Household Cleaning Made Easy

There are so many things that can be done in and around your home that can make cleaning your house seem like a breeze. With so many home remedies, cleaning ideas and organization tips on the internet your house can be the cleanest, best smelling and most ‘put together’ house on the block! Without further ado, here are a few of my favorite tips.

Fruit Flies – Ughhh! It makes me insane thinking about them. It never fails. You go to the store and buy your favorite, fresh fruit and set it on your counter. In a matter of moments (okay, maybe not that fast) your kitchen is covered in fruit flies that seemed to have waited all day in the four corners of the house… just waiting to pounce on YOUR fruit! How annoying. Well, every year, I find myself looking up the concoction that makes this ‘pesky’ problem go away. Basically, it works like this: Take a mason jar (or any jar you don’t mind ‘parting ways with’) and put about a ½ cup of apple cider vinegar in it. Next, take some dish soap and drop a few drops of it into the vinegar. What this does is make the vinegar too thick for the flies to fly out of. It sucks them in like quicksand! Cover the jar with a piece of saran wrap and cover the mouth with a rubber band. Poke a hole in the top and watch the magic happen. The fruit flies are drawn to the smell of the vinegar and they can’t resist! Once they get in, they can never get out!! Yay!

This one is actually from my friend Laura, who cleans professionally. Over the years I’ve picked up a ton of tricks from her and her crew. Check out www.housecleaningvabeach.com for more about her and great tips from her blog.

Marker Stains on walls – Yikes… the kids have struck again. You take your eyes off them for 5 seconds and they found a way to redecorate the walls of your house with their own works of art. Such sweet, creative little munchkins! But when you ‘shoo’ them out of the room and clean up all the markers you are left looking at the walls in complete dismay. What do you do? You can apply a bit of toothpaste to their little creations and rub at it until the marker comes up. Next time? Hide the markers!

Wine stains on the carpet – Uh oh! Looks like “Mommy’s little sippy cup” slipped out of your hands and left you with a bright red mess to clean up on your white carpet. What do you do? Well, after the initial panic attack sets in, grab for some dish soap, warm water and a clean, dry white cloth. Dip the cloth into the mixture and blot the stain, working from the outside, inward. Continue using fresh areas of the cloth until the stain comes up.

Didn’t your mother tell you to make your bed? – Did you know that there are many good reasons to start your day off by making your bed? For starters, once you make the bed, you won’t get back into it! But there are a few good reasons why you should start the practice, if you aren’t already. 1) When you make your bed, you can feel like you accomplished a small task. Although small, setting attainable goals and achieving them daily is a great way for you to start each day. 2) When you make your bed, your room looks instantly cleaner! So, if you are a bit of a packrat, your room will look “less pack rat-like” if you are having guests over.