Soup casualty

I made the potato soup on my list of options for dinner which was a GREAT decision - it's delicious!  The not so great decision was deciding to heat it up in the microwave uncovered.  The microwave suffered casualties.

There was soup was already a dried on mess and was EVERYWHERE.

To the point I didn't want to heat anything else up in the microwave it was that bad.  So I combined some water with some lemon juice (the reason the water looks a little off), set the microwave to 4 minutes and let the steam do the work. You need a decent amount of water in the bowl so that all of the water doesn't evaporate and cause more problems, but not so much you are running your microwave forever to get it warmed up.

When the time is up, the microwave is a steamy lemony smelling mess, which is EXACTLY what you want!  I used a Magic Eraser while wearing gloves (because the lemon-water mixture is HOT) and dipped the Magic Eraser in the hot water prior to wiping down the side of the microwave.

I started with the door, then the ceiling, then the back of the microwave before the effects of the steam had worn off.  So I added some cool water to the bowl and restarted the microwave for another couple of minutes, then attacked the sides.  I washed the tray in the sink and finally cleaned up the floor of the microwave.

Total time? About ten minutes.

Outcome? I can use my microwave again!

What tricks do you use to clean your microwave?

Carpet Cleaner Rehab

When I talked about decluttering and mentioned my carpet cleaners, I thought I had two, at most maybe three bottles of carpet cleaning related containers.  Apparently I was in denial.

This picture was taken AFTER I finished 2 bottles of carpet cleaner (Spot Shot).

Amazon

And yes I included the bottle of vinegar in my carpet cleaning arsenal.  Time for an intervention.

We bought a Bissel carpet cleaner shortly after we got Bentley.  It's similar to this one:

Amazon

And after getting a second dog, I think our carpet cleaning arsenal exploded.

So rather than get rid of the carpet cleaners (many of the bottles are half empty), I went to town on the rug in our living room!

Disclaimer: This rug sits in our living room just inside the back door to the backyard and is the only piece of carpet in the main living space outside the bedrooms.  In the middle of winter = mud haven.  The rug gets used.  A lot.  And no I didn't take pictures of the before because I was mortified.  Bad blogger.

However, since I had the opportunity to use SO many of these lovely carpet cleaners, I can also provide a mini review!

Best at getting out stains: Spot Shot or Resolve
Spot Shot works best when you have a quick spot that you need to tackle and don't want to break out the whole steam cleaner.
Resolve works well if you have a carpet cleaner to suck up the cleaner because it does foam so much, but took care of stains that the Bissel Tough Stain didn't really touch!

Best smelling: Spot Shot or Woolite Pet Oxygen
Both are clean smelling, but the Woolite smell lingers a little bit longer.

Best for steam cleaner usage: Bissel Fiber Cleansing or Vinegar
I have used the Bissel Fiber Cleansing cleaner for YEARS.  I typically go over the carpet on "Heavy Duty" cleaning, then do a water rinse pass to get the rest of the cleaner out of the carpet.  When I didn't think I had enough of this cleaner left this time, I took a note from another blog (can't remember which) and used vinegar!  I think I should have diluted the vinegar more (maybe a 50/50 mixture?) but it DEFINITELY got the carpet the cleanest (visibly at least).  The vinegar smell lingered a little bit longer, but now (about 4 days after cleaning it) I can no longer smell the vinegar.
When comparing the two, Vinegar also definitely wins in the price department, as Bissell's cleaner is a little expensive.

And if you clean up a spot with any kind of carpet cleaner, ALWAYS vacuum after the spot has dried!


Now, after my carpet cleaning frenzy, I have one bottle of Woolite left! I will not be going out to buy more carpet cleaner until this bottle is gone, because in all actuality, they all work well enough that I don't need 6 bottles of carpet cleaner, and should I need to steam clean in a pinch, I've always got vinegar in my cleaning arsenal!

Another category done!  Now which one to move onto next?

My love affair with vinegar

I think I'm in love.  There really is nothing that vinegar cannot do!  After taking pictures for my last post I was ASHAMED by the white plaque of hard water that was all over the kitchen utensils.

Close-ups of the grossness:

Disgusting. So I did what every person does when faced with a dilemma - I asked my Mom what she suggests. She suggested soaking them in vinegar water, then washing them again in the dishwasher.  Duh! Why didn't I think of that?  Everyone knows my crush on vinegar with laundry - time to start in the kitchen!

About ten minutes after talking to my mom I already had the utensils in the sink, ready for their hot water vinegar bath!

While the utensils enjoyed their soak, I ran the dishwasher with CLR according to the directions on the back of the bottle to tackle the hard water buildup, then ran the dishwasher again through a full cleaning cycle to make sure to get rid of all of the CLR.  (This actually took about 3 hours total with me reminding to restart the dishwasher.)

