Natural Ways to Kill Ants

I don't know about all of you, but I absolutely, positively, without a doubt, HATE ants! I know they are important to our environment and ecosystems and I do try to be "one with the world' even when it comes to spiders (shudder), but there is nothing there is nothing in this world that will send me into a crazier, absolutely insane frenzy as a line of ants in my house. I don't know why but they trigger something inside me that makes my skin crawl and my desire for little insect blood become uncontrollable.  Before I started moving towards a more organic way of living I would grab the most toxic chemical I could find and spray those suckers all the way to their nests and then pour the bottle into the entrance with glee.  However, this afternoon when I walked right into what looked like a herd of ants on my floor, which needless to say sent me into a jumping, screaming, leg hitting frenzy the likes of which I never thought my round little pregnant body could do, I wanted to find a natural way to kill the bastards.  I proceeded to grab the all natural floor cleaner I made and sprayed them. The vinegar in my cleaning solution stopped them in their tracks! I was so excited with how quickly it worked. Not only that but the ants seemed genuinely terrified of the solution and RAN from it! MUAHAHAHA!  After a little research I found out that vinegar basically disintegrates that ants (ouch).  I then went on a hunt to find a natural way to get rid of the nest.  The method I liked the most was boiling water, because it didn't have any chemicals in it whatsoever (I don't want to put anything into the soil that could kill plants and other animals).  I also found a really great way to keep ants out:

That's right, cinnamon!  You just sprinkle this around any opening ants come through and they turn and run!  I sprinkled this under my kitchen sink cabinets because that is where the line was coming from.  Within 5 minutes all the ants were gone!  I am so excited with how easy this was, and the best part, is if my dogs lick up the cinnamon I don't have to worry!!!  So here are some other natural remedies for those pesky ants in and around your home.

Repellents: 

• These will not kill the ants but will keep them away from your house.

1. Lemon juice-spray around openings and cracks
2. Cinnamon-sprinkle around openings and cracks or around common ant locations (i.e. the trash)
3. Peppermint- sprinkle peppermint essential oil around all the doors and window (inside and/or outside)
4. Coffee grounds- you can sprinkle this around any openings and entrances.

Ant & Nest Killer

• These will kill the ants and destroy the nest.

1. Borax, water, and sugar-combine these into a paste and put it on a thin piece of cardboard. Place the cardboard next to where the ants appear to be entering your home. RESIST THE URGE TO KILL THEM!  The ants take the mixture back to the nest and share with others, including the queen.  The borax causes a chemical reaction in the ants and kills them.  It may take a few days for the ants to all die so make sure you put more of the mixture on the cardboard as it gets eaten or dries up.  Be aware that while borax is a natural item it should NOT be eaten so be careful if you have animals and children in your home (this is why I chose not to use this method.
2. Boiling water & dish soap-this is a good mixture to kill individual ants, but you can also dump this into the entrance of the colony.  Make sure to dump the water in slowly so it has time to get into all of the crevices.  From my research, ants can live in water for a few days so the suggestions I have read say to pour the mixture into the colony three times the first day, and then once a day for three consecutive days to make sure you have killed all the ants and that the colony has completely caved in.
3. Diatomaceous earth (DE)-make sure you use food grade DE. You can sprinkle this in your home, or sprinkle it around it. This does take a little time, about a week from what I've read. The ants take the DE back to the colony, like the borax, and a chemical reaction occurs inside them causing them to die.  I have not found anything about the effects of DE upon human or domestic animal consumption so be aware that this is an unknown.
4. Baking soda & powdered sugar-mix together and put on a flat lid or small piece of cardboard.  put it where the ant are coming into the house, or if you can find the colony entrance, you can put it there.  The powdered sugar will draw the ants in and they will take the mixture back to the colony.  Apparently, ants are partially acidic so when they consume the baking soda a little volcano science experiment happens in their body (think what happens when you mixed baking soda and vinegar as your school science experiment).
5. Cream of wheat-it expands in their stomachs once it has been consumed and they explode.
6. Vinegar-as I mentioned earlier, vinegar destroys their little ant bodies and kills them immediately.  Hypothetically, you can pour vinegar into the colony opening and see what happens, but I'm not sure if you will have enough vinegar for a large colony if you're pouring it in.
7. Equal-not exactly "natural" but still interesting. Mix a few packets of equal with apple juice and pour it around the colony opening.  It is a neurotoxin for ants so it destroys their nervous system and shuts down their bodies.

