Spring Cleaning

OK ladies and gentlemen I am about to share my dirty little secret with you all....I have the messiest closets on the planet. I am terrible about throwing it in and thinking I will deal with this later, then it all piles up and I can't bring myself to start working on any of it. Well today I decided I had had enough and I was going to get it cleaned up.

Here is a picture of my laundry room storage area. This is where all bulk items are stored as well as my bread maker, mop, broom, and vacuum cleaner....you can see it is quite a state!

And here is the finished product....yes I know it doesn't look that different but it makes everything so much easier to find.

Now on to the REALLY messy part of my house...the garage storage area. This is where EVERYTHING goes. From holiday decorations, garden stuff, the kids outdoor play stuff, you get the idea. (yes I am horrified by this picture)

After 2 hours of cleaning and lots of "help" from the kiddos here is the after pic....

MUCH BETTER! I showed it to hubby and he said it was very nice "but lets see how long it stays this way" now he is not trying to be mean he just knows me! Lol, I am really going to try here folks to keep it this way. All the random holiday and baby stuff got taken upstairs to join the rest of the holiday and baby stuff I still have to work on that closet and I may put up a picture of that one as well once I get it finished.

I'm a busy little bee over here!

Well all the festivities are over and I have to say I am glad. I need a break from all the hub-bub and drama for a while!

I am happy to say that my garden is actually growing and looking pretty healthy if I do say so myself :D My zucchini are taking off like you would not believe, as are my cucumbers. My onions and tomatoes just sprouted and are tiny but growing well. I think that the only thing left is the bell peppers and they are taking their sweet time to sprout, I am starting to wonder if they are ever going to come up! My strawberry actually has about 4-5 white berries on it so we shall see if I get to them before the birds do.

I just made the best homemade french bread for dinner, it was so soft and light that I ate about 1/2 of it! LOL! I am happy to say that I won a bread maker on eBay for quite the bargain. Now I know that a "real" crunch mama would continue to make bread by hand but I am a tried mama! With 6 kids in the house under the age of 5 I really don't have the time to do all the kneading and transferring that is needed to make bread from scratch every day. After all you can only rely on the supervisory skills of a 4yr old so much before a catastrophe occurs. So this is my compromise with myself. I will continue to save money by making bread at home I will just be doing it using the bread machine. I am very excited for it to get here!

I also received the cloth napkins I ordered off eBay yesterday and have started cutting them down into smaller sizes for use on our table. I have about 5 done so I am happy to say we are now through using paper napkins!

Kitty litter wise I have to admit I am a complete failure at making my own litter. It was easy to do and the kitty did use it but it just took so darn long to do it! So in the interest of saving myself a little time and energy I have gone back to pre-packaged litter....gasp! My compromise towards being green was that I am not using the clay litter or the crystals anymore, instead I am using the recycled newspaper. For $2.11 a week I am happy to have all the work done for me!

My next project is going to be finding a natural household odor neutralizer. With 2 kids that still wet the bed and lose used Goodnights (YUCK) plus a kitty box just down the hall this house is starting to smell very unattractive! Bry says he can't smell it but I think he just says that so he can get out of helping clean. I use baking soda and EO on the carpets but I need something that I can leave out all the time to absorb the smells on a daily basis. We shall see what I find.

I think that is all my latest news and drama. Hope you guys are having a wonderful weekend!

Cleaning Supplies

Thought I would share some of my favorite recipes for cleaning supplies:

Powdered Laundry Detergent- Top load machine
1 Ivory soap bar1 Cup Washing Soda½ Cup Borax
¼ Cup Oxyclean
-Grate soap or break into pieces and process in a food processor until powdered. Mix all ingredients. For light load, use 1 Tablespoon. For heavy or heavily soiled load, use 2 Tablespoons. Yields: 3 Cups detergent. (Approx. 40 loads)

All Purpose Spray –
1/2 water, 1/2 white vinegar, 20 drops of essential oil (I like orange)

Dishwasher Powder-
1C borax
1C baking soda
1/4C salt (I used sea salt)
1/4C citric acid (I used 2 packets of unsweetened Lemonade Kool-Aid... has to be lemonade and un-sweeted or you'll dye your dishwasher.)
30 drops citrus essential oil (but I didn't add this to my mixture)
*put it all in a container and use 1T in each cup per load