon juice in the toilet and watching it fizz. Now I wet my scrubby sponge in the sink and toss it into the shower, and then plug up the sink. I do the "dumping" thing in there too, and then go spray the shower with shower cleaner.
Now I move back to the toilet. I usually use a cloth baby wipe to clean the inside of the toilet, then flush, then use the clean water to rinse the cloth and wipe down the rim and underside of the toilet seat, and anywhere else on the toilet that's gotten dirty.
Move back to the sink. I use the same cloth (rinsed out again) to wash out the sink. Then I rinse the sink and wipe down around the sink with the, yet again, rinsed out cloth. Then clean the mirror using the window cleaner and a new cloth. With that done, I move on to the shower and bathtub.
Here, I wipe down the shower walls with the scrubby sponge. I rinse the walls, then work on the tub. For the tub, I plug it up and do the "dumping" thing one more time. I scrub all the tub surfaces with a scrubby sponge and the lemon "volcano" solution, then rinse really well.
Once everything is cleaned, I move on to the floors. I sweep, then mop using the same mop solution we used on all the floors last week. When the floor is dry, I go in and put up fresh towels, make sure things are put away properly and then leave the room, bringing any garbage and dirty laundry with me.
This whole project usually takes me about half an hour for 1 bathroom, so you should be able to do 2 in about an hour to an hour and a half. You'll need to allot about a half hour to 45 minutes for each additional bathroom that needs to be cleaned.
I love the smell of my bathroom once it's clean! How about you?
Good luck!
Kristin
Monday, June 13, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
2 Weeks: The Kitchen
Duhn, Duhn, Duhnnnnnnn! (think cheesy horror film music)
The kitchen is supposed to be the heart of your home, your home's ultimate work space, and of course, the ultimate big mess area. My kitchen is...(big swallow and fake smile inserted here) lovely. It actually is really beautiful, aside from the mess, and the fact that it's still under construction, but honestly, I will love it much more when it's finished and when it's clean. Yay for this project then.
The kitchen is also the most difficult area of your home to keep clean, simply because the whole thing you do in the kitchen is make a mess. So, now seems like an appropriate time to talk about clean cycles, and the whole insanity of the phrase "keep it clean".
Everything in our home goes through what I call "cleanliness cycles". Take the bathroom, for example. You clean the bathroom and it's spotless, but then you go in and brush your teeth, and you get a splatter of toothpaste on the mirror. Then your husband goes in and takes a shower, and then one of your kids goes in and brushes their hair. So, toothpaste splatter, bathmat on the floor, and hair on the floor. Although your bathroom isn't necessarily dirty, it's on it's way down to the bottom of the cleanliness cycle (picture a circle). Once your bathroom is so dirty you have to clean it (or whenever you've scheduled that into your routine) then your bathroom is at the very bottom of the cycle, and as you clean it, the bathroom ascends back up to the top of the cycle to "clean".
It is this way with everything in our homes, and unless you clean your house top to bottom constantly, every place in your home will be at a different point in it's own cleanliness cycle at any given moment. Some cycles move very fast, and some much slower. The kitchen is an example of a fast moving cycle, but the office may move much more slowly.
Understanding these cycles can help us to schedule our days and weeks to keep each of the cycles moving. The worst thing that can happen is for one or more of these cycles to stop moving and sit at the bottom, i.e. the dirty spot. So, as I write and try to work through my own home of messiness and stagnant cycles, understanding the speed of my cycles can help me schedule a regular cleaning routine to maintain my home.
Okay, now to cleaning the kitchen. Oh, boy is it a mess. I think I will skip the supplies list, since you know you'll need things like dish soap and a bucket to clean your kitchen. So, let's just jump in and get started.
First off, get your dirty dishes clean. I have the luxury (thank you MIL, Cathy) of having a dishwasher in my kitchen. Yay! Usually, the dishes in my dishwasher are clean, and the dishes in my sink are dirty. I hate unloading the dishwasher, and while living with my mom, she spoiled me and always unloaded the dishwasher before she left for work in the morning. Now I have to remember to do it myself.
So I'm putting away all my clean dishes, in their proper and orderly places (one thing to keep you sane is having organized cabinets) and then loading the dishwasher with dirty dishes. All my dirty stuff doesn't fit (shows how great of a housekeeper I am) so I have to hand wash some stuff. I usually just hand wash the big stuff and put all the little stuff in the dishwasher. It makes life easier. Since my dishwasher is full, I will run it while I work on the rest of my kitchen.
Okay, clean stuff away, dirty stuff washing. Cool! One trick for making your home look cleaner is to eliminate clutter. This rule still applies, even in the kitchen. Do your best to clear as much up off the counters as possible. I have tons of stuff on my counters right now. I have tons of cabinet space that's not being used, so I will use my cabinet space to neatly store my "stuff". If you don't have any cabinet space left and your counters are quite messy, you may want to go through your cabinets, see what you can eliminate from your home, eliminate from your kitchen and store elsewhere, or what things could be stored in a more efficient manner.
Another thing that can help is investing in some cabinet accessories, like a spice rack that screws to the wall or the inside of the cabinet door. This will free up shelf space. My mom has this really cool little lazy susan in her spice cupboard and it has 2 tiers. she organizes it by like things, and it keeps her spice cabinet tidier. Bed, Bath, and Beyond or other stores like it are a great place to get cabinet organizing "stuff".