You can find these, and other ant killer recipes at the Mother Nature Network. Let me know in the comments if you guys have any other natural suggestions for repelling and killing ants!

How to Naturally Clean Your Drip Coffee Pot

I don't know about you guys, but my husband is OBSESSED with coffee, and before my ego became prego so was I.  I enjoy the frilly coffees that don't really taste like coffee, so I love my Keurig.  My husband on the other hand loves himself some STRONG drip coffee, so of course like any normal household with opposing coffee views, we have two coffee makers.  I set up my husband's Mr. Coffee coffee pot every night and it automatically goes off and preps his coffee before he even wakes up (so I don't have to).  However, I have been informed as of late that the coffee was tasting a little...off.  Normally I would just do my regular cleaning routine (totally uninformed and flying off the cuff) of just putting some dish soap in the glass carafe and running a regular brew cycle, then rinsing out the cup.  I'll be the first to admit it really wasn't all that great of a cleaning routine, but I had NO IDEA how to clean a coffee pot.  So I decided this time around to research the PROPER way to clean a coffee pot with natural ingredients...of course.  I found this great routine from The Creek Line House, and I then added some other suggestions I have received from family and friends and it worked wonderfully! So I decided to give you guys this tutorial to show you how you can easily and effectively clean your drip coffee pot with all natural ingredients.  Please excuse the photos, I wasn't sure if this was going to work so I just took pictures with my phone and I did it in the evening so the lighting was not that great, but again, I wasn't sure this was going to work. So here we go!!!!

Materials:

• Water
• Distilled White Vinegar 
• 1 Tablespoon of salt
• 4-5 ice cubes
• A scrub brush
• All natural multi-purpose cleaner

So first, here are some shots of the carafe and the face of the brewer BEFORE I have cleaned them.  EEEWWWWWW!

Step 1: Fill the carafe 2/3 of the way full with water. It can be straight from the sink and doesn't need to be hot so don't stress about it.

Step 2: Fill the remaining 1/3 of the carafe with distilled white vinegar (my go to cleaning supply).  I prefer to use organic but it's not a requirement. After doing this your carafe should be full to the top.

Step 3: Pour the water/vinegar mixture into the brewer. You will pour it in the same compartment that you normally pour the water when preparing coffee.  The original instructions state to use a coffee filter, however I didn't think it was necessary.  I wanted the solution to go completely through all of the compartments without obstructions to make everything as clean as possible.

Step 4: Run your brewer through a regular brew cycle (like you were making coffee).  I didn't use the "clean" cycle that my brewer has because I wasn't sure if it would go through all of the compartments.  Doing the regular brew cycle worked great!  Once the solution has gone through the brew cycle turn off the machine and let the solution sit in the carafe and cool.  This will take approximately 1 hour, but you can leave it in long if you like.

Step 5: Once the solution has sat for at least an hour and has cooled, pour it our into the sink.  Then fill the carafe with REGULAR WATER only and pour that into the water compartment and run another brew cycle. This will help rinse out any left over grime as well as any vinegar that is still in the machine.  I only did this once but if after the rinse you still smell some vinegar, run another all water cycle one more time.

So now that the internal structure of the machine is clean and disinfected it's time to move onto the carafe and outside of the machine.

Step 6: Put 1 tablespoon of table salt into the carafe.  If your machine is really dirty you can put in more if you want. Then add in 4-5 ice cubes.

Step 7: Once the two ingredients are in the carafe, roll them around the carafe (spin & turn the carafe).  Keep doing this until the ice melts.  It won't take long because the salt will accelerate the melting of the ice.  The ice and salt act as a natural abrasive which will help to loosen the coffee build up and stains that have collected in the carafe.  

