True story, my college roommate is obsessed with Windex (sorry for calling you out Buddie) and she made me love it too. But have you checked out the cost of it?!! Whoa baby, it’s pricey. I mean, it does work well and there are so many surfaces it’s safe for, but is that really worth it? I hate that it ends up being sprayed RIGHT by our toothbrushes. Windex actually gets a D rating on the EWG rating scale for respiratory/asthma, skin irritation and the environment.
So given all of the above, I decided to try the natural/DIY version, I have nothing to lose, right!??! Well, here’s what I found! This is so easy to make and literally costs NOTHING.
Here’s how you do it!
Ingredients
1/2 c. rubbing alcohol
1/3 c. white vinegar
Water
Add vinegar and alcohol to a spray bottle, fill the bottle with water. Spray and wipe! Easy Peasy!! I LOVE these glass jars for keeping all my homemade solutions in. They are relatively affordable when you consider you aren’t buying plastic bottles every month or so.
I’m pretty sure I’ve tried every single floor cleaning solution on the market. Seriously. From Pine-sol to Lysol to expensive natural brands. One of my favorite on the market is the Method brand from Target. It smells SO good, is easy to use and works great! It’s safe for a variety of flooring types too! But at $5 for a 25fl oz bottle, the price is a little steep. So, I buy it occasionally and then fill the bottle with my homemade solution.
Flooring Types
My first floor has 4 different kinds of flooring. We have peel and stick vinyl flooring, ceramic tile, laminate and wood floors. I had to do a little research to find out what I could use on what type of flooring. Most solutions are safe for the floors we have since we do not have natural stone. If you have natural stone floors, you’ll need to follow the instructions and research what is safe for that type of flooring. I’d recommend doing that for any flooring you have and not just take my word for it! 🙂
DIY Solution
My solution to expensive floor solution, is to make my own. This is super easy, smells great and costs PENNIES! Here’s what I do. When I’ve finished a bottle of the expensive store bought solution, I refill with the solution I make.
Here’s how I do it
What you’ll need
Water
Distilled Vinegar
Essential oils of your choice
Squirt bottle, spray bottle or empty floor solution bottle
Using a funnel, add 2 c of water to an empty bottle. Add in 1/4 c. white vinegar, followed by 10 drops of peppermint essential oil and 10 drops of lemon essential oil. The lemon/mint combination is my FAVORITE. It smells so fresh and clean. I’m actually obsessed.
The mop I have is discontinued, but here’s a similar one. I love this because you can add the solution to the bottle that’s attached to the mop or spray it on the floor. The washable, microfiber refills wash up nicely so you can use them over and over again!
I can’t wait to see if you all love this recipe as much as I do!! Be sure to comment below or tag me on Instagram so I can know if you love it!
Folding Laundry: Getting Your Kids Involved In Chores
Laundry. It’s an every. single. day occurrence at this house. With five people, 3 being kids, we generate so much laundry. I actually do not mind do the laundry. I love that the clothes feel and smell clean but folding it and putting it away is NOT my jam. I’m pretty sure before I had a family, I just kept my clean laundry in a basket until it was absolutely necessary to put it away. But now, I can’t do that. With my kids getting older, I love involving them in household duties. It really gives them a sense of accomplishment and they are actually very helpful.
When I worked retails, we used a folding mat to make sure that the clothes were perfectly folded. It was so easy and seemed to make folding clothes so fast. I recently saw a video of someone making one from sink mats from the dollar store. I thought, hmmm $6 isn’t much but I can totally make that for free! Since it’s right after Christmas, we obviously have a plethora of boxes, so I figured I could make one from boxes and any tape I could find. So, off I went to my garage to shop for the perfect box. And in the words of my two year old, ta-da, I made my own folding mat within just a few minutes!
How to Make A Folding Board from a Box
Cut your box into six equal parts
Tape the seams on all sides except for the sides between the middle panel
Teach your kids to fold their own clothes.
Watch them enjoy folding 🙂
Unfortunately, I don’t have a good hack for getting the nicely folded laundry into the drawers. But I can say that I love the way the folded laundry keeps our drawers nice and tidy!
This is the easiest hack to get your littles involved in the household tasks. If you love this, give this post a like, comment and be sure to tag me on Instagram if you try this at home!!
I have tried SO many DIY laundry detergents and never liked any of them! I never felt like they go my clothes clean and I hated the boring smell. BUT I finally found one that I LOVE and I’m sharing it with you!
I have been using this for about a month now, so not THAT long but long enough to know if I like it or not. I think my favorite thing is that it makes my clothes feel clean, they come out smelling fresh and it’s so easy to make. Plus, the ingredients come in bulk so you can always keep it on hand and mix up a new batch when you need to.