After their soak, the whole lot looked like a new set of utensils!!! And did I mention it required ZERO scrubbing?!

I ultimately ran them through the dishwasher as a means to start fresh and new, then back to the utensil holder they go!  But not before a quick photo shoot on the counter.

Luke thought I had lost it: "What are you taking pictures of now?"

"Look at how clean the spoons are!" Sheer giddiness and excitement on my part.

How about a closer up?!

One more BEFORE:

AFTER:

I. Love. Vinegar.

AMAZING results from one conversation and about 5 minutes of effort - totally worth it!  Thanks Mom!

THAT drawer

Not to be confused with THAT boy ;)

Everyone has one.  THAT drawer that you are scared to open.  Scared to put your hand into for fear it might get cut or find something that REALLY doesn't belong.  Am I being a little dramatic?  Maybe.  But it was thanks to my "THAT drawer" that I decided to make a little purchase at Home Goods during my recent visit to St. Louis.

Here's the situation that necessitated an intervention:

A too small utensil holder on the counter which held about five utensils comfortably.

The utensil holder was an IKEA purchase (~$7) for my FIRST apartment, which if you read between the lines means this bad boy has been gracing my counters for about 8 years, so about 75 cents/year. He had put his time in and I believe I had gotten my money's worth out of him.

Enter my new shiny utensil holder from Home Goods!  I purchased it for $11.99 and once I was back in town, it found its new home on my counter.

You know you are getting old when you seriously get excited about making purchases like this one.

I also liked the scale of the new one much more than the old one, but thought it looked a little cramped with the knives on the counter too, so those got moved to another area of the kitchen.  #unclutteredhappiness

So now that the new holder was ready to be filled, I decided to tackle THAT drawer.  Embarrassed to put this online, but hey, I'm sharing this one like it is.

This drawer houses our can openers, measuring cups, baking items, and other "overflow" utensils. Yes that is a knife also just hanging out in the drawer - SCARY. 

On a positive note, this is probably the most prominent area for primary colors in our home.  I don't fall far from the tree when it comes to beiges and related neutrals. 

I emptied out the entire drawer, putting utensils in their new home and everything else across the counter.  I wiped out the drawer and washed anything that looked like it needed it.

I was a little shocked by some of the items in the drawer.  Do we really need FOUR of one utensil?  I agree that there are some things that are nice to have multiples of, but we really don't need four pastry brushes, scratch that, five.  So I downsized unnecessary items and started reorganizing.  Can/bottle/wine openers grouped on the left, random items in the middle and I filled in that last section with the remaining pastry brushes and wooden spoons.

Lovely organization.

I think my helpers were just as excited as I was!  Or not.  Because it was 9:30pm and they wanted to go to bed.  #happeningFridaynight

In the end, I had a small pile of about 10 things that we no longer needed from ONE drawer.  #stillwaitingforLuke'sapprovaltogetridof #Idon'tactuallydomuchcooking #nobodyisshockedbythat

I'm also happy to report that we no longer have stray knives hanging out in the drawer. Nobody was cut in the making of this post either.  Small celebration!

Time for the side-by-side comparisons!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I LOVE the new utensil holder and how much more it can hold while still looking stylish. However, I don't LOVE where the knives found a new home, so it looks like they are leasing the space for now until they can find a new place.

Another thing I didn't LOVE?  The hardwater spots on my utensils.  My mom suggested a vinegar water soak to get rid of the white grossness.  I'm trying it now and will let you know how it goes!

Another "clutter" area tackled.  

Anybody else tackled THAT drawer lately? Or does anybody get just as giddy as I do with new purchases for the home?!  #TJMaxxandHomeGoodsAddictionAnonymous  

Linking up to New Years Organizing Revolution! 

Quick Tip: Timed Cleaning Motivation

Lacking the motivation to clean?  Aren't we all.

Try this Quick Tip: Set the timer for 10 minutes and do a rapid fire cleaning.

Some suggestions?

• Pick up anything you see out of place - blankets, coats, shoes, toys, papers, etc
• Do a quick dusting of the living room or bedroom
• Wipe up the mirror and the sink in the bathroom
• Give the windows in the main area of your house a quick spray of Windex
• Sort through the mail and file appropriately
• Make the bed - one of the easiest ways to make a bedroom look clean and organized!  Sorry Mom, I'm still awful at making my bed.
• Clean out expired food from the fridge or pantry
• Take out the trash from the kitchen and the bathrooms

Once the ten minutes is up, many of us will feel motivated to keep moving and tackle the next area! The hard part for me is ACTUALLY getting started, but once I get going, I feel more motivated and more focused on the task at hand. This is especially true for me when it comes to working out, cleaning, and studying.

