Image source: http://www.greenchildmagazine.com/cleaning-for-a-healthy-home/ It’s been said time and again; there’s no place like home. It is our sanctuary, our safe haven and a place in which we feel most comfortable. Therefore, a home needs to be maintained and treated with respect for all that ...
Image Source: http://tidymom.net/ No one likes to use a dirty bathroom, nor does anyone like to clean one. So tip number one is to not let your bathroom reach a state where it grosses you out. This means you need to use the rest of our squeaky clean bathroom cleaning tips regularly so that your ...
So your friends just called you.. and now you've got 1 hour to clean your home up. Because lets be straightforward honest here. Even though we always try our best to dust our homes, vacuum, and organise our homes on a daily basis. Life just sometimes get in the way of that, or sometimes we get lazy ...
Being a mum is no easy task, but no doubt a very rewarding role. Each and every day, any mummy record the details of her little ones lives in her memory or note every minor milestone in a scrapbook. But since the uprising of the digital age and with smartphones becoming ever-so popular, mummy's have ...
Image source: http://www.greenchildmagazine.com/cleaning-for-a-healthy-home/
It’s been said time and again; there’s no place like home. It is our sanctuary, our safe haven and a place in which we feel most comfortable. Therefore, a home needs to be maintained and treated with respect for all that they bless us with. With that said, the first thing that comes to mind is keeping it clean. After all, a dirty home is not a happy home; and in some cases, can pretty much be a health hazard!
Are you looking around and wondering if your home is indeed a clean and healthy home, or verging on being a health hazard? To help you figure that out, here is some information on what a clean, healthy home is and why it matters.
1. Do you see dust or dirt anywhere?
Look at your furniture, the corners of your floors and the ceiling. Even if you live in an area off the main road or away from muddy, dusty surroundings, chances are you will find dust settled in your home. This is because some of the dust found in our homes is made up of dead skin cells. Either way, dust and dirt are major causes of allergies, skin rashes or irritation and other related health problems. So, the first thing you need to do is maintain a dust-free home by wiping furniture, vacuuming floors and removing any cobwebs from the ceiling. You could also hire a house cleaning service if you are strapped for time.
2. Have you let mold build up in the bathroom?
A bathroom is generally left wet and damp; a setting mold and mildew live for. A dirty bathroom encourages mold and germ buildup and becomes a welcoming place for creepy crawlies. The next thing you know is you’re brushing your teeth, showering and doing your business in a bathroom filled with bacteria, mold and the occasional multiple-legged visitor – MAJOR health hazards! Use an all purpose bathroom cleaner to clean your floors, faucets and other bathroom fixtures thoroughly. Don’t leave out the toilet bowl; use a good toilet brush and special liquid cleaner to scrub the bowl clean. To help keep your bathroom clean, try to rinse the floor with water after you shower and use a squeegee to push the water into the drain. Also, open the window slats after using it to allow the room to air out and dry faster.
3. Is your kitchen immaculate?
No, it’s not an exaggeration to keep an immaculate kitchen, it’s a necessity! This is where we cook our meals, store our food and some of us even eat. How can we expect to maintain a healthy home when we’re cooking food and eating in a dirty environment? Spilt food on your gas stove, stale food in your refrigerator, dust or dirt on your floors and crumbs on your counter-top are all signs of an unhealthy kitchen. Get to cleaning Never leave the kitchen dirty overnight because that’s when you find cockroaches and vermin joining you for a midnight snack. If you have clutter and junk everywhere, a rubbish collection service could be of tremendous help in getting your home and kitchen cleaned.
4. Is bedtime dread time?
Have you let your bedroom get so dirty and messy that you no longer want to sleep there? Or maybe you have cleaned up but aren’t sure if it’s enough to qualify as a healthy living environment. Look for dust and dirt in places like under your bed, behind the dresser or above your closet. If you do in fact find dust bunnies, you know what to do. It’s advisable to keep the underneath of your bed and top of your closet free from shoes, boxes and other items. By storing things out in the open, you are promoting dust build-up and creating an unhealthy environment. Store your belongings in cabinets and drawers; the lesser items you have lying around, the lesser you will have to clean.
5. Got an un-livable living room?
Apart from keeping it clean for the wellbeing of you and your family, the living room is also a place where you entertain guests; so it is not only your health, but also your reputation at stake! Wipe the furniture and clean the floors regularly because you never know when you’ll have a surprise visitor. Moreover, we often use the living room to eat, use our laptops or play family games; basically we bring in things that aren’t supposed to be there. If you don’t put things back in place and avoid regular cleaning, you’re left with a cluttered, unhealthy and un-livable living room.