Making the Switch
I used to be a Tide With a Touch of Downey super fan. I’ll be honest, I still love it but I found that it was making my washing machine super gunky. I was having to wipe away the mold (blah) on the door after every use. It turns out, that even though I was using a small amount, liquid detergents cause more build up in the front loading, high efficiency washers than powder. So I switch to powdered Tide. And then my life came crashing down. Okay, okay, you’re right that’s super hyperbolic, but seriously, I was happy with my laundry detergent and didn’t want to switch. But I found out that I have super, duper sensitive skin and needed to cut the fragrance out of most of my products. Fragrance is super irritating and honestly, probably not that good for any of us. I do buy free and clear laundry detergent when I’m in a pinch but I prefer this, again because it’s powder and better for my washer.
Recipe
I got this recipe from a simple google search. I sifted through tons of recipes but some included grating a bar of soap (ummmm nope, ain’t no one got time for ) or I had tried and just didn’t feel like it was doing the trick. Then I stumbled upon this one, THE one!
This might be the most housewife-y thing I’ve ever written but I really think it’s an interesting topic! Vacuuming.
I used to just use my vacuum to vacuum my carpets and I always wondered if it mattered that I didn’t vacuum those pretty lines in my carpet. But it turns out I use my vacuum for SO many more uses than just vacuum my carpeting.
Bathroom
This blew my mind when I finally started doing this! It always made me crazy that I’d mop my tile floors just to have left over hair and other small pieces of lint that got stuck to the floor. Now, before I start cleaning the bathroom, I vacuum the tile and go through with the crevice tool and hit along the walls and around the toilet. Seriously, this is a game changer!
Refrigerator
I know what you’re thinking, Jenna, you vacuum your refrigerator!!?! And my answer is, yep, yep I sure do and you should too! If you’re a super tidy person, maybe you don’t have to do this, but my fridge always has little pieces of food it in. I want to blame my kids but I think my fridge may looked this way before I had kids too. After I empty my fridge, I go through and suck up all the little bits of dry food with the crevice tool (do you see a pattern of how much I like the crevice too!?!).
Stove/Counter
Okay, if you’re still here reading this crazy blog post, you’ll thank me for this tip! I HATE the small crumbs that fall in that small spot between my counter and my stove. Grab your crevice tool and vacuum away!
Toaster
Seriously, this was a game changer. Why on earth did they make toasters so hard to clean? Before you attempt to vacuum your toaster, make sure it’s unplugged. Once it’s unplugged, stick your crevice tool in there and suck away all the crumbs. Life changing, I promise.
Dryer and Dryer Vent
Dry vent. I just recently realized I could vacuum out the dry vent. I’m not a laundry novice, so I knew I needed to clean out the lint filter screen and dryer housing. But I didn’t realize I needed to vacuum around the lint filter housing. You can also take the dryer venting off the back of your dryer and use your vacuum hose to vacuum inside the venting. Clogged dryer vents are a fire hazard, so be sure to check this a couple times a year.
Broom
This next one gives me some Danny Tanner feels (you get this if you’re a 90s kid) but you can actually clean your broom with a vacuum. My broom tends to collect so much dirt, fuzz and lint and there is NO good way to remove it from the broom head. So a couple times a year, I go ahead and vacuum off my broom. Works like a charm 🙂
Window sills and door tracks
I wipe my window sills and door tracks down when I’m doing a deep clean. It’s shocking how much dirt, dust, stupid little flies and pollen. Before I clean them well with a wet cloth, I always vacuum. It really helps me not just smear the dust/dirt/pollen around.
Mattress
Vacuuming your mattress can actually help keep allergens/dust mites and bed bugs from infesting your bedrooms. In addition, when we sleep, we shed our skin so there are TONS of little pieces of skin on your mattress. Basically, our mattresses are disgusting. I was like 34 years old before I started vacuuming our mattresses. So next time you change your sheets, run your vacuum around the mattress!
Floor Vents
I don’t know about you, but my floor vents seem like MAGNETS for goldfish, small toys like Legos and other random crap. Use your vacuum to clean your vents. One, you can find that missing Lego, but it also helps reduce the amount of dirt/pollen that gets spread through your home.
Carpets
The last, is the most obvious and it’s your carpet! To keep your carpet as clean as you can, you should be vacuuming every other day! Eeek, not gonna lie, I’m lucky if I vacuum once a month.
If you have any questions on any of the tips I shared above, I’d love to hear. If you have another crazy place that you use your vacuum, please feel free to drop it in the comments or message me on Instagram and we can share more tips over there!
