Housecleaning Tips

1. Start each day with a load of laundry.

2. Use the right tools and products for cleaning.

3. Use both of your hands when you clean.

4. Schedule time to clean!

5. Work in one room till it’s done.

6. Get the kitchen clean before bedtime.

7. Take a small laundry basket around the house to collect misplaced items and then deliver them to their proper place.

8. Spend a few minutes each day tidying up hot spots (places that collect clutter).

9. Learn to throw away junk AND stuff you don’t use.

10. Sort mail over the trash can and throw junk mail directly into the trash.

11. When cleaning/de-cluttering have 3 bags marked Give Away, Throw Away, Put Away.

12. Disinfectant household wipes are great for quick bathroom clean ups.

13. Keep your entry way and front room tidy for unexpected guest.

14. Put little people in your house to work. Kids love cleaning.

15. Make the bed as soon as you get out of it.

16. Spend a few minutes each day de-cluttering one area of your house.

your wedding dress

Don't ever get rid of your wedding dress.

What a treasure of memories. Nothing more symbolizes the day of your unity to your daughter than your wedding dress. It represents the new identity you are clothing yourself to be in your husband. Your wedding dress conveys all that is feminine and represents your role as a woman. Your wedding ceremony is a foundation of godly marriage for the generations to come after you. At the alter you repeat the vows that generations of others before you have promised. You stand with others before you who have upheld God's design for marriage. By these vows you are united not only to each other but to the institution of marriage that God designed to represent His relationship with us. Becoming one flesh you set aside your previous identity and become this one man's helpmate. You wear a white dress to present yourself spiritually pure to the new leader of the home you will diligently manage. You wear a white dress adorned with beautiful elements to display your own beauty...the gift that you are to your husband. He will treasure that image of you in your wedding dress for the rest of his life.

Treasure your dress.
Preserve it.
Bring it out from time to time to remind yourself of that momentous day.
Show it to your daughters.
Let your daughters dress up in it and imagine themselves one day taking the vows that generations before them have girded themselves up with.
If you don't have daughters you may not know what it may one day mean to your daughter-in-law...

If you can't afford to have your dress preserved, the best thing you can do is to store it in black trash bags. This way it is protected from the light. This will help it not turn yellow with age. Keep it stored in a dry place where it can not mold. Keep bugs and moths away from it by storing it in a cedar chest or by placing cedar blocks around it. If you can afford to, you should at least have it cleaned after your wedding. Take it to an experienced dry cleaner.

Snow Tips

I typed up this list for a friend who just moved to the snow and wanted some tips....

-always shovel the driveway. If you wait, it will freeze overnight and you won't be able to scrape it up.

-don't drive on the driveway until you've shoveled because the tires will pack it down and even if you shovel you will have two stripes on your drive way of frozen ice (which makes for kids slipping and falling easily.)

-mittens are for keeping warm not for playing in snow. Once they are wet their hands will freeze. My kids came close to actually getting frostbite just while playing in our yard one year.

-water resistant gloves are for playing in snow not mittens.

-snow pants are an essential (walmart and target carry them. Have your kids where thermals underneath and then put the snow pants on.)

-snow boots are essential for playing in the snow as well....payless will carry reasonably priced ones.

-scarfs can double as ear warmers by wrapping it around your head like a headband and then secure by wrapping around your neck.

-keep a sweater hanger (you can see it here) in your entry coat closet. Each kid or person in the family gets their own cubbie for mittens, scarfs, ear muffs, snow gloves. This solves trying to find everyone's "gear" when trying to get out the door on time.

-boots and mittens dry great by the floor heater vents.

-when you go somewhere teach your kids to take off their mittens and put them into their coat pockets. That way they don't get lost.

-hang snow pants over the tub or shower to dry.

-when getting out of a car/truck, test the parking lot ground with your foot before getting out. You can slip very badly on black ice that you can't see. Trust me, I've done it and it wasn't pretty. Teach your children to do the same.

-keep a windshield scraper in your car. Preferably one with a brush and a scraper on it.

-always park in your garage if you can.

-enjoy it, have fun in it, when it snows- put down the school books and go play in it! =0)

Dirty High Chair

Best way to clean a high chair?