Now that everything is put away all neat and tidy, you can work from top to bottom, wiping down the cabinet faces, the top of the range hood, the inside of the microwave (you know how nasty that can get) and then the counter tops. One quick tip for the microwave. There's often lovely stuck on food on the inside of the microwave, so before you put the dishes away, put a bowl of hot water and lemon slices and a couple teaspoons of baking soda in the microwave to "nuke" for a few minutes, then sit for a few minutes. The lemon will freshen, the baking soda will deodorize and the water will steam all the stuck on stuff, so it's loosened up before you start scrubbing, saving you some elbow grease.
Clean your range by wiping up spills. I even went so far as to take apart my stove top and clean the drip pans, and lift up the top to clean inside. I also used Easy-off (I know, not very Eco-friendly, but it works well) to clean the inside of my oven.
Once all that is complete, go ahead and sweep and mop your floors. Then you're done. If you've got extra time, clean out your refrigerator. Wash the spills off the shelves, and toss old yucky food. Organize your shelves by like items so things are easier to find. I had lots of milk drips in my fridge that were making the fridge smell a little off. And I had some old yucky produce in the drawer. Now my fridge is sparkling clean. Yay!!
One last tip for the kitchen is that Mason Jars are a fantastic and very inexpensive organizational solution. I use them for everything, from fresh berries and pineapple in the fridge, to granola and dried cranberries in the pantry, to laundry soap and baking soda in the laundry room. I love mason jars. If you're looking for high quality storage solution, pick up some mason jars and let them be your inexpensive, eco-friendly, BPA and Phalate free solution for your home.
My kitchen is so much cleaner. How about yours?
Good Luck and Happy Cleaning!
Kristin
The kitchen is supposed to be the heart of your home, your home's ultimate work space, and of course, the ultimate big mess area. My kitchen is...(big swallow and fake smile inserted here) lovely. It actually is really beautiful, aside from the mess, and the fact that it's still under construction, but honestly, I will love it much more when it's finished and when it's clean. Yay for this project then.
The kitchen is also the most difficult area of your home to keep clean, simply because the whole thing you do in the kitchen is make a mess. So, now seems like an appropriate time to talk about clean cycles, and the whole insanity of the phrase "keep it clean".
Everything in our home goes through what I call "cleanliness cycles". Take the bathroom, for example. You clean the bathroom and it's spotless, but then you go in and brush your teeth, and you get a splatter of toothpaste on the mirror. Then your husband goes in and takes a shower, and then one of your kids goes in and brushes their hair. So, toothpaste splatter, bathmat on the floor, and hair on the floor. Although your bathroom isn't necessarily dirty, it's on it's way down to the bottom of the cleanliness cycle (picture a circle). Once your bathroom is so dirty you have to clean it (or whenever you've scheduled that into your routine) then your bathroom is at the very bottom of the cycle, and as you clean it, the bathroom ascends back up to the top of the cycle to "clean".
It is this way with everything in our homes, and unless you clean your house top to bottom constantly, every place in your home will be at a different point in it's own cleanliness cycle at any given moment. Some cycles move very fast, and some much slower. The kitchen is an example of a fast moving cycle, but the office may move much more slowly.
Understanding these cycles can help us to schedule our days and weeks to keep each of the cycles moving. The worst thing that can happen is for one or more of these cycles to stop moving and sit at the bottom, i.e. the dirty spot. So, as I write and try to work through my own home of messiness and stagnant cycles, understanding the speed of my cycles can help me schedule a regular cleaning routine to maintain my home.
Okay, now to cleaning the kitchen. Oh, boy is it a mess. I think I will skip the supplies list, since you know you'll need things like dish soap and a bucket to clean your kitchen. So, let's just jump in and get started.
First off, get your dirty dishes clean. I have the luxury (thank you MIL, Cathy) of having a dishwasher in my kitchen. Yay! Usually, the dishes in my dishwasher are clean, and the dishes in my sink are dirty. I hate unloading the dishwasher, and while living with my mom, she spoiled me and always unloaded the dishwasher before she left for work in the morning. Now I have to remember to do it myself.
So I'm putting away all my clean dishes, in their proper and orderly places (one thing to keep you sane is having organized cabinets) and then loading the dishwasher with dirty dishes. All my dirty stuff doesn't fit (shows how great of a housekeeper I am) so I have to hand wash some stuff. I usually just hand wash the big stuff and put all the little stuff in the dishwasher. It makes life easier. Since my dishwasher is full, I will run it while I work on the rest of my kitchen.
Okay, clean stuff away, dirty stuff washing. Cool! One trick for making your home look cleaner is to eliminate clutter. This rule still applies, even in the kitchen. Do your best to clear as much up off the counters as possible. I have tons of stuff on my counters right now. I have tons of cabinet space that's not being used, so I will use my cabinet space to neatly store my "stuff". If you don't have any cabinet space left and your counters are quite messy, you may want to go through your cabinets, see what you can eliminate from your home, eliminate from your kitchen and store elsewhere, or what things could be stored in a more efficient manner.
Another thing that can help is investing in some cabinet accessories, like a spice rack that screws to the wall or the inside of the cabinet door. This will free up shelf space. My mom has this really cool little lazy susan in her spice cupboard and it has 2 tiers. she organizes it by like things, and it keeps her spice cabinet tidier. Bed, Bath, and Beyond or other stores like it are a great place to get cabinet organizing "stuff".
Now that everything is put away all neat and tidy, you can work from top to bottom, wiping down the cabinet faces, the top of the range hood, the inside of the microwave (you know how nasty that can get) and then the counter tops. One quick tip for the microwave. There's often lovely stuck on food on the inside of the microwave, so before you put the dishes away, put a bowl of hot water and lemon slices and a couple teaspoons of baking soda in the microwave to "nuke" for a few minutes, then sit for a few minutes. The lemon will freshen, the baking soda will deodorize and the water will steam all the stuck on stuff, so it's loosened up before you start scrubbing, saving you some elbow grease.
