So I have this floor in my kitchen that never seems to look clean. I mop my floors religiously once a week and during the summer sometimes twice a week as needed. My kids are constantly tracking in guck of one form or another and I am huge "no shoes in the house" person. So if we are going to be barefoot, the floors must be clean. Which brings me back to my kitchen floors.
I have a sinking suspicion that it may be time to replace the flooring as the wax on the linoleum has long since worn off. So in the meantime in between time I have to make due and spiff these floors up the best I can.
It requires some old fashioned elbow grease and floor wax.
Sometimes it is just necessary to scrub a floor on your hands and knees. You are more likely to get to all the yuck mostly because you can much easier see it. Luckily you should only have to do this 2 or 3 times a year to be really effective.
Make sure you get in and under the edging and in the corners. Also scrub the tops of the edging. This is an area that gets little attention but collects a lot of gunk.
Once your floors are sparkling clean and dry, it is time for the wax. I use basic floor wax that can be purchased in the floor care aisle of Target. I use the "squirt on" variety mostly because it is the easiest.
Squirt it on and spread it around evenly. The trick with this stuff is to stay off of it for several hours. I like to do it right before I go to bed to assure that it won't get any "accidental" traffic. The thing with wax is that if it is even a tiny bit wet and it gets walked upon, it pulls whatever you have on your feet and locks it into the varnished finish. Then that footprint will be there for about 6 weeks no matter how hard you scrub. I learned this when my dog walked across a floor that the wax had not set on.
Once you have set your wax, you should have an easier time keeping your floors looking nice for longer. A good waxing should last you 6-8 weeks but you still need to mop weekly to keep the floors clean. They just look nicer.
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Laundry bloody laundry
Ok I know that title is a bit of a stretch but come on! That is what I sing every time laundry day rolls around.
So today I have some tried and tested tips that make my laundry day more sane and efficient. With a family of 5, it seems our laundry was constantly overflowing and never completely done. As They might be giants said "like the laundry it's never ending". And so it was in our house. So I devised a plan and thus far it seems to work like clockwork and I am not constantly doing the wash everyday.
Here's what works for us.
We have 2 main laundry baskets in the house.
1 in my room for my husbands and my laundry.
1 in the upstairs hallway for all the kids laundry.
These baskets are the tall type that hold a weeks worth of laundry.
Once a week I (one of my kids) bring both those baskets downstairs and then go back up to collect all the sheets (because really you should wash all sheets once a week if not every other) and also all the bathroom hand towels and bath mats.
Then it is time to separate everything.
This is where my magic plan comes into play.
Everyone has their own basket and I separate their things into their basket
Then I also have a basket just for towels/bathmats and one for sheets
I know it seems like a lot but if not organized like this it gets really chaotic and out of control.
The reason for this organization is that once it is in it's basket, it goes into the wash, then the dryer and then back into it's designated basket.
Then as it comes out of the dryer, it gets folded immediately. It will only take like 10 minutes at the most for one basket. As opposed to folding all of it at once when the task really is daunting. Then you know that all that is in that basket goes to the same place.
For example....a basket full of only towels all goes to the same place. So you are not running from room to room to put away laundry.
Once you have this system in place, you are not spending an hour (or two) folding all the laundry at once and even the littlest of kids can learn to put away their own laundry out of their own basket; so the load is off of you to have it all put away. Even my 2 year old is learning to put away his laundry.
Their designated basket with folded clean clothes are waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs and they are set.
It makes it much less an overwhelming task.
It still is an all day event but it is a little more organized.
So today I have some tried and tested tips that make my laundry day more sane and efficient. With a family of 5, it seems our laundry was constantly overflowing and never completely done. As They might be giants said "like the laundry it's never ending". And so it was in our house. So I devised a plan and thus far it seems to work like clockwork and I am not constantly doing the wash everyday.
Here's what works for us.
We have 2 main laundry baskets in the house.
1 in my room for my husbands and my laundry.
1 in the upstairs hallway for all the kids laundry.
These baskets are the tall type that hold a weeks worth of laundry.
