Today’s Topic: Cleaning Tips
Ha!
My house?
Clean?
Well, I really wanted to participate, so we’ll give it a go.
Without further ado, I present to you:
Cleaning Tips from The Lumberjack’s Wife:
1) Magic Erasers.
They truly are magic.
One of my children, who shall remain nameless . . .
(and hairless) has a weakness when it comes to crayons.
I fear he loves them.
And he loves to color on everything but paper.
Naughty thing.
But Magic Erasers have been good to me.
They have safely removed many crayon marks and other unidentifiable splatterings off of my doors, appliances, floors, walls, stairs, and baseboards for some time now.
And guess what!
I recently switched to generic and they work just as great!
Holla!
2) I am cheap. Sometimes.
I must be honest. Sometimes I walk into Old Navy and completely forget that I claim to be cheap.
One thing I love is vinegar.
I get two of this size at Costco for about $4.
Uses for vinegar:
*Clean and shine chrome faucets
*Dilute with water in a spray bottle for a cheap all-purpose cleaner
*Dilute with water and use to mop floors
*Don’t buy anything fancy to clean out your microwave.
Just put some vinegar in a bowl and microwave on high for a few minutes.
Open it up.
Embrace the smell.
And wipe it down.
*Another good use for vinegar is to strip all the gunk out of your hair.
Just pour it on and rinse it out.
Makes your hair shiny and gunk-free.
Not that my hair ever gets gunkified.
Helpful Tip: Do not use the vinegar bottle that is in your refrigerator. It will be quite chilly when you dump it all over yourself.
Quite.
*Vinegar for bathrooms.
***sigh***
As many of you are already aware, I recently potty-trained my boy.
It was my first experience with potty-training a boy and, I ain’t gonna lie, IT DID NOT GO WELL.
Now, one room that always needs to be clean is a bathroom, particularly if visitors are going to be using said bathroom.
I have always prided myself on keeping a tidy bathroom.
Then God said . . .
Let her have boys.
It’s a good thing vinegar is so tootin’ frootin’ cheap.
Well, at least he is trying to pee into the toilet.
I call that progress.
And while we are looking at the bright side, let’s be happy that the old toilet paper roll is at least off of its stand.
No.
It did not make it to the trash can.
But still . . .
Baby Steps.
Baby Steps pick up the toilet paper roll. Baby steps to the garbage can . . .
(Name that movie)
All that unidentifiable liquid product on the floor kind of gives you the pee-pee shivers (no pun intended) when you see something like this:
Good News!
Did you know you can boil toothbrushes?
Boil, baby!
Boil!
The Lumberjack thinks he is so funny and takes pictures of me when I really don’t want him to be taking pictures of me.
“Hey, hon! You can use it for your blog! You can make a post about how often you clean the toilet! People will love it!”
Well, people?
Do you love it?
No.
I am not using vinegar in this photo.
I am, in fact, using bleach.
Because anything that is splattered daily with urine deserves a little bleach.
Bleach makes everything better.
3) Try to not stress.
It is very hyprocritical for me to type that.
But I am trying to embrace the fact that because I have small children . . .
My house will never be perfectly clean.
Sure.
I can spend all day running behind them, demanding the puzzle gets picked up, the blocks are gathered, and the toys put away immediately.
But . . . then I had a thought.
Who cares?
I am trying to embrace this new motto.
Everyone repeat after me:
WHO CARES?
Well, I kind of do.
But I am trying not to.
And I have adopted a new system.
I call it Taylor’s 4-Step process to success:
1) Try to keep a handle on the grime. Sweep daily, dust weekly, etc.
2) Let the kids have fun and make a mess.
(Baby steps, remember. Baby steps)
3) Program husband to let me know 20 minutes in advance when he will be returning.
4) Run around the house like a madwoman and make the house “pretend-clean” so that my husband does not think my existence as a homemaker is pointless.
Feel free to adopt this plan for yourselves.
Alright!
That’s all I got!
But I would love to hear any cleaning tips you might have to share with me!
Trust me . . .
I need all the help I get can.
Hilarious! Can’t wait to “let it go”.
I love vinegar too. And I sooo agree, bleach is the only thing that can really clean up after those funky boys get out of the bathroom. The other day, my little one decided to paint the bathroom walls with peepee!! I am such a good mom that I did not know it until I smelt a NASTY smell a few days later, and finally realized what had happened (my 5 year old witnessed it but didn’t want to tell me- probably because he was laughing soo hard!!). And when I was cleaning it up, I realized it had been three days since I cleaned the bathroom, and as you know, with more than one male peepeer, that is TOTALLY unacceptable!!!
I thought #4 was my little secret. 😉 “Pretend-clean”–I love it!
