Simplify Your Cleaning Routine!

I don't spend a lot of money to keep my bathroom clean.  With a tight budget, three cats, one dog, a husband and a toddler, I need to be able to clean my bathroom quickly and cheaply!  Here's what I use:  

• Baking Soda
• Borax
• Water
• A lemon
• Essential Oils (lavender is my favorite)
• Vinegar
• Newspaper
• Re-purposed spray bottle

Seriously!  

Here's how I do it--and not lose my mind in the process.

Step One: Toilet

Give your toilet bowl to get some soaking action with some baking soda (about half a cup) with a generous dollop of vinegar.  If you're out of both of those items, just use Borax.  Close the lid and allow the toilet bowl to soak while you're doing the rest of the room.  

Step Two:  

Spray the mirror with vinegar and wipe clean with newspaper.  Newspaper will get the mirror totally clean without leaving streaks.

Step Three:

Sprinkle some Borax or Baking Soda on a damp rag and use it to scrub the dried on toothpaste and other gross stuff from the sink and counter.  Rinse and re-apply as needed.  Use a dry rag to dry the area when done.  

Step Four:

Grab your bathmat, hand towel, non-slip mat and shower curtain and give them a good wash in hot water in the washing machine. Sprinkle Borax or Baking Soda on a damp rag and clean the bathtub.  Should your bathtub require some extra attention (or if you're looking for a more fragrant option) try using half a lemon as your rag.  In this case you'd sprinkle the Baking Soda (don't use Borax with the lemon) directly on the surface to be cleaned and then scrub with the lemon half.  It will clean better than a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!   Rinse with a clean wet rag.  

Step Five:

Using the same re-purposed spray bottle that you used to clean the mirror, spray the outside of the toilet and wipe down.  Now scrub the inside of the toilet bowl with a toilet brush.  Everything should have come off, but if you've got some residual staining, try using a pumice stone.  

Step Six:

Sweep the floor, then mop with diluted vinegar and hot water (add essential oils if you'd like some fragrance).  Vinegar is safe for both linoleum and hardwood.

Step Seven:

Empty the trash.  When you replace the can liner, sprinkle some baking soda inside and add a few drops of essential oil.  

Step Eight:

Replace the newly cleaned bathmat, shower curtain, non-slip mat and hand towel.  

Congrats!  Your bathroom is clean and fresh.  Quick, take a bath!

My New Mindset

"To find simplicity, what we need is reflection, attentiveness, compassion and courage."  

--David Cadman, 'A Necessary Simplicity'

I used to be the kind of person who would engage regularly in retail therapy.  Not even the good kind:  I wouldn't go and splurge on a great pair of shoes or some sexy lingerie.  Instead, I would stop at the drive-thru because I had a bad day and I deserved it.  Or I would throw a few extras in the shopping cart because I really wanted the things.  At the same time, I would swear up and down that I didn't have enough money to save for the things that I really wanted.  I didn't put any conscious thought into my purchases; I didn't regularly abide by my budget.  If I wanted something, I bought it (unless my debit card was declined, of course).  


As my thinking and life has evolved over the last several years, I've had to change my thinking.  My spending habits were that of someone who had access to a bottomless trust fund.   (My husband works in Special Education, I work for a non-profit.  Neither will get us rich.  Read:  no trust fund here).  I came to the understanding that we could either go get second jobs...or we could pare down our spending and get our money under control.  It's our money--it was high time for us to take charge.  


I don't think that I would have understood my situation quite as well as I do if I hadn't been introduced to the Dave Ramsey money management system by my good friend (we'll call her Ms. B).  Dear Ms. B took me under her wing and taught me to tell my money where it went.  I now have a Google Spreadsheet that allows me to manage each of my dollars as I see fit.  I now have an emergency savings fund that grows every month.  My husband and I came up with a definite plan for how our tax refund would be spent (for the very first time in our marriage).  This is a continual learning experience--I'm by no means an expert here. 


Of course, the downside to understanding y our money better is to understand that you do, in fact, have limits.  If you spend $1 on one thing, you can't spend that same dollar on something else.  It's gone.  You've designated that one thing as being important enough to give away that money. 


By being mindful about your budget and your limits, you can start to understand what your priorities are.  By living in line with your priorities, you become more simple.  By living in line with your budget, you become more frugal.  By being both, I truly believe, you can become happier.    

Frugal Laundry

Laundry.  Whether you love it or hate it, it has to be done (well, unless you want to be stinky and stained).  I have three tips for you to save money on your laundry (and to be a bit more gentle on the earth, too):  

Aluminum Foil Dryer Balls

Vinegar as Fabric Softener

Make-Your-Own Landry Powder

Aluminum Foil Dryer Balls

If you're like me, you hate unitask, use-it-and-throw-it items.  Dryer sheets are the perfect example.  You use them once and toss them.  And.....what?  They sit in a landfill.  Swell.  There goes your money and our resources.  But you've got no static cling! *Sarcastic smirk*  

A simple and economical solution is to use a ball of aluminum foil.  Seriously.  I've tried it for a couple weeks now and I can attest that it works.  My laundry has no static cling!  And if my cats are lucky enough, I drop one of the aluminum foil balls while walking from the dryer to the kitchen table and they get to play with it!  Kitty heaven.  