Step 8: Once the ice has melted and their is a salt water mixture in the carafe, I use my scrubber to get into all of the grooves I wasn't able to swish the ice into.  This helps to get any of the left over, extra stubborn build up off of the carafe. Once I have gotten the inside of the carafe as clean as I can I dump out the salt water solution and rinse the carafe.

EWWWW! This is what my brush looked like after scrubbing the inside!

Here is the inside after being scrubbed.

Step 9: I now move onto the outside of the carafe and the brewer. I take some of my all natural multi-purpose cleaner and spray the OUTSIDE of the carafe with a couple spritzes.  I then use my scrub brush (rinsed of course) and scrub the outside of the carafe, making sure to get into every nook and cranny to get all of the build up and spill stains off. I then rinse the outside of the carafe and leave to dry (or you can towel dry it).

So nice and clean!!!

Step 10: Now I sprayed some of the all purpose cleaner onto the face of the brewer and wiped it of, making sure to scrub any spots with coffee build up.  I did this for the entire outside of the brewer.  I also opened the top of the brewer and wiped down all of water spots that had built up inside the machine.  I didn't have to use the cleaning solution, just a wet rag.

                                                     Before                                     After

And here is the final result:

My husband was so impressed with how clean his coffee pot was! He said this is the cleanest he's ever seen it since we took it from the box!  I am very proud of myself and the fact that I was able to get such effective result without using a single artificial chemical!  Oh, and the coffee is NOT tasting "off" anymore! From what I've researched, in order to keep your coffee tasting perfect you should do this deep wash every 4-6 weeks, so about every month.  This makes sense so you can prevent any build-up from accumulating. I'm assuming that after your first wash, your other washes should go a lot faster since there won't be so much to get off.  Happy cleaning!!!!

All Natural DIY All Purpose Cleaner

As you all know, I recently made an all natural floor cleaner that I absolutely love!  I had originally planned on using the floor cleaner as a multi-purpose cleaner because it worked so well. However, after using it for about two weeks I came to the conclusion that the alcohol smell was just too strong to be using in small places like bathrooms and tubs.  I really liked the formula and wanted something similar so I set out to find a good recipe that was just as effective.  I decided that the best place to start was to take the original recipe and modify it and go from there.  Luckily for me it didn't take that much changing get a good formula that was just as effective as the original.

Materials:

•  1 cup Water
•  1 cup distilled white vinegar
•  1/4 cup rubbing alcohol
•  4-5 drops green works dish soap
•  10-15 drops your choice essential oil(s)-I used lavender and spearmint.

Just like I did with floor cleaner, I just mixed all the ingredients up, again not being too careful with the soap, just not going overboard. BUT, I did make sure to be as accurate as possible with the essential oils for two reasons. First, they are expensive and I use them a lot so I didn't want to go  overboard and waste money, and second, they are very strong smelling so I didn't want to end up with the same problem I had with the rubbing alcohol.  10-15 drops seemed to be perfect, it covered up the alcohol smell but wasn't too overpowering. After making the solution I then set out to clean the various surfaces in my home.  But, of course, since I am horrible at taking pictures I only took pictures of my fridge.  It was just as effective as the original formula as getting all of the smudges, grime, and finger prints off of the stainless steal.  It was also amazingly good at removing all of the grime from my bathroom and kitchen surfaces, and as a bonus it leave such a nice smell around my house!

 Here is a close up so you can really see the difference.

I am really happy with the results this solution has given me on all of the surfaces I've tried today. Since trying this solution out on my appliances I have replaced it with my store bought all purpose cleaner and it does an amazing job. It even ate through the grime that built up around the base of the toilet (I live in an older home that hadn't been seriously deep cleaned for a while before we moved int) so I was very impressed.  The best part is that by making my own cleaner I save money, and I know exactly what is in my cleaning products.  If you are interested in how I keep up with all of my household chores while raising a pre-schooler with another on the way, check out the post on my cleaning schedule.

