White Vinegar As A Household Cleaner
White vinegar has long been lauded for it’s cleaning efficacy - now DumbLittleMan brings more uses for this common household supply:
# 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…
10 easy things you can do to declutter your home
10 easy things you can do to declutter your home. This is espeically appropriate now that spring cleaning season is upon us - it’s timje to get the house organized and live clean! And to get more professional tips from Allison Carter, be sure to visit TheProfessionalOrganizer.com!
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 Go through the area and pull out everything you don’t need, don’t use anymore, don’t like, doesn’t fit or is outdated.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
Deep Cleaning The Tough Spots In Your home
Real Simple has a post describing some simple steps to tackle those troublesome deep down dirty spots in your home.
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:
To remove smudges (the kind passing pets leave), Finetto applies a bit of baby powder to a clean toothbrush and gently brushes the spot. “The powder protects the fabric and helps lift the dirt.”
A Clean New Year
With the new year quickly approaching (way to soon IMO) it is time to get in your office and get busy! Listed below courtesy of Free Software Magazine are seven great ways to clear the clutter just in time for the New Year!!
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.
Going Green Part 2
The holidays provide a great opportunity to Go Green. With Christmas quickly approaching it is a great time to look around your house and garage for those items you no longer use and donate them to charity. It’s all about recycling and reusing. Those dreaded white elephant gift exchanges at work….rewrap those gifts you’ve received in the past but don’t use and send them on their merry way.
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.
Cleaning Tips: Clean your House Like a Professional House Cleaner
Hate having surprise guests because you always think your house is a mess? The key to combat this is to use creativity and imagination to create small moments of time for you to get caught up and have the spotless home you always dreamed of. You do not have to have two hours a day to keep your home clean. With a few minutes and a family “team,” you can keep your home guest ready at all times!
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.
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