Monday, October 22, 2012

Geez, when I first created this blog, I had every attempt to update it and keep it going with frequent posts...I am failing miserably!! However, I am going to try my hardest to start posting more....

So what is my big first post about...CLEANING! lol, yeah...it is, seriously. Many of you know about my beyond addiction to pinterest. I pin everything and anything that I think I may need or want to make, and then when I’m bored and probably have some time to make or do some of my pins...I just spend more time pinning. However, this weekend I had planned to do some major deep cleaning, and the only way I could make it more interesting was to try some of my helpful clever cleaning pins!

So...here is the run down, I spent two complete days cleaning...windows, base boards, carpets, floors, pans, showers, toilets...sounds fun right?!

This was my first project:



I have great cookie sheets from when I got married a couple years ago...and then I have a few ancient one's that I either inherited from a roommate, or still have as a souvenir from my college days. So, I thought heck, I’ll give it a try, and see if they can still look good...looks easy enough! The recipe basically called for a mix of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide, make it pasty then coat your pan...oh i did this, and even left overnight. Did it work? Absolutely not! I ended up tossing it out (I needed the space anyways.)

cleaning pans


The next thing I tried was cleaning the shower head in my guest bathroom. That shower rarely gets used, but did have some buildup, so, with the help from hubs (cause I’m a shorty), I filled a gallon size zip lock bag full of vinegar. Kellen then took the baggy and immersed the shower head in the vinegar and using a rubber band tied it on the shower. We left it on for about 7 hours, and when we took it off, it was so shiny and clean!! :) It worked!

Cleaning the showerhead

Another project I tackled was cleaning the burners on my stove. Using the gallon size ziplock bags, place each burner individually in a bag with 2 tablespoons of Ammonia, and let it sit overnight. Almost immediately, the clear liquid turns brownish. The next morning, when I took the burners out of the bag, they were amazingly clean, I just ran then under the water, dried and they were clean! This worked great! I will definitely keep doing this, I hate cleaning the stove!

Cleaning Burner Grates

After all the cleaning, my house smelled like cleaners...especially ammonia, which I can't stand! So, what did I do? I looked on Pinterest for a quick way to make the house smell good...now, I must say, my hubs was not in agreement with me over this idea, he thought it was a fire hazard, but it worked, and was so simple...all you do is get vanilla extract, a coffee mug, cookie sheet, and put your oven on 300 degrees. Pour two cap full of vanilla extract into the coffee mug, set the mug on the coffee sheet and set in the oven for an hour...your house will smell like a vanilla cookie!

scent household with vanilla extract heated in the oven

So, I tried some new ideas, some worked, others didn’t…but all in all, I think my new cleaning techniques were successful…at least I actually made some of my pins into projects…and the result…a clean house!