DIY Carpet Freshener

As you might know from my cleaning schedule post I am pretty consistent and regimented with my household chores and cleaning. As part of my cleaning schedule I separate my smaller chores by day so I am not overwhelmed and worked to the bone.  Today's chores was to do a deep sweep and vacuum of my floors and carpets.  In the past I have just vacuumed my carpets (sometimes twice depending on what kind of a weekend we had) and that was the end of it.  BUT, I have been wanting to create a carpet freshener that I can use to help leave my carpets extra clean and fresh, after all this is supposed to be a deep clean.  I have also been researching essential oils and their practical uses for home cleaning. Well today I went and made and tested my first carpet freshener and it was AMAZING!!! It left my carpets not just looking clean but SMELLING clean.  I mean how many times have you vacuumed and your carpet looked clean but they still smelled a little...stale? I know this is a constant problem for me, especially with two dogs, even when my vacuum wasn't sucking up any more dirt so I KNEW the carpets were clean.  So below you will find my ridiculously simple tutorial for your very own homemade carpet freshener that is all natural and free of chemicals!

Materials:

1) Baking soda

2) essential oil(s)

3) Mason jar 

Step 1: Fill the mason jar 1/3 to 1/2 of the way full with baking soda.  If you want to make a larger batch you can, just adjust the oil amount to reflect the increase in baking soda.

Step 2: Add 15-20 drops of essential oil to the baking soda.  If you add more baking soda then increase the essential oils.

Step 3: Stir the baking soda and essential oils together.  Make sure to really mix them in because the baking soda is going to be the carrier for the essential oils, once it has been absorbed.

Step 4: Now that it's mixed together you need to add your lid. If you are going to keep the regular lid you need to punch holes in it so you can shake out the baking soda, but make sure you are able to cover the holes with a paper or something when you're not using it so you don't loose the sent.  I found this lid converters for mason jars that screw on to the jar and make it a shaker, and it was really affordable.

I found these lids at Target, and they were $2 for a pack of two!

Here is the lid screwed onto the mason jar, it's very convenient because the shaker is built in and has a lid! Amazon.com also has some really cute mason jar lids like these.

Step 5: Now that you have mixed your baking soda and essential oils together and have your jar complete all you need to do is sprinkle the baking carpet freshener directly onto your carpets.  How much you do depends on your preference in the strength of smell.  However, I would suggest sprinkling more on carpets that have longer fibers.  

I don't know what happened with the coloring in this picture, but my rug is actually a light green! lol

Step 6: Wait 5-10 minutes for the baking soda and oils to be absorbed into the carpet and to do the disinfecting/freshening.  Then simply vacuum up the baking soda!

All nice and clean and FRESH! Note this is NOT a stain remover or carpet cleaner, I am in the process of making a recipe though!

*Note* Before I put the carpet freshener on my carpets I first did a regular deep vacuum of all of them.  Then I put the carpet freshener on and vacuumed a second time.  This was basically because I wanted to make sure that I had all the dirt and grime out of the carpet so the freshener could have the biggest impact.

I then just for fun, painted part of the mason jar with chalk paint so I can have a nice label for it in my kitchen.  You can either place the paint directly on the jar (like I did) or you can paint sticky labels (found at your local office supply store) with the chalk paint and then once it's dry stick it on; this will make the label neater and more uniform.

I need to invest in some chalk pens, but I think it looks cute sitting in my pantry waiting for next Monday's carpet cleaning!

Using Essential Oils

If you've been following this blog you know that as of late I have been very in to making my own all natural products, and a natural progression of that has been me delving into the world of essential oils.  Now, I'm not going to sit here and profess to be an expert (far from it) but I have done a lot of research and have developed some new all natural product to use in my home (stay posted for new tutorials coming up).  What I have learned from my research is that essential oils have a variety of purposes from helping with allergies to eliminating indoor and outdoor pests.  I've also learned that there is a difference between aromatherapy and essential oil therapy.  Basically, essential oil therapy is the use of pure essential oils for various purposes which benefit the individual in a natural way. While aromatherapy is the use of essential oil FRAGRANCES. The items in which these fragrances are found are not necessarily all natural and can in fact hold many carcinogens.  So using an air freshener with lavender oil as an ingredient would be aromatherapy if there are several other ingredients in the freshener that make the oil less pure. While it would be essential oil therapy if the pure essential oil was the main ingredient and all other ingredients were all natural in origin.  Additionally, according to Crunchy Betty: "Most essential oils are high in antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties: This makes them an excellent addition to your homemade cleaning preparations. Oils that are best for cleaning are: Lemon, grapefruit, eucalyptus, peppermint, tea tree, lavender, and rosemary." 

