All posts tagged 2013 January Challenge

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Daily Tip: Don’t be afraid to buy items that you really need to help yourself succeed.  Frugal doesn’t mean cheap, it means carefully chosen.

When I first got married, I bought all the same stuff my parents had used — things like Soft Scrub, caustic toilet cleaner, regular ol’ dishwasher detergent, bleach….  Those are what I used to clean my house.  They did the job…and gave me a headache in the process.

My first foray into natural cleaning was when my daughter was around 10 months old and I was newly pregnant with my older son.  I had tried desperately to clean my shower, which was gross, with everything chemical out there — bleach, CLR, I don’t even remember all the options.  The mildew didn’t budge.

Being pregnant and having a mobile child, I didn’t feel safe using those caustic chemicals.  I wondered what would happen if I tried something different.  I plugged the shower drain and flooded it with warm water and sprinkled baking soda all around.  I let this sit for about 20 minutes, then came back to it.  All I needed was a sponge, and the mess just wiped away.  Seriously — that easy.

I was sold.

Natural Cleaning Tools That Work

There’s still a perception that natural cleaning doesn’t really work.  As my experience above shows, they certainly do!  You might need some different tools and different methods, but really — they work.

To make your life easier (I hope), I’m going to share my top 10 cleaning tools and methods with you.

1. The Soak

Fill it with water and soak it for awhile.  10 – 15 minutes is usually enough.  This goes for dishes, showers, tubs, anything that is dirty.  Water alone is a powerful solvent and it doesn’t take long to work.  Let whatever is dirty soak for awhile in warm or hot water, and then wipe away the junk easily.  If it’s not that easy (for example, if something’s burned on), all you need is….

2. Baking Soda

This is super safe, but also very abrasive.  If something needs a scrub or has some burned or caked-on junk, add baking soda to the soak and use more when you scrub.  If you have a dirty pot, you can even boil it with baking soda water and it will come clean more easily.  I sprinkle baking soda on counters, sinks, bath tubs, dishes, stoves, and more, and use it to help get a nice shine (if applicable) and to loosen the junk more easily.  Works every time.

3. Vinegar

White vinegar goes in so many places.  I keep a spray bottle filled with half vinegar, half water.  When the kids want to “help” I let them spray this and wipe.  It cleans glass, counters, stoves (I have a glass top), just about anything.  White vinegar also goes in the dishwasher as a rinse aid, or into the washing machine as a fabric softener.  I keep a gallon of it in the house so I can use it as needed.  It’s super cheap, too.

4. Spray Bottles

These are super handy.  They can be filled with straight vinegar, vinegar and water, water and essential oils, or various other combinations.  Using water and essential oils can function as a disinfectant around your home, and a very safe one at that.  Keep a few around to make your job easier and label each.

5. Microfiber Cloths

I have a lot of these…I had up to 50 at one point in time.  They are my go-to for scrubbing anything because they work and they are cheap, so they can be thrown out after a really dirty job.  I use them for wiping down counters, the stove, bath tubs, mirrors, really anything.  I also tend to use them for covering bowls of food that are soaking on my counters.  They sell these in the automotive department.  Clean ones can also be used as diaper inserts.

6. Essential Oils

Some of these just add a nice scent.  Some disinfect.   Tea tree oil, thyme oil, oregano oil — these are the primary ones that can disinfect.  Mix a few drops in with water and a little white vinegar and spray any surface.  It makes cleaning toys easy, and is safe for most furniture too (to be used like ‘Febreze”).  This is excellent on door knobs, faucets, etc. after a recent illness!

7. Toilet Brush

There’s no getting around this one — you need a standard toilet brush.  I used to use those disposable pads that came with their own cleaners, but they don’t work as well and who knows what is in those little pads.  Buy a regular, cheap brush and replace every several months — they get pretty gross.  I keep one in every bathroom so I’m not constantly hunting for one when I need to clean a toilet.  I recommend at least one per floor of your home.