Most of your secrets are mine as well. I will add baking soda for scrubbing and deodorizing (drains, e.g.) and getting the kids to help. My 7 y.o. son actually does a fabulous job with the bathrooms.
My biggest thing has been lowering my expectations, both of myself and of how clean my house can realistically be on a regular basis with four kids 9 and under.
Love the vinegar tip, I am definitely getting some, thanks for the tip!
I found your blog through Kelly’s and have to say that I laughed OUT LOUD several times while reading your cleaning tips! 🙂 So funny!
Glad to know that I’m not the only one who “pretend cleans” before my husband comes home. Thank goodness I only have 1 child to clean up after…and she is still in diapers!
Who cares? I promise I will try and be better, but I care! Not about anybody else’s house, I could care less, but my own house, I’m a little psycho about it. Pray for me.
Love the vinegar ideas, I will use them all! So well done, master, well done.
Great Tips!!! I love cheap, natural products too! I am your newest follower! Stop by when you can!
Bonnie
http://creatingahouseofgrace.blogspot.com
I’m crazy about cleaning and really need to adopt a who cares attitude! I am sure I’ll have to relax with it all after next baby gets here.
A laundry tip: stains that don’t come out in the wash-lay the clothing out in the sun for a day. Takes the stains right out!! It really works, I do it often!
Thanks for the vinegar tip! I use bleach for almost everything, I will have to try that! And I am with you, I tried for the longest time to pick up as the kids lay a mess but it is impossible if I want any sanity, gotta let kids be kids and we need to enjoy being their moms and being able to play with them and watch them enjoy their selves without stressing every 5 minutes. I too have said “who cares” even though sometimes I do, I have to let go sometimes. Theres always time to pick up when they are sleeping.
I am a bleach freak! That does NOT mean my house is spotless…it just means that I think bleach cleans better than anything…I even ruined a hardwood floor with bleach bc somebody had an “accident”…and I don’t even have boys!
I also really like the magic erasers. When you have a daycare you need to use them lots. I will have to try out vinegar for cleaning. I knew it was good for cleaning windows, but I never used it for anything else.
When my kids were little I used to make my own baby wipes. You take a roll of bounty paper towels and cut it in half so you have 2 short rolls. Get a plastic bowl with a lid that the paper towel roll will fit in. In the bowl mix 2 cups of distilled water, 1 tablespoon of baby oil, and 2 tablespoons of baby shampoo, or baby wash like the johnson and johnson head to toe. Remove cardboard tube, and pull wipes from the middle of the roll. They work great.
Now I know where to get vinegar for cleaning! Your hilarious…great post!
When they get older, your mantra should be, “You made the mess; you clean it up.” They won’t, but it will help with the guilt when you look at a dirty house.
I thought I did a fairly good job at keeping up with six kids. Then one day I looked through old pictures and realized that I never took a picture of any of my kids with clean faces. They are dirty in every. single. picture. I was always bathing them and washing their faces. I don’t know what happened.
I blame it on my husband. It helps with the guilt.
I have 2 boys ages 7 and 4, and it never fails that they never can aim!!! Especially after I have just cleaned!!! Oh well, I have learned to accept it as another one of those “this is how it is” things!
Looks Like I will be getting me some vinegar this weekend! Thanks!
Happy Friday!
I read once that kids who are allowed to get dirty have healthier immune systems. Kids in super clean homes lean toward allergies.
I figure healthy kids are more important than a clean home.
I love your plan! I do the same thing with my hubby and have him call me when he’s leaving. Yes, I run around like a madwoman too to pretend clean!
i suffer from OCD, so a clean house is a must for me, but i have found a couple of tricks that help me to not get too stressed, since i HAVE to clean pretty often. One of them being the “clean one room a day” method. Meaning, Monday I would clean the living room. Tuesday the kitchen. Wednesday the bathroom. And so on and so forth. OR one chore a day works too. Like Monday I will dust the whole house. Tuesday I vacuum. Wednesday I do laundry. And so on and so forth. But now that I have a little bitty house that takes 1.5 minutes to clean (even though I do have two bathrooms now). I don’t stress much about it at all!! 🙂 have a great weekend taylor!!
One day your kids will grow up and you’ll have your clean house.
Just sayin’
oh you are FUNNY! Thanks for that… we’re expecting our first, and I am sure I’m in for just what you’re experiencing now. 🙂 Thanks for the fun heads-up. (And I totally do the pretend-clean thing now as well!)
This was so funny! My kids are older now, but I remember those early days.
I did the “pretend-cleaning” thing until I realized that homemaking is a partnership requiring participation from both the husband and the wife, the mother and the father. Sharing reality with my husband helped him mature and step into his place of responsibility as a partner in our marriage and child raising. It’s the best thing ever happened for all of us.
