Well, what can I say...I HATE cleaning! I am definitely not the Domestic Diva I thought I would be when we decided that I should stay home with the kids! But the good news is, I think I may have found a few tricks to help me fake it!!
After cleaning my disgusting floors with my go-to favorite...my Bona Hardwood Floor Mop and Cleaning Solution, I gave Ask Anna's fake-out a try! And I have to say, I was surprised at how well it worked!! The majority of my floor issues are the result of sippy cup spills, so going around once a day with a hand towel really does the trick! This, coupled with my Roomba dependency may just help me look like I spend a ton of time keeping my floors clean!! If you have hardwood (or fake hardwood like we do) it's definitely worth a try!!
Now...on to the bathrooms! Eeeww! I honestly have no idea how two toddlers and a grown man can make such a mess just going potty...and it's a total toss up as to who is the worst offender! :) On the bright side, ALL of my tricks that I picked worked even better than I had imagined! I highly recommend them all!! And the best part is, they all utilize the same concepts and ingredients, so doing them all takes very little time compared to the amazing results!! I tried them in this order and was able to bang out two bathrooms in under an hour. Considering how gross they were at the start I think that's quite an accomplishment!! :)
I stated with Joyful Homemaking's tip for removing mineral deposits around faucets...I just wrapped the faucets in both bathrooms in paper towels soaked in vinegar and let them sit until I was done with just about everything else. After I took off the towels I gave a little scrub to any deposits that were left and viola!! My faucets look brand new and shiny!! It even took the caked on deposits on the faucets themselves. I'll definitely be doing this once a month!!
Next, I gave Ask Anna's tip to get rid of that "Boy Bathroom Smell" a whirl! I used a sponge paintbrush to pretty much coat both toilets from top to bottom as well as on the floor around the toilets with the lemon/baking soda paste and let it set. Once I finished the second toilet I went back and sprayed the first with vinegar, as well as the walls and cabinet sides around the toilet. While that fizzed, I did the same to the second toilet. Then, back to toilet #1 to wipe everything down, followed by toilet #2. The result??? Two bathrooms that smelled clean and fresh, with just a hint of vinegar! The vinegar smell dissipated pretty quickly and when it did...tada!! No "Boy Bathroom" smell at all! I don't know if I'll do this once a week, but I will definitely do it once a month when I do the faucets!! Maybe more if things start to get stinky!
Finally, after removing the vinegar soaked paper towels on the faucets and giving a little scrub, I used the tip on how to clean a porcelain sink from The 36th Avenue. I read a bunch of the comments before I got started and saw one that said you could skip everything and just do the final, Clorox Clean Up step so of course I gave it a try...The results were okay but nothing as earth-shattering as I was hoping for, so I went back and followed the instructions step by step and all I can say is WOW!!!! We have a cheap pedestal sink in our Guest Bathroom that I've never been able to get really clean and an even cheaper fake marble counter/sink in the Master that always looked gross...that is until now!! All the black scuff marks and strange unidentifiable stains are a thing of the past and I am left with beautiful, gleaming white sinks that I don't hate anymore!! I am totally intrigued by the dishwasher crystals cleaning power. For my next trick I may try this combination of steps in our nasty fiberglass shower enclosures!! :) This is also something I'm going to start doing monthly!!
After cleaning my disgusting floors with my go-to favorite...my Bona Hardwood Floor Mop and Cleaning Solution, I gave Ask Anna's fake-out a try! And I have to say, I was surprised at how well it worked!! The majority of my floor issues are the result of sippy cup spills, so going around once a day with a hand towel really does the trick! This, coupled with my Roomba dependency may just help me look like I spend a ton of time keeping my floors clean!! If you have hardwood (or fake hardwood like we do) it's definitely worth a try!!
Now...on to the bathrooms! Eeeww! I honestly have no idea how two toddlers and a grown man can make such a mess just going potty...and it's a total toss up as to who is the worst offender! :) On the bright side, ALL of my tricks that I picked worked even better than I had imagined! I highly recommend them all!! And the best part is, they all utilize the same concepts and ingredients, so doing them all takes very little time compared to the amazing results!! I tried them in this order and was able to bang out two bathrooms in under an hour. Considering how gross they were at the start I think that's quite an accomplishment!! :)
I stated with Joyful Homemaking's tip for removing mineral deposits around faucets...I just wrapped the faucets in both bathrooms in paper towels soaked in vinegar and let them sit until I was done with just about everything else. After I took off the towels I gave a little scrub to any deposits that were left and viola!! My faucets look brand new and shiny!! It even took the caked on deposits on the faucets themselves. I'll definitely be doing this once a month!!
So now for the million dollar question - Will the tip for Efficiently clean a bathroom using 3 paper towels??? Change my life?? I'm not 100% sure yet but I think it just might! After my first try I can tell you I was able to "clean" two bathrooms, top to bottom in about 30 minutes. And they look as good as they did after the big cleaning I gave them the week before! The key is definitely the microfiber towels! If you see them at your local Costco I definitely recommend buying a bunch!! I have no idea why, by our house is extremely dusty and combine that with three dogs and let's just say stuff accumulates everywhere. These microfiber towels pick all the yuck up easily and quickly. Next I'm going to try dusting with them!!
Now let me just tel you about the pillowcase ceiling fan cleaning technique from Real Simple...why hadn't I heard about this before!! Our fans are all over our beds and cleaning them usually required stripping the beds and putting something down in case any yuck ended up falling off the fans...well no more my friends!! In about 2 minutes I cleaned all the fans in our house (ooh, were they gross!!) with all the yuck landing safely inside the pillowcase!!! Brilliant!!!
This next tip from One Good Thing...was the closest thing to a failure I experienced this week. And it really wasn't a failure at all. I made a paste of 1/4 cup baking soda with a splash of peroxide and put it on all the black, crusty stains I've been trying to remove from my stainless steel stove top since we moved in 7 years ago, and it removed about half of them completely. The others ended up getting smaller and less noticeable, so I'm hoping with repeated applications they will eventually go. Next, I'm going to try this on the black stains on the bottoms of my pots and pans!!
I'm actually pretty stoked that everything worked as well as they did!! Just another affirmation for my Pinterest addiction!! I'm so stoked that I do think the tip from Organizing Made Fun is going to change my life. I do hate cleaning, but for 15-20 minutes a day I think I can stomach it!! So my goal is to stick to her weekly schedule for the next month and see how it goes!
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