Image Source: http://tidymom.net/
No one likes to use a dirty bathroom, nor does anyone like to clean one. So tip number one is to not let your bathroom reach a state where it grosses you out. This means you need to use the rest of our squeaky clean bathroom cleaning tips regularly so that your ‘bathroom time’, is a happy time.
Tip One: Throw away any empty tubes or bottles sitting on the shelves and window sill. It’s common to find unused products lying around our bathroom for months, so get rid of those too. De-cluttering instantly makes your bathroom look cleaner.
Tip Two: Keep all your bathroom essentials aside, put your gloves on and you’re ready to start cleaning surfaces. An all-purpose bathroom cleaner works best for this and is also the most convenient option. Simply spray the surfaces, sink, faucets and other fixtures, and start scrubbing. Use a mildly abrasive scrub for wiping off hardened dirt and stains from the sink and granite surfaces.
Tip Three: For the floor, bathtub and shower space, spray the area with a good amount of all-purpose cleaner and allow it to stand for 10-15 minutes. The standing time does half the work for you by loosening up and dissolving the grime and dirt on surfaces and between tiles. For the tub and shower fixtures, you can use an abrasive scrubbing pad, while the tiles can be rid of all grout and grime by using a bathroom bristle brush.
Tip Four: Pour a liquid toilet cleaning agent in and around the interior of the toilet bowl and wait for 10 minutes before you start cleaning. For best results, make sure the bristles of your toilet brush are not worn out or smashed. Remember, the longer you allow the cleaning liquid to stand, the less force you will need to use when cleaning.
Tip Five: Clean the rim, seat, lid and tank of the toilet using an all-purpose bathroom cleaning spray and abrasive scrub. Again, allow the cleaning agent to stand for a few minutes before you start scrubbing.
Do this on a regular basis and you’ll have a squeaky clean bathroom all the time!
So your friends just called you.. and now you’ve got 1 hour to clean your home up. Because lets be straightforward honest here. Even though we always try our best to dust our homes, vacuum, and organise our homes on a daily basis. Life just sometimes get in the way of that, or sometimes we get lazy and the home gets slightly messy.
Well don’t you worry. I’ve got some quick tips on how you could make your home seem cleaner than it really is.
1. Clean Dishes
Always ensure the dishes are washed. Doing the dishes shouldn’t take much of your time. This is supposed to be among your first cleaning priorities.
A clean house with dirty dishes can’t be considered as really clean. During the instances in which you lack time to do so, ensure that the dirty dishes are hidden away in the dishwasher.
2. Well-Made Bed
Ascertain that your bed is always made. Nothing else would tidy up your bedroom like a nicely put-together bed. Don’t you deserve a cozy bed to fall onto when winding up an exhausting day? Definitely, you do.
3. Clean Bathroom
This ought to be an absolute must, of all areas that should be cleaned. If you’re going to be vigilant regarding the cleanliness of any one room in your house, let that room be the bathroom. You’ll feel way more comfortable in it. Your guests will really appreciate it.
4. Don’t Draw Attention to Less Clean Places
I’d consider this as the most important of all. Never draw attention to or apologise for those lesser clean places in your house. Always greet your guests with an open-arms attitude and a smile. They’ll focus on your winsome attitude, rather than the fury couch.
Barely anyone will really notice that your shelves are dusted, your laundry is done, or your carpet is vacuumed- unless you’re wearing the same shirt they saw you in the other night.
Try implementing the above five tips for a clean house deception’ into your daily routine. They’ll come in handy especially when thorough cleaning and washing has fallen to the wayside in lieu of various other priorities.
Being a mum is no easy task, but no doubt a very rewarding role. Each and every day, any mummy record the details of her little ones lives in her memory or note every minor milestone in a scrapbook. But since the uprising of the digital age and with smartphones becoming ever-so popular, mummy’s have also learned to adapt and become tech-savvy. Hence its only natural that mummy blogs have started to emerge.
Anyways, here are my top 5 choices of mummy blogs that you might enjoy:
1. https://www.stayathomemum.com.au/
I love this blog because it provides great tips on just about every topic you could think of. Everything from being frugal, weight loss, cleaning, parenting and even shares ‘working from home’ ideas. If you’re a mother, like me, you’ll find some great practical information that you could use as a mum.
2. http://theorganisedhousewife.com.au/
Katrina is the writer over at the organised housewife. She shares tips and ideas on practical housekeeping and keeping a organised family. She blogs about her journey on how she manages her family and the reality of motherhood in an inspiring way.
3. http://laughingkidslearn.com/
Kate is a primary school teacher and a mother of two little girls, nicknamed ‘possum’ and ‘boo’. Kate shares fun and creative activities on educating children through play. The ideas she shares on the page inspires both parents and teachers on playful learning.