8. Spray and Wipe

Most of the time when I am cleaning my kitchen, I will spray down all the surfaces at once (with the vinegar-water) and then go back to the first surface to start wiping.  Allowing it to sit for just a couple minutes makes it much easier to wipe the junk off.  If I have stubborn spots I may repeat the process on those while I work on another area.

9. The Scraper

I have a plastic scraper that I use.  It mostly is used on dishes, but I also use it on counters and floors to remove any sticky, stuck-on junk.  (Think waffle batter that spills and doesn’t get wiped up right away, or chunks of banana the kids dropped under the table and didn’t tell you about.)  This is much easier than just scrubbing and getting frustrated!  It also makes washing dishes easier.  I can’t stand to get big clumps of food on my dish sponges (I may have mentioned that before), so I use the scraper to get off as much as I can first.  If the scraper isn’t working, steel wool is my next go-to.

10. The Walk and Scoot

I used to use a mop of some kind to clean my kitchen floor.  But I had to constantly rinse it in the sink (unwieldy, to say the least) or I’d have to get a bucket out (dangerous with small children — they could drown, or at least spill it and make a huge mess).  Plus, it often wasn’t “scrubby” enough to get up the sticky spots.  No thanks.  Instead, now, I just use my microfiber cloths.  I soak them with hot water, wring them out, and drop them directly onto the stickiest spots.  I use my foot to scoot them around and clean the floor.  This is much faster and I can get just the trouble spots, instead of feeling like I need to mop the whole floor.  It works on dried-on juice and chocolate milk…not that I’d know anything about that.

And that’s it!  My simple cleaning tools and methods, to keep my home looking decent.

Additional “Stuff”

Okay, I really do have more than that.  But I included just my favorites, things that were less obvious.  I also have:

• Natural dishwasher detergent (after failing with various homemade concoctions, I buy Trader Joe’s brand)
• Toilet cleaner (I go back and forth between ‘natural’ ones and the most caustic I can find…I haven’t found a natural one that consistently works)
• Vacuum (need I say more?)
• Wash cloths (I keep a whole drawer full in my kitchen to wipe fresh spills, faces, etc.  We don’t use paper towels at all)
• Sponges (I use them for cleaning dishes, mostly, but sometimes bathroom counters too)
• Dish liquid soap (I have varied between Dawn and plain Dr. Bronner’s, depending on my mood)
• Steel wool (if nothing’s working to get burned-on junk off, I switch to this)
• Soap nuts (this is the only thing I use in my laundry most of the time, and it works on everything and is completely natural)
• RLR (this is the one laundry additive I have, it is natural, and I use it on cloth diapers from time to time if I have a big/especially dirty load)

Notice I do not keep bleach, air freshers, and other such things around.  I don’t use any scented products unless they are made with essential oils only, because the fragrances are made from petrochemicals and they are carcinogenic (cause cancer).

The simple stuff works, it’s in expensive, it’s versatile, and it’s safe!  Can’t go wrong there!

What are your top cleaning products or tools?

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Daily Tip: Make a list of everything you need to have or do to achieve your goals, so that you don’t get stuck without something important.

A lot of our readers have been talking about how they struggle with clutter.  There is stuff in every direction and on every surface.  I can relate.  There are a few surfaces in my home that just seem to “catch” clutter.  I clear them off, and…weeks later, they’re full of “stuff” again!  So obviously I don’t have a perfect answer.

I have made strides in this area over the last year, though, and there’s a lot less clutter in my home than there used to be.  I’m sharing here what’s working for me.

Taming the Clutter: A Method to the Madness

Yo have to have a way of dealing with clutter — a proactive, careful, direct way.  Being frustrated and throwing things away without sorting through it won’t solve the problem.  I watched my mom, when I was growing up, do what my dad called “committing a neatness.”  Basically she swept through the home and either threw away or put away whatever was sitting out, without regard to what it was, whose it was, or any sort of organizational system.  Naturally, everyone was frustrated by this and within several days, we’d all drag out our things again as we found them and the problem continued.