Vinegar as Fabric Softener

Use one cup of cheapo white vinegar for each load of laundry.  It will brighten your whites and colors, help to remove stains, and will soften  your clothes.  Your clothes will not smell like pickles after you dry them, I promise!  They will just be clean and soft.  

My washing machine has a compartment for fabric softener, and that's where I add my vinegar.  If yours doesn't, then add your cup of vinegar during the rinse cycle.

Our laundry detergent (re-purposed container, of course).  Isn't it cute?

I liked the label that I made so much that I thought I'd present it to you in all  it's glory :)

Make-Your-Own Laundry Powder

If this laundry detergent works for us, it will work for you.  I've got a husband, a toddler, a dog and three cats, and it's held up to everything that I've thrown at it so far--even dried blood.  When the washer is running, the whole apartment smells clean.  When the clothes are dry, there's not a whole lot of scent left, but your clothes are undeniably clean and fresh. 

There are many recipes out there, but I like this one because it happened to use only ingredients that I had on hand.  I didn't see the point of going out and buying new things in order to save money.   

To make your own:

• One cup Washing Powder 
• One cup Borax
• One bar soap, grated (I used Fels-Naptha for the batch that I'm currently on, but I plan on using whatever I can find underneath my sink when I make my next batch.  I have been called a soap hoarder before, and that's not untrue).

Combine all ingredients either by hand or in a food processor.  Use 2 tablespoons (or 1/8 cup) per load.  Use a bit more if you're dealing with super grimy stuff.  I prefer to get the water started in the empty washer, pour in the detergent, let it start dissolving, and then put in the clothes.  Just my preference, there's no real reason to it, but I swear it works better.  

Here's what your finished product should look like.

As I said earlier, I hate uni-taskers.  I use the aluminum foil for all sorts of things in the house, so to pull off a bunch and make a ball for the dryer once in awhile costs hardly anything.  Ditto for the vinegar.  Regarding the laundry powder, I use both the Borax and the Washing Powder for cleaning the bathroom and for various deep-cleaning jobs around the house (hello diaper pail)!  It gives me a nerdy little thrill to know that I can clean my whole apartment with only a few cleaning agents--and for pretty cheap, too!  

GTFO Box

Isn't it strange how many items creep into our lives?  It seems to me that even when my husband and I are very consciously not purchasing anything beyond groceries, new-to-us items find their way into our living space.  Some of these items come by way of my husband's magical ability to procure free things; some of them come from the side of the road; many of them come from my mom who is very generous with all the things that she finds for free at the recycling center near her house.  In any event, it was realized one day that a cycle needed to be completed:  

a) item comes into our apartment

b) item enjoys its useful life 

c) item is no longer needed and sits there taking up space

d) item needs to GTFO!  

Our solution to the stuff imbalance was three-fold:  

1.  We became critical of what we acquired.  Not just by shopping, but with those free acquisitions as well.  We asked each other:  "Do you really NEED this?  Can you borrow something similar?  Can you use your creativity to meet your need in another way?"

2.  We set up a GTFO box in our house.  

3.  We designated a time to donate!  

  

The only things that I want in my living space are:  things that I use on a regular basis and things that I love.  If the item doesn't fall into either of those categories, it really shouldn't be taking up space in my home.  When we clear all the items out of our apartment that don't fall into either one of those categories, we will be able to move to a less expensive apartment (and until we do, our current space will feel so bright, open and airy)!  By getting rid of belongings at a slow pace, we will be able to make decisions with mindfulness.  

Try this thought on for size:  even if you get an item for free, you're paying for it in some way, shape or form if you bring it into your living space.  You're paying to house it, to clean it, and to maintain it.  You're being charged by your inanimate objects merely by their presence.  Even thrift store finds can drain your time and resources if they are superfluous to your needs.  But wait....who has the thinking brain in this equation?  You do!  

Remember:  if you don't use it on a regular basis, or you don't absolutely love it, then it needs to GO.

In our household, the GTFO Box is just a cardboard box (I snag the boxes that the paper comes in from the office where I work).  Things that my son has outgrown and aren't really worth saving for my other mommy friends go in the box.  Last week I couldn't find what I wanted in my pajama drawer because it was hidden by a bunch of pairs of pajama pants that I didn't like.  Guess what?  The undesired pajama pants went  in the box. 

If you don't follow through on step three, all you've done is move your item from its original location to a box.  It's important to set up a time to bring your box to the Salvation Army or Goodwill or whatever on a regular basis.  Be religious about it!  In our household, it makes sense for us to bring our box to the Salvation Army when we do our weekly grocery shopping, as the Salvation Army is just a bit down the road from our preferred grocery store.  Find what makes sense for you, and stick to it.  If you have larger items that need to GTFO (such as furniture), we've had good luck with posting an ad on Craigslist.  You may also wish to try calling the Salvation Army or Goodwill sometimes offer free furniture pick-up.      

As you start your continual purging process, try to be realistic.  You're not going to finish the process in one day.  This should be an ongoing process that is accompanied by a gradual change in the reasons behind acquiring your belongings.