Entries Categorized as 'Cleaning'

Make liquid soap out of bars

Date July 1, 2008

Casasugar found out that liquid soaps frequently contain chemicals that aren’t good for you or the environment, and found a way to make liquid soap out of bars. The steps are ridiculously easy - it takes a while because at one point you have to let it set overnight, but the actual labor doesn’t require [...]

6 steps to never ironing your clothes again

Date May 6, 2008

Unclutterer has an old post about buying no-iron clothes that you really never have to iron so you can eliminate that annoying chore from your daily list.
If you want to go completely iron-free and still look as immaculately groomed as anyone else, there are a few things you need to do. If you can’t do [...]

Clean green with DIY household cleaners

Date April 22, 2008

Spotlight Post: DIY Household Cleaners
But as you open your windows to let in fresh air, don’t pollute it with lung irritants like ammonia and chlorine bleach or hormone-disrupting phthalates used in fragrances. Instead, make your own cleaners from healthier, least-toxic ingredients.

Circumvent the armada of commercial cleaners by keeping an ample supply of these eight [...]

10 amazing things you can do with baking soda

Date March 17, 2008

Here’s a list of things you can do with baking soda, which is cheap, “green” and contains no chemicals that are likely to irritate your body in any way. Many of these come from Bohemian Revolution, since we’ve collected quite a few over time, but some come from other sites, too.

Deodorize your garbage disposal with [...]

Scrape dishes before you wash

Date March 15, 2008

If you don’t have a dishwasher, there’s a simple way to make doing dishes much easier - by making everyone in the household help. Right after you finish dinner, that is the easiest time to scrape food off your plate. Make a rule that everyone takes his or her own dishes over and rinses them [...]

Steaming garments the right way

Date February 18, 2008

Spotlight Post: Tips for Steaming
Eventually, if you’re a serious garment sewer, you will want to purchase a steamer. I use mine for steaming gowns, jackets, and other dry-cleanables. I also use it to pre-shrink yardage before cutting.
There are a few things to keep in mind when steaming:
Dawn offers several helpful tips to help you avoid [...]

Clean sponges

Date February 16, 2008

There are several ways to clean a sponge, and if you do it every 3-4 days it should never get horribly filthy and disgusting.  The easiest and most effective way is probably the microwave method, but you have to make sure the sponge is sopping wet or else there’s a fire hazard:

Wet the sponge completely [...]

Tang for rust stains

Date February 10, 2008

Apparently, Tang is a great toilet cleaner.
its sugary combination of citric acid and gritty powder works well when combating rust stains. Simply sprinkle the orange delight into your toilet bowl and let sit; after an hour or so, a normal amount of scrubbing should remove the rust. And Tang is non-toxic to boot!

Sortable laundry bins instead of one per person

Date February 7, 2008

An easy way to cut down on how much time it takes to launder clothes is get rid of per-person hampers and set up sortable laundry bins in the laundry room, which separate dark clothes, white clothes and bright clothes. Or you can let family members have their own hampers, but bring them to the [...]

How to clean a fabric lampshade

Date February 7, 2008

Fabric lampshades can be so hard to clean that many of us just throw them away and get a new one. But if a lampshade is pretty sturdy, I’ve found using the vacuum cleaner brush attachment can do a great job.