One of our readers, Kathleen, shared a great tip about how she cleans her microwave and I wanted to make sure you saw this great tip! I LOVE this!!
Put a good squirt of lemon juice in a mug, and fill it about half way with water. Microwave this for about a minute or so, and then let it sit, with the door still shut, for a couple more minutes. Then open it up and wipe down the walls and top (the moisture from the liquid in the mug coats the whole inside, so all you have to do is wipe it all down). No chemicals, and it's lemony clean!
Posted by Tami on May 1 11 | Comments (0)
Categories: Kitchen,
I recently posted about my spring cleaning adventures in the kitchen. It was very successful, thanks to my mom. My wonderful mother decided that we could get one more room done while she was in town. Therefore, we moved on to the living room. Once again, I looked at the room and wasn’t quite sure where to start, but mom got to work right away. Thankfully, after the kitchen, this room seemed like a breeze! We were able to get it done during one afternoon. What a relief! I’ve listed the steps below that we took as we cleaned the living room (sorry no fun pics this time!) Always remember to take it one step at a time and it will eventually be sparkling clean!
• Fill a bucket with a small amount of Murphy’s Oil Soap and then fill about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way with water. Get some nice rubber gloves and a rag.
• Take down all drapery and put them in the washing machine if machine washable.
• Move any lightweight pieces of furniture away from the walls, and remove all wall hangings.
• Choose which wall you’d like to start wiping down. We chose a corner and then worked around the room in a counterclockwise fashion. Begin wiping down the wall starting at the top and working your way down. Wipe all electrical outlets, light switches, and trim as well.
• Murphy’s Oil soap is great for anything made of wood. Therefore, take all items of shelves, coffee tables, bookshelves, media centers, etc. and wipe them down. Then wipe dry with a soft cloth. Wipe down all other items before putting them back in their place.
• Remove the cushions and pillows from your couch (chairs, futons, and whatever else you lounge around on) and vacuum. I have a really nice hand held Dirt Devil that we used to vacuum the larger surfaces. We then used my Eureka vacuum attachments to get in the cracks and corners of the couch. Vacuum the cushions and pillows and replace them. We found a few interesting items in the couch including my husband’s stylus pen for his ipad. OOPS!! You just never know what you might find.
• Use your favorite glass cleaner or this great homemade version to clean the inside and outside of the windows (unless its raining. We definitely did not venture outside), patio doors, mirrors, picture frames, etc. We noticed that the inside bottom of the windows were very dirty. Take a second to wipe it down with a wet cloth.
• My living room is carpeted. Therefore, we vacuumed the room including underneath the couches and chairs and any other easy to move furniture.
• Hang your nice clean drapery and enjoy the shine.
Posted by Tami on Apr 24 11 | Comments (0)
Categories:
No one likes the word. In fact every time you hear them, I bet you crinkle your nose at the thought of them. ALLERGIES. There I said it! I do not personally suffer from them, however, I grew up with a brother with extreme allergies. We had to clear the house of as many allergens as possible. This was obviously an ongoing process as allergens always sneak up on you in the most inconspicuous places of your home. This can often be overwhelming. I am excited to announce that my friends at Lysol are here to help. Lysol Community is now here to provide you with information about allergens and how to allergen-proof your home. They have also created several instructional videos giving you tips on how to best keep your home allergen free!! How awesome is that? Head Lysol® Microbiologist Joe Rubino and nationally-renowned Pediatrician Dr. Laura Jana give us valuable information as they go through each room of the house and discuss ways to Allergy-Proof your home. You can check out their great information video below which also includes links to videos for allergy-proofing each room of your home. Definitely check it out!
Now for the even better part!! Lysol has agree to give one lucky winner (chosen at random) a prize package valued at $50!
The prize package will include:
(1) LYSOL® Disinfecting Wipes
(1) LYSOL® Disinfecting Wipes: Dual Action
(2) Allergy Defense Pillow Protector
(1) Dust Pan and Brush
Here's how it works:
1. Check out the Lysol Community, return here and leave an interesting allergens fact in the comments section or one way you will be reducing allergens in your own home.
Additional ways to enter:
2. Tweet or Facebook this contest using @acleanmanor. And don’t forget to leave a comment below stating you have done so.
3. Become a Facebook Fan of ACleanManor Fan Page. Leave a comment below if you have done so or if you are already.
4. Become a Facebook Fan of Lysol. Leave a comment if you have done so or if you are already.
This contest ends Monday, May 2, 2011 at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.
