How to Make Your Own Cleaners

Why fill your home with a lot of expensive cleaners? You can make your own very easily and save money. Plus, with the simple ingredients that you use to make them, you can mix them up any time that you need a new supply. Save money, save time and forget about relying on sales and coupons. These cleaners are so cheap that you can be generous with how you use them. To make all-purpose cleaner, you’ll need to mix equal parts of white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Add a little bit of tree tree oil, and you are all set! … Continue reading

Creating an Annual Chore List

We are wrapping up our chore lists with today’s final one, the annual chore list. Hopefully by now you have discovered that keeping your home in order is not as difficult as you thought, once you organize everything. Your housekeeping binder will be helpful for other things but I will touch on that in a bit. Let’s first consider some of the chores that can be done on an annual basis. Go through your house and look for minor repairs that should be done. This includes tightening screws on cabinets, drawers, doors and furniture. It could also include caulking around … Continue reading

Need a Frugal Vacuum Solution

Can you come up with a creative solution to help me save my vacuum? Most of our family life, we have been living with hard floors in our homes. We usually prefer hardwood, but will take tile for bathrooms and for the kitchen. When we moved into our current home, there was a dingy carpet covering the front hallway and the living room, and another covering the bathroom floor. We quickly pulled up the living room carpet and finally got rid of the one in the bathroom as well. However, since the time that we have moved in, my husband … Continue reading

Inexpensive Bathroom Cleaners and Tools

How can you get your bathroom clean without spending a fortune on harsh chemicals that don’t do much anyway? Here are my best picks for bathroom cleaners, based on value and effectiveness. Comet Comet cleanser has been around since, well, I don’t know when. But I do remember my mother using it all of the time. A can of this cleanser is less than a dollar. It contains a little but of bleach and is great for cleaning up stains on tile, including water stains and mildew. Toothbrush An old toothbrush is my favorite tool for bathroom cleaning. You can … Continue reading

The Money Saving Benefits of Spring Cleaning

With the exception of Kate from Jon & Kate Plus Eight and the British ladies on “How Clean is Your House,” I’ve never seen anyone who really enjoys cleaning. Maybe I am watching too much reality television and not getting out enough, but tell me, do you like to do heavy cleaning? If you are like me and need some extra motivation, here it is. There are actually money saving benefits from spring cleaning. I’m serious. Here they are. The obvious benefit is by doing a good spring cleaning, you are eliminating a lot of allergens that might otherwise go … Continue reading

Is Your Home Ready for Company?

Yesterday, we were having a quiet day at home. The kids were playing, my husband was puttering around, and I was trying to catch up with writing work that fell behind because of the holidays. We were just about to get the younger kids down for a late nap when my husband got a phone call. His best friend that he hadn’t seen in a long while was in the area. Could he stop by with his girlfriend? This was a rare chance, and there was no way that we could say no. We also would really enjoy seeing him. … Continue reading

Attack of the Stinky Trash Monster

“It creeps upstairs, alone or in pairs, what’s that horrible smell? A thing, a thing, a horrendous thing, everyone knows it’s stinky.” Does the stinky trash monster live at your house? Here is an account of my ongoing battle with this beast, and all of the ways I try to conquer it. In my home, the stinky trash monster sits there innocently in the kitchen, waiting to turn on me and let its presence be known to one and all. Usually, it does its work in the middle of the night or while our family has been out of the … Continue reading

Having a Clean Home Might Be Bad for Your Baby

Did you go through a period of nesting before the birth of your baby? Where you frantically cleaning and organizing? Most of us go through that time, close to birth, where we want to make sure that we are prepared and that everything is ready for our new little one. After baby is born, we try to balance all of that newborn care with creating a clean and safe environment. We scrub and sanitize to keep our babies healthy. But having a home that is too clean might be bad for your baby. There is a lot of research to … Continue reading

Making Ironing Easier

Some people hate ironing, while others don’t mind it at all. Whichever the case for you, there are ways to make the task easier. Just follow some simple techniques and preparations, and you’ll be done in no time. Remove any clothes to be ironed when they are slightly damp. Fully-dried clothes have fully-dried wrinkles set in, so a slightly damp garment is easier to iron. If you use a machine dryer, set the timer or setting to leave the clothes slightly damp. If you line dry, shorten the time that the clothes hang and check them every so often. Then … Continue reading

Chore Wars: A New Way to Do Housework

Is there a way to making cleaning more fun? When I first heard of Chore Wars, I admit that I was a little skeptical. Sure, it might be effective for a day or two, but would it really have any long-term effect on the housework? In this blog post, I’ll share information about Chore Wars. What is Chore Wars? Chore Wars is an online “game” that keeps track of chores that you do around the house and rewards you in a very simplified manner. It uses a sort of Dungeons and Dragons type model in that you form a party … Continue reading