Some tips for cleaning tiles, which are notoriously hard to keep clean!

* Before cleaning bathroom tiles, run the shower on hot for five minutes to steam the dirt loose.
* For stubborn stains, apply a paste of scouring powder and water and let sit for five minutes. Scrub with a nylon scrub pad, rinse and wipe dry.
* To keep the grout joints on tile countertops clean longer, wash with a solution of 1 to 2 tablespoons chlorine bleach in one quart of water. Dry thoroughly, then apply an acrylic sealer or three coats of lemon oil. Let dry one hour between coats.
* Remove mildew and make tiles sparkle by sponging with a solution of ammonia and water.
* Remove soot from fireplace tiles with a mixture of lemon juice and salt, then wash.

*tip from http://www.allabouthome.com/tips/cleaning/tile.html

# Throw a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water into a spray bottle and you’ve got a substitute general purpose cleaner. You won’t have to worry about the dog licking it or ruining fabrics because it’s less harsh than bleach. It also cuts through grease better and handles foul odors.

# Mix a half cup of vinegar with 2 tablespoons of salt and you’ve got a nice metal polish. It’s great for everything from silverware to bathroom fixtures. And if you’ve got some really tough hard water stains this works too. Just soak a paper towel with the mixture and leave it on whatever needs cleaning for about 5 minutes. Then wipe it off and the calcium deposits will come right off.

# If your shower pressure is getting so bad…

You can read the rest of this great post at DumbLittleMan!

10 Steps to Decluttering Your Home
1. Pick a room to declutter each month.

2. Once you pick the room, choose a small section to work on each day–a shelf, a drawer or a closet.

3. Go through the area and pull out everything you don’t need, don’t use anymore, don’t like, doesn’t fit or is outdated. Put it in a box to donate or sell.

4. Go through the area again and bunch similar things together.

5. If you need containers, find the right containers to put things in.

6. Decide where to put each bunch of items.

7. Label the space if needed.

8. Commit to putting things back in the same place.

9. Make an appointment for a household goods pickup, and have a bag ready
to go.

10. Maintain the space by doing this once or twice a year.

Source: Allison Carter,
The Professional Organizer

It is a three-step process to tackle the those spots require a little extra intervention. Hardwood floors to drapes and curtains and furniture, such as this handy tip:

Read the full article at RealSimple!

1. Clean your computer desk
If you are like me, your computer desk is like a magnet for all sorts of stuff. Mugs, little pieces of note paper, receipts, books, DVDs, etc. Now is a time to clear all of the non-essentials off of your desk. You’ll be amazed at how much larger your desk will appear.

2. Clean out your bookmarks
As you browsed through the web last year, you probably marked hundreds of pages as being interesting to you. But too many bookmarks is as bad as none. Go through your bookmarks and delete ones that are no longer of use. For the others, file them into categories for future use. If you don’t have time for that, save your bookmarks in a text file and delete all of your current bookmarks. Then your browsing will be manageable again.

3. Check old email accounts and clean out your emails
Many people have more than one email account. With accounts at home, work, and school, not to mention the numerous free email servers out there, you probably have some account that you haven’t read in a while. Do you really need those invitations to last year’s Halloween bash? Save any important email addresses and messages, and delete the rest. You may even want to cancel an account or two.

4. Update your browser
When was the last time you updated your browser? Time is constantly marching on and chances are that your browser has changed significantly since your last update. If you are tired of getting snitty messages saying that your browser is out of date, updating it now will take some annoyance out of your life. In fact, while you are updating that, why don’t you just…

5. Update all of your favorite software
If you use the software often, you deserve the best version. Bug fixes are submitted all of the time, and those things that annoy you may be gone in the next version. Do yourself a favor and update your favorite word processor, graphics software, music player, and, if you are able, update your Linux version. Life is too short to suffer bugs.

6. Check and clean your hardware
Last week I found that a long term problem with my printer was caused by a cable tie that had stuck itself into the paper feeder. Take time to look over and clean your computer, printer, and other hardware. Clean the spots off of your monitor. Go buy a can of air and clean the dust out of your fans and connectors. A few minutes of work can prevent your computer from overheating and burning out. Remember, DUST HAPPENS!

Now is also the time to fix or replace anything that annoys you about your computer. A mouse that takes two clicks to register one. A chair that is uncomfortable. That CRT that you always planned on upgrading to a flatscreen. Don’t spend another year yelling at your computer. Fixing your computing area not only lowers stress, it also can reduce back pain and prevent carpal tunnel.

7. Backup your hard drive
“I was just about to do a backup!”, is a phrase always heard right after a hard drive crashes. Forget the excuses and back up your hard drive NOW. Things are harder now we have super-mega-giga sized drives, but original data can still be burned onto CD’s and DVDs, and software is available that duplicates drives and synchronizes the data. If you’ve ever heard the whine of a damaged drive or mourned for data that just wasn’t there anymore, then you know that the document lost is always the best one that you’ve ever written. Hindsight is 20-20. Make copies of important documents today.

If you take time to follow these seven simple steps then you will have easier, happier computing in the new year.

