Homemade Fabric Softener

About 7 months ago, I first started using Homemade Laundry detergent. You can read more about that here

I finally used up the last of my free or nearly free fabric softener that I got couponing and so I was in need of some to use with our huge laundry pile. As much as I love the smell of GAIN scented fabric sheets, I can't bring myself to pay for them when I can make them myself.

I found a recipe on Pinterest that looked easy and only called for items that I already had on hand. I did a little more research and also found a similar recipe on a website called One Good Thing (www.onegoodthingbyjilee.com). I used it on four loads of laundry today to make sure I liked it before I shared it with y'all. Turns out this one is a KEEPER.

If you want to make some for yourself, here's the instructions:

Get 3 cups of HOT water. I put mine in a bowl and then microwaved it to get it good and hot.

I added one and a half cups of vinegar and one cup of conditioner (like the type that you use on your hair). I had this white rain pomegranate that I got from the Dollar store that is pit.i.ful on my hair. It has a nice scent and worked well with this recipe.

It seemed a little gloppy, so I whisked it for about half a minute. 

I used a funnel and put it into an old fabric softener bottle. 

 I now have a full bottle of fabric softener that should last me for a long time to come. I have a HE front load machine, so I add mine to the fabric softener dispenser just like I did with the store bought kind. I use the same quantity as well. You may need to experiment on what ratio works best for you.

Next time that I make this I will probably use something with a stronger scent. With this batch the clothes don't really have much of a smell. Overall, it was still a success and an idea that I will continue using. 

Love y'all!

How to Clean your Microwave

I have recently started using Pinterest. (Yes, I'm aware that I'm a little late to be jumping on the bandwagon).

It is a GREAT site for learning new ideas and ways of doing things, but is one of the biggest time-drains that I've yet to experience. I have to seriously keep an eye on how long I let myself 'pin' and browse.

One of the first things I pinned was a easy technique for cleaning your microwave.

It basically said:
"Have a dirty microwave?" (I'm afraid the answer is a resounding "yes!")
Heat a bowl of vinegar and water for five minutes then wipe away all dirt and stains.

I decided to try it out.

Here are my before pictures: (Mom, if you happen to be reading this, now would be a good time to look away. These pictures of my filthy microwave might push you over the edge!)

I seriously have NO idea how my microwave got this dirty, and I'm even more ashamed that I have absolutely NO idea how long it has looked this bad...

It was time to do some SERIOUS work here!

I got out a medium sized bowl and filled it about 2/3 of the way full of vinegar. Then I added water until the bowl was almost full and popped it into my microwave. 

I ran it on high for 5 minutes and then opened the door with rag in hand, ready for the ‘magic’ to begin. I tried to wipe away a glob of food off of the door and it wouldn’t budge. I figured maybe the door didn’t get treated as strongly as the rest of the microwave, so I moved on to the mess sitting in the bottom. It wouldn’t budge either. 

This certainly wasn’t the ‘magic cure’ I had been promised. Could my first attempt at a Pinterest project really be such a flop?

I decided to run it again, but this time would leave the door closed and allow the steam to sit for longer. I set the timer for another five minutes and let it run on High. When the five minutes were over, I didn’t open the door for another 10 minutes. 

This time when I began to wipe it off- it worked. All of the nasty little bits of food and grime came right off! And there isn’t really any lingering vinegar smell, either. 

Here are the after pictures:

No elbow grease required!

In case you might have a microwave that somehow happens to look as bad as mine, I highly recommend this easy way to clean it!

Where did the Clean Home Challenge go?!

From the very beginning, I've wanted this blog to be a real picture of real life. REAL. R-E-A-L. 

I write about things that I am working on or things that I'm learning. And I want to do that honestly. 

And honestly, I'm still struggling with organization. 

Life has been crazy busy lately. 

You may have read here about what all God has been doing in our life...

About me going back to work and not having but a weeks notice to get ready. 

Hubby is starting Graduate School, the kids are enjoying the last few good weeks of summer. 

We've been vacationing, helping watch children of our friends, learning to eat healthier...

we've been busy! 

As I'm sure all of you have, too. 

One day this week I realized that I hadn't posted a challenge in a while. 

And it was either work on a challenge, or do my quiet time that I hadn't gotten done yet that day. 

And I chose to spend some time with the Lord. 

It won't matter one bit if my sink was shiny and my floors clean if I'm not focusing on the condition of my heart. 

And as much as I desire a clean, neat, organized home, it's still a struggle for me. 

Here's a picture of my kitchen at lunchtime today. 

Not so great, huh? I clean it up each night, but obviously my organizational systems throughout the day could use some work. 

Today I want you to tackle an area every house has, although it may be in different places. FLY Lady calls it your Hot Spot or Hot Zone. It's the place that you dump all the stuff you don't want to deal with right away. 