Clean your range by wiping up spills. I even went so far as to take apart my stove top and clean the drip pans, and lift up the top to clean inside. I also used Easy-off (I know, not very Eco-friendly, but it works well) to clean the inside of my oven.
Once all that is complete, go ahead and sweep and mop your floors. Then you're done. If you've got extra time, clean out your refrigerator. Wash the spills off the shelves, and toss old yucky food. Organize your shelves by like items so things are easier to find. I had lots of milk drips in my fridge that were making the fridge smell a little off. And I had some old yucky produce in the drawer. Now my fridge is sparkling clean. Yay!!
One last tip for the kitchen is that Mason Jars are a fantastic and very inexpensive organizational solution. I use them for everything, from fresh berries and pineapple in the fridge, to granola and dried cranberries in the pantry, to laundry soap and baking soda in the laundry room. I love mason jars. If you're looking for high quality storage solution, pick up some mason jars and let them be your inexpensive, eco-friendly, BPA and Phalate free solution for your home.
My kitchen is so much cleaner. How about yours?
Good Luck and Happy Cleaning!
Kristin
Thursday, June 9, 2011
2 Weeks: The Dining Room
Okay, I admit it. My dining room is...ahem, disgusting. I mean, from a distance, it looks just fine, but when you get up close....eeeeewwwww!
I have 4 kids, I suppose it's inevitable that my dining room gets nasty right, along with every other place in my house. So, today, it's time to clean the dining room. In my home, the dining room flows right from the entryway and living room, so it's one of the first things you see when you walk in my front door.
The tricky part of my dining room is that it also doubles as a photography studio, so I have got to keep it clean. Let's roll up our sleeves and get started. Here's a list of supplies you might find helpful for this project:
Bucket of Hot water
Liquid Castile Soap
Small Rag
Broom and Dustpan or Vacuum
I don't have much in my dining room, so I will mostly be focusing on the table and chairs and the flooring. First thing, clean your table and chairs...really well.
I have grime smooshed into all the crevices of my chairs, there's stuff stuck to the underside of my table, the cracks in my table probably have dried milk in between them. Yuck! So, let's start with the table and chairs. Grab your rag and bucket of HOT water. Dunk your rag, then ring it out well, and scrub the crevices and cracks and all the in between places on your table and chairs. If your table comes apart to add a leaf, pull it apart and wash in between the sections. Scrub the splattered milk off the legs and the spaghetti sauce off the underside of the chairs and table, then put everything back together.
When your table is clean, move on to the floor. I am using the same bucket of hot water and just adding a couple squirts of soap to it. Sweep all the yuck up off the floor, then scrub like crazy, until your floors positively gleam. If you've got carpet (I wanna know who thought carpet in a dining room was a good idea) bust out the vacuum, suck all the loose stuff up, then grab your favorite carpet cleaning spray or foam and spot treat that stain that's been driving you crazy.
Once your floor is clean, put together a centerpiece for your table that breathes a little life into your space. Now, if you've got a buffet or hutch, dust it and clean off any clutter that's accumulated.
Your dining room is an extension of the heart of your home, it should feel comfortable and look beautiful, and you should want to spend time with your family there. With this cleaning project, hopefully you'll again learn to love your dining room and be able to use it to it's full potential.
Good Luck!
Kristin
I have 4 kids, I suppose it's inevitable that my dining room gets nasty right, along with every other place in my house. So, today, it's time to clean the dining room. In my home, the dining room flows right from the entryway and living room, so it's one of the first things you see when you walk in my front door.
The tricky part of my dining room is that it also doubles as a photography studio, so I have got to keep it clean. Let's roll up our sleeves and get started. Here's a list of supplies you might find helpful for this project:
Bucket of Hot water
Liquid Castile Soap
Small Rag
Broom and Dustpan or Vacuum
I don't have much in my dining room, so I will mostly be focusing on the table and chairs and the flooring. First thing, clean your table and chairs...really well.
I have grime smooshed into all the crevices of my chairs, there's stuff stuck to the underside of my table, the cracks in my table probably have dried milk in between them. Yuck! So, let's start with the table and chairs. Grab your rag and bucket of HOT water. Dunk your rag, then ring it out well, and scrub the crevices and cracks and all the in between places on your table and chairs. If your table comes apart to add a leaf, pull it apart and wash in between the sections. Scrub the splattered milk off the legs and the spaghetti sauce off the underside of the chairs and table, then put everything back together.
When your table is clean, move on to the floor. I am using the same bucket of hot water and just adding a couple squirts of soap to it. Sweep all the yuck up off the floor, then scrub like crazy, until your floors positively gleam. If you've got carpet (I wanna know who thought carpet in a dining room was a good idea) bust out the vacuum, suck all the loose stuff up, then grab your favorite carpet cleaning spray or foam and spot treat that stain that's been driving you crazy.
Once your floor is clean, put together a centerpiece for your table that breathes a little life into your space. Now, if you've got a buffet or hutch, dust it and clean off any clutter that's accumulated.
Your dining room is an extension of the heart of your home, it should feel comfortable and look beautiful, and you should want to spend time with your family there. With this cleaning project, hopefully you'll again learn to love your dining room and be able to use it to it's full potential.
Good Luck!
Kristin
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
2 Weeks: The Entryway and Living Room
So, yesterday, we dumped a bunch of stuff from the car directly into the entryway to be sorted later. If you're like me, it's still sitting there, waiting to be sorted and put away. Which means that my entryway which is, in fact, part of my living room, looks like a bomb went off.
