Summer Home Cleaning Tips

Summer is a great time to throw open your windows, roll up your sleeves and get your house in order.  Great summer home cleaning tips always start with an open window to let in fresh air.  It is a good idea, then, to begin your summer cleaning session with clean windows and window screens.  Also, summer is a slow time for cleaning and home maintenance companies.  Now is a good time to schedule furnace maintenance in advance of the winter cold or hire someone to clean your gutters or repair roof shingles.

One of the most basic summer home cleaning tips is to get your outdoor living areas in order.  Start with clean patio doors and make sure you check the track areas for built up grime.  Then, sweep off any hard surface patio areas and think about renting a pressure washer or hiring a maintenance company to pressure wash walkways, drives, and patios.  Additionally, it is important to check all children’s play equipment for wear and tear.  Tighten loose bolts where necessary and cover them with plastic protectors to prevent injury.

Another important summer home cleaning tip is maintenance of your sprinkler systems and outdoor lighting.  Replace any broken or fractured sprinkler heads and add new ones in newly planted beds or areas that require more water.  Inspect your outdoor lighting for burned out bulbs and cracked casings and make sure all lights are pointed in the appropriate spots.

Summer is also a time to be aware of outdoor painting chores.  An important summer home cleaning tip is to check any decking for wear and tear and replace warped or split planks.  Make sure all nail heads are countersunk in all decking areas and then determine whether you need to paint or stain.  Painting and staining outdoor areas before the harsh winter weather will add to the longevity of your outdoor wood.

One final summer home cleaning tip:  after all the work is done, make sure you take some time to sit down with a cold drink and admire all of your hard work!

Home Cleaning Uses for Vinegar

Everyone knows you can use vinegar to clean your windows and counters, but did you know that you can use it to repel ants and fruit flies as well?  One of the many amazing home cleaning uses for vinegar includes ridding your pantry of pesky insects.  Discourage ants by spraying undiluted white distilled vinegar outside doorways and windowsills and around appliances.   Fruit flies will be repelled by a dish of vinegar set on the counter near ripening fruits.

Other interesting home cleaning uses for vinegar include getting rid of those mineral stains in long necked vases or oddly shaped bottles.  Just add water and vinegar and let set for a few hours, then pour in a little uncooked rice, shake well, pour out and rinse.  Voila!  Sparkle plenty!  After you’ve cleaned your vases, slip on some cotton gloves, dip the fingers in a mix of equal parts vinegar and warm water, and run them across the blinds on your windows for a quick and easy solution to dust and grime.

Do you have decals on your window that resist removal?  One powerful home cleaning use for vinegar is to soak a sponge in undiluted vinegar and hold it over the decal for a few minutes.  Then peel and remove.  This also works to remove hardened paint spatter on windows. Once you discover the many home cleaning uses for inexpensive vinegar you can start replacing toxic (and expensive) cleaning solutions with this wonderful, useful pantry necessity.

Home Cleaning Uses for Baking Soda

There are so many wonderful home cleaning uses for baking soda, that it will take more than a quick blog post to catch them all.  The first reason to use baking soda for home cleaning is the fact that it is non-toxic.  It is an inexpensive, naturally occurring material that is present in most organic life forms, so it makes an excellent alternative to high-priced toxic cleaners.

Since most articles focus on the home cleaning uses for baking soda inside the home, I thought I would take a quick look at what it can do outside.   Step on to your patio…is your grill dirty?  To remove burned on food from the grill, sprinkle with baking soda and then soak for several hours.  The charred food should come loose easily with a brush.  Is your lawn furniture acquiring that mildewy patina?  Just mix 1/4 cup of baking soda with a quart of warm water and wipe it off.   Here’s a great home cleaning use for baking soda:  clean the children’s pool of mildew and that slimy residue by sprinkling a little baking soda in the empty pool, scrubbing, and rinsing with warm water.

The best news about baking soda is that it doesn’t spoil.  If you really want to use it for cleaning, see if you can find it in bulk at your local wholesale store.  After all, the home cleaning uses for baking soda are nearly endless!