Once a week I (one of my kids) bring both those baskets downstairs and then go back up to collect all the sheets (because really you should wash all sheets once a week if not every other) and also all the bathroom hand towels and bath mats.
Then it is time to separate everything.
This is where my magic plan comes into play.
Everyone has their own basket and I separate their things into their basket
Then I also have a basket just for towels/bathmats and one for sheets
I know it seems like a lot but if not organized like this it gets really chaotic and out of control.
The reason for this organization is that once it is in it's basket, it goes into the wash, then the dryer and then back into it's designated basket.
Then as it comes out of the dryer, it gets folded immediately. It will only take like 10 minutes at the most for one basket. As opposed to folding all of it at once when the task really is daunting. Then you know that all that is in that basket goes to the same place.
For example....a basket full of only towels all goes to the same place. So you are not running from room to room to put away laundry.
Once you have this system in place, you are not spending an hour (or two) folding all the laundry at once and even the littlest of kids can learn to put away their own laundry out of their own basket; so the load is off of you to have it all put away. Even my 2 year old is learning to put away his laundry.
Their designated basket with folded clean clothes are waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs and they are set.
It makes it much less an overwhelming task.
It still is an all day event but it is a little more organized.
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Homemade laundry soap
So I don't know about you, but laundry is a big deal in this house. It feels never ending. If I don't do laundry every couple days, I am ankle deep in an ocean of dirty clothes and towels. I have talked about it with some pointers here. Today I have the best thing ever to bring down the cost of this inevitable task.
I started tracking it and it cost me about $180 a year just in detergent. This is using mid range detergent. The average cost of 1 load is .37 cents. It seems pretty cheap, but it adds up.
I have discovered a recipe for making your own that is honestly just as good and has the same active ingredients that the good stuff has and (here's the clinker) it brings the cost down to about .1 cent per load. It cost me about $8 to make this batch and it yields 10 gallons of detergent. Break that down and it comes to 640 loads. Yes I am serious.
What you will need is ....
I started tracking it and it cost me about $180 a year just in detergent. This is using mid range detergent. The average cost of 1 load is .37 cents. It seems pretty cheap, but it adds up.
I have discovered a recipe for making your own that is honestly just as good and has the same active ingredients that the good stuff has and (here's the clinker) it brings the cost down to about .1 cent per load. It cost me about $8 to make this batch and it yields 10 gallons of detergent. Break that down and it comes to 640 loads. Yes I am serious.
What you will need is ....
- 1 big bucket. At least a 5 gallon with a lid.
- 1 bar of Fels-Naptha soap
- 1 Cup washing soda
- 1/2 Cup borax
- 4 cups hot tap water
Here's what you do....
Grate the bar of soap with a cheese grater and add to water in a sauce pan.
Stir continuously over medium/low heat until the soap disolves and is melted.
Next fill a 5 gallon bucket half full with hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and borax.
Fill bucket to the top with more hot tap water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
The next day it will have thickened to a gel.
Stir and fill an old laundry container half full with this mixture. The other half fill with water. The gel is a concentrate.
Shake before each use as it will separate and gel. So just shake it up with each use.
If you want , add a 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons for scent. Some ideas are lavender, rosemary or tea tree oil.
- Yield: liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons
- Top load machine - 5/8 Cup per load (approx. 180 loads)
- Front load machines - 1/4 cup per load (approx. 640 loads)
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My new dryer
In an effort to be more green, ok lets just case it I am cheap. The majority of my electric bill is wrapped up in laundry. I have been pushing for a front load washer and dryer to cut costs, but with those you have to spend money to save it in the long run. My washer and dryer are still in working order (for now) so I will need to wait a little longer. In the meantime, it is summer and there is no reason why I can't cut out the dryer all together. So I went out and got a clothes line. My husband got it all set up and I can honestly say that I have not run my dryer once in the 6 weeks since we put it up.
Not once!
I did it , you can do it too.
Luckily I could give a rodents rump about what our neighbors think of us but I am sure this just gave them more ammo :)
Not once!
I did it , you can do it too.
Luckily I could give a rodents rump about what our neighbors think of us but I am sure this just gave them more ammo :)
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