Also in my research I found that, like mainstream medicines, not all essential oils are suitable for everyone all the time. For instance, undiluted essential oils should NEVER be used on children and/or babies (and should never be used directly on the skin). Here is a list of essential oils that have been found safe to use on babies and children (undiluted). Along with being careful with the use of essential oils in regards to children, pregnant and nursing women also need to be careful with essential oils, because some essential oils can mimic hormones found within the body.  It is recommended that women avoid essential oils during the first trimester if at all possible.  If you would like a list of essential oils that are NOT safe for pregnant and nursing women click here. However, some essential oils have been proven to be very helpful in relieving common pregnancy ailments (confusing I know). And finally, using essential oils can add some wonderful aromas to all natural cleaning products, which will also help with various ailments common in your home.  And if you're looking for a reason to switch from commercial products to all natural or home made products this perfectly sums up all of the reasons why. Switching to all natural/home made cleaning products helps detox your homes and your bodies from all of the hazardous materials that we constantly expose ourselves to through the use of the harsh cleaning chemicals. So I hope you check out the tutorials I already have linked above, and stay tuned for other tutorials on how to make your own very simple and very effective household cleaners that will save you money, and most importantly make your home a cleaner, safer, more natural place for everyone in it!



*NOTE: While I have done extensive research on the topic of essential oils I am not a medical practitioner of any kind, nor do I claim to be.  The use of all essential oils should be discussed with your doctor especially if you have chemical sensitivities, or medical conditions which may be aggravated by these oils.

All Natural Stain Remover

As you know from my previous posts, I am very into using all natural products in my home, and whenever possible to make them myself. Well, today while I was doing my daughter's laundry I realized that I didn't have an all natural stain remover for all those wonderful preschooler stains! So I hit the Internet searching for the most effective DIY stain remover out there, and I found it! However, it wasn't all natural so I started messing around with alternatives to the original recipe, and came up with something very similar but all natural.  My biggest issue was the Dawn dish soap, I don't really like using it because it's not a natural item and I am trying to remove unnecessary chemicals from my home! So with just a little tweaking I created this new and improved all natural recipe which I hope you guys fall in love with as quickly as I did!

Materials:

1) 1 tablespoon Green Works dish soap

2) 2 tablespoons Hydrogen peroxide

3) 2 tablespoons baking soda

4) Custard cup (or other small dish)

5) Toothbrush

*Note: This recipe is for a small amount of solution, it was enough for me to spot clean the major stains on my daughter's clothes. Because the hydrogen peroxide looses effectiveness with light you don't want to make too much solution at one time.  If you need more then just do one part dish soap to  two parts hydrogen peroxide and adjust the baking soda accordingly to keep the solution the consistency of a thin paste.

Step 1: Put the baking soda into your dish first (I found this made mixing the solution easier).

Step 2: Put in the dish soap and hydrogen peroxide (try to do this in a dimly lit room so you don't disrupt the effectiveness of the peroxide.

Step 3: Mix all three ingredients together.  You should get a thin paste that stays on the toothbrush with some slight run off.  It shouldn't be a complete paste, kind of the consistency of watered down toothpaste. 

Step 4: Rub the solution directly into the stain with the toothbrush.  You want to really work the solution into the stain.

Here I'm trying the solution out on set in PLAY-DOH stains on my daughter's WHITE pants!

Step 5: Wash all of the clothes as usual.