Posted by Tami on Apr 20 11 | Comments (10)
Categories: Products,
I've mentioned before that my mother has taught me a lot about the ins and outs of cleaning. That being said, when I realized I was staying home the entire week of spring break I asked her if she would help me spring clean 1 or 2 of the rooms in my house. Honestly, I had never done a very good job because I didn't know where to start and what to do in each room. I looked at the whole house and it all seemed so completely overwhelming. Mom agreed to help me (yay!), which also meant we got to spend a wonderful four days with her and dad.
So where did we start? We felt like it was easiest to begin with the room in the house that takes the most time. For both of us that room was the kitchen. There are more things to move, wipe down, clean above, clean under, etc than other rooms. It may be a different room for you, but no matter what room it might be if you leave it until last it just might never get cleaned! I, for one, am very glad that my kitchen is done (and that my mama was there to help with it)!
Ok, so you've picked the room. Now what? I'm going to give you a few tips on what we did. I'm going to stick with the kitchen for now with more posts to come later on other rooms of the house. Mom and I took 2 afternoon to do the kitchen. We worked on the cuboard side first and then did the kitchen table side the next day. It didn't seem like such huge task when we broke it down like this. Here it goes...
- Pour a small amount of Murphy's Oil Soap into a bucket. Next fill the bucket about 1/4 to 1/2 way with hot water. Get some nice rubber gloves for cleaning and a cloth or rag.
- Decide which cupboard you'd like to begin with and take everything out. Wipe down the insides of the cupboards using the mixture in the bucket and dry with clean cloth. If you are like me, my cupboards despearately needed purged of items I didn't need and reorganized. We also did this at the same time we cleaned them out. I LOVE the way it is organized now! Once the cupboard is complete put the items back in and continue on to each cupboard/drawer.
- Wipe down small appliances such as the coffee pot, toaster, toaster oven, and microwave with a rag and household cleaner. Move all items on the kitchen counters and clean the counters. Put the items back in their place. I love keeping the kitchen counters as uncluttered as possible.
- Wipe down the larger appliances such as the oven and dishwasher. This is a great time to clean the inside of your oven. If you have a self clean oven you can simply turn on the self clean function. If you are like me and do not have this function (and I don't know who STILL has a non self clean oven anymore) then you have to clean the inside the old fashioned way. I used baking soda and let it sit for at least an hour and it got most of the grime with paper towels. I then used a little Easy Off and was able to get it fairly clean. We also cleaned out the bottom drawer of the oven and placed a few paper bags in the bottom so that it would catch some of the crumbs that collect. They can then be easily replaced.
- Clean out the refrigerator if you haven't done this in awhile. Wipe down the shelves and throw out anything that is expired. Don't forget to wipe off the TOP of the refrigerator! You won't believe how much dust collects up there.
- Take all of the pictures/shelves, etc. off of the walls and wipe them down. Then wipe down all of the walls with the hot water from the bucket (your water and Murphy's oil soap may be replaced by now). Begin at the top corner and work your way down. Wipe all trim as well as electric outlets and light switches. Put all pictures back on the wall.
- Use some Comet and wipe down the kitchen sink.
- Windows in your kitchen? Take down the curtains and wash them. Give the window a nice scrubbing with your window cleaner.
- Wipe down all light fixtures and get those nasty spider webs!
- If you have a kitchen table wipe down the table and all of the chairs.
- Are you ready for this? You know what I'm to say right? Yep, sweep the floors and then get on your hands and knees and scrub the floors good! Before we did this we took out the oven drawer and cleaned underneath the oven. YUCK!!! It was disgusting (see the picture below). You can also move the refrigerator and clean underneath that as well. When you scrub the floors take a little extra time to clean up underneath the cabinets.
- Put everything back in its place (curtains back up!) and enjoy the sparkle!
WOW.....
Much Better...
Posted by Tami on Apr 16 11 | Comments (2)
Categories: Kitchen,
I have to say that snow days in this house are WONDERFUL. I work outside of the home so when I have a chance to stay home for a day I seriously get all giddy inside. My 2 year old daughter and I enjoy breakfast together, play with her toys, and of course I get some extra time to clean around the house. It just so happens that last week I had three, yes three, snow days in a row. On one of these snow days I decided that I could perhaps turn on the television for a few minutes. The Rachel Ray show was on with guest Liz Vaccariello. She had a great bit about "odd" items that could be washed right in your dishwasher. I was instantly hooked and knew that I just had to share these great items with you. Just click on the link to watch the great video with instructions on how to wash each item. Here are a few of the items that you just might want to stick right in your dishwasher. For a complete lists check out the website and video.
• Baseball caps - just stick it on the top rack, it won't move, and will come out nice and clean.
• Makeup and hair brushes - stick them in the silverware rack. How genius is that?
Posted by Tami on Feb 13 11 | Comments (2)
Categories: Kitchen,
