Favorite Non-Toxic Cleaners and Quick Cleaning Tips

Posted By:  Stephanie

I've always liked the thought of cleaning with non-toxic cleaners but didn't act on it until I was pregnant with Little Lou.  At that time I decided it was time to find some great non-toxic cleaners so that I was able to keep our family safe from harmful toxins that are found in many cleaners out there while still getting our house fresh and clean.  I was not paid or perked to write about these cleaning products, I just wanted to share my findings with you.

I love the Mr Clean Magic Erasers for the tough stuff that just wont scrub off with anything else.  Seriously, these are magic.  Kristi posted how she was able to get 30 "Magic Erasers" for $8.49 on Amazon.  Now that is a great deal!

Of course I still have my love for vinegar which I posted about here.  I go through this stuff like it's going out of style.  I haven't been one to contribute to the shortage of bacon, but if there was a shortage going on with vinegar I would be guilty.  = )

Next up are my favorite cleaners that I use on everything from bathrooms, including toilets to mirrors, counters, kitchen sink, microwave (although there is a super awesome tip that Kristi posted on and easy way to clean your microwave I still like to use some cleaner in it when I'm finished) and even Lou's highchair.  I use the product Biokleen which is non-toxic, cleans great and smells good too!  This All Purpose Cleaner has been great on my glass, I just use a microfiber towel (sorry don't have a picture of those but I get a huge pack of them from Costco and they last forever) and this cleaner and I don't end up with any streaks.  Love it! 

For the toilets and the area around them (walls and floor) I use Bac-Out which is a stain and odor remover.  Even if I don't smell anything I'm sure there's some nasty stuff there that needs a little extra powerful stuff to clean it.  

Next up is what I use on my floors.  This stuff is awesome, it cleans the floor well and leaves it seriously sparkling clean.  I was actually on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor last week with this stuff and that's what made me think I should really share with all of you how great it is and what other cleaning products I love.  This particular cleaner is for stone, tile and laminate floors by Bona.

We only have a couple area rugs in our house, the rest are all either laminate, pergo or hardwood.  This is the hardwood cleaner I use and to be honest, I should really clean my hardwoods more often with this stuff.  How often do you clean your hardwood floors?

Now a few tips on how to keep your house looking somewhat decent and ready for random people showing up at your door, that is without doing the 30-60 second clean up that leaves you sweating like you just ran a marathon when you greet your guests.

1.  Never leave a room empty handed.  If you are leaving a room grab at least one thing that needs to be put away.

2.  If you have kids have them clean up toys as they are finished with them and move onto something else.  If nothing else clean up toys with help of your little one (all of them even though they are just going to come out again) before nap and before bed.  That way you will have two times a day that everything is picked up and you don't have to wake up to a mess.

3.  Always rinse your dish and put it in the dishwasher as you use them to prevent a sink pile up.

4.  In between cleaning the bathrooms water and toothpaste splatters on the counter/sink.  Keep baby wipes (again they are non-toxic and you aren't disinfecting just cleaning up) under the sink to quickly wipe down the counter and sink to keep a nice looking appearance.

5.  Clean up dishes in the kitchen as you cook.  For example, while one thing is cooking wash the pot/pan that you are finished with.

6.  When you wipe down your kitchen counters open the microwave and always wipe it out too even if it doesn't look dirty.  This will prevent you from having to use the tip linked to above.  It doesn't take but an extra couple seconds but it keeps you from more work later.  Seriously, who wants a guest to come over and you end up heating something for them in a nasty microwave while trying to hide it from them, no thank you.

5.  Fold laundry as it comes out of the dryer to prevent piles of laundry.  I have to admit that this is something that I normally do, however since we've had Lelo 6 weeks ago I've kept up on folding towels and burp cloths but the clean clothes are in a heaping pile because I've only actually folded laundry twice since then.  Oh well, I'll get back into the groove.  At  least we have clean laundry right?  * The correct answer to that would be yes, you don't want to make me feel bad, do you? = ) *

What are your favorite non-toxic cleaners?  I would love to know if there's something that works great that I should try!

Gift Wrap Organization

Posted By: Kristi

SURPRISE...we're still here. You wouldn't know it, would you? = (

With our wedding day quickly approaching, wedding...wedding...wedding is all that has been on my mind. Invitations, welcome bags, travel details and every other little detail we have had to plan. I am sending out the invitations this week and then will share the details with you. They were super fun to make.