Ours is our dining room table. 

Mail, newspapers, diaper bags, purses, shoes, socks...

everything gets dropped there.

Today I decided to tackle ours. 

Here's the before picture:

It's not usually quite this bad, but today I dropped everything from my car onto the table. 

Here's the after:

I still have a few things on my table because this is where I do several things that help keep our home organized. The first you may have read about here: These are our organizational bins, and I love them!

As you can see, they fill up quickly. I didn't empty ours last night, so this is how full they have gotten in a day and a half. 

The other items are for my couponing. I use the dining room table to keep all of them because we don't have a designated office space currently, and I need them high enough that Mack can't get into them. 

A 15 month old and several hundred slips of paper= chaos!

When we have company over, I put these items away, but for me it makes more sense to leave them out during the week. 

What about you? Where is your HOT SPOT? 

FLY Lady recommends that we spend a few minutes each evening working on clearing off our hotspot. I need to commit to doing this. 

Love y'all!

Any of you still with me? I've loved the pictures you've shared on our facebook page. Thanks!

Clean Home Challenge Days #18-19

Today we tackle a difficult project...our closets! Mine was absolutely stuffed to the max, yet every time I went in to pick out an outfit I claimed I had 'nothing to wear!'. What a mess!

I decided to jump in full force and get rid of anything too small, too immodest, or anything I haven't worn yet this year. Normally, I would have kept these items "just in case"...in case I finally lose the weight, in case I am super skinny one day and decide to wear a bikini in public (never gonna happen! even if I had a 6 pack I don't agree with baring that much skin anymore), in case I decide lime green does actually look good on me, in case, in case in case! I was tired of the clutter it was all taking up not only in my closet but also in the time it ate away from me each morning. When staring into a closet stuffed full with things that either don't fit or don't flatter, it's nearly impossible to make a decision because I'm so overwhelmed by all that's there.

So...I did it. I got rid of it all! I plan to give mine to Goodwill, but you could always sell yours at a Consignment shop or at a yard sale. I believe that the items I am giving away can bless another lady, and that does my heart good. It also makes it easier if a few months down the road I go looking for a certain item and forget that I don't have it anymore. I just keep telling myself, "You don't need it, and it can bless someone else. You DON'T need it, it can bless someone else", and I repeat it as many times as necessary.

Here are some before pictures:

I had this side so crowded that I couldn't really see what I had. Up above I had thrown or stuffed items in the wrong places.

Although I use storage containers down below as well, I needed to clean out a lot of the items in them.

One big mess!

My shoes were out of control. I'll blame this on Karsyn partly because she loves to wear them and not put them back where they came from.

I started on one side and worked my way over. As I went through each item I asked myself, "Does this fit?", "Does it fit me well?", "Does it flatter?", and "Is this modest?". If an item didn't meet those specifications, even if I paid a lot for it or used to really love it, I put it into the 'donate' pile.

Next, I pulled out all empty hangers (and there were A LOT since I got rid of so many items).

Lastly, I organized my clothing by type. Ex: pants, skirts, tops, dresses, etc.

I spent some time on organizing my shoes and in storing my purses and bags in some storage containers above my clothing. I even managed to part with a few purses, if y'all can believe that!

Here are my after pictures:

I put the proper items in the place they were designated to go. The storage units shown here are for sweatshirts, belts, scarves, purses, and large bags.

I cleaned out the storage containers down here and rearranged them a little. They are for underwear, bras, bathing suits, socks, dress socks, and miscellaneous items.

I decided to keep 10 regular hangers and 10 skirt/pant hangers. I got rid of all the rest. Look at all that extra storage room I now have up top! The belk bag is full of Marcus' old pants. We plan to tackle his side of the closet on Saturday!

Got rid of 4 pairs of shoes and organized the ones that were remaining.

For an idea of how many things I am donating, look at all these leftover hangers!~ Some of these were empty to begin with, but at least half of them used to hold items that I thought I 'HAD to have!". 

What about you, friends? Are you ready? It's time to part with the items that are cluttering up our closets, our time, and our energy. If you don't love it, get rid of it!!.

Another tip, after you're done clearing out all of the items you don't want to keep, turn every hanger backwards for the items you're keeping. (Put them with the hook part facing forwards instead of backwards as you normally would hang an item). Once you've worn the item, turn the hanger around. At the end of a season (or six months), any hangers that are still facing backwards are items that you can get rid of. If you haven't worn it in 6 months, you don't need it! I plan to do this, too.

Love y'all! PLEASE share pictures, tips, strategies, and motivation with the rest of us over on the facebook page. Can't wait to hear from you!

Clean Home Challenge Day #17

Today's challenge shouldn't take most of you very long. Today we're tackling our LINEN CLOSETS!
I had done mine recently, so I didn't really do much to change it.
Here's the before picture:

I Hate H.A.T.E. folding fitted sheets, so as you can tell, they're kind of crammed in there. At the bottom of the closet is some junk. And Yes, that's a training potty crammed in there too. We're in a relatively new house with very limited storage so we make it work :).