4. http://threelilprincesses.com/
Kellie blogs about the daily lives of her two princesses in a very fun and witty way. She is a former journalist whom now shares “interesting” parenting experiences. She also has written an ebook about her struggles through pregnancy and motherhood.
Image taken from mothernatured.com
Penny Whitehouse, the author at mothernatured blog. She promotes ideas on fostering children in the nature world. She inspires other parents to bring wildlife and the great outdoors into their children’s lives. She shares great fun, creative and crafty activities ways to incorporate learning about wildlife and nature.
Having a clean home doesn’t always mean a lot of hard work and a lot of expenses. Let’s start cleaning your home by first going to the kitchen – the most abused part of a house. This is work, but you don’t need to think it’s arduous by breaking the huge kitchen into manageable parts. Bring out your cleaning gears; add your favorite cleaning music playlist – on your way to the kitchen area to get started.
1. The microwave: There’s a fast and easy way to clean the microwave. Put a clean wet rag or towel inside; heat the oven for 3 minutes. The steam works to soften the baked dirt ingrained in the interior surface. Wait for the rag to cool down before using it in wiping off the dirt. Make the outer surface clean with dry or dump cloth depending on the dirt present on it. One task in a breeze!
2. The Stove: It is important to clean the gas or electric stove regularly to get rid of seated stains and splatters from cooking. Wash the burners with soap and warm water or put them in the dishwasher. Of course electric burners need manual cleaning but just the same wipe dirt off with a sponge moist with soap; rinse the sponge and wipe them again.
3. The Sink: A stainless sink is so easy to maintain. Start cleaning by pouring hot water around the sink to flush oil. Remove all particles left in it. Using your favorite stainless steel cleanser and a nonabrasive rag, rub the entire sink until thoroughly clean. Don’t just stop there! Use an old toothbrush to clean the faucet and the sink hole with its drainer using the same cleanser. Don’t forget the outer part of the sink but it is usually less dirty. Wipe-dry everything and make it shine!
4. The Counter Top: For easy and fast cleaning of your granite counter top, remove all things from there; or at least move heavy things on one side so that you can work on the other side with easy access to hard-to-reach parts. Wash with mixed soap & warm water to detach all dried stains using a soft non-fibrous cloth. Use baking soda if your regular granite cleaner product won’t erase all the mess. After stains are cleaned off, dry and buff the granite counter to make it shine.
5. Stainless Steel Cookware: If cooking has hardened food in your stainless steel pan, don’t scratch it with sharp materials like knife or spoon. Soak in hot water mixed with dish washing soap. Let it stand until the crust is soft; about 5 hours or more and scrub the buildup using a scouring pad but not sharp pads like steel wool to prevent scratches on the cookware. After cleaning, dry it to shine using a soft cloth.
6. The Kitchen Floor: suggest that tile flooring is the best used in kitchens because it’s durable and wet proof. Remove all dirt using the typical broom or vacuum cleaner. Use warm water to mop off stubborn dirt or simply wet mop for simple dirt. Do it by sections by regularly rinsing the mop. When the floor doesn’t need mopping, just wipe with a dry dusting rag over to make it shiny.
Just a Word
There are products that may be stocked in your kitchen that you can use in cleaning; the vinegar, baking soda, salt, lemons, etc. These are greener items that will provide the gloss and shine to certain parts and utensils in your kitchen. Knowing how to use them will save you money.
You know how kids are. No matter how many times you’ve warned them or threatened to take away their games. They just won’t listen sometimes. These are a two problematic messes that I’ve come across from my little ones and how I dealt with it:
Chewing gum
I don’t know about others, but when I was young. I loved chewing gum. But just like me, my kids also love chewing gum. This is fine and all, but it can get really messy at times. It sometimes goes in their hair, sofa’s and even the car!
If you find your kids leaving that chewy mess everywhere too, not to fret. I’ve got some ideas for you. If it gets in your kids hair or any upholstery, try rubbing some ice on it until it becomes really hard. It will become easier to remove since its no so sticky anymore. If any gum remains on your upholstery, try brushing it away using a soft brush, detergent and water.
Crayons on the walls
Every parent struggles with this. If you give your kids crayons it’ll end up on your walls whether you like it or not. If it does happen to you, don’t stress. Here are two ways I’ve used to that worked like a charm:
Baking soda: Just grab a damp rag or disposable towel, dip it in with some baking soda, and lightly rub away the crayon from the wall. You should see some results with some small effort.
Pencil eraser: Just grab the eraser and try to remove the marks.
