Spring Cleaning

I’ve definitely been having the urge to purge this Spring.  There are all these little things that I want to do around the house whether it be organize, clean, giveaway, etc.  I’m working on trying to do it little by little.  As I’ve been trying to clean, I’ve had to look up handy, dandy little tricks to help me along the way.  I thought I would share them with all of you in case they might help you around the house too :).  So here they are:

:: Homemaker Tips ::

How To Remove Lipstick From Wine Glasses

We kept looking in our bar at all of our wine glasses and noticing that they all still locked dirty.  I thought I washed them well making sure to clean the rim and loved using our baby bottle brush to get a full clean in the glass.  The truth was that it was still leaving lip prints on the rim.

Take a flour cloth or just a paper towel with a dap of white vinegar on it and wipe the entire rim.   It’s amazing and takes the lipstick off immediately. Then proceed to clean the rest of the glass as usual.  As I mentioned above, I like to use our baby bottle brush.  It fits in the glasses (including champagne flutes) perfectly.

How To Clean A Front Loader Washing Machine

Ugh…This one totally grosses me out.  I swear I will never have another front loader.  We’ve had two in a row now and mainly because I was adamant that we needed the folding space in our small laundry room.  Now I see all the mold that grows in it and I’m totally disgusted.  Our laundry room is small and narrow, so we’ve done a terrible job of letting it air out by keeping the door open.  I’ve been working on trying to keep it cleaner and remove all the nasty mold that builds up on the rubber and around the drum.  Here’s my best cleaning solution that we’ve used:

Soak a white towel in a 50:50 mixture of bleach and warm water and let it sit on the mold for an hour or so. Then wipe out the gaskets. Throw the dirty bleach soaked towels in the drum and run a wash cycle on the hottest cycle you have.

Pour two cups of vinegar into the drum and run another hot cycle. Next wipe the machine’s exterior with a 50:50 mix of white vinegar and water. It should be nice and clean now!

To prevent future mold, try to keep your washing machine door open.  I have also used these Affresh cleaners in the washing machine, but I think you still have to do a thorough clean like this too.

How To Make Your Towels Smell Fresh Again

We’ve had the worst time with dingy, stinky towels!! I kind of blame it on my husband because a lot of times he will throw a load of towel in the washer and I don’t know about it and then he leaves it there for hours (or overnight) and next thing we know, we have the worst smelling towels.  So, I’ve been determined to try to find a solution for this.

Here’s the trick: Wash your towels in hot water with one cup of vinegar (only) in the dispenser. Wash towels in hot water again with 1/2 cup of baking soda in the drum. Throw them in the dryer and enjoy your fresh towels!

How To Plant an Herb Garden

This is somewhat simple, but I do attempt to plant one every year and I feel like this year is my best one EVER.  I usually go for a smaller pot that I keep on our back porch and they inevitably die! Every.year.  But this time I brought in the help of an expert and he recommended that I use a large whiskey barrel looking pot from Home Depot ($39) and plant all of my new herbs in that (try to look for the larger potted herbs instead of the small ones that they sell at Home Depot or Lowe’s).  I bought a big bag of Miracle Grow Potting Soil (my favorite) and began planting my herbs.  I think the best part about this pot is that I put it in our yard so it will get a good amount of sun, rain and be hit by our sprinkles.   So this time, if I forget to water it for a day; they may still have a chance of living!

I’ve enjoyed cutting my fresh herbs for recipes I’ve cooked all week long.  It makes such a difference and definitely makes me feel proud 🙂

How To De-tarnish All Your Silver

I have a horrible time keeping Silver polished.  Whether it is jewelry, serving pieces or sweet little baby cups.  I love this quick solution to de-tarnish a bunch of silver all at one time!

De-tarnish all your silver at once: Line your sink with aluminum foil, add 1/2 cup table salt, 1/2 cup baking soda, fill with hot water, then dump in all your silver! Let sit for about 30 min. The tarnish all transfers to the foil!  Now you’re ready for the party 🙂

Our Herb Barrel 

{Parsley, Rosemary, Cilantro, Thyme, Basil and Kentucky Mint}

Our Nasty Front Loader Washing Machine

Fresh White Towels

via

Cleaning Your Wine Glasses

De-Tarnish Your Silver

What is your BEST homemaker tip????

Linking up with April, Christina, and Natasha, Amanda ,Farmer Bell , Momfessionals ,Bright on a Budget