I totally LOVE the pretend-clean, especially on the days that I have two babies under the age of 1 in my care… I realized a few weeks into that project that I HAD to let go of the house or I would be a cranky crabby wife when my husband got home from work. Now I try to play with the girls most of the morning, clean up breakfast mess and toys when they nap, play during the afternoon and clean again when they nap… and try to fit a little laundry and sweeping and wiping wherever I can without killing myself. The pretend-clean is crucial to this strategy, although I like to think of it as a “frantic tidy” since there’s nothing pretend about the tidiness of the place, whether or not it’s actually CLEAN! haha
I NEVER knew how many good uses there were for vinegar although I suspected it must be good for more than pickling… I especially like the microwave tip, I will have to try that since cleaning the microwave is my #2 least favorite chore (vacuuming is the #1 least favorite…any good tips on that one?)
Yes…we have a couple of really big closets. Might be a blessing, might be a curse. Just don’t ever look in there.
I have to have something that will kill germs, and if there was something other than the toxic stuff I’d be glad to use it. For example, the other night when Christian threw up all over his room, and I really mean all over, I had to bleach his floor. What else could I do?! I don’t know what if we had carpet. Blech.
Since I don’t really clean my house, I have no extra tips for you. I am a procrastinator, so it gets clean when I can no longer stand it. 🙂
Yep, the queen of clean here uses vinegar and bleach around the Ponderosa both inside and out on a regular basis. Good stuff, baby!!!
I’m thinkin’ you already have your cleanin’ mojo goin’!!!!
God bless and have a glorious weekend, sweetie!!!
Found your blog through Kellys Korner. I also do the fake clean but I spray a little pledge in the main rooms so that it smells clean after I’ve run around like a wild woman! My husband always comments on how clean the house is-if he only knew:)
groundhog day, right?! do i win a prize?
funny funny post!!
No! But Billy Murray is in it!!
I use Venagar to clean coffee pot and then use the hot vinegar water to clean sprayers….sink and shower sprayers…let them sit in a bowl of hot vinegar/water solution.
I like you runnung around the house before your husband gets home to “pretend clean”, I do that too!! Glad I’m not the only one. Hey, it works! 🙂
Having a hard time spelling vinegar and running…I really do know how
Oh this post was priceless! Love it!
Cxx
You are Ha-larious! Thanks for the vinegar tip! Yep girly get ya lots of Clorox wipes….I use them all the time with a potty training toddler :0)
Have a great weekend
Summer :0)
I love vinegar! I mix up 1 cup water, 1 cup rubbing alcohol and 1 cup vinegar in a spray bottle for a great all-purpose cleaner. (found that “recipe” somewhere online…) My daughter thinks it’s the smell of clean when we’re using it!
this is the first time i have read your blog and you are hilarious! i laughed the whole way through your post! haha! i totally feel ya… i have three kids too, 5, 3 1/2, and 2!! i get the trying to let it go thing… its SO hard to do, but its true.. WHO CARES? we want our families to be healthy and happy and who are we trying to impress anyway?? thanks for you tips!:)
LOL what a funny post!! I’m a big vinegar lover too….thank to my mom, who swears by it!!
Thanks for linking up to I’m Lovin’ It!! Hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!
Wow I love your 4 step process to success! Having 3 kids in 3 years has made my house somewhat of a mess 😉 Nothing disturbs me more than pee on the bathroom floor. I am impressed and inspired by your positive attitude. Now, would you mind coming over to my house and doing a little cleaning?:)
I find that Pine Sol makes everything smell clean – kind like a fake out for your senses…and it’s aromatherapeutic to me. I have 4 kids and mercifully, they are getting bigger and able to pitch in a LOT with cleaning.
I have a serious love affair going with bleach.
HILARIOUS! Vinegar is one of the magic cleaners…works wonders! Oh, and if you really want cleaning tips….my entire blog is devoted to giving them 🙂
Baking soda is great for some of the smells you get, and it is fun to put in the toilet after having put in vinegar….
I love Magic Erasers! I give them as housewarming presents.
I’m hardly qualified to give cleaning tips since my home is no showplace, but I have learned a few things:
1. A paste of baking soda and liquid soap is great for cleaning just about everything, from my face to the bathtub. (I use Dr. Bronner’s peppermint soap for my face, and dish soap for cleaning.)
2. Hydrogen peroxide, regular drugstore strength, kills germs and also is great for getting gunk out of little grooves like around the faucet or drain. Just pour it on, wait 10 minutes or so, and wipe off the gunk! You can use it to clean toothbrushes, too–easier than boiling–I do it after every illness.
3. The liquid laundry detergent bottle with just a little bit left is perfect for cleaning the porch or basement floor.
My priorities are keeping up with the dishes and laundry, and having the surfaces we actually use be clean enough for safety. Neatness is less important (I actually like a certain amount of clutter…) and dust in out-of-the-way corners can wait a month or six.