Before and After: cleaning

Showing posts with label cleaning. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Kids Doing Chores

With four children, I really want to teach them how to help around the house and learn how to do things for themselves. This is not always easy but it is something that needs to be done.

I try to start when they are little because that is when they love helping and being praised for doing it.

People often ask me about this and right now I give the kids little jobs to help but nothing too big right now. I have them clean up their rooms, toys, make their own bed (not daily though- we need to get better with this), help with the dishes, they can sweep, vacuum and occasionally put some laundry away. I am pretty relaxed about this because when I got pregnant with Andrew, I hired a cleaning service for the deep cleaning but I still want to teach the kids to be responsible for their own things.

The ages of my kids are 7, 5, 3, and almost 4 months.

Today, I want to share a little video with you showing an example of how I do this.

Here is Matthew (age 3) helping with the dishwasher. He loves his chores and really feels like he is helping.

(I did have to "help" a little in the video but I thought he was going to break the door. He didn't like being "helped")

As you can see in the video, we use Shaklee's Dish Detergent and LOVE it!! You saw that we only use a little bit. I never pre-rinse anything and they are always clean. Plus, because it is non-toxic, the kids can actually help me by putting it in the dishwasher and it won't leave any nasty chemical residue on our dishes.

You might of also seen our oven grates in the dishwasher. I throw those in the dishwasher about once a week and that seems to works great!

What chores do you give your kids?

How do they respond?

Do you have a rewards chart or incentive?

Follow HOUSE OF GRACE on Facebook now!

Happy cleaning!

Bonnie :)

Buy your natural cleaners here!

Cleaning Your Wood Floors

Good morning! :) My friend, The Tipster, just started a brand new website and wanted to post here to share some cleaning tips!! We all love cleaning tips, right? She is here today to sharing cleaning tips for cleaning wood floors.

Take is away Tipster!

I love wood floors.

But, at some point you have to clean them. How? Water and wood don’t mix well when it comes to floors. Water can leave marks. You know how a wet glass leaves rings on a piece of wood furniture? Even laminates can bow and buckle.

Use water sparingly!

Steam cleaning and wet mopping your wood floors may damage them.

In a past life, I was in floor covering. It’s possible to ruin your floor washing it. I’ve seen floor planks that have bowed. It’s unlikely that the flooring manufacturer or insurance company are going to replace a floor damaged by cleaning methods.

Sweep the floor with a stiff bristle broom.

Check the care information that came with your floor. The manufacturer or distributor probably recommends a product. Or, do as I do, and damp mop with a nontoxic cleaner. If I’m just cleaning a small hall, I’ll clean the floor down on my knees with a cloth, but you probably won’t do that for a large area!

This is an O cedar dust mop, and the wonderful thing about it is that the removable machine washable cover is microfiber. You don’t have to use this brand, it’s for demonstration purposes.

Wet the cover or a cloth with plain water. Wring it out as dry as you can. Put the cover back on the mop. Spray a mild cleaning product on the floor in a ‘manageable’ area at a time.

I use Shaklee’s Get Clean Basic H2, diluted to the multi-purpose formula. It’s safe for you and the environment, effective and

economical. One 16 oz. bottle of concentrate makes 48 gallons of this formula! Experiment with size of the area you do at a time.

You don’t want the cleaning product to dry before you damp mop it. Also, periodically rinse the cover or cloth well and wring dry. You don’t want to be just pushing around dirt!

Job well done!

Thanks so much Tipster for all your cleaning tips! :) Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to wait to see what else you blog about!

Have a great day!

Bonnie :)

Housekeeping Tip of the Day!

I think I have become the master at keeping a clean home lately with all our home showings!

One of the things that has really helped me is keeping up with all the laundry!

I have been doing a load (or two) everyday and that has really been keeping me on track.

Now, if I miss a day, I feel behind, lol.

Even though keeping my house clean and picked up has been a total pain, it has really taught us how important keeping to a schedule is.

How often do you do laundry?

Do you have a cleaning schedule?

Have a great day!

Bonnie ;)

P.S. I use all natural laundry and household cleaners. You can get your own here> http://donahuewellness.myshaklee.com/us/en/category.php?main_cat=HomeCare

How to clean baby poop!

Alright new moms, this post is for you! Did the title grab your attention?

If you have a newborn at your house, chances are, you have been pooped on once or twice and/or have had baby diaper explosions! Hey, those happen!

I found the best way to clean that baby poop and this is my secret....

Basic H!!!

Yup, we found another use for our amazing cleaner.

I just spray on the Basic H Degreaser formula, let it sit for a while and then wash! (I use Shaklee's natural laundry line too!)

