Back to Basics

My house probably let out a big sigh of relief today as I was finally able to do some serious cleaning in the kitchen and in the living and bed rooms.  I've been procrastinating and not feeling up to it last week and I'm glad I'm back to my old self and doing something productive for a change. 

I also had a chance to experiment a little bit on some natural cleaning solutions for the kitchen.  I tried making the pretreat solution before -  it worked out well and I still use it.  So, to try out another item from this book (which I have in my library for a long time and I'm glad that it's finally being put to good use), I mixed up the recipe for a degreasing solution.  

Originally intended to be just for mirrors, I went ahead and used it for the greasy residue in and around the stove area.  It worked so well on it's own and takes only a little scrubbing to get the stubborn grease spots out.  What's amazing is that I actually did all the cleaning with my bare hands!!!  I could never have done that had I used the traditional high chemical variety.  It was so gentle to my hands that there was no sign of dryness at all.  It just goes to show how perfect natural items are and let's not forget that it is very cost effective as well. 

So, here's the recipe for a NATURAL DEGREASING SOLUTION:

3 cups isopropyl alcohol 

1 cup ammonia

1/2 cup liquid soap blend (castile soap and boiling water)

10 cups of water

I only made 1/3 of this recipe since I wanted to try it out but the large amount is intended to avoid constant mixing since this item is likely going to be used often around the house.  The shelf life is approximately 6-9 months so it's definitely more than enough time to finish this large quantity.

A clean house is certainly wonderful but cleaning it without worrying about chemicals you expose yourself and your children to and knowing that you did not hurt the earth while doing so is even more satisfying indeed!!!

Tomorrow it will be phase 2....I have two more rooms to tackle - our project room and the bathroom, both needing extra cleaning and the girls laundry to finish.  Hopefully,  I will be able to take a break and enjoy some outdoor activity with the girls, even if it means cleaning out there too. 

I'm also doing some purging in the process.  My goal to apply the less is more policy in the house is yet to be accomplished.  I've already started with the girls toys and I'm hoping to do so much more in the days before our big garage sale in the end of August.  I'm hoping to get rid of the majority of their plastic toys and just leave the ones they are really playing with day after day - their legos, their dolls, their dress up stuff and some of their wooden toys.  The only thing I'm thinking of adding eventually are more musical instruments and yes, the real ones this time (I am taking away the plastic ones already).  Our goal is to save enough so that we could change our massive couch and just have one unit like this one from Ikea so that it will give us more room in the living room to get the girls the piano they always wanted.  But of course,  it's one day at a time and today has been a good back to basics kinda' day.  So here's to hoping that our tomorrows will be just as productive!