You can set the timer in the kitchen, on your phone, or even online (I like the above website)!  Don't want to set a timer?  You can use other "non-timers" such as cleaning for two or three songs on Pandora or during the commercials of your favorite TV show! 

Truth be told, most times I just look at the clock and give myself ten minutes because the timer going off will inevitably set the dogs barking off, but I don't even notice when my ten minutes are up because I'm off cleaning another room or tackling the next item on my To-Do list!

If you are still lacking motivation after your set time period, at least you did something! 

I have found using the Ten Minute Motivation to be extremely helpful in getting me moving - what do you find motivating?

Operation Declutter

Now that my I've gotten through the last tests of 2012, it's time to conquer my list of things that I've been wanting to tackle for months!  One of the areas of my "To Do" list that has been bothering me the most lately is clutter.  There's something about piles of paper, junk drawers, and crammed closets that is starting to get on my nerves.  It was never a huge problem for me in the past, but I think I'm finally hitting that point in life where less is more. With some upcoming time off from rotations aka "work", I'm determined to attack some of my worst clutter sources.



I may be the only one with that last bit of clutter, and I think I'm going to tackle that clutter with some deep cleaning, but that's another post in itself.

Since today was my first true "day off" I couldn't wait to start! I began attacking my paper clutter (class notes and receipts) bright and early with the help of a new purchase (details to come later in the week), but I think to put it simply, I'm smitten!

Anybody else have big plans for the end of the year or other types of clutter you are wanting to tackle?   Or do you have any tips for how to cut back on clutter?

Reclaiming the Garage

There is something about a clean and organized garage that makes me happy.

So you can imagine my mood when I came home to this:

Despite my better judgement, I'm putting it online for all to see.  

My extension cords, outdoor "won't light up" lights, and random shelf components from when one of the shelves came crashing down.

My wood from previous and future projects lining the wall so I could barely pull my car into the garage.

The Pepsi container from the people that lived here before us. Cough 3 years ago.

The remnants of wood from projects passed that I just might use in the future for a cool project that is yet to be determined.

And the corner of death (feeling dramatic today..) where projects go to die and never be touched.  I think our powered snow shovel is even hidden back there.

And my "woodshop" workstation with no usable counter space and a glorious pegboard that I wasn't fully utilizing.  Not to mention an empty rubbermaid and oodles of car wash products from the SO (which means significant other as one of my recent interviewers pointed out to me).  

What can I say - he loves a clean car with EXTRA shiny tires. 

After cleaning my floor mats, I couldn't stand to look at my garage or even be in it.  Since it was a 70 degree day in November (not likely to stay that way long) I tackled another project: reclaiming my garage.  

I took a quick survey of the garage, and decided immediately we had too much stuff.  I recycled all the extra cardboard (most of the boxes were empty or nearly empty), repurposed the Rubbermaid container for wood scraps (why did I not do this before?!), threw away broken unfixable objects, and reorganized the remainder of the garage by grouping like things together.

How did I tackle this project?

-Wood pile in the corner of death, sorted by size and type.

-Outdoor citronella candles, bug repellent, and summer related things into the same container on a shelf.

-Car wash supplies in a plastic shoebox already owned and sitting in the basement.

-Tools and building supplies with the workstation.  Saws, sanders, drills on top of the station.  Tools, screws, and nails on the pegboard.  Spare nails, screws, and other metal objects in small plastic storage container.  Remainder odds and ends (screwdrivers, stir sticks, etc) in flower pot.

-Extension cords, ropes, and all things "corded" wrapped and hung on previously owned shelf supports. 

  -Outdoor lawn equipment hung on the already present hanging organizer.  Exception: gas powered weed eater which needs to be stored horizontally (so I'm told), now lives on shelf.

-EVERYTHING had to have a home, or it didn't go in the garage. 

Ready to see how it all worked out?

Before: 

After:

I can actually see what I have now and something about the pegboard made me REALLY happy.  So happy I took more pictures...

I think I was the crazy neighbor lady spending hours on end outside and taking pictures of strange things (for the purpose of blogging, but they don't know that!).

The best part about this project?  I used what I already had and spent $0!  The garage is now back to being a happy place for outdoor tools storage, wood working projects, and my car.  

Not having to scrape my car in the morning? Priceless.  

Project "Reclaim the Garage" tackled.

*True story: The end table/nightstand from the corner of death was a project I just didn't feel like tackling anymore.  So I decided to give somebody else a chance to make it their own.  I took a picture of the end table (which wasn't really necessary anyway) and put it on the curb.  I went inside to post my ad to Craigslist for "free stuff", went back outside to take a few more pictures of the end table, and saw it was already gone! It sat on the curb for 5 to 10 minutes max. I either live by vultures or have creative neighbors!