Car Freshener

My sister sent me a DIY for a car freshener that she saw in her Doterra magazine, so a few weeks ago I gave it a try

It's very simple: Put a few drops of lavender oil into 1 cup of baking soda and mix it up.  Using a sifter, pour the mixture onto the floor and seats of your car.  Wait for an hour then vacuume it up.

I got my lavender and baking soda, put it into a container with a lid and shook it up.  Now of course when shaking a container, you have to do some sort of dance. Fortunately for us all, I don't have any documentation of my 'mixing up the oil and baking soda' dance. 

 I don't have a sifter, so I poured the mixture into my hand and tried to use my fingers as the sifter.  It looked more like my 2 year old grabbed handfuls of the stuff and tossed it all over the car.

 The cup covered two seats, the floor of the driver seat and the entire floor on the back.  I'm sure it would have gone farther if I was property sifting it. 

It said to wait an hour, but my hour turned into 90 min.  Why you ask?  Because I have two children who have this 6th sense that tells them to play nicely by themselves or with each other whenever I have free time, but the seconed I have something to do they suddently need me and demand my attention. At one point things went like this.
 My daughter saw me walking to the garage and said:
"mom, what you newing?"
"I'm going to vacuume the car"
"NOOOOOO" she crouched down and covered her face with her hands.  This is a new move for her, and it's pretty fun to watch this overly dramatic display of emotion.
me:"it's ok, I'll be back really soon"
"NOOOOO" she then raced over and latched herself onto my leg. 

At this point my son wanted in on the game and he started giving me the third degree;
"mom, I have been waiting and WAITNG for you to play school with me" *said in the most pitiful pouty voice imaginable* (apparently he forgot that we had spent 30 min playing school right before I threw the baking soda all over the car)

Thus I found myself having to use a crow bar to pry a drama queen off my leg while simultaneously arguing with a 4 year old.

So here we are at the 90 min mark.  I went out to vacuum my car, then vacuume it again.  Then got really annoyed that my car looked like this. 

The baking soda had found little patches of moisture and latched onto them with a vengeance.  Knowing that my time was limited before I found myself surrounded by the traveling duo of drama queens, I got a rag, wiped up what I could and called it good.

The Verdict: My car smelled great.  It was a very mild, fresh lavender scent.  However, it didn't last long.  I did it on a Thursday night and by Sunday morning I could no longer smell it.  I basically got 2 full days of a nice smelling car.  That's it!  Two days. All that drama and work for only 2 days?  No thank you.

So here I am 0 for 2 with air fresheners.  Maybe my home to just destined to smell like butt paste and my car like moldy food lurking between the seats.

Tile Grout

I'm starting to get requests, I feel so loved.

A couple of people have asked about a good tile grout cleaner.  I'll have to admit, this is something I have NEVER thought of.   I think I've had magical blinders on that never let me see the grout in the homes we have lived in. Naturally, having a request for grout blew up those blinders.  *BOOM*

I walked to the entry way and looked down.

Then I went to look at the tile in the shower



My grout was pretty horrifying.  Time to take action.

I went to my old friend, the Internet, and started to look up tile grout cleaner.  Baking soda and water are a common theme so I decided to try that.
But of course I can't just try one, I have to find out what the best is.  So I decided to try this one also;

Grout Cleaner
7 cups water
1/2 cup baking soda
1/3 cup ammonia (or lemon juice)
 and 1/4 cup vinegar

I don't have ammonia, so I used the lemon juice. And I halved the recipe because 8 cups of a cleaner seemed like a lot

Then  decided I wanted a third option and came up with my own concoction of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.

I started with the baking soda and water.  I mixed them together until I had a nice paste, then I used a stiff finger nail brush to scrub the grout.

I didn't have to scrub long to see that it was working.  My paste was turning to a nice gray color.  I let it sit for a few minutes. Then scrubbed a bit more before using a wet sponge to clean it off. 

Then I tried the mixture with the lemon juice in it.  It was very runny and the mixture kept trying to escape it's fate of being shoved into years of dirt.
I did the same thing as before, I scrubbed, let it sit, scrubbed again, then washed with a sponge.

I then tried the baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.  I mixed the two until I had a nice paste then started on the same cleaning routine I had done on the previous two.

Usually when I clean I listen to pod casts,  but I had left my ipod upstairs and was to lazy to get it.  So instead of being intellectually stimulated while cleaning, I let my mind wonder, and when my mind wonders things get very random. 
It went something like this

*singing* grout, grout, cleaning the grout
grout is a funny word
grout
grout
grout
gaaarout
GAAAAArout
grOUT
Steeerike your grOUTTA here
grout
grout
grrrrrout
They're grrrrrout
I wonder what happened to Tony the Tiger

These are the intellectual workings of a stay at home mom who needs to read more non-fiction and less Pooh Bear.