I swear by this method!!!

You can buy your basic h here> http://donahuewellness.myshaklee.com/us/en/category.php?main_cat=HomeCare

Have a great day and I can't wait to hear how this works for you.

Bonnie :)

How to Clean your Car {naturally}

Happy weekend!! What plans do you have? Cleaning your car??

Today, we have a guest blogger that might motivate you to do just that!

Nicole has been married to her amazing husband, Eric, for almost six years. She has two teenage step-children and two preschoolers, so her house is never dull! Nicole is a work from home mom that loves to share her passion for organizing, cleaning, and making families healthier. Her blog, A New Normal, is a mixture of family, organizing, cleaning and general posts of the craziness that is her new normal!

Hi there! I am Nicole from A New Normal and I am a proud driver of a killer mini-van. We have enough room for everyone in the family with tons of storage space as well. With a four year old and a three year old constantly in tow, the car can get pretty messy. Every so often, we deep the killer mini-van. Usually, this process starts with a good wash- of course we use Basic H! But, we have been having a killer monsoon season this year and it makes no sense to wash it, just to have it pour an hour later, ya know what I mean? So instead, we went straight for the inside! First thing we did was empty the whole entire car. We can accumulate some serious crap-o-la! I was shocked! After the van was empty, I busted out the good old degreaser that I made from Basic H . Here are some awesome before and after pictures that are seriously embarrassing:

This is our center console....that is just nasty. And the worst part about that is, I can't even blame the kiddos for that! They don't sit up there- that's all me.

Gross.

Looks so much better....the stuff that's left- stains. Yep- I can stain plastic. I've got skills.

So apparently, I not only make a mess in the cup holders, but my arms are nasty dirty too and leave marks. This picture makes me shower- big time.

Better:)

Again, this is the front seat. What in the heck? I just spill and let it run down the side? And you know what, I remember when one of these spills occurred, we were at Sonic and I ordered a root beer float. I, being the brilliant person I am, set it down on the console, not in the cup holder, and Eric hit it with his elbow. It was like slow motion- we watched it as it glubbed, glubbed, glubbed, down the side of the seat. Wow, do you feel better knowing that story?

Yay! Clean and no sign of the Root Beer Float incident

There is it! My trusty degreaser. Want some of your own?

Go here and order::)

Delaney was using the Basic H wipes to clean the back of the car. I love that the Shaklee products are safe for the kids to help out!

Now she is cleaning the windows (made with Basic H- 16 oz of water and TWO drops of Basic H).

I love when the van is vacuumed, so after I am all finished scrubbing it down, I vacuum and then I just sit in it and love on it and pretend like it will stay that way forever.

Back to reality.....

I am an organizing freak. I love to be prepared (sometimes I am so over prepared, that I make myself laugh) so when it came to the killer mini van, I loaded that bad up with everything I could think of. Call me a nerd- I am okay with that.

Here is the inside of our center console:

Kinda hard to see, but the storm was rolling in....on the left, there are our Entertainment books, Basic H wipes, and my little make up bag that has spare make-up and lady products in it. On the right, in the fancy green basket, there are Boogie Wipes, scissors, straws, gum, hand sanitizer, business cards, and pens.

(pre-vacuumed)

This is the definitely the chocolate to my milk. I love these storage bins....I can pack a ton in there!

Don't believe me?

Proof:

You never know when you may find the perfect spot for a picnic. Or maybe a impromptu road trip (yeah, like I could handle that;) that leads you to a lovely park....we would be ready.

I love my picnic basket-it has everything I need to make a picnic wonderful:

Again, bad picture, sorry- in the garage.

See!? There's a tablecloth, plates, baskets, napkins, plastic utensils, salt and pepper-everything!

This is the other side of the storage bin. Everything we need:)

In the trunk (I guess it's called a trunk, maybe we just call it the back)....I have some hanging organizers I got from the dollar store. I also have a organizing bin that I put groceries in and that's where I keep my cooler bags (inside of those, I keep my reusable grocery bags too)

Left to right, top to bottom:

Extra cups, sunscreen, plastic utensils and 2 spare toothbrushes, a lint roller, and ponchos. Yes, ponchos, because you just never know.

Band aids, hair bands, brush, the empty space is supposed to have baby wipes in it, a first aid kit,spare pull-ups, spare chonies:)

I used to have an umbrella, but Brody got to it....enough said.

Btw...in case you were wondering what that strange thing is in the corner.....it's a stain from a small amount of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner that spilled when we moved.

Can you say scary??

So happy that I have switched to the non-toxic Get Clean line!!

So there ya go! That's my car!

Thanks so much Bonnie for letting me guest post on your AMAZING blