Homemade Cleaners

I feel like a domestic goddess after the last few days.  I have made a whole regiment of cleaners for the house and they have all worked fabTABulously!  I had been meaning to do this for YEARS, but just kept putting it off.  Thanks to Pinterest I got a reminder to do it this week. 

One of the main ingredient in these recipes is Citrus Vinegar. 

• Vinegar
• Citrus peels
• Gallon container with a plastic lid (vinegar will corrode a metal lid)

Stuff as many citrus peels into the container as you can.  (Bonus: you get a Vitamin C boost.)  Cover with vinegar and close.  Sit in a sunny place for 2 weeks to a month.  Strain off peels (place in garbage disposal to freshen drain) and bottle vinegar.


Soft Scrubby Cleaner

• 2/3 cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup liquid castile soap (I use Dr. Bronner's brand)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 tablespoon Citrus Vinegar
• 20 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil

Add soap and water together in a bowl, and then pour in vinegar.  The fat in the soap will solidify, continue to stir until the fat has dissolved again.  Add baking soda a little at a time until well blended.  Add essential oil and bottle.  (It is a slightly thick mixture, so use a funnel and spoon to push the mixture into the bottle.


Natural Degreaser

• 2 cups Citrus Vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 2 teaspoons liquid castile soap

Mix everything in a spray bottle.  The fat in the soap will solidify; occasionally shake the bottle until the fat has dissolved again.  Use on tough grease or dried on food.


Window Cleaner

• 1 part white vinegar
• 1 part water
• 1 to 2 drops liquid castile soap

Mix everything in a spray bottle. The fat in the soap will solidify; occasionally shake the bottle until the fat has dissolved again. 


All-Purpose Cleaner

• 1 cup citrus vinegar
• 2 tablespoons liquid castile soap
• 6 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil
• Warm Water

Add vinegar, soap, and essential oil to spray bottle.  Fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake.  (This is a rough measurement, but should be about 2 cups water.)    The fat in the soap will solidify; occasionally shake the bottle until the fat has dissolved again.


Disinfectant Spray

• 1 part vinegar
• 1 part water
• 10 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil

Mix everything in a spray bottle.  Use to disinfect the matteress after colds/flu/sickness, or any where you would need to disinfect.


Furniture Polish

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup Citruc Vinegar

Mix everything in a spray bottle.  Shake to mix well.  Use as you normally would on wood furniture.


That is what I made so far this week.  I have a list of other products to make and will let you know how they turn out.

***Go to the Dollar Tree for the Spray bottles.  $1 each for 32 ounce bottles!!!***

Children's Cough Syrup Worth Buying

This is the time of year when the "hackin-n-barkin" are in full swing, and given our Bipolar weather there is really no wonder.  Well, daughter-dear has developed a cough again and the doctor's stance is no cough syrup with DM in it.  Not much to ask for is it?  Wrong!  All the damned cough syrups have the DM cough supressant.  Ugh!  Well, the Hubby found one that did not and bought it, praying the whole time that our little darling would take it.  Here is a picture of it (made is really big so you can read it easier):

 

 

 

 

Total shocker...she loves it!  There is absolutely no color to it, it resembles slightly thick water, and really has no flavor as well.  It soothes her cough so she isn't coughing as much or hard, but at the same time it breaks it up.  Or melts the ice in her chest as our daughter likes to say. Bonus points: it is homepathic!  Score at Giant Food!

 

She has been taking it for five days and her cough is all but gone, and it was a pretty bad cough when it started last Friday.  (We did not find this product until Sunday night.) Tonight will probably be her last dose, just wanted to make sure she slept through the night. 

 

So, if your little one has the "hackin-n-barkin" going on, grab some of this.  It is fabTABulous!  In case you cannot find it at your local grocery or drug store, Amazon has it and the rest of Hyland's line of homepathic products.

 

***I was not paid or compensated for this review...but would welcome it should Hyland's feel the desire to do so : -)  ***

 

"From Drab to Fab" File Cabinet

Slowly but surely I am working on creating a Home Office, but I refuse to have it look drab.  I found inspiration on Pinterest (shocker, I know).  Someone had taken book pages and decoupaged them onto a trashcan.  Since I am a self-proclaimed bibliophile, I LOVED it!  So I took a page out of their book (corny, yes) and went wild.

This is the poor drab creature getting a make-over...

To get him prepared for the decoupaging, I removed the handles and applied a coat of primer to the drawer fronts.

While this dried, I grabbed a hardback book from my bookshelf that I didn't like, but never got rid of.  (Names have been withheld to protect the poor innocent book.)  I tore the pages out and then tore them in half from the middle, making two fat rectangles. Then I tore the blank edges off, leaving just the text.

Once the primer was dry, I poured ModPodge into a disposable bowl and applied a thick coat over the whole surface of the drawer front.   I placed a half page on the drawer front at a random angle, making sure there was over-hang to the sides of the drawer.  Another layer of ModPodge went over the top of the page, including the over-hang, gluing it to the sides to secure it and make a clean, neat edge.  Repeat this step all the way around and overlap the pages, making sure to vary the direction of the text.  Some of my pages are even upside down.  This is what you will end up with when it is completely covered.

Next move on to the second drawer front and cover it as well.  Once you have both completely covered, apply another thick coat of ModPodge to make sure it is sealed.  When that coat is dry, use an X-acto knife, or scissors, to trim any excessive over-hang and then re-attach the handles.  And here is the final product:

I only used about 50 full pages for the file cabinet, so a thin book would have worked.  Since I have some many pages left over I am now decoupaging my printer stand (a.k.a an old microwave cart).

Welcome 2013

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!  Oky, now that is out of my system, on to bigger and better things.

I have been thinking a lot lately about how...well, unsatisfied I am with myself and life in general.  I feel like I am in a rut, and a not-so-productive rut at that.  Since it is the New Year, I thought some changes were in order. 

   1. Health

• Only go out to eat at a restaurant for special occasions
• Get an entree salad when we do go out, unless it is for a specific type food, like pizza
• No more sodas...period
• Try HARD to have a salad at every dinner at home

   2.  Housework

• Change my cleaning schedule to one room a day
• Have a structured daily routine broken down into Morning, Afternoon, Evening, and Before Bed

   3.  Home Office

• Set up my home office in the basement
• Menu Planning on Monday
• Garden Planning on Tuesday
• Clean my home office on Wednesday
• File papers on Thursday
• Plan/check schedule for weekend on Friday

  4. Finances

• Cut our grocery budget to $50 a week
• Any left over from grocery budget go into fund of some kind (haven't decided yet)
• Only go out to restaurants for special occasions

I think I can adhere to these without too much problem.  I will probably struggle along the way, but in the end there will be a better me.  Gods above, please say it is so!