*Tip: If the stain is set in then rub the solution into the stain, let sit for five minutes, rinse thoroughly then rub solution in again and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour, then wash as usual.  This is usually enough to remove the stain, if the stain has been on the garment for a long period of time, let solution sit on stain for at least an hour then wash, then repeat the entire process again.

Final Result:

It worked on removing set in DIRT and PLAY-DOH stains from WHITE pants after ONE application!

These were set in dirt and grime stains from my daughter's trip to my mom's ranch LAST WEEK! Came out on the first try! The color difference is because the shirt was still wet, I took the picture fresh out of the wash because I was so excited!

Well, I hope this tutorial was helpful to all of you and that I was able to give you one more way to get the unnecessary chemicals out of your home! I was truly amazed at how well this solution worked with getting out these stains, I honestly thought I was going to have to throw out those white pants, but they lived to see another day!

If you're interested in some of my other all natural posts check out the links below:

All natural DIY all purpose cleaner

How to Naturally Strip your Cloth Diapers

How to De-stink and Disinfect your Sponges

DIY Cosmetic Holder

I don't know about all of you guys, but I can become incredibly OCD about my organization. I mean, even my craft closet is controlled chaos! But the one thing I have not been able to get under control is my half of the bathroom vanity. Granted, compared to my husband's side it looks awesome, but it still stresses me out every time I go in there. I have all of my facial products lining my sink counter...and don't even get me started on my make-up drawer! While I won't be able to really do anything about my make-up drawer until we remodel the bathroom (hopefully soon), I was able to get my facial products under control with a quick trip to the dollar store! This project was so quick and easy that I decided to do a tutorial so that I could hopefully help de-stress any of my fellow OCD'ers.

Materials

1) Two glass candle sticks; one large and one small

2) Three glass platters

3) Hot glue

4) Mod Podge

5) Glitter (any color desired)

6) Krylon clear top coat spray

Step 1:  Cover your candle stick with Mod Podge. Make sure to put a very generous coating on, you want every inch of the candle stick covered.

Step 2: Cover the Mod Podge with glitter. You want to make sure that there is no Mod Podge showing, because if there is then there will be spaces without glitter showing through. Let the candle sticks sit for 30 minutes to an hour to dry.  I suggest placing the candle sticks on top of a scrap piece of paper. That way you have something to catch the excess glitter and will be able to put it back into your container...no waste!

You can see how the scrap paper was a great catch all for the extra glitter.

*Note* If you don't want to do the glitter you can also choose to use acrylic paint to cover the candle sticks. You can either use paint and a paintbrush or spray paint, but make sure the candle sticks are covered.  You can also paint or glitter the platters as well. If you don't want to put anything on your candle sticks/platters skip to step 4.

Step 3: Once the candle sticks are dry you need to take them outside for the next step. Here you will cover the candle sticks with a thick coat of the Krylon clear coat.  This will help to "set" the glitter and keep them from flaking off.  After all glitter is the herpes of the craft supply world and we need to keep it under control! Let the Krylon dry for about 10 minutes.

The candle sticks will had a matte appearance after the Krylon, that's okay.

Step 4: Now you will start gluing.  First you will hot glue the bottom of the large candle stick to the top of one of the platters, try to make sure the candle stick is in the center!

Step 5: Next you will put a thick layer of hot glue on the top rim of the large candle stick, and then you will place the bottom of the second platter on top of it. Once again try to make sure you are in the center of the platter and that both platters match up.

 

You can see the first platter attached to the bottom of the candle stick here

Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the small candle stick and the remaining platters.  You should end up with a total of three tiers to the tower.

This is what the finished product should look like!

When I was putting all my cosmetic products on my new tower I realized that these would be really great for parties! They are so quick and simple to make and very cheap (parts cost $5 each from the dollar store) that they would be so convenient to make as display pieces for parties! They can be centerpieces, hold good bags or thank you gifts, or they can also hold cupcakes, cookies, or any other dessert really! I love it when projects can be used for multiple purposes!!

