Spring Cleaning: Days Two & Three

The second and third days of Simple Mom’s Spring Cleaning Party are focused on the living room or central area of your home. After the quick sweep on day one, my living room wasn’t in very bad shape. It mostly drew my attention to the fact that our sofa really needs to be cleaned professionally. Otherwise the process entailed some dusting, vacuuming and cleaning the wood floors, none of which are worthy of pictures or further detail.

I thought today I’d focus on cleaning the natural way, a work in progress for my house. It’s hard after years of antibacterial products, disinfectants, and bleach-based cleaners to believe that the house can be just as sanitary using far less toxic tools. Feeling a little light-headed after cleaning the bathroom has always given me a sick sense of accomplishment. But I think it’s common for many families to rethink their cleaning products when a baby arrives. The day that you watch your newly-crawling infant lick the wood floor causes you to rethink what they might be taking in along with the knowledge that no, the floor is not that tasty.

I have yet to fully abandon the old cleaning products, but I’ve switched to “green cleaners" for the areas that Baby comes in contact with the most. I recently read an article in Natural Home magazine that outlined the uses for super basic products that are far less toxic and far cheaper than the standard buzz-inducing stuff. Here are a few of the alternatives.

Lemons

Cut a lemon in half to clean wood cutting boards or to remove stains on the countertop. Just let the juice sit and then wipe down.

Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the rinse cycle to help brighten your whites.

Salt

Coarse salt can help remove stubborn food from pots and pans. Soak the pan with 3 tbsp salt in a few inches of water before scrubbing.

Vinegar

Mix 1 part water and 1 part vinegar in a spray bottle for an all-purpose cleaner with natural disinfectant properties (avoid granite because the acid can damage the finish).

Pour 1 cup vinegar into the toilet and let sit for a few hours before scrubbing to remove rings, deodorize and disinfect.

Add 1/2 cup vinegar to the rinse cycle to help soften sheets, towels and clothing.

Baking Soda

Mix 1 part water with 3 parts baking soda for a natural abrasive cleaner to remove stains on tubs, counters and sinks.

Sprinkle baking soda into the bottom of the garbage can or in the bag to help control odors.

Tea Tree Oil

Mix 15 drops tea tree oil with 1 quart warm water in a spray bottle for an all-purpose cleaner with antibacterial and antifungal properties.

Mix 2 tsp tea tree oil with 2 cups water for a more powerful spray to use on toilets or to kill mold.

I have to say I was pretty impressed by all the different ways to cut down on the junk that pollutes our home. It’s bad enough to have a hangover from cleaning the shower and I don’t need to be worrying about Baby dealing with the same problem.

Spring Cleaning: Day One

Last year Simple Mom had an awesome series on spring cleaning. It was a very practical approach, taking the house room by room over a span of ten days. I had every intention of following along and even started a post string but after a couple days, life intervened and the plan was derailed.

Let me clearly state that I have done at least one deep clean in our house since then. Nevertheless, the time has come again. After house guests and vacations and a full calendar over the past month, our home has been somewhat neglected. So I’m going back to Simple Mom’s series and starting fresh.

Day One entails doing a quick sweep of all the surface clutter so that you can more clearly see just how sad a state your house is in. We actually didn’t have as much crap lying around as I thought and the whole quickie decluttering took me about half an hour. Just for your enjoyment, here are some before and after photos, all in the name of motivation for me to continue over the next ten days.

Living Room:

Before (the toy basket has a removable cover that we put on when we have company to fool our guests into thinking our house is cleaner than it is)                                                                            

After

Kitchen:

Before (this corner is the notorious dumping ground in our home)

After

Kitchen Table:

Before (another constant stop & drop spot)

After

Bedroom:

Before (this picture really doesn’t do justice to the magazine stack on the top corner of the bed)

After

And there you have it. I am a cleaning machine. On to day two.

Transformation of a Rooster

Today I’m headed to a shower and I wanted to come up with a handmade gift for the bride that fit her interests and coordinated with the wedding gifts we chose from their registry.

Remember this from yesterday…

Well this is just part of a whole so here’s the full picture…

In my opinion that’s a Cockadoodledon’t! I especially love the matching mini-roosters on each of the pockets. Roosters, yes, we get it. I found this hideous beast at the Dollar Store and envisioned a greater purpose. So with a little tweaking, I used it as a pattern for this…

For my first apron it came out pretty close to how I imagined without using any real sort of pattern. I think it will be a fun gift for the bride and truthfully it was really easy.