My living room also looks like a bomb went off, as it is the most used room of our entire house. There's piles of laundry ready to be put away, dirt on the floor in between all the toys, blankets, and pillows. There's DVDs that need to be put away, books stacked up on the mantle, papers and mail on the end tables, empty water glasses out, computers (and cords) all over, shoes in the walkway, music scattered across the piano, and bags full of stuff for every activity right in the entryway, along with coats, sweatshirts, and other accessories cluttering up the entryway. Hurricane Cook Family just came through and left a path of destruction in it's wake.
So, today is all about your most used areas of your home, and the ones that you want to be the most presentable when you open your door to someone. To get these 2 areas (which I've combined due to proximity) I will be using the following supplies:
Vacuum
Smallish Rags (2)
Lemon Pledge (yes, I really do buy normal cleaning products sometimes)
Glass Cleaner
Paper Towels
Bucket
Liquid Castile (I'm using eucalyptus today)
Broom and Dustpan
Okay, let's start by cleaning up. Put all the clothes, dirty dishes, shoes, bags, and general "junk" away where it belongs. Get your family involved and become a tidy up whirlwind. One thing I've learned over the course of the last 10 years of keeping my own house is that if your house is neat, people will automatically think that it's clean, that is unless there's muddy footprints across your black bamboo hardwood floors, but honestly, what would I know about that? (insert sarcasm here)
So try to make sure that you spend a few moments every day "neating" or "tidying up" your house. You'll create an illusion of cleanliness even if you don't have time to dust, mop and vacuum. Once everything is tidied up, I like to clear out any movable furniture and remove the rugs, then sweep. You could vacuum if you want, but my vacuum scratches my black bamboo floors (which show everything btw) so I sweep with a broom and dustpan. After sweeping I get a bucket of hot mop water with a squirt or two of castile soap and I mop the floors, again on my hands and knees because I don't believe in mops. This may take a lot more time depending on how much flooring you have to mop, if any at all. My floor takes lots of time, but once upon a time, floor mopping took just a few minutes because we had carpet in our living room.
When the floor is dry, move your furniture and rugs back into place (don't forget to vacuum the rugs). Now, grab a rag and furniture polish and dust your main furniture pieces. I do the piano, the end tables and the bookshelves. We have other shelves on our walls, but I only dust them half the time, because they're high up and no one really sees the dust as much. Dusting doesn't take that long and it's a great way to remove allergens from your home. If you don't want to use furniture polish (which I also only use about half the time) but you don't want the dust getting airborne, get your dust rag wet, then ring it out really really well and dust with that. Don't forget to dust lampshades. They harbor tons of dust, and when they're dusted, they let more light filter through too. Dusting done, check.
Now grab your window cleaner and clean windows in your space. Don't forget to clean any windows in your door, as they probably have finger and nose prints on them, I know mine do. Also, if you have a TV that you can clean with this method, do that now. I have a special cloth to wipe my TV down with, and I do that while I dust. With the dusting done, you're pretty much done.
I would like to think for a moment on organization before I go. Your entryway and living room are the hub of your home. You live in them constantly, and you have lots of stuff in them usually. Organization is key to keeping these areas "clean". I like to have coat hooks behind or next to the door, so that I don't have a pile of backpacks and coats right on the floor in the entry. I also recommend (for your sanity) having a shoe bin near the door, if possible. We don't wear shoes in the house (also for my sanity), so there's usually a pile of shoes right in front of the door that I feel obliged to trip on anytime I'm in the vicinity. So, instead of continuing to nearly break my neck on tiny pink shoes, I decided to put a large basket near the door. When we come inside, we all put our shoes in the shoe bin and it keeps the area much more clutter free.
I don't know about you, but my kids like to play with their toys in the living room. I dislike this, but since it's their home too, I'm trying to embrace this concept. It's a trial every day. I have chosen to put a white plastic bin (with a lid) full of toys in the living room. The kids are free to play with the toys, and at the end of the night, either they, or I, pick up the toys so they're not on the floor. If the girls bring toys from their bedroom (or socks, or clothes, or, or, or...okay you get it) I keep another white plastic bin at the end of the hall. This way, I can drop their stuff into the bin and then I can instruct them to put away the stuff in the bin. It's a nice system.
Another thing about living rooms is that it's easy to grow out of your storage and then have overflow. Pare down if this has happened to you. Our DVD shelves are completely full, but our bookcases aren't, so I've tried to attractively incorporate the extra DVDs into the bookcase so Brad can have all the movies he wants. We have tons of books, and if we ever grow out of our storage, we'll have to pare down a bit too.
When purchasing new furniture, keep storage in mind. Do you love to cuddle up under a big blanket when watching TV in the evening, but your blanket is always in the way? Think about investing in a storage ottoman if you're looking at getting something new. Does your family love to play board games but you have no where to keep them, so they're stacked in a corner of the room? Look into shelving, or a storage ottoman, or a coffee table with some storage in it. When you are out to pick up a TV cabinet, make sure you get something that will accommodate your Wii or PS3 with all the controllers and games. This way, you won't have to stare at all those wires hanging out there all the time. Thinking about purchasing furniture that serves multiple purposes can maximize your storage space and help you make your living room work for your lifestyle.
Tomorrow we will be talking about your main dining area, and what you can do to help keep it looking great.
Good Luck!