Easy Cleaning Schedule

When I was going to switch from my role as a working out of the home mom, to a stay at home mom my husband and I sat down and had a discussion of what my "job description" would be. We both agreed that as a SAHM I would still have certain responsibilities and "duties" that I need to do to keep the home running at a level that both my husband and I agreed is what we would except from someone who did not work outside of the home.  We sat down and hashed out what we each felt were important roles for me and him to be completing in the home (because he still does some house work) and the overall level of performance we both think is acceptable. Basically he wanted to make sure that I wasn't just laying around the house (yeah right) and I wanted to make sure that his expectations were not too unreasonable, because while I may be at home I am taking care of a young child and will soon have a new born and THEY are the primary reason fro me to be home. Additionally, I wanted to make sure that he understood that just because I was at home didn't mean that he was automatically free of all household chores (um, NO).

 Once we figured out and agreed on what we each expected of one another I set out to make my life as easy and efficient as humanly possible.  So being the modern woman that I am, I headed straight for pinterest! I researched organization ideas and efficient ways of cleaning,  just to see if there was anything I could use.  I found a lot of great ideas, and one of my favorite was the idea of a cleaning schedule. It was so awesome to me the idea of breaking your household chores down into simple components and then scheduling them throughout the week/month so that you aren't just deep cleaning your house once a week for an entire day. There were a lot of different types that I found, but I decided that what would work best for me would be to break my tasks down into daily, weekly, and monthly levels.  

I chose some items that I need to do every day-like loading the dishwasher, or decluttering the living room. Then I decided on the tasks that could be done once a week and still leave the house looking nice, these are larger tasks that take a little longer to get dirty again-like cleaning the showers and toilets. Finally I decided on tasks that are more "deep cleaning" tasks that really only need to be done once a month. My monthly tasks I dedicated to be done on Fridays, and I labeled Friday as my "swing" day, where I do one or two tasks each Friday so I am never too overwhelmed with cleaning.  This way I am able to clean my house a little at a time, this allows for me to have plenty of time to to fun things with Isabella and my house always looks clean because nothing really every gets truly dirty! I have been doing this routine for about two months now and it has made my life SO much easier! I find I spend maybe an hour a day cleaning total and I have the rest of the time to run errands and most importantly play with my little girl! And when my hubby comes home the house always looks like I've been working all day on it, and he doesn't need to know I found a loophole in the system! If you would like to see how I made my cleaning schedule I have attached the google document at the bottom of this post, feel free to use it! Also, if you're interested in the recipe I use for my all natural DIY multipurpose cleaner check it out here. I use it to clean my stainless steal appliances, my tables, bathroom countertops, tubs, showers, kitchen counters, AND my laminate wood floors! Simply amazing!

All Natural DIY Floor Cleaner

If you follow my pinterest boards, you know that along with being OBSESSED with DIY craft projects I am also OBSESSED with all natural cleaning and overall green living.  Now I'm not going to sit here and say that I am perfect...far from it (I've been known to down a few oreos here and there) but I do make a conscious effort to eat organically, and utilize green  habits in my daily life. All of my home cleaning products are all natural, and I do like purchasing "green" labels because I want to stimulate that branch of production and get more products out on the market. But, every now and then I have a hard time finding a commercial product that I really love. This was the case in my search for an all natural mull-purpose cleaner.  I do use the Green Works all purpose cleaner for cleaning my kitchen counter tops, wood dinning tables, my bathroom counters, mirrors, and tubs and it is AMAZING! My biggest difficulty was finding a green stainless steal cleaner as well as laminate floor cleaner and tile cleaner. All the natural stainless steal cleaners I found left a lot of smudging and streaking and I haven't been able to find a natural floor cleaner that could go from tile to laminate floors. SO, I decided..why not make my own!?!?! I did a lot of research and pinned a lot of ideas, until I settled on one final recipe which you can find here. However, this recipe called for regular Dawn dish soap and that's not really very natural, so I decided to substitute the Dawn with my Green Works Dish Soap so I could keep it 100% natural. So without further hesitation (I really need to learn to cut down my intros) here is the recipe of this amazing all purpose cleaner and all it can do!