In between wedding planning I have been trying to get our house put together. Mostly organizing and purging unwanted items. One thing that has been driving me bonkers was our gift wrap organization (or lack there of). I had all of our gift wrap supplies in a long flat container.

My problem with this container is that I would get it out, find what I needed, and then leave the box sitting in the hall. I never could decide where to store it so I always seemed to leave it out. TACKY! Finally, one day while I was checking out one of my favorite blogs, I came across this picture.

I knew right away that this was my perfect storage solution. All of these items are from the Container store and can be found here. Below is my version.

Carson's even mentioned how much easier it is to find everything this way. Loving it!

On another note, I really need to figure out how to use my camera. It is an AMAZING camera but I am doing it all wrong. Sorry for the crummy pictures!

Art Work Holders and WINNER!

WE MADE IT!  Thank you all so much for being a support and follower of our blog!  We are having so much fun creating and sharing with all of you!

The winner goes to Reading Romances, CONGRATULATIONS!  I can not find a way to contact you so please contact us by Sunday at 7pm (PDT) or we will draw for another winner.

Posted By:  Stephanie

Crafts, crafts I love crafts!  A couple days ago I got a few minutes during Little Lou's nap time to make these for her big girl room.  I figure if I keep plugging away at things here and there for her big girl room then we will be all set to make it nice and inviting for her when we make the transition.

I got these beauties for $1 each at Goodwill.  I knew just what to do with them!

(Originally saw the idea on Little Miss Momma)

I chose paper that I thought would be a good match for her big girl room and tuned it upside down on the wood and used my crayon to shade the shape of the top of the wood piece onto the paper.

I cut just outside the line, that way I would have room to make adjustments when I held the paper up to the piece of wood.  I found that when I turned the paper over it wasn't exact because the wood is a bit different on all sides so some adjustments were needed.

I then measured two clothes pins so that I knew what size to cut paper to cover these as well.  I did find that each one is slightly different so I measured both of them.

I cut the paper for one clothes pin and laid the paper next to it.  I did the same thing with both pins.

Now for the fun part!  It was time to Mod Podge everything!  I put a layer of Mod Podge on the top of the wood piece to act as glue for my paper.

Once I placed the paper on top I painted a coat on top trying to make it as even as possible.

Follow the same Mod Podge process for all pieces including the clothes pins.  Here they are drying so you can still see the white.  At this point I couldn't wait to see the final product!  Once the Mod Podge was dry I glued the clothes pins to the boards.

Here you have it, two boards waiting for my sweet girl's perfect art work to hold!

Although I appreciate personality I prefer to not have these knots be the focal point of these art holders.  For that reason they are on the bottom so that when they are hung you will not see the knots when looking from above.  I considered staining these and I did a tester on the back and didn't really like the look.  I also thought about painting the outside white but I didn't want to deal with painting the clothes pins so I kept them both natural so they would match.

How do you display your little one's art work?  Do they have art work on the wall in their room?

My "Must Fix" Moment - Pantry and Counter Organizing

Posted By:  Stephanie

Do you ever have a moment when you look at something in your house and think, WOW I need to fix that right now!?  I do.  This week I have had a few of those moments and my sweet girl has been such a trooper and helper through it all.  One of the moments lead to completely emptying our pantry and organizing it.  Over time it had gotten WAY out of hand.  

After some time in the kitchen with my little helper it went from this.

To this.

Those black containers are the ones that I talked about in this post.  I wasn't using them in my craft room so I decided to take advantage of them in the kitchen.

I was so happy that I was left with the lower left part of the cabinet free.  I was able to use that space for some small appliances and to store some egg containers I'm saving for a neighbor that had been sitting on the counter and on top of the microwave.  The counter and microwave were part of this "must fix" moment.  The clutter was hurting my eyes and my brain.

Just behind the plastic wrap you can see a little white thing popping up.  That is one of the grocery bags that is stored in one of my milk jug containers.  For those of you who have been reading all along since I posted about folding my grocery bags and are wondering if I still do that, the answer is YES and I LOVE it!

I'm sure from these pictures you can see what my problem was, without explanation.  Yahoo, it's fixed!  Now I just need to have a chat with Will about the cover for the plug in.  Why oh why do we not have covers on any of the kitchen plugs?  Painting has been complete for a long while now.

Little Lou (on the left) had been so helpful and didn't complain a bit much so I was so happy to be able to take her to play with her best friend at OMSI.  Deanna, this cutie's mommy, purchased a membership for the two of them so we have been able to go as guests twice now.  So fun!  

The girls were checking out the fish, I love watching them interact with each other.  Adorable.

Have you had a "must fix" moment lately that you acted on?  What was it?

Closet Turned Craft Room

Posted By:  Stephanie

OH MY GOODNESS, I have my own CRAFT ROOM!  I was originally supposed to have my craft space in our laundry room but that just wasn't working out.  My space kept being taken over and I didn't get to use my craft space, not even once.  I finally got to the point where I thought enough was enough and I needed to officially have my own little corner for my crafting fun.  I talked to Will about my idea to move our things in the closet into the laundry room (more on that later) and then turn our closet into my craft room.  I was SO pleased when he agreed completely and was happy to help with the change.

There is still a lot to be done to make the room my own but this is what it looks like so far.  In the before my clothes are not  in the picture because I thought to snap it after all my clothes had already been taken out, they were on the right.  Please notice how crisp and white the room looks in the after picture.  My way awesome husband painted the room for me and I didn't even have to ask!  Previously it was a dull wall paper with some funky stripes.  Not anymore yahoo!

See those pink crates?  Those are brand new from Walmart.  I was so excited when Will and I found these for $1 each, regular price $3.49 each.  Sweet savings!  I wanted something to be able to put all my supplies because I don't have drawers and I wanted to be able to make the shelf look a little more uniform and organized.

We could have taken down the shelf but I actually decided I wanted to keep it there so that I can store things on it if I would like, or maybe I'll use it to display things eventually.  I'm not sure yet but I thought that if we took them down I would be sorry.  Lets be honest, it would have been a lot more work too.  I may eventually take down the one rod that we left up, but for now I think I may end up using it to organize some of my things.  I'll post about that when and if the time comes too.  Will put this shop light in the room for me so that I would have plenty of light when working on my projects.  He put in a bulb that is like natural light which is nice because there isn't a window.  It works great!

Will ran the cord to the light down the wall in the corner and it plugs in under the desk in my extension cord.  There aren't plug ins in the closet my craft room so the extension cord is plugged in out of the room right around the corner in our bedroom.  I will just pull the plug in the room when I'm not using it so that isn't not out the door all the time.  The table is from Ikea.

I got the small black crates at Walmart too.  I'm not using them yet but I'm sure I will be very soon.

This is my super exciting purchase that Will convinced me I should really get it I wanted it, and I DID!  I've been wanting one of these for awhile and I'm glad I waited until I had my craft room to get it.  I think that made it even more exciting.  I will eventually hang it on the wall, I'm just waiting to use the room for a bit so I know exactly where I want it.

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to have my new craft room!  Thank you Will for being such a great support of my crafting and my need/want for a craft space.  Thank you even more for painting and installing that light!  I love you!



Tidy Tip - Organizing Plastic Grocery Bags

Posted By:  Stephanie

I have to start this post by saying, I know I really should be using reusable fabric shopping bags, which is also one of my near future goals.  In the meantime we use plastic grocery bags and re-use them for things like Will's lunches.  I don't know about your bags, but my bags were taking over our pantry!  I decided to go back to my middle school days of writing and folding notes and I'm very pleased with my very much improved grocery bag storage.

First I dug out all of my grocery bags and threw them on the kitchen table.  As you can see, we do a LOT of shopping at Walmart.  We get all of our groceries there because in our small town our only choices are Walmart and Safeway.  Walmart is a much cheaper option when living on a budget.  I'm so thankful for our new Walmart!

Lay out your grocery bag and flatten it out.

Fold it in half...

and in half again.

Start from the bottom and fold the corner in,

and continue folding into triangles over and over until you reach the top.

You want to stop when there's about this much left at the top.

When you stop folding make sure that your are at the part where you have a little pocket like this.

Tuck the handles into the pocket.

There you have it, a nice compact grocery bag.

I continued and folded all of my bags which took just a few minutes.

I took one of my milk jugs and made it into a container as shown here so that I would have a place to store the folded grocery bags.

As you can see in my first before and after picture it made a BIG difference in my pantry.  How do you store your grocery bags?