Instead, I suggest a few simple rules (which I am still — slowly — working to implement).

• Rule #1: If you don’t use it regularly (like, nearly daily), put it away.  If you use it daily, it can stay “out” on the counter or wherever.
• Rule #2: If you haven’t used it in six months, you probably don’t need it.  Donate or sell it.  You might need to go through shelves or cabinets of stored stuff to get rid of stuff you don’t need so that you have a place to put the stuff you do.
• Rule #3: Every item must have a “place” to go.  If it doesn’t, ask yourself if you really need it.  If you do, create a reasonable place for it.  Clear out stuff you don’t need if you have to.
• Rule #4: When you are done with it, it goes back to its place, no exceptions.
• Rule #5: Keep a basket on each floor for misplaced items.  Sort through the basket daily or weekly and return things to their homes — or throw it out or donate it.  (I keep a basket to toss too-small clothing and mismatched socks into, and they will get put away in boxes or thrown out, respectively.)
• Rule #6: Have a paper system and use it immediately on any paper that comes into your home.  Important papers must have a “place” to go — a filing cabinet, a folder on your desk, etc.  Non-important papers should be handled if needed (think a school reminder that you only need briefly), then go into the recycle or trash.  Kids’ papers are not an exception; they can keep a few favorite items to put on the fridge or into a “keep folder” but the rest goes into the trash.

I’m mean about that last one.  My kids will sometimes draw 20 pictures in one day, many on little notebook paper scraps.  They want to keep all of them.  Every.single.time I have let them, they promise they will keep them put away and they really will look at them later.  They always end up on the floor, and I throw them out.  Now I insist that they simply throw out most of their papers, except the really nice ones.  Having a “keep folder” is a great idea because they have a place for those special ones to go, and when the folder’s full, they have to make a choice: clean some older stuff out, or not keep the current item.  You might give them a new ‘keep folder’ every six months to a year so that they can always save a few important papers from the past.

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Choosing What Really Works

When I first got married, I knew very little about setting up a home.  What I did know came from observing my parents.  I set out to create a space that looked very much like theirs.  I bought the same dishwashing tools (a ‘dobie’ pad, wash cloths, and a dish drainer).  I bought all the same laundry tools and soaps.  I bought a wooden ‘clothes tree’ that I set up in my room to hang clothes on in between wearings (pants, jackets). Basically, I mimicked what I had seen them do.

…then I found out a lot of this stuff just didn’t work for me.

I don’t have or use a dish drainer anymore.  I use sponges to wash the dishes, although I stick many more in the dishwasher than my parents do.  I have a plastic scraper because I can’t stand to use a sponge on filthy dishes (I have to get most of the ‘junk’ off with the scraper before I can use the sponge).  I have an entirely different laundry system and routine.  The clothes tree sits unused in the basement.  These organizational items that were so key to them were just not my style.

It’s okay.

Just because one system or style looks so great and works for others — even if it works for a lot of others — does not mean it will work for you.  You have to be honest about what really works for your home and your personality.

What do you find yourself wanting or doing as you move through your home?  I lay my clothes on the vanity near my closet.  If I wanted to keep it more organized, I might have put a shelf or the clothes tree in a corner near that area.  I have to have a towel on my oven door — I always grab for one while cooking if I need to wipe my hands.  I keep hand soap at the kitchen sink too so I don’t have to go to the bathroom (or use dish soap) to wash my hands.  I’ve found that these things work for me by noticing my natural patterns and habits and finding ways to continue them…with more organization.

Be honest with yourself, note your own patterns, and find the systems and tools that work with what you already do.  Look for items at Good Will or swap items with a friend.  Working with what you have and what you prefer, rather than completely trying to change your habits is going to prove more successful in the long run.

**This post has been entered in Frugal Days and Sustainable Ways.**

How do you tame the clutter in your home?