Kristin
My living room also looks like a bomb went off, as it is the most used room of our entire house. There's piles of laundry ready to be put away, dirt on the floor in between all the toys, blankets, and pillows. There's DVDs that need to be put away, books stacked up on the mantle, papers and mail on the end tables, empty water glasses out, computers (and cords) all over, shoes in the walkway, music scattered across the piano, and bags full of stuff for every activity right in the entryway, along with coats, sweatshirts, and other accessories cluttering up the entryway. Hurricane Cook Family just came through and left a path of destruction in it's wake.
So, today is all about your most used areas of your home, and the ones that you want to be the most presentable when you open your door to someone. To get these 2 areas (which I've combined due to proximity) I will be using the following supplies:
Vacuum
Smallish Rags (2)
Lemon Pledge (yes, I really do buy normal cleaning products sometimes)
Glass Cleaner
Paper Towels
Bucket
Liquid Castile (I'm using eucalyptus today)
Broom and Dustpan
Okay, let's start by cleaning up. Put all the clothes, dirty dishes, shoes, bags, and general "junk" away where it belongs. Get your family involved and become a tidy up whirlwind. One thing I've learned over the course of the last 10 years of keeping my own house is that if your house is neat, people will automatically think that it's clean, that is unless there's muddy footprints across your black bamboo hardwood floors, but honestly, what would I know about that? (insert sarcasm here)
So try to make sure that you spend a few moments every day "neating" or "tidying up" your house. You'll create an illusion of cleanliness even if you don't have time to dust, mop and vacuum. Once everything is tidied up, I like to clear out any movable furniture and remove the rugs, then sweep. You could vacuum if you want, but my vacuum scratches my black bamboo floors (which show everything btw) so I sweep with a broom and dustpan. After sweeping I get a bucket of hot mop water with a squirt or two of castile soap and I mop the floors, again on my hands and knees because I don't believe in mops. This may take a lot more time depending on how much flooring you have to mop, if any at all. My floor takes lots of time, but once upon a time, floor mopping took just a few minutes because we had carpet in our living room.
When the floor is dry, move your furniture and rugs back into place (don't forget to vacuum the rugs). Now, grab a rag and furniture polish and dust your main furniture pieces. I do the piano, the end tables and the bookshelves. We have other shelves on our walls, but I only dust them half the time, because they're high up and no one really sees the dust as much. Dusting doesn't take that long and it's a great way to remove allergens from your home. If you don't want to use furniture polish (which I also only use about half the time) but you don't want the dust getting airborne, get your dust rag wet, then ring it out really really well and dust with that. Don't forget to dust lampshades. They harbor tons of dust, and when they're dusted, they let more light filter through too. Dusting done, check.
Now grab your window cleaner and clean windows in your space. Don't forget to clean any windows in your door, as they probably have finger and nose prints on them, I know mine do. Also, if you have a TV that you can clean with this method, do that now. I have a special cloth to wipe my TV down with, and I do that while I dust. With the dusting done, you're pretty much done.
I would like to think for a moment on organization before I go. Your entryway and living room are the hub of your home. You live in them constantly, and you have lots of stuff in them usually. Organization is key to keeping these areas "clean". I like to have coat hooks behind or next to the door, so that I don't have a pile of backpacks and coats right on the floor in the entry. I also recommend (for your sanity) having a shoe bin near the door, if possible. We don't wear shoes in the house (also for my sanity), so there's usually a pile of shoes right in front of the door that I feel obliged to trip on anytime I'm in the vicinity. So, instead of continuing to nearly break my neck on tiny pink shoes, I decided to put a large basket near the door. When we come inside, we all put our shoes in the shoe bin and it keeps the area much more clutter free.
I don't know about you, but my kids like to play with their toys in the living room. I dislike this, but since it's their home too, I'm trying to embrace this concept. It's a trial every day. I have chosen to put a white plastic bin (with a lid) full of toys in the living room. The kids are free to play with the toys, and at the end of the night, either they, or I, pick up the toys so they're not on the floor. If the girls bring toys from their bedroom (or socks, or clothes, or, or, or...okay you get it) I keep another white plastic bin at the end of the hall. This way, I can drop their stuff into the bin and then I can instruct them to put away the stuff in the bin. It's a nice system.
Another thing about living rooms is that it's easy to grow out of your storage and then have overflow. Pare down if this has happened to you. Our DVD shelves are completely full, but our bookcases aren't, so I've tried to attractively incorporate the extra DVDs into the bookcase so Brad can have all the movies he wants. We have tons of books, and if we ever grow out of our storage, we'll have to pare down a bit too.
When purchasing new furniture, keep storage in mind. Do you love to cuddle up under a big blanket when watching TV in the evening, but your blanket is always in the way? Think about investing in a storage ottoman if you're looking at getting something new. Does your family love to play board games but you have no where to keep them, so they're stacked in a corner of the room? Look into shelving, or a storage ottoman, or a coffee table with some storage in it. When you are out to pick up a TV cabinet, make sure you get something that will accommodate your Wii or PS3 with all the controllers and games. This way, you won't have to stare at all those wires hanging out there all the time. Thinking about purchasing furniture that serves multiple purposes can maximize your storage space and help you make your living room work for your lifestyle.
Tomorrow we will be talking about your main dining area, and what you can do to help keep it looking great.
Good Luck!
Kristin
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
2 Weeks: The Car(s)
Okay, I know this isn't part of your actual physical home, but if you're anything like me, and probably many people across the country, you spend a ton of time in your car.
My car is, on any given day of the week, a complete pig sty. Not kidding. I have a huge car (chevy suburban) and 4 kids, a husband, and some of my kids' friends cruising around at any given moment. So, my car gets disgusting really fast. There's torn papers, dropped dumdum pop sticks and wrappers, cups, toys, shoes, socks, sweatshirts, tools my husband put in and didn't remove, not to mention all the dirt that gets tracked in from our shoes. Yuk!
