Day 18: Cleaning with Lemons

What do you do when the world gives you a small bag of a few over-ripe lemons?  You clean with them, of course!

The pins I used for this post I pinned quite some time ago.  I guess I needed a month of actually using the pins to put this to use!  Guess what?  Lemons are incredible for cleaning faucets, soap scum, water spots, tea stains, the air, and garbage disposals.  I know!  Who would have thought?  

The following group of pictures are the before/after photos of some of the faucets I cleaned today.  All I did to accomplish this task was simply cut a lemon in half and "scrub" the faucets with the lemon.  I then just rinse it off.  It was extremely easy.  I will be cleaning my faucets with lemons from now on. My faucets were REALLY dirty with water spots and soap scum.  It's very embarrassing.  But, I'm coming clean.  Pun intended.  

Before----------------------------After

Before

After  (amazing difference, right?)

The next thing I did with my trusty lemons was make a Crock Pot air freshener.  This is actually a pin I use all the time.  I switch up the ingredients, so to fit with today's theme of lemons, I chose lemon and rosemary.  I plucked a few rosemary sprigs from my garden.  To make this air freshener, you need a crock pot or you can use water in a sauce pan on the lowest heat. 

 Rosemary Lemon Air Freshener Ingredients:
2-3 Sprigs of fresh rosemary (dried may work, but because I have a monstrous rosemary plant, I've never tried it!)
1 Lemon, sliced
Baking Soda
Water to fill the pot

Instructions:  

1) Sprinkle bottom of pot with baking soda until covered

2)  Fill pot with water

3) Add sliced lemons and rosemary

4) Set heat on low (or plug in pot) and enjoy the aroma within ten minutes
5) You can enjoy this aroma for hours if you are using a Crock Pot.  If you are using a saucepan on the stove, you can turn it off when it starts to simmer and enjoy the aroma until it cools.

(Tea stains in mug)

The next cleaning venture I went on with lemons was to clean tea stains out of a mug.  To do this, I took the lemon half (which I had already used on the faucets) and sprinkled the peel with salt.  I then used the peel to scrub the tea. I rotated using the peel and what was left of the inside of the lemon.  Within 30 seconds, I rinsed the mug and it sparkled!

(Tea stains, no more!)

 And last, but certainly not least, I used those lemons that worked for cleaning my faucets and mugs to deodorize the garbage disposal.  Those lemons sure do go a long way!

Day 12: Speed Cleaning 101

Most days, my house is a mess.  In fact, the days that my house is clean are very special because they are so rare.  I don't mind cleaning, but I do it all day long, it seems.  There usually is no rhyme or reason to it.  I start to clean up a mess, then as I'm cleaning up that mess, three more messes are made.  Troy's friend once said to him that cleaning a house with kids is like shoveling snow in a snow storm.  How true that is!

When the house gets unbearably messy, I like to have a plan to tackle the house, or at least the cleaning of the front rooms.  It helps me focus.  I've tried many quick house clean "plans," over the last few months, but the one that works for me every time is the one over at somewhatsimple.com.  It is called "Speed Cleaning 101."  The idea is you have ten steps, some of which you repeat, and do each step in ten minute increments, with a break every thirty minutes.  I don't know about you, but I love racing against the clock.  It makes a mundane task such as washing dishes a little more interesting.  A little.

More importantly to me, the "Speed Cleaning 101" method really makes the HUGE mess that my house is a bit less overwhelming.  I can do it if I take one step at a time.  And, if I have to change a diaper, get a sippy cup, or break up a fight in between those ten minute increments, I can do just that.  You will be surprised how much you can do in just ten minutes!  My messy living room (pictured above), complete with Trader Joe's O's sprinkled from wall to wall, sippy cups from the morning, pajamas, books, toys, a pink tricycle, and much, much more took ten minutes of speed cleaning to get it looking clean.  Of course, this didn't include dusting.  I guess that's for another day!

You will find all of the cleaning speed methods/plans I have tried on my 30 Days of Pinterest board, so feel free to take a gander!  Happy cleaning!