Making Homemade Cleaners

Want a break from today’s toxic overload?  Then you should consider making your own homemade cleaners.  Most modern cleaning products are based on formulas passed down through generations.  These original formulas used natural ingredients that offered little, if any, danger or toxicity to the user.  Going back to the original naturally derived ingredients is a way to make cleaning products that work, don’t pollute and save you money. Most ingredients are simple, inexpensive and easy to find.  Best of all, making homemade cleaners cost about 1/10th the price of the ones in the grocery store, and you can control the strength and scent of your homemade products.

Basic supplies include: baking soda, white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, washing soda (can be found near laundry detergent in most stores), borax (also in laundry section), mild dish detergent, and essential oils for scent (optional).  You can save empty milk jugs for making your homemade cleaners in order to store large quantities that you can decant into smaller bottles or spray bottles, which can be purchased in most stores.

After experimenting with a number of recipes and finding the ones that suit you and your cleaning needs the best, I think you will agree that making homemade cleaners is easy and fun!

Organizing Your Kitchen Pantry - Part Three Storage

Storage is an important facet of organizing your kitchen pantry.  But don’t be put out by high-priced storage systems.  If you have a shelf, you can have a pantry that is useful and beautiful!

You can find glass jars and plastic storage containers at thrift stores and garage sales, but they are very inexpensively had at dollar stores, big box retailers, and even grocery stores as well.  Organizing your pantry using glass containers is a useful way to store grains, dry goods, and flours because it deters rodents and insects.  However, don’t use glass if you have heavy items to store or if children will be using the pantry.  If you do have children, place the glass containers high enough that they cannot reach them.

Inexpensive racks and dividers can go a long way toward giving you extra storage space for organizing your kitchen pantry.  You can use racks for holding dishes to give you two levels of storage for canned goods where only one was possible.  Or, you can store canned goods in the refrigerator racks made for dispensing canned sodas.

Plastic baskets are also a great tool for organizing your kitchen pantry.  You can use them to group items together, such as flour or pasta boxes, or even snacks and cereal.  Alternatively, you can store dishtowels and cloth napkins in baskets for easy access.

Whatever you choose, make sure you buy enough of the same item to store all that you need.  Visually, it looks neater and more organized to have many containers that are the same rather than a mishmash of different styles.

If you’ve followed these suggestions, your kitchen pantry will be clean, organized and a pleasure to use!

Organizing Your Kitchen Pantry - Part Two Restock

Now that you have begun organizing your kitchen pantry, you need to take a step back and decide on what kinds of staples need to be included.  There are many lists available to give you an idea of what to include.

One rule of thumb is to have two of everything and when one is used, jot it down on a shopping list so that you can always have an extra on hand.  At this point, it is a good idea to make your own list of the staples that you use often and post it in or near your pantry.  A clipboard that hangs on the wall is a simple, yet useful solution.

Another key to organizing your pantry is to group like items by category.  Canned items should be kept together, and grains, such as pasta, rice, and couscous can also be in the same group.  Spices can be stored on a rack or in their original containers, and items like snacks and lunch items should be stored at an easily accessible height.

A different method of organizing your kitchen pantry that also gives good results is to organize by food preparation.  For example, if you bake a great deal, keep all of your baking supplies together.  For soup making, store broths and dried vegetables in the same areas.  If you have enough room in your pantry, don’t forget to organize your paper goods.  Having paper towels, napkins, and paper plates all together makes setting a table quick and easy and the goal of an organized kitchen is to make mealtimes simple.

Organizing your Kitchen Pantry - Part One Declutter

A pantry can be a real help to the home cook if it is neatly organized.  Although there are many pantry “systems” that can be purchased for quite a bit of money, a little elbow grease and some smart thinking can go a long way toward organizing your kitchen pantry.

The first step to an organized pantry is to start with a clean slate.  Remove all items and wipe down shelves with a moist cloth to remove dust and crumbs. Vacuum the floor and wipe down the walls of any splatters or spills. Then go through everything you currently have and ask these three questions:

Do I like it?

Do I use it?

Is it expired?

Throwing away anything you have that is expired is a no-brainer.  But what about that cool Himalayan salt you bought last winter?  Rule of thumb is, if you haven’t used it in 6 months, you are probably not going to use it.  Pitch it.  Your pantry will thank you!  If you feel guilty about throwing away “perfectly good food”, take it to a local food bank or homeless shelter.  As long is it is unopened and within the sell by date, they will have a use for it.

