Spring Cleaning

 

This weekend I was finally home and had the urge to do some cleaning. The house has been a mess lately! I did get a lot of inspiration from the recent posts by I heart Organizing and her clean home challenge. All month Jen has been posting cleaning tasks in the goal of having a cleaner more organized home in less time. I love that her cleaning methods are green. I have personally found that the common toxic formulas like 409 and Windex really bother me. I have started using Seventh Generation disinfecting multi purpose spray and I also use the method glass cleaner. I am in the process of purging most of my other cleaning items. I love that Jen uses just a few basic things to create her cleaners, makes everything simple!

These were some of my favorite posts Jen put up: Make your own natural cleaners, cleaning oven, cleaning windows with DIY spray, vacuum mattress, and wipe down trims and doors. I made the super easy baking soda and essential oil mix for sprinkling on your mattress and vacuuming up and it smells so good! I have been using baking soda and vinegar for awhile as they are great multi purpose cleaning products that are cheap and natural! I have loved the results. Here you can see the many uses of vinegar and baking soda uses.

                         

                           Here are some of my environmentally friendly cleaning products

Of course I checked some things off my weekly cleaning checklist but I also did some other things.  I cleaned out my toaster oven which was really dirty! I could not get the stuck on gunk off the inside of the glass, until I did a google search and found to make a paste using baking soda and water, apply it and let it sit for a bit and wipe it off. It worked like magic! Sorry I don’t remember the specific link or I would share it.I attempted to get the toaster oven pan clean as well as the stove pans clean, but just could not get all the gunk off. Any tips?

I was disgusted when I saw all the crumbs, sprinkles, macaroni etc. hiding under the toaster oven and microwave! Eww. I took everything off the counter and gave it a deep clean. This area often gets neglected but it is a great hiding place for crumbs. I also took this opportunity to rearrange the counters a bit. I actually have a decent size kitchen for an apartment, but of course I still don’t have enough room for all my things!

Check out an old post I have for deep cleaning, showing how to clean the microwave, dish washer, washing machine and sink disposal. I try hard to be a better cleaner and have come along ways from my college days! I’m still learning! What are your favorite cleaning methods?