I'm surprised my car doesn't smell like the dump...honestly. I try to keep it clean, I really do, but it always seems to be messy. I've chosen to clean out the car at this stage in the game because, let's be honest here, 90% of what is in your car will end up in your home. If we clean up the car now, then it wont make all your hard work in your house go to waste.
Let's get started. You'll need the following supplies:
plastic shopping bags
window cleaner
paper towels
shop vac, vacuum, or hand held vac ( I love my Cone)
Okay, we'll start by cleaning out all the garbage. I use an old grocery bag or something like that, load up the bag with garbage, while making a pile on the middle seat of all non-garbage "stuff" that I find. When I've cleaned out under all the seats, in the center console, the glove box, the pockets on the back of the seats, the door pockets, the cup holders, and anywhere else in the car, I throw the garbage directly into my big green garbage bin outside. Then I haul all the non-garbage stuff in the house and dump it by the front door to sort through later.
I remove any cup holder liners and bring them in to soak in hot water in the kitchen sink. Meanwhile I go out and clean all the interior windows, the dashboard and steering wheel, the door handles, the center console, the cup holders and anywhere else that might need some cleaning with window cleaner and paper towels. When I have a yucky paper towel and need to switch, I put the yucky one in a plastic shopping bag, and I continue that until I'm done wiping down sticky spots, finger prints, dust and grime off the inside of my car. I put them in the plastic bag, because I learned in Rawlins that if I didn't, the wind would carry my garbage into the neighbor's yard and then I'd get to look like an idiot while chasing it around. Not fun!
When everything is wiped down, I pull the floor mats out and shake them well. I use the vacuum to suck up any rocks, dirt or general yuk off the carpets, then replace the mats. I even usually unbuckle the carseats and clean under them, and depending on how nasty things are, I will wash the carseat covers so my girls have squeaky clean seats. If you need to wash your carseat covers, this project will take a little longer than the 1 1/2 hours allotted in this project, but that's okay, it's better to finish the job right, than to stay within your time limit.
When everything is wiped down and lightly vacuumed, put the things back that you need to keep in the car with you. I'll be honest, aside from my vehicle paperwork, I keep lots of stuff in my car...I am a mom after all. Here's a few things that I find helpful in my car:
Paper towels and napkins
Playing Cards
Where's Waldo?
A book to read
Animal crackers
A canteen of water
Emergency supplies
Extra Blankets
Stroller
First Aid Kit
There's probably more, but I can't think of it all right now. Now, here's the deal. I hate washing and vacuuming my car, so I do the vacuuming often, and I let the car wash do my washing for me. It's only $7 at my local car wash for an exterior wash, and I don't go very often, so it's worth it to me. Besides, the kids like to ride through and smell the soap and watch the rags swish back and forth...okay, I do too.
When you're finished, take a deep breath. Does your car smell better? Do you feel better, maybe less embarrassed to give a friend a ride? Well, here's how to keep it that way:
1. Clean out garbage when you get out of the car (I am horrible about this)
2. Teach your kids to take ALL their belongings out when they get out.
3. Don't eat in your car if you can help it (I often cannot with my husband and children always being hungry)
3. Keep a couple special toys or belongings for "in the car only" and don't let you kids bring other things with them that don't need to go.
4. Check over your car once or twice a week, and clean out miscellaneous stuff as needed. Vacuum regularly.
Tomorrow's project will be your working on your entry way and living room, as most people's homes have these two spaces flowing into one another.
Happy Cleaning!
Kristin
My car is, on any given day of the week, a complete pig sty. Not kidding. I have a huge car (chevy suburban) and 4 kids, a husband, and some of my kids' friends cruising around at any given moment. So, my car gets disgusting really fast. There's torn papers, dropped dumdum pop sticks and wrappers, cups, toys, shoes, socks, sweatshirts, tools my husband put in and didn't remove, not to mention all the dirt that gets tracked in from our shoes. Yuk!
I'm surprised my car doesn't smell like the dump...honestly. I try to keep it clean, I really do, but it always seems to be messy. I've chosen to clean out the car at this stage in the game because, let's be honest here, 90% of what is in your car will end up in your home. If we clean up the car now, then it wont make all your hard work in your house go to waste.
Let's get started. You'll need the following supplies:
plastic shopping bags
window cleaner
paper towels
shop vac, vacuum, or hand held vac ( I love my Cone)
Okay, we'll start by cleaning out all the garbage. I use an old grocery bag or something like that, load up the bag with garbage, while making a pile on the middle seat of all non-garbage "stuff" that I find. When I've cleaned out under all the seats, in the center console, the glove box, the pockets on the back of the seats, the door pockets, the cup holders, and anywhere else in the car, I throw the garbage directly into my big green garbage bin outside. Then I haul all the non-garbage stuff in the house and dump it by the front door to sort through later.
I remove any cup holder liners and bring them in to soak in hot water in the kitchen sink. Meanwhile I go out and clean all the interior windows, the dashboard and steering wheel, the door handles, the center console, the cup holders and anywhere else that might need some cleaning with window cleaner and paper towels. When I have a yucky paper towel and need to switch, I put the yucky one in a plastic shopping bag, and I continue that until I'm done wiping down sticky spots, finger prints, dust and grime off the inside of my car. I put them in the plastic bag, because I learned in Rawlins that if I didn't, the wind would carry my garbage into the neighbor's yard and then I'd get to look like an idiot while chasing it around. Not fun!