I let the grout dry for 2 hours before I went back to see the results.

Baking Soda and water

Lemon Juice mixture.

Baking soda and hydrogen peroxide

 

 The verdict: I know that these 'after' photos don't show much of a difference but there is.  The lemon juice mixture worked, but not as well as the others.  Plus, It was really annoying to use because of how liquidy it was. It was a close tie between the two baking soda mixtures but the baking soda with water was a little bit whiter, which surprised me. 

But how do these mixtures work on grout in the shower? Lets find out shall we? 

The nice thing about the tile grout was that the results were instant.  I didn't have to wait for the grout to dry to see what the best cleaner was.

I started with the baking soda and water.  I made a paste, used the same nail brush and stared to scrub. 

  

It didn't take much scrubbing for the grout to get clean. 

Then I did the lemon mixture.  Because it was so runny it was hard to get it on the wall and I didn't have a clean spray bottle handy.  So I pored some onto the nail scrubber and on the wall then scrubbed as fast as I could before the cleaner made a break for it.

 

It worked, but not well.

 

Finally, the baking soda and peroxide.  I made a paste and scrubbed.  

It didn't take much effort to get it clean.

The verdict:  It's pretty close between both of the baking soda mixtures, but I would say the baking soda with the hydrogen peroxide got the grout a little bit cleaner, but that might just be me being biased since it was my own mixture.

So thank you ladies for the request, my grout looks very clean.  And now I'm off for a late night snack because for some reason I am craving Frosted Flakes.

Headlight Cleaner

For a long time my husband and I washed our cars at a car wash, which was fine by me.  Then one day my husband came home and announced that we should wash our own cars in the driveway to save money, which was fine by me.

But then he went to the auto store to get cleaning supplies, which was not fine by me.  My husband likes the best of the best so it was no surprise that he came home with 5 star cleaning supplies that cost more then many trips to the car wash.

One of the things he came home with was a headlight lens restorer.  This amazing product cleans dull yellowed headlight lenses.  Why replace when you can restore!

Now, I don't blame him for buying that, our headlight lens were looking pretty dull and yellow, but he obviously hadn't heard of the toothpaste trick.

Using toothpaste to clean headlights is a DIY that I had heard about several times through out the years, but had never tried. After we ran out of the 'amazing must have headlight lens restorer,' I decided to try the toothpaste.

Instructions
using a rag, rub toothpaste all over the headlight until the dirt comes off
clean off the toothpaste with a wet rag

So here is the before shot of the dull yellowed headlight.  Or as I like to call it, the boring chicken headlight, badum tish!

Moving on.... I grabbed one of the million toothpaste samples I have that seem to multiply in my house for some unknown reason, and grabbed an old rag. 

I started to rub the toothpaste on the lens in a circular motion, and naturally I had to say "wax on, wax off" while doing this. (Admit it, you just heard Mr. Miyagi's voice in your head) I couldn't see dirt coming off so I had no idea if the boring chicken was turning into a comedian hawk.  So I just rubbed for a couple minutes until the toothpaste started to get a little dry. I then got a wet rag and it wiped right off.

The verdict: It worked great.  The headlight is so clean now. Look at these before and after photos. 

By the way, the lovely dent you see in the hood..... this is my husbands car. As in, a Man's car, not a Woman's car. So please check your women driver jokes at the door. 
But in his defense, a deer jumped out in front of him.  We assume the deer is fine.

Single Serving of Mac and Cheese

My kids use to be macaroni and cheese snobs.  The only kind that they would eat was the single serving Velveeta kind.

Even though I had no hopes of them eating it, I decided to attempt a single serving mac and cheese recipe I found here.

The ingredient list is short, which I was pretty happy about.

Instant Mug o' Mac and Cheese
1/3 cup pasta
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup 1% milk
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Now lets look at the instructions. For such a small list of ingredients, the instructions are surprisingly high-maintenance.  The red lettering are my thoughts:

Combine the pasta and water in a large mug or bowl. Microwave on high for two minutes, then stir. A lot of times the water will overflow while it heats up. It is OK if this happens. (easy for you to say, you're not the one cleaning it up) If you don’t want it to overflow just make this in a very large microwaveable bowl. Repeat this for at least 2 to 4 more minutes, stirring at each 2-minute interval. (So your saying I have to get a hot boiling-over mug out of the microwave, stir it, put it back in, and repeat. I don't think you know what the definition of 'instant' is) The water should absorb completely and the pasta will be cooked through. If the pasta needs another minute it is okay to add one more teaspoon of water and microwave for another minute.  My pasta cooked through in 4 minutes every time, but my microwaves tends to be very powerful. (show-off) Remove it from the microwave and stir in the milk and cheese. Microwave for another minute.(my microwave now thinks I'm schizophrenic from all the turning on and off and pulling the mugs in and out) Stir the cheese thoroughly into the pasta and eat up!

