Tag Archives: ~Home

Homemade Cleaning Products

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Save time and money by making your own household cleaners from ingredients you probably already have in your cabinet. No need to clip coupons or comparison shop. Make these at home and you’ve already saved a bundle. Plus, these all natural solutions are better for you – and your family.
Homemade glass and window cleaner

Ingredients
1 cup rubbing alcohol
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine ingredients into a spray bottle, and voila – homemade Windex!

Homemade furniture polish

Ingredients
1 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice

Use a soft cloth and rub into your woodwork, wooden furniture and other wooden household items. It’s DIY Pledge!

Homemade Multi-purpose Surface Cleaner

Ingredients
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water

Homemade Abrasive Cleanser

Ingredients
3 Parts Baking Soda
1 Part Water

Baking Soda is great as an abrasive cleanser. Combine it with dish detergent for a great stovetop cleaner and extra cleaning power.

Bonus Tips:

Cleaning Powers of Vinegar
White vinegar is great for cleaning everything: whirlpool tub jets, soap scum, electric stove tops and it gets the “gunk” out of any clogged lotion or soap pump. Use it in your dishwasher as a homemade rinse agent to make glassware sparkle. Use it to clean your coffee maker by running it through with a vinegar mix once, then water.

The Vinegar Solution
1 part vinegar
2 parts water

Plus: For cleaning pipe sludge and stubborn drains, use vinegar and baking soda to clear those clogs and help create a much more pleasant odor. Here’s how: Pour baking soda down the clogged drain, followed by white vinegar, then boiling water. Your pipes should become unclogged in no time! * Do NOT use this method after you’ve already used a store-bought chemical based drain cleaner.

Spring Cleaning – The Basics

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There are a few tasks you should do in every room, so rather than repeat them in each section, they’re listed here and will be referred to as “The Basics” in future.

Light Fixtures and Ceiling Fans: Remove all light fixtures and clean thoroughly, inside and out. If you have a ceiling fan in your kitchen, you should be able to remove each blade of the fan to clean it with soapy water or whatever the manufacturer’s instructions suggest. If not, dust thoroughly and wipe with a cloth.

Draperies, Curtains and/or Blinds: Remove all window treatments and wash or have dry cleaned according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For blinds, use your feather or furry duster to dust between the slats and a vinegar based cleaner to wash afterwards. If you have cloth blinds, they need to be vacuumed.

Windows: To get that professional look, invest in a squeegee so you can truly have a streak-free shine. Fill your bucket with whichever solution you choose (we have a homemade window cleaner in this E-book.) Use rags to wash the windows down, then squeegee the moisture off and wipe clean with newspapers. Wash windows inside and out for a thorough Spring Cleaning Shine!

Ceilings and Corners: Dust and vacuum all room corners and ceilings.

Vents: Dust and vacuum. Use a ladder if necessary to reach ceiling vents and get on your hands an knees if you have floor vents.

Art or other Wall Decorations: Dust and or clean framed pictures or other wall décor you might have hanging around your home. When cleaning framed pictures, don’t spray glass cleaner directly onto the glass surface because the liquid could seep under the frame and damage your picture. Spray the cleaner onto a rag and wipe the surface clean.

Floors: A few times a year, we recommend getting on your hands and knees and really scrubbing those floors to achieve a deep clean. This is one of those times. Be sure to save the floor for last so you can let it dry while you’re cleaning another room in your house. Don’t forget the baseboards!

Carpets and Rugs: It might be time to rent a steam cleaner if you have a lot of carpets – or a lot of stains. You can also try spot treating a stain and giving it a thorough vacuuming afterwards. Bathroom rugs should all be washed and other area rugs washed or taken outside to be beaten or shaken if they’re made from wool.

Clean it Up & Clean It Out – The Four Bin Method

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Clean Up and Clean Out – The Four Bin Method

Before you do spring cleaning, you’ve got to do Clutter Control. Take the opportunity to clean out all of the junk that’s been accumulating in your house and get rid of it!

Choosing what to get rid of and what to keep can be extremely difficult. Entire reality shows have been based on this very struggle. One school of thought is to toss anything you haven’t used in a year – within reason. Grandma’s china can stay, but her costume jewelry might be better served in a yard sale.

To do clutter control, first, find four different large containers and assign them all with four different purposes:

• Trash • Sell/Donate • Store • Put Away

Go through each room and into every drawer, cabinet, closet and cupboard to sift through what belongs and what needs to have the heave-ho. Be vigilant!

Now is the time to get rid of the kitchen utensils you can’t even name, the spaghetti sauce-stained plastic containers, the knick knacks Aunt Sally gave you in 1997, the boots you wear once a year. You don’t necessarily have to trash everything, but you’ll probably find that there are tons of items that you don’t use every day or even once a week that you can re-house.

Three Clutter Control Tips:

If it doesn’t fit, don’t save it: Don’t keep clothing that’s many sizes too small. If you’re hoping to fit into that size again someday, reward yourself then with some new outfits. Keeping those old clothes can actually be depressing and not helpful in losing those extra pounds anyway.

If it’s broken, don’t keep it: Broken items that are missing parts, the ones you said you’d fix ages ago aren’t doing you any good at all, so get rid of them!

If you have more than one – you’re done: No one needs two salad spinners, collendars, footstools – or anything. Go through your house, and where you have duplicates, toss them into the yard sale pile – pronto!

Going Green – Reinsulation

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Homeowners seeking to pad their homes and wallets should consider re-insulation projects that maximize energy efficiency year-round. Simple, energy-saving practices will not only reduce heating and cooling bills every month, but also will result in a higher tax return next year.

The federal government expanded the scope of a tax credit program that rewards homeowners for energy-efficiency improvements, giving homeowners a prime opportunity to increase their homes’ efficiency. Homeowners are eligible to receive a 30 percent federal tax credit up to $1,500 for weatherization improvements in their homes through Dec. 31, 2010. And as far as energy-efficient improvements are concerned, re-insulation is a smart solution for the near and short term.

“Most of the steps you can take to improve your home’s energy efficiency in the cooler winter months are equally as effective in the warmer summer months, when the thermal flows are simply reversed,” said Bohdan Boyko, building science manager with GreenFiber, a natural-fiber insulation company. In most areas of the country, he notes, winter has the greatest temperature differences between inside and outside temperatures, but in either situation — summer or winter — a properly insulated home is one that will help cut energy bills, lower the home’s carbon footprint and help keep a family comfortable.

Homeowners can find information on the benefits of re-insulation, including R-Value education, how to’s and tax credit information from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, at http://www.greenfiber.com.

Older homes or homes where current insulation is inadequate can benefit from attic air sealing, duct sealing, attic insulating and side wall insulating. Because the insulation is literally “blown in” through a tube, it can reach high crevices and deep places in walls.

Whatever insulation you choose, re-insulation is one of the best ways to reduce your home’s energy use.