When everything is wiped down, I pull the floor mats out and shake them well. I use the vacuum to suck up any rocks, dirt or general yuk off the carpets, then replace the mats. I even usually unbuckle the carseats and clean under them, and depending on how nasty things are, I will wash the carseat covers so my girls have squeaky clean seats. If you need to wash your carseat covers, this project will take a little longer than the 1 1/2 hours allotted in this project, but that's okay, it's better to finish the job right, than to stay within your time limit.
When everything is wiped down and lightly vacuumed, put the things back that you need to keep in the car with you. I'll be honest, aside from my vehicle paperwork, I keep lots of stuff in my car...I am a mom after all. Here's a few things that I find helpful in my car:
Paper towels and napkins
Playing Cards
Where's Waldo?
A book to read
Animal crackers
A canteen of water
Emergency supplies
Extra Blankets
Stroller
First Aid Kit
There's probably more, but I can't think of it all right now. Now, here's the deal. I hate washing and vacuuming my car, so I do the vacuuming often, and I let the car wash do my washing for me. It's only $7 at my local car wash for an exterior wash, and I don't go very often, so it's worth it to me. Besides, the kids like to ride through and smell the soap and watch the rags swish back and forth...okay, I do too.
When you're finished, take a deep breath. Does your car smell better? Do you feel better, maybe less embarrassed to give a friend a ride? Well, here's how to keep it that way:
1. Clean out garbage when you get out of the car (I am horrible about this)
2. Teach your kids to take ALL their belongings out when they get out.
3. Don't eat in your car if you can help it (I often cannot with my husband and children always being hungry)
3. Keep a couple special toys or belongings for "in the car only" and don't let you kids bring other things with them that don't need to go.
4. Check over your car once or twice a week, and clean out miscellaneous stuff as needed. Vacuum regularly.
Tomorrow's project will be your working on your entry way and living room, as most people's homes have these two spaces flowing into one another.
Happy Cleaning!
Kristin
Monday, June 6, 2011
2 Weeks: Laundry Room
If your laundry room is like mine, it's the dumping ground for all kinds of stuff. The floor usually has dirty clothes on it, there's brooms stacked up in the corner, a vacuum in the walkway, and about 300 different kinds of cleaner in the cabinets. It's my least favorite place to hang out, the place we feed our cat, and the place that we store the odds and ends we don't really know what to do with.
Well, we need to do something about that. So lets roll our sleeves up and get started.
Supplies:
Laundry Soap
Bucket
Rags
Hot Water
Liquid Castile Soap (just a quick squeeze)
I started by getting my laundry done. I don't have a place to keep a laundry sorter, but if you do, I highly recommend that you use one. It's a great way to get those piles off the laundry room floor, because everything is sorted into separate baskets when you bring it in the laundry room. I can't have one, so I have to continue with the piles, but if you're like me and you have to deal with piles, try to get your laundry done quickly and efficiently so you don't end up with the Mount Everest of Laundry in the middle of your space.
One really great tip for doing that is to follow a laundry schedule. Some people feel like this works well. Modify the schedule to fit your lifestyle and your families needs. One may look like this:
Monday - 2 loads whites
Tuesday - 2 loads darks
Wednesday - 1 load towels
Thursday - 1 load whites, 1 load darks
Friday - 1 load sheets
Weekend - Take some time off!
This is not my actual schedule, as mine includes diapers and about 2-3 more loads, but it would be more typical of the average household in America.
Now that you can actually enter the room without climbing over a pile (okay, just me) let's get started purging all those extra cleaning products and rags that have built up over time. Just because it's full and you bought it doesn't mean you need to keep it. We're all guilty of falling for the attractive "make it easy to clean" ads on TV from time to time, so just embrace the purchase mistake and say goodbye to that bottle of whatever it is that didn't really work. As for rags, if you have about 14 of differing sizes, you'll never run out. You really don't need 22,000 rags. I promise.
Okay, cabinets cleaned out. Put all the stuff you're keeping out of the way, then use a bucket full of hot water and a rag to wipe down those shelves. Why not? You've already got all that stuff out of your space. Clean it all up before you put everything back.
Speaking of putting things back, make sure that the things you use regularly are within easy reach. Put stuff you don't really need so often up higher. Put like things together. I have a couple scrub brushes, I have them all in the same area on the same shelf.
If you're like me and you make your own laundry soap and keep the supplies in sealed jars, you may want to think about investing $15 in a label maker. I did a couple weeks ago and I can't stop labeling things. You'll find that you'll use it in so many other places if for no other reason than to stop your husband from saying things like "I don't know which one you're talking about." Huh, can you read dear?
Okay, where are we? Picked up, purged, washed, put away, labeled, good! But we're not done yet. Chances are there's a corner of your room that has old mops propped up, a couple brooms you hate, maybe one you don't and about a thousand "make it easy" mops and sweepers collecting dust. Again, I say unto you, purge!!!! Keep only your favorite broom for in the house. If you use a mop, keep your favorite one of those too. I use a dust bunny catcher sometimes that I really like so I'm keeping that. The few things you do need to keep can be propped up, or even better, get a scrap piece of plywood, pound some nails into it, hang it on the wall, and hang your mops and brooms on that. Use that wall space, that's what it's there for! I will be doing this as soon as construction is complete in my laundry room area.
When all your supplies are tidied and put away, sweep your floors and mop if you actually have a mopable floor (I have plywood, not good to mop plywood).