These instructions were not giving me a lot of confidence, but I went ahead and tried it. I got the biggest mugs I have to try and stop the boiling over part. I couldn't use a 'very large microwaveable bowl' because I was making two single size servings and two large bowls wouldn't fit in the microwave.  Why didn't I just combine them both into a 'very large microwavable bowl' you ask?  Because then they wouldn't be single serving size, duh!
Aaaaaaand because I didn't think of that until later.

Ok, lets get started

Water...... check
noodles......check

boiling over........ big check

Well, at least the microwave was already dirty

But hey, the final product actually turned out good and the kids ate it.

The verdict: two thumbs way down.  Instant mac and cheese is suppose to be easy. If I'm going to make it I don't want to sit by the microwave and babysit it.  Plus, it didn't take 4 minutes to cook, it took 8 (I guess my Steve Urkel microwave is no match for her Schwarzenegger microwave.) It was very annoying to keep pulling those mugs in and out of the microwave to stir them every 2 minutes.

Save yourself some time and mess. Just boil the noodles on the stove, drain the water and throw in some milk and cheese to your liking.

As a side note, my kids new favorite mac and cheese is macaroni with Parmesan cheese, and nothing else.  It's so easy to make and they love it.

Getting Crayon Off The Walls

6 months ago my husband bought the kids some window markers.  These are markers that are specifically designed to use on glass surfaces without smearing.  Those things are HORRIBLE! They left a film of ink that took several tries of scrubbing to get it off which stained every towel I used.
But worse then that is ever since then, my daughter (who is almost 2) has decided that it's ok to draw on anything. I can't blame her logic.  I let her use a marker on the window so why not on the wall and furniture?   We do our best to hide crayons and pens and markers from her, but she has a gift.  She has some sort of bat like sonar that lets her track a lonely pen that fell into a tiny crevasse that only her little hands can reach into. 

So finding random marks on the wall isn't an uncommon thing.  But a couple weeks ago my little Picasso really had a good time and covered a four foot diameter with a red crayon.  It was hard to scold her when she was so proud of those scribbles.

Usually I use one of two methods to clean the marks off the wall. It depends on what she used to color with and how big of a mess she made. A plain wet towel works great but the towels tend to fall apart if you use it to much. A Mr. Clean Eraser will get off any type of mark, but some times it will leave a permanent shiny mark on the paint.

I wanted to try something new so off to the web I went and found three methods I wanted to try.

A pencil eraser
Baking Soda
and Mayonnaise


Yes you read that right, mayonnaise. I was really excited to try this. It's not often you have an excuse to smear mayo all over your wall.  But seriously, who thought of this?  Who said "huh, there is crayon on the wall, the fridge seems like a logical place to find cleaning supplies"

So I got my tools and hi ho, hi ho, off to the wall I go

NOTE: I tried these methods on a matte tan paint. I don't know if the results will vary depending on the paint.

I started with the eraser because it was the easiest and less messy.

 

The Verdict: Not only did it NOT work, but it made it worse.  The eraser just smeared the wax deeper into the paint and it made it harder to clean later. The person who said "huh, there is crayon on the wall, the desk drawer seems like a logical place to find a cleaning supply," should have kept looking.  Check the fridge next time buddy.

After failing miserably with the eraser I moved onto the baking soda. The instructions said to pour a little baking soda on a damp cloth, rub clean and rinse. I don't think the person who wrote those instructions had a Michelangelo in training who covered the whole wall in mind. A little bit on a rag was not going to cut it, so I poured baking soda and water in a bowl until I had a nice paste, then I used a rag to scrub the crayon off the wall.

I really didn't have to scrub very hard for it to start coming off.

The Verdict: This worked great.  It was easy to use and the crayon came right off.  However, as the paste on the wall dried it started to fall off in chunks and I ended up with pink baking soda bits on the floor that I had to vacuum up.  Plus, it took three scrubs with a clean wet towel to get all the gritty baking soda off the wall.  So even though it worked really well, who wants a cleaning method that adds more cleaning?

That brings us to the Mayo.  The instructions tell you to rub it on the wall, wait a minute or so then scrub it off with a damp rag.

So that's what I did.  I smeared some mayo on the crayon (making sure my little artist was in her crib so there was no chance of her seeing me do this and decide she wants to join in the fun) then went back to cleaning up the baking soda mess for a few minutes.

