Keeping the House Tidy

Among the several positions the domestic artist holds, housekeeper is certainly a big one. Having things neat, dinner cooking, with dessert in the oven- and don't forget about kids being happy- helps every evening to go well.

One of my tidying tricks is to always grab something as I'm walking through a room. Going from the kitchen to our bedroom, I'll check on the laundry and see if anything needs to be transferred or put away. If I'm going upstairs, I'll grab anything kid related, since that's where their bedroom and playroom are.

Picking up little things all day makes the great pick up at the end of the day much more bearable. Some chores are considerably less daunting if you can do them bit by bit throughout the day.

Every day (sometimes twice) when the Roomba's charged, I run around the house (downstairs one day, upstairs the next), and get everything off the floor so Ruthie (that's our Roomba) can vacuum while I'm making lunch and getting the kids settled for naps and quiet time. I have the kids get the toys (we have a no [more like very few] toys outside of the playroom rule, so there's mostly just baby toys strewn about) and I do mostly everything else.

If there's kids clothes or shoes, I set them on the stairs to take up once I have a nice pile.

Before: Super messy kids area!!

After: Here's the stairs (with my 2 year old) and the playroom, after every container in the playroom had been emptied! It took us about thirty minutes to get everything completely picked up.

Right now, the only thing on the floor is the pile of laundry in my bedroom that I'm about to tackle... Which Ruthie just tried to eat. :)

Once you're able to find your cleaning groove, you'll be super pleased with the results!

-Melanie

How to Clean Your Blinds

I have a white kitchen, so it is really hard to keep up with the cleaning of it, and if I don't want to be scrubbing all the time I just had to come up with another solution. When I mentioned to my mom that I was sick of looking out of the dirty blinds on my kitchen window she shared with me a little trick she has used for years. A quick reasy way to clean your blinds in a snap.

Here are my filthy blinds before. This is just a small area of it too!

Materials needed:

Grease cutting dish soap (I used dawn)

Scrub Brush

Place blinds in the bathtub and start filling it with warm water, add about 2 tablespoons full of dish soap(you can add bleach too or instead, but don't add too much or let the blinds soak for too long, because it will rot your blinds strings). When blinds are fully submerged, turn off the water and let the blinds soak for about 2 hours.

After blinds have soaked the take scrub brush and scrub blinds gently. Pull blinds out, and there you have it: clean blinds with minimal effort.

Here are my blinds after! So nice and clean!

Sure, you can take every slat out one at a time and clean them but why would you do that when this is such an easier and much more time efficient alternative!

Tuesday Tip: Homemade Antibacterial Cleaning Spray

In my nonstop mission to make our home clean and green, I've come across a lot of homemade recipes for cleaning products and soaps that are simple and easy to make. My favorite cleaning spray is -surprise- vinegar! I mix it at home, and saves SO much money!

It's easy: take white vinegar, pour in an empty spray bottle (remember to save one when you run out of something!), and dilute about 60% with tap water.

Start cleaning!

Your house will only smell like vinegar for a little bit. After that, it will just smell clean. You may find you crave salt and vinegar chips afterward. Stay tuned for our homemade chip recipe!

-Melanie