Materials Needed:

• 1 cup Distilled White Vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup rubbing alcohol
• 2-3 drops Green Works dish soap

Basically I just combined all of the ingredients (I wasn't that careful with my dish soap measurement, just don't go crazy) into a spray bottle. I ended up using an empty bottle of the Green Works all purpose cleaner that I rinsed out because I love to recycle. The only issue I had was, since the formula isn't very thick it would slip down the tube while it rested so it took a couple squeezes each time to get the liquid out.

I had originally planned on using this formula as an all purpose cleaner, but I found that the alcohol smell was just too strong for small spaces such as the bathroom. So I decided to use this formula only for my floors since it did such a great job, and to develop another formula for an all purpose cleaner, which you can find here. The first thing I cleaned was the tile in my laundry room and bathroom. I forgot to take pictures when I was doing these, but the solution ate up those stuck on stains so easily! It really cut down on my scrubbing which was awesome! Then I moved onto my laminate floor. Now we are still in the process of putting this in, and by "we" I mean my amazing husband has been busting his butt after work and it's looking great and almost done. So I was really cautious and did a lot of research because I didn't want to mess up the floor. From everything I had read, and from my experience, this solution is safe for laminate floors. However, I would still do a small tester area (I did inside my pantry) that no one will see, just to make sure.  Also, you want to be sparing with your solution on the floor. You should NEVER soak your laminate or wood floors with any liquid.  Basically I put 2-3 spritzes and then mopped with a microfiber mop until I couldn't see any more liquid. So I tried to spread those 2-3 spritzes over as much surface area as possible to make sure I didn't get the laminate too wet. This seemed to work great and did an amazing job at cleaning all of the smudges.

 So here is the before and after of the wood floors. It's a little hard to tell because of the glare of the light, but all of the dust is off as well as all of the smudges from little kid hands and feet. It just gives a very nice sleek clean look to floors. I think the reason that this stuff works so well is because of the rubbing alcohol. While the other ingredients do the cleaning, the rubbing alcohol evaporates really quickly which makes it almost impossible to get streaks and smudges as you're wiping. Or in my case, when a preschooler runs across your freshly cleaned floors only seconds after you're done.

I've been researching some other really cool cleaning products to make at home so stay tuned for that! I hope you all found this helpful and informative, and I would love to hear if there are any different ingredients that you guys use for your DIY home cleaners!

Simple Refrigerator Organization

Okay, upon review this title may be a little misleading.  This isn't a post about how to organize your refrigerator per-se, but how to organize all of the papers, pictures, etc that undoubtably get cluttered on the outside of your refrigerator.  I have tried so many times to find a method that kept all my papers organized, but I ended up with the same old thing, huge stacks of papers requiring multiple magnets to hold them up, leading to chaos.  This is even more of an epidemic in my household now that my daughter is in preschool and is coming home with schoolwork almost every week.  So here is my very quick and very easy DIY organization for all the papers that us moms (and dads) put on our refrigerator.

Materials

1) Clips: You can get these at your local craft store 

2) Magnets: I originally purchased the thin strips (that are in the picture) but they were very difficult to stick onto the clips and didn't hold very much weight so I moved to the larger, thicker round magnets.

3) Hot glue

Okay, so this tutorial is so easy it really doesn't need a step-by-step description, it's so easy I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner!

So basically all you do is put some hot glue on one side of the circular magnets and then put one magnet on each of the clips.  Make sure you put it on the circular part of the clip so all of the magnet will attach to the clip and fridge. And wa-la, you have  a very simple way to organize all your papers.

You can see here I was able to consolidate all of my similar papers into the clips and that left more regular magnets open for smaller individual papers, and all-in-all it make stye fridge looks more organized.  Granted I will never have a "clean" looking display at least it can be organized and display our important family papers better.

I also glued one of the clips onto our family command center so I could keep better track of all my coupons, and have them somewhere I could easily grab them, that way I wouldn't forget them on my way out the door shopping!

Well I hope you enjoyed, this ridiculously simple way to organize your fridge papers, and I hope it helps declutter your area a little more!