The Verdict: HOLY MOLY!!! I did 2 quick scrubs and the crayon was gone.  It took very little effort.  I wiped over it once to get the rest of the mayo off and that was it.  For three days I kept starring at the wall, convinced that a grease mark was going to show up. But it's been a week, and still no grease mark on the wall.  Way to go mayo. There was no evidence of the crayon left on the wall.

But you know, that was a lot of work for me.  I was pretty hungry after all that scrubbing. A BLT sounded pretty good...

hmmmm out of Mayo........

Not to worry, I know where some extra mayo is, and hey, I don't even need to dirty a knife to get the mayo on the bread.

Update: 2.8.13 - I have used Mayonnaise to get crayons off my walls several more times since posting this blog and I have learned something, Mayonnaise is picky.  Some crayon marks will wipe right off while others take some serious scrubbing.  I think it has to do with what brand the crayon is but I don't know for sure because I have yet to catch my little artist in the act.  Even if I did catch her it probably wouldn't  help because all my crayons look like they have been through a massacre and the labels are either torn off or unreadable.

Bathtub Cleaner

I have been making my own soft scrub (that I found here) for several months now.  It works great on bathtubs and on stove tops but I've always had one little gripe about it.

It dries out easily, so sometimes I have to add water and give it a good shake before I can use it again. The more I add water then less potent it becomes, so I end up using more.

It was time for me and this soft scrub to part ways.  Sorry soft scrub, it's not you, it's me...... wait a minute, I take that back, it is you.

I kept seeing a Pintrest pin about Martha Stewart's DIY bathtub scrubber and how it was the "greatest of all time." Every time someone says "it's the best" or "the greatest" I always think of this clip.

But since I was accepting applications for a new soft scrub, I decided to give Martha's tub scrub a shot.

1 tsp liquid soap
Several drops of an antibacterial essential oil.
1 cup of baking soda
enough water to make a paste

I added all my ingredients and was ready to go.  I have no idea what soap I used.  There is a soap dispenser attached to my sink and I can't remember what I put in there. (I have two little kids, I'm lucky that I remember to put deodorant on every day.) But I do know I used On Guard essential oil.

My shower has little grooves on the bottom that like to adopt all the dirt that comes off me while I shower.  It doesn't matter what I say or do to those little grooves, they just let all the specks of dirt move right in.  This makes my shower look like this every few weeks and the only way to get it off  is by using a Mr. Clean Eraser.

 I decided to scrub half of the shower floor to see if this stuff really is the greatest as everyone claimed it was. 

The Verdict:




That is how I felt when I used this scrub. So deliriously happy!

It took some scrubbing, but my shower floor was actually clean.  YEAH!!! Now, it didn't get rid of ALL the dirt, but most of it came off. Towards the left of the picture you can see that one perfect white line where I really scrubbed. 

I only used about 1/3 of what I had mixed up so I put the rest in an air tight jar.  Two days later I checked on it. The oil and soap had separated from the baking soda, but after a couple of good shakes it was as good as new.

Three cheers for Martha Stewart.  How dare I even doubt her homemaking abilities. Of course her stuff is going to be THE GREATEST!

Glass Cleaner

 Let me introduce you to Bud.  Our beagle boxer mix.

He's a dog, so naturally he spends an abnormal amount of time looking out his favorite window.  When he does this, he leaves behind a strange slobber goo that gets baked onto the window by the sun.

I have tried SO many cleaners to try and get this goo off.  The only way I could get it off was to spray Lime Away and let it sit for several minutes, then scrub until my fingers bled. 

Then I found this homemade glass cleaner

HAAAAAAA-LLELUJAH

This is the greatest glass cleaner of all time.

Just put everything into a spray bottle, shake it up and viola.  (you need to shake before every use because the cornstarch will settle)

The Verdict:   Let me show you why this is the best glass cleaner out there.

 Here we have Bud looking longingly at the other dogs going for a walk and wondering when his lazy owner will pry herself away from the computer long enough to take him outside. 

 Here we have the Bud slobber goo left on the window. 

 

But after a little bit of scrubbing.......aaaawwwwwww, look how clear that is. I didn't get around the edges so you can see the difference between the clean and unclean...... ok fine, I was late taking my son to school and I wanted to get a quick picture so I cleaned as fast as I could, took a picture and didn't see the sloppy edges until I uploaded the photo.
 

But seriously, I put in half as much effort and it cleans great.  I will warn you though, when you first start to wipe the window it looks like it's going to smear but just keep wiping until all the cleaner is off.

I'm not exaggerating, this glass cleaner truly is amazing.  The first time I used it the sun was blinding and I had to run away like a vampire..... a real vampire, not the fruity sparkly kind.


Windex Powerized Formula Glass Cleaner w/Ammonia-D, 1 qt. Capped (Google Affiliate Ad)