In the summer, remove the padding, take the chair outside to the grass and hose it down with the garden hose. Get out a sponge or scrub brush and some dish soap and scrub the chair down. Scrub the padding down too if it's plastic or toss it in the washer machine. Rinse the chair with the hose again and towel dry it and you'll be surprised how clean you can get it!

Living Clean

It pays to live clean. I've come to discover that knowing how to clean and living clean are two different things. Most people know how to clean well enough when their house gets dirty and messy but not very many people live clean in-between.

You can touch stuff in your house with sticky hands never washing and never wiping off. You can spill in the kitchen and leave it. You can get toothpaste all over the sink and counter (and sometimes walls as I've discovered in my house cleaning business) and choose not to wipe it up. You can let dirt and crumbs fall on the floor and not think twice about sweeping them up. You can also not put things away.

OR

You can wash your hands so they aren't sticky and wipe up counters and sinks as you go. You can wipe off cabinets and handles, keep the lid on the toothpaste and even wipe off the toothpaste to keep it clean. You can sweep up the floor and wipe up the spills. You can take the few seconds it requires to put something away when you are done with it. Doing this you will find that you save yourself a ton of time on cleaning day and that your home is maintained better in general.

It's worth training your children to live clean by teaching them to clean up after themselves, wipe off, wash off, and sweep up. How early can you start this? As early as they make messes.

Even with potty training you have an opportunity to teach "living clean". Most parents think of potty training as "teaching my kids to go pee and poop in the toilet". Oh, it is SO much more than that! When I was potty training my kids I taught them the entire process.

Shut the door for privacy.
Go potty or poop.
Use toilet paper (3 squares) and properly wipe (there is a "right" way you know).
Close the lid of the seat.
Flush the toilet.
Wash your hands with soap.
Dry off your hands.
Turn off the light.

I feel sorry for the parent that fails to teach all of these steps. Trying to teach them after the fact is difficult. Don't miss the opportunity to teach at the moment a habit is learned. How often I have had children over to my house who don't flush, leave the lid up, and don't wash. How often I have had adults over who do the same! Living clean in this area can keep a much cleaner bathroom and no surprises in the toilet left for later. Not that we have kept living clean as a strict standard but it sure does help to at least have these habits in general.

Living clean means we respect what God has given us. Being a good steward of everything God has given us is honorable. We are not so lazy that we just spill and leave it. Living clean means that we show favor to the ones that have to live with us. It also means that our home is more ready for hospitality. It also ensures that we don't have a huge mountain of work ahead of us when we do decide to finally clean.

go camping

As I'm setting up a make-shift and temporary home for our family this week I was reflecting on all my years of camping. What does camping have to do with a temporary home? Everything. My situation at the moment could be incredibly stressful had I not grown up camping.

When you camp you learn the tricks of setting up a make-shift home. You learn to make do with what you have and not complain about what you don't have. Organizing a temporary kitchen with less than ideal storage is challenging but the creativity and skill that camping has developed in me helped me meet these challenges with ease.

A shoe box suddenly becomes a pantry storage box.

An old bookshelf becomes a make-shift pantry.

A toy rack stores paper goods.

Bedrooms are arranged for practicality instead of aesthetics.

Kitchen tools and gadgets are reduced to a minimum and find themselves being used for multiple purposes.

Camping has many more benefits than just this...like family bonding, team work, exploration, experiencing creation, hard work, living simply, and much more. I never realized till now though, what a practical influence it would have on my life until I was setting up a make-shift home for us this week. I can't think of many more activities that help mold us into well rounded people for life.

kneeling on hard floors

When I was bathing little ones my knees would start to hurt kneeling at the tub. One day I thought of the gardening kneeling pads. I got one and kept it under the bathroom sink to save my knees some pain.

A few years later I started using it when I would mop my floors by hand as well.

Winter mittens, gloves, and hats

To solve the problem of sorting through mittens to find the missing match I came up with this idea. I hang one of those hanging shoe sorter or sweater stackers in our coat closet for sorting and storing winter mittens, hats, and scarfs. First I started with a shoe size one but it's too small. Now each person in the family can have plenty of room on their own shelf.

lampshades need a cleaning?

the best way to dust a fabric lampshade is with a lint roller. It works amazingly well!