Both the bride and groom love to cook so I went with a whole kitchen theme in the gifts. Try not to be too amazed by my brilliance. I like the black & white because it works with whatever colors they plan for their kitchen. I’m thinking I’ll wrap it up with a coordinating potholder or maybe a wooden spoon set.

Cockadoodledoo

I’m so excited to post a new before and after project because it was such a transformation. The end result came out great and it’s a good thing because it’s a gift. I bet you’ll never guess what this is going to be… 

The finished project will be posted tomorrow!!

Another Quickie Before & After

I never posted our Christmas setup (at least I don’t think so and I’m too lazy to check for sure) but it was pretty simple. I  had some garland on the mantel, with some Christmasy knick-knacks and added red votives to the Pottery Barn candle thingy that hangs above the fireplace. When I took all that down, it was very stark all of a sudden.

See what I mean! I obviously had other stuff up there before fall and Christmas hit, but I can’t for the life of me remember what. Anyway it was very depressing and given that it’s the first thing you see when you walk in the door, it needed a change. For the past few months, I’ve been playing with it and constantly changing it up. I’m still not fully satisfied but I’ll live with it for now. Here’s the new pre-party-hosting update.

The red tulips are still alive – all the arrangements are going strong even after almost a week! I’m about done with the candle thingy but the Husband says it was very heavy and awkward to put up so I’d better be sure before it comes down. Sounds like a dare!!

Dining Room Before & After

Recently I’ve been itching to make a few small changes around the house. In my opinion, when you can’t do a major overhaul, a few minor details can make a room much more appealing.
This past weekend we hosted a surprise party for my friend CK’s 30th birthday. It was great- she didn’t suspect a thing and we had a wonderful time! Needless to say when you are hosting a get-together, you want your house to look nicer than usual. The stuff that you can tolerate on a day-to-day basis doesn’t seem so insignificant when you have guests coming. So before the party, we changed the decor in the dining room to help pretty it up a bit.
The before…

Pretty bland and boring. The picture is to small for that wall on its own and the window needs some dressing up.
And after…

So much prettier!
I got the curtains at Ikea and love them because they are super long. They come 98” long with iron-on hemming tape so you can adjust the length to your windows and how high you want to hang them. $14.99 for two panels works for me.

The photo arrangement was so easy and cheap compared to buying expensive artwork or photography, which frankly just isn’t in the budget right now. I found a book about lighthouses at Barnes & Noble a while ago and it’s been sitting in the garage waiting for this very project. Believe it or not, the frames were from the Dollar Store! Up close they’ve got a couple dings and they certainly aren’t high quality but unless you really look hard, you can’t tell. I bought mattes at Michael’s and we just attached picture hangers to the back and voila! The arrangement fits the large wall much better and brings some color into the room.
The hydrangeas and tulips are from Trader Joes. I was really impressed with how many stems you can get for such a reasonable price. The vases are from Ikea and Target and were so cheap. Overall I’m really pleased with how much different the room looks with just a few cheap thrifty updates.

Sleepless in the Springs

photo from marthastewart.com

Our Easter celebration with the grandparents this year was a fun one but not the relaxing, restorative weekend that we had imagined when we set out for the Pink Palace.

Baby seemed to be recovering from a cold so we decided to make the trip even though she had been stuffy and sniffly. Wrong. Her cold escalated to a cough and made for a very difficult time getting her to sleep in an unfamiliar bed, which is usually a task on its own. Which bed did she want to sleep in? Ours of course, which we were happy to oblige at 9:30 the first night when she still wasn’t asleep after over an hour of useless attempts. By the third night of wrestling with her at bedtime, we were ready to pack our bags.
Easter was spent with an egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa’s golf club. You’d have thought they had hidden $100 bills by the chaos that ensued when 40 or so children were released into the wilderness of the golf course to find eggs. Eggs, which by the way, were dyed and got all over everyone’s hands… except ours because at almost 2 years old Baby couldn’t give a rip about finding eggs in the grass. She was far more intent on pulling the flags off the putting green. The egg hunt was followed by a delicious brunch at the club where we ate enough that the idea of packing the car and fighting traffic was so unappealing that we decided to give naptime one more shot and were able to spend a few hours in the sun. All in all, I’m glad to be home and I’ll be even happier when everyone is back to normal.