Clearing your pantry will give you have a clear view of your space and the number of items that need to go into it, so you can really get into the nuts and bolts of organizing your pantry.

Beautiful Home Habits

Did you know that if you do this one thing every day, your home will be more beautiful? Sounds intriguing, right?  I like to call these little tips beautiful home habits, because if you become used to incorporating them into your daily life, you will find it very easy to have and keep a beautiful home.

So here’s the thing:  every time you walk into a room, do just one thing to make it look nicer. That’s it.  Just one.  If you are walking through the living room to your bedroom and there is a sweater on the chair, take it with you and hang it up.  In fact, every time you go into your closet for something, hang up an item that is on the floor or shelf a pair of shoes.  After you wash your face, wipe down the sink with a towel before putting it the hamper.  When you flush the toilet, give it a swish with the toilet brush.  While you take a shower, give the walls a quick once-over with a squeegee.

These beautiful home habits don’t take the place of weekly cleaning, but they do make weekly cleaning a whole lot easier.  So the next time you have to clean the toilet it will only take you two minutes instead of ten, because there won’t be a dirty ring to scrub off.   You will still have to clean your bathroom counters, but now you don’t have to take time scrubbing the dried toothpaste.  In all, beautiful home habits are a simple and easy addition to your home cleaning routine that will save you time as well as beautify your surroundings.

Home Cleaning Schedules

Are you always behind in your housecleaning?  Do you always feel like there is something left undone?  Then you need a home cleaning schedule to help keep you on track and take the stress out of cleaning.  Here’s the beautiful part of this, though, you DON’T have to follow a long, long list of t0-dos everyday.  What fun is that?  If you can do just four things every day, you can go a long way to keeping your house cleaner.

The first step in designing your personal home cleaning schedule is to choose your four items.  My personal favorites are: dishes, laundry, clutter and optional.  Every day, I make sure dishes are in the dishwasher and the sink and counter are clear.  Then, I pop in a load of laundry (just one!) and sometime during the day it gets done from start to finish.  Then, I do a quick fly-by of each room and pick up any clutter and place it in a laundry basket for everyone to sort through when they get home.  Finally, I pick an “optional” chore every day. I have a list that I choose from: vacuum, dust, mop, clean toilets, wipe down mirrors, water plants and so on.

Once you get used to this home cleaning schedule, you can begin to add in other things.  For example, once a week I do a “big chore” in a specific room.  A “big chore” is something that doesn’t usually get done often in a normal household — like cleaning the baseboards.  It isn’t a big deal when you are just doing it in one room.  The next week, I do the same “big chore” in another room.  And voila! It is done in no time.  If you can follow a home cleaning schedule, you will find that you are less stressed, and your home is cleaner than ever before!

Cleaning Your Oven the Natural Way

Oven cleaners can be pretty toxic.  Not only that, but you must employ high heat for them to be effective and this consumes a great deal of energy.  There are a lot of great ways to minimize your exposure to toxic chemicals and save energy by cleaning your oven the natural way.

Quick action when you have a spill in the oven means less scrubbing later.  To clean your oven the natural way, immediately sprinkle a layer of salt on the oven floor, preferably while the oven is still warm.  Before the oven cools, reach in with a rag or scrubber and wipe up the mess as best you can.  

Later when it is completely cool, you can use some baking soda and a little vinegar to get any last spots.  If you have stubborn areas that won’t come loose, make a paste of baking soda and water and let sit for 30 minutes.  Then, using a plastic scraper, remove the baked-on mess.

If you didn’t notice the spill until the next time you used the oven, here’s a wonderful, good-smelling formula for cleaning your oven the natural way: Use 1/2 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of borax, 1 box of baking soda, a cup of water, a cup of white vinegar and 20 drops of your favorite essential oil.  Make a paste of the salt, borax and baking soda and a little water in a bowl.  Then, remove your oven racks and preheat to 250.  Turn off the oven and spread the paste inside, letting sit for a half hour.  Now combine the vinegar and oils in a spray bottle and wipe the interior clean using steel wool pads where necessary to get the baked-on grime.

With a little forethought and some elbow grease, cleaning your oven the natural way can save you money and reduce your exposure to chemicals!