Lately I have been working on cleaning out closets and drawers and eliminating clutter. That is no easy task when I’m certain that at least one (maybe more) of my children will end up on an episode of Hoarders some day!
One thing that I battle is kitchen drawer chaos! We had soooo much stuff just thrown in, and it was hard to even tell what we had, much less find what we needed!
Before: Don’t judge too harshly!
My 13 year old helps with dishes, so his version of unloading the dishwasher includes dumping handfuls of stuff into a drawer without even attempting to sort or organize.
So, after many attempts at fixing the chaos with zero success, I ordered these trays from the Dollar Tree! Super cheap, durable, and they work like a charm! I had priced these at Kroger and they’re literally 7 times the price! The Dollar Tree trays were the same texture, size and weight, so I went with those!
I love these versatile trays!
Now, there is no empty space for him to just chunk things in. It takes two seconds to put things where they belong, the drawer is much nicer and things are easy to find! I think I’m going to order more for the “junk” drawer and the snack drawer!
After: Much better!!!
Share your organization tips with me! What do you use to keep your items clutter free? Comment belo
I’ve been doing some deep cleaning this week and I want to share with you my top 5 cleaning hacks that really work and save time and effort!
My schedule is always full of appointments and kids’ activities and running here, there and everywhere, but my sanity can’t handle a dirty house! So, over the years I have created a schedule of deep cleaning tasks that I spread around throughout the month and do one or two things at a time. This keeps the chores done without taking an entire day to do everything! Let’s be honest. If cleaning my house took an entire day, the house would never be clean and my family would have to check me into the loony bin!
Here are my favorite tips to keep things cleaner longer!
1. Baseboards:
I clean my baseboards with this lavender scented cleaner on a microfiber cloth. Once they’re dry, I wipe with a dryer sheet to keep them cleaner longer! The dryer sheet keeps dust from sticking to the surface and it buys me more time between cleanings! (This trick also works wonders on wood blinds!)
This stuff leaves my house smelling clean for days!
2. Stained showers and tubs:
Last year we bought a house that is 15 years old. That means 15 year old tubs and 15 years worth of stains! It drove me crazy! I used every cleaner from the store that I could find and I also tried all kinds of homemade concoctions. They would get the shower a little cleaner and smelling nice, but the stains wouldn’t go away. This week, I have found the answer! Bleach gel!
I added this stuff to my “subscribe and save” order so I get a little discount, and I always have it on hand. I use it in my toilets, but I have found when I use it in the tub and shower, it eliminates all stains! It also works great to clean light colored tile grout!
(In the photo below, I just squirted it on and let it run and soak. I wanted to be able to show you the difference before and after just one use! What I did to clean the whole shower was squirt it all over and used a scrub brush to smear it around. Then let that set for a while and rinsed. Easy!
This is after no scrubbing! Just squirted and let it run, the rinsed after a few minutes so you could see before and after results!
3. DIY Carpet Cleaner
My rugs get a LOT of wear and tear. Lots of spills and lots of messes! I use a regular fabric and upholstery cleaning spray from the grocery store for spot cleaning, but sometimes it needs a deep clean.
I prefer to shampoo the rugs ever so often but my shampooer recently played out, so I have found a new way to deep clean them!
This combo will leave your carpets clean and smelling fresh!
The borax and baking soda sanitize and deodorize, the oxy clean helps with any stains, and the scent boosters make it smell so good for a few days after I clean them this way!
I sprinkle the entire rug with the detergent and I use plain white vinegar in a spray bottle to dampen the rug.
I let this set for an hour or so. (I have to do this during nap time to keep little feet off the rugs!)
The I use my Dyson vacuum cleaner and vacuum the entire area a couple of times to make sure I got all of the detergent up. It smells and looks great!
4. Shower maintenance:
Once I get the stains out of the shower, I keep them out by using a scrubber like this.
I keep one of these in each shower for easy maintenance!
I keep the scrubber filled with the lavender cleaner mentioned above in my shower, and each day when I’m getting out of the shower, I will scrub around the edges and any dirty spots and rinse. This keeps any dirt and stains from setting in and keeps things nice and clean!
5. Microwave
With kids who use the microwave often and don’t cover their food, we have splatters and messes often!
Cleanup is a breeze! I fill a bowl with half water and half white vinegar and microwave for 60 seconds.
I order this from Dollar Tree for only $1! I love cleaning with vinegar!
I then wipe clean with a microfiber cloth.
Easy peasy!
What are your easy cleaning tips?!
Share in the comments below!