Let's talk mopping for a moment. Honestly, I've never met a mop that actually works...and doesn't gross me out after a few uses. So, I always use a bucket and a rag to mop floors, and yes, I know I have 1400 square feet of hardwood flooring. Yep, I still get down on my hands and knees and scrub it with a rag. I use about a squeeze or maybe 2 of my favorite scented liquid castile soap. I love eucalyptus, almond, or lavender, just depending on my mood. Add hot water to the small amount of soap, and mop away. You'll love the shine on your floors, and the scent of clean. If you're worried about disinfecting a floor, try adding a few drops of tea tree oil, or buy the tea tree castile soap. Tea tree is a natural pesticide, and germicide, so you can rest assured that your floors are germ free when you're done.
When your floor is dry, dust off the top of your appliances and wipe off any sticky stuff (I usually wipe everything down with my mop solution), stash all the change you keep setting on top of the dryer, put away the trinkets your kids keep leaving for you, and stand back and look at how beautiful your laundry room looks.
This is my laundry room.
I still have stuff in here that I really don't want to store here, but since we're still under construction, I often don't have a choice until construction is complete. Even with my green walls and unfinished floor, I'm loving the way this looks. Now the trick is to keep it this way by putting things back where you want them, keeping up on laundry, and sweeping regularly. If you sweep your laundry room floor once a week, then you can get away with not mopping for quite a bit longer. I haven't mopped my floor since we moved in (hahahaha)!
Now that your "workhorse" room is cleaned up and ready to go, we can move onto bigger, and better things. Check back in tomorrow for the project of the day. Do you feel like you've accomplished something today? I sure do.
Good Luck!
Kristin
Sunday, June 5, 2011
2 Weeks To A Cleaner Home
We're doing a new unit here on the blog. I've been thinking a lot about this topic and I've decided that this may be something that will help some, and definitely help me in my home. We usually talk about things you can make yourself instead of going out and buying, but this topic is something that I think will help us all free up time for more projects by getting organized and keeping a cleaning schedule.
Hopefully, you and I will no longer feel behind on everything after we've gotten used to the daily schedule, and after doing a lot of the deeper cleaning required, we'll feel refreshed and ready to go out in the sun with our kids all summer long.
For me, this comes at a perfect time of year. Just before the kids get out of school for summer and while it's still raining off and on is a great time to complete the spring cleaning checklist and be all ready for summer.
I hope you jump on board with me as the next 2 weeks evolve into hopefully a more organized tidier and more manageable home and routine.
So here's how it's gonna work. I will write a blog for each day of the week for the next 2 weeks, except Sunday. Each daily project should take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. There will be 2 weekend projects, one for each saturday, that will take approximately 3 hours. We will do 1 project per day.
Don't forget that you will still need to do maintenance to keep each space looking great throughout each day or week. You will also need to continue to do all your regular chores such as dishes and laundry each day/week. If not, you and I will be in the same place at the end of the 2 weeks as we were at the beginning.
Now, down to the rules of housework. Housework will never be done, and you'll always feel like something is a mess, especially if you have kids or a husband. If you live alone, although housework is never done, you may actually get to a place where nothing will be a mess for a moment.
Those are the rules. I will go ahead now, in this post and give you a list of general supplies I use in just about every room of my home. You can modify this list as you see fit, but this way, if you're looking for something different, you might have some ideas. Also, if you have a great product that you can't live without, leave a comment and tell me. It may make my life easier too. Thanks!
So, the work begins tomorrow. Just remember, housework is never done, something will always be a mess, and take things one project, step, or day at a time.
Good Luck!
Kristin
Hopefully, you and I will no longer feel behind on everything after we've gotten used to the daily schedule, and after doing a lot of the deeper cleaning required, we'll feel refreshed and ready to go out in the sun with our kids all summer long.
For me, this comes at a perfect time of year. Just before the kids get out of school for summer and while it's still raining off and on is a great time to complete the spring cleaning checklist and be all ready for summer.
I hope you jump on board with me as the next 2 weeks evolve into hopefully a more organized tidier and more manageable home and routine.
So here's how it's gonna work. I will write a blog for each day of the week for the next 2 weeks, except Sunday. Each daily project should take about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. There will be 2 weekend projects, one for each saturday, that will take approximately 3 hours. We will do 1 project per day.
Don't forget that you will still need to do maintenance to keep each space looking great throughout each day or week. You will also need to continue to do all your regular chores such as dishes and laundry each day/week. If not, you and I will be in the same place at the end of the 2 weeks as we were at the beginning.
Now, down to the rules of housework. Housework will never be done, and you'll always feel like something is a mess, especially if you have kids or a husband. If you live alone, although housework is never done, you may actually get to a place where nothing will be a mess for a moment.
Those are the rules. I will go ahead now, in this post and give you a list of general supplies I use in just about every room of my home. You can modify this list as you see fit, but this way, if you're looking for something different, you might have some ideas. Also, if you have a great product that you can't live without, leave a comment and tell me. It may make my life easier too. Thanks!
- Kitchen Gloves (I have about 2 pair at all times)
- Baking Soda (buy the big box)
- Borax
- Salt (Also a great abrasive)
- Washing Soda
- Lemon Juice (freshens lots of stuff)
- Liquid and Bar Castile Soap
- Hydrogen Peroxide (kills bacteria)
- Tea Tree Oil (a natural disinfectant and pesticide)
- Dawn Dish Liquid
- Vinegar
- Vacuum
- Broom/Dustpan
- Washcloth and hand towel sized rags
- Sponge with a scrubby side
- Empty spray bottles (for mixing different cleaners)
- Bucket
So, the work begins tomorrow. Just remember, housework is never done, something will always be a mess, and take things one project, step, or day at a time.
Good Luck!
Kristin
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