 A great site to help you ”Green your Holidays” is www.earth911.org. They provide information on treecycling, budgeting for the holidays, and much much more. There’s no time like the present (ha ha, get it, present because it’s Christmas) so get busy with the R&R. No sillies, not rest and relaxation……Recycle and Reuse!!

 Here are some statistics to keep you motivated in continuing the recycling loop:

• Recycling all of your home’s waste newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 850 pounds a year.
• Recycled aluminum saves 95% more energy than virgin aluminum; recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for 3 hours (Reynolds Metal Company).
• Recycled glass generates 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution (NASA)
• Recycling one ton of recycled paper uses 64% less energy, 50% less water, and 74% less air pollution. Plus, it saves 17 trees and creates 5 times more jobs than manufacturing one ton of paper from virgin wood pulp.

Recycle: There are ways to recycle almost anything these days, from computers to glass to cell phones to tires to Christmas trees. The trick is finding out where to take them. That’s where the Earth911 website comes in. Just enter your zip code in the form below and you’ll be taken to a site that will give you information on all the recycling centers in your area. They’ll also tell you what’s ok to leave on your curb and what you’ll have to take to a center. So pop in your zip code and start clearing out that garage/attic/basement/closet…  

 Reuse:  Newspapers can be the best glass cleaner, and can be reused for cleaning and then recycled. Everyday Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million. That’s the equivalent of dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill every week.

Keeping Your Home Clean And Visitor Ready

The best free advice that I have ever heard is to tuse an Egg Timer, set it for five minutes and spend those five minutes in each room. This means that you and your family work together in that room for five minutes. When the time goes off, you move to the next room. The room will not be clean the first time, but after two or three days, you will find that it is clean and tidy after five minutes. The great thing is that if you do this daily, then there will not be an opportunity for days and days of clutter to pile up, which is what makes your home dirty and messy. Make a tray or bucket of cleaning products so you can take your cleaning products with you to each room - that way you won’t waste time looking for them or running back and forth getting what you need.

First Room: Kitchen

If you have dirty dishes, they should be washed at least daily, if not more often. Before you start your five minute cleaning sweep, you need to wash the dishes or put them in the dishwasher. Then start your timer. Clean the counter tops off of things that don’t belong - clutter makes things look far messier than they are. Wipe the counter tops. Sweep the floor. Dust mop the floor.
Now, the first time that you try this, you may not be able to get all of this done in five minutes, but after a few sweeps through the kitchen, you’ll find it gets quicker and quicker!

Second Room: Bathroom

Spray the shower/tub with cleaning solution (Green if possible, or vinegar does the trick nicely), and let it stand for now. Swish the toilet. Wipe down the counter tops, sink, and the toilet tank and lid. Turn on the water in the shower/tub to rinse out the cleaning solution. Take dirty clothes to laundry room. Sweep the bathroom. Dust mop or the floor. This room is one that will get easier and easier if you do it everyday. On some days, you may not have to do all of the steps, depending upon how messy your family is and how much time you need to free up.

One of the small things we’ve changed in our house are the chemicals that we use for cleaning. We now use all non-toxic, vegetable base, biodegradable, no phosphates, dyes, or fragrances. One of my favorite brands is Seventh Generation, but there are many other brands out there…..Method, Shaklee,  and Sun and Earth. Do a search for organic cleaning products and you will get pages to choose from.

For those skeptics who think they won’t work because they are made from organic, non chemical products…let me tell you, they work! They work just as well as all of the other harsh chemical products out there. One major difference. You are not spraying harmful chemicals into your house to breath in. You are not harming your children or pets with these harmful chemicals. Our major concern when we had children was using stinky, harmful chemicals around the babies. We no longer have any worries about that. For that matter if they accidentally swallowed any of the Seventh Generation cleaner instead of rushing them to the emergency room or calling poison control I simply give them a full glass of water. Umm..hello! Organic products not only clean as well or better but they are virtually harmless.

What are you waiting for?!?! Throw out those nasty cleaners and Go Green!!!!

Organizing Photographs

**Buy acid-free archival binders for your photos and have a few empty ones around all the time.
**Put photos into binders immediately. Once they get in a drawer, they most likely won’t come out again.
**Make little notes about the occasion and the people for reminders in years to come. It makes for a much more interesting book when there’s a story behind the picture.
**Buy photo books and fill them up for friends and relatives at gift time. With little added notes, it’s a personal gift everyone will love.

Tip for Digital Photographs

**After you’ve uploaded your photos immediately order or print them. It will save you tons of time in the long run to order the ones you like right away rather than waiting until later. Some good places to order your photos online are www.shutterfly.com, www.mpix.com, and if you’re a Costco member you can upload at www.Costco.com and pick them up in the store.

 I recently purchased the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and it really works! Really, really works. I’ve had this greasy film on my oven and microwave….one use of the Magic Eraser and presto! It’s gone.  It cleans anything….walls, grease, soap scum, car tires…you name it and it cleans it. It even cleans fingerprints and other smudges from my hard to clean stainless steel refridgerator.

At first I thought you could only use the sponge one time, but you can use it over and over again. Just wet the sponge, ring it out, and get busy on the grime.

 Go here for more tips on using Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser.

Happy Cleaning!!!