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With five kids in my house and two of them younger than school age, we always have an abundance of toys! It can be such a pain to keep everything organized and cleaned up, and if I’m being totally transparent, on the weekends I don’t even try.
That’s why the 6 & 3 year old bedroom looks like THIS! No, don’t worry, there weren’t tornados in Arkansas this weekend, this is just what a few kids can do over the course of a few days!
Where’s the floor?
Chaos!
On week days, I have a pretty consistent routine. We do our morning activities, play, and then pick up toys before nap. Then after nap, we play and do our afternoon activities, but we pick up toys before bed.
On the weekends, it’s pretty much a free for all and the kids feel the need to dump out everything they own!
This is why my Monday morning routine is so important! That is the day where I take the kids to school, do my usual morning chores, and then I clean the kids’ rooms so we have a good start to the week. By looking at those pictures, you’d think it’s hours worth of work, but it’s really not and it is all because of our toy organization.
Every single thing has a place. There are bins for barbies, bins for trains, bins for stuffed animals…and so on. With that being said, the after results aren’t perfect! Not even close! My end goal is a clean place with space for the kids to be able to play without clutter. My house is far from perfect and could use a good purge, but we try to keep it somewhat together!
Because each thing does have a specific place, I cleaned this entire room, changed sheets, dusted the furniture and fan in under 25 minutes and I’ll walk through how I did it!
First I start at the doorway on my hands and knees. I seriously use my hands and rake ALLLLLL those toys towards the closet!
Everything has been pushed to the closet!
Once I make my way to the closet, I can start with the closest items to me and I start putting each thing it it’s proper bin.
Although it looks like a lot, this part takes me around 5-6 minutes, depending on how much they’ve pulled out.
We use a bin like this for stuffed animals that is actually made for duck hunting, but it works great to hold our ever-growing pile of stuffed critters! A hamper, pop up bin, or anything would work. Just find something that will fit your space.
Too many stuffed animals!
We also use one of these shelving units with canvas bins for toy organization. It isn’t very expensive, easy to assemble, and keeps items separated by type.
Canvas bins to hold ALL the things!
I also keep a basket next to me and if I find anything that doesn’t belong in this room, I toss it in the basket and will distribute where it all goes after this room is done.
My little “helper” pulling out what I’m putting away!
After the toys are put away, I strip the beds and spray with Odo-Ban, sprinkle with a little lavender baby powder, and put clean sheets on.
I then dust the fan and furniture and vacuum.
All finished!
Much better!
ALL DONE!
In less than 25 minutes! Nowhere close to perfect, but perfect enough for this wild crew!
Truthfully, I probably shouldn’t take this long, but I had a little helper who kept pulling things out as I put them away! Also, if I stuck to my week day routine during the weekend, there wouldn’t be such a mess on Monday, but for now this is what works for us!
(This post contains Amazon affiliate links to help you find items that I find useful and helpful in our home. When you purchase using these links, it helps fund this site at no additional cost to you!)
As a momma of five incredibly nasty…I mean precious children, laundry is a big deal. It’s always there! Even when I have tackled it all and the basket is empty, it’s a guarantee there will be something else dirty and waiting to be washed in less than 5 minutes!
Laundry soap is a big expense for my family…or it used to be!
Now I make my own laundry soap. It’s stronger and more effective than standard detergent and it works well in my HE machines and it’s way cheaper!
I’m sure that sounds like a huge undertaking but seriously it’s not at all! It’s super easy, takes me about 10 minutes, and lasts us more than a year, even after washing for our large family, plus sharing jars of detergent with some of our family members.
I start with a box of Borax, a box of washing soda, a bar of fels naptha laundry soap, a bar of zote, a pound of oxy clean, a container of fabric scent booster of your choosing, and a box of baking soda.
I use a hand grater to grate my bars of soap into flakes, and this does save money with a small time investment and a little elbow grease, or you could forego the bars of soap and add soap flakes.
I pour all of the ingredients into a large plastic container with a lid and shake and stir until well incorporated.
My fancy mixing container!
(this fancy one used to hold those nasty little cheese balls my kids love!)
For a high efficiency washer with normal clothing, 1 tablespoon is enough for a load. If the clothes are heavily soiled, I will use 2 tablespoons and add some color safe bleach.
Finished mixed product
I also use vinegar as my fabric softener to cut costs and it disinfects the clothing and leaves them soft and smelling clean!
Ingredients:
1 Box Borax
1 Box Washing Soda (I buy THIS combo from Amazon when I’m pressed for time and don’t want another trip to the store!)
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Have you made laundry detergent before? Share your tips with me in the comments!