All I did was re-fold the top two sets of sheets and straighten a few things. I could work for a long time to make it picture-perfect but that's not really how it will stay because that's so-not-me.

Here's the after shots:

I have labeled baskets for pillowcases, hand towels and wash cloths. That helps me keep things in order. What about you? Will you share your before/after pics on the facebook page? Participation has been way down and I'm starting to think I'm in this thing on my own. I'd love to learn from some of you how you stay organized!

And here's one last picture of my helper...

He's cute, right?!
Love y'all!

Clean Home Challenge Day #16

I hadn't planned to do this area as part of this challenge, but it's necessary that I get mine under control. Today, we tackle our PURSES!

Here's my before pic: (You'll notice there are two purses here. I was using both of them and both were a MESS!)

I took out all the junk inside both

Then put it back in an organized fashion. 

You maybe can't tell much from this picture, so here's a closer shot of each side of the interior:

My purse tends to continually acrue old receipts, pieces of paper, gum wrappers, etc. It needs to be an area that I work on each week. Maybe I'll add it to my weekly list. What about you? Let's see your before and after pictures over on our facebook page!

Clean Home Challenge Day #15

Today we tackle an area of our bedrooms that is often overlooked...our nightstands! Mine is a catch-all for all sorts of things and can pile up quickly!
Here's a before shot:

The first thing I did was tackle all the items on the nightstand that didn't need to be there. It didn't take long and ended up looking like this:

Next, I wanted to deal with all of my reading materials. I like to read, a lot, so I always have a big pile of books and magazines that I'm working on. I used to stuff them into a drawer and then into a box beside the bed. Here's a picture of them:

I decided to take all of them out of the drawer and the box and to sort them so I could see what I actually had. These were all the magazines, books, and notebooks I had out:

I was able to toss a lot of the magazines into the recycling bin. I mean, cmon, am I really going to need to look at fitness magazines from 8 months ago? Probably need to, but I am not going to have time.

Once I got rid of some of them, I used these awesome storage boxes I got from Target to organize the books beside my bed.

They're nice, right? Target $1.00 each! I bought 10. I went back for more but they were sold out. SUCH a good deal!
Then I organized the other drawer and it ended up looking like this:

This drawer now holds some of my coupon inserts, notepads, etc.

What about you? Let's see your nightstand before and after pictures!

Clean Home Challenge Day #13

Today we begin working on THE MASTER BEDROOM. And we’re jumping right in and working on an area you may avoid like I do…our clothing!

For this challenge, either tackle your dresser or your closet. I did my dresser and plan to do my closet next week, but for those of you who only have a closet, go ahead and start working on it.

I went through four drawers and weeded out items I haven’t worn yet this season (90% of the things in the drawer). 

I started with my pajama drawer. It is always a mess because I don’t fold pajamas- I just wad them up and throw them in each morning. It’s a plethora of old t-shirts, big baggy shorts, and pajama pants. I only wear the same few items, but have a drawer stuffed full. Here’s the BEFORE pic:

And here’s the AFTER picture:

And these are the items that I realized I don’t “NEED” to have and will be sending to Goodwill:

Next I moved on to my top dresser drawer where I keep my tank tops and undershirts. 

Here’s the BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

And this picture is the STACK of white tanktops or shirts that I realized I don’t need to keep and will be sending to Good will. I mean really, who needs 14 white shirts?!

Next on the list was my t-shirt drawer. I love t-shirts and wear them pretty much every day. I am all about dressing for comfort, so they are a main staple of my wardrobe. However, just like with my pajamas, I wear the same 4 or 5 shirts and don’t ever even get the others out of the drawer. So as much as I love them, it was time to part with some of them.

Here’s the BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

Actually, I forgot to take an AFTER! Whoops- I’ll have to upload it later.

Next drawer was my summer shirts drawer. Although I love most of the tops in this drawer, I don’t wear 90% of them. And sadly, it’s time to admit that some are simply too small. I am going to stop holding on to them hoping that one day my muffin top will shrink, and I’m sending a bunch to Goodwill. Here’s the BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

The last drawer was my running clothes/workout clothes drawer. What a mess!
Here’s the BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

You can’t tell a big difference but I did clean out about 6 pairs of little workout shorts that haven’t been on this mom-of-two rear end since 2008!

And here’s a picture of all the items I was able to clean out and will be sending to Goodwill. 

Will I miss these items? Chances are I won’t even hardly notice they’re gone. But even if I do, I am going to remember that I have MORE THAN ENOUGH for myself and that I can be a blessing by donating it to someone else.

Can’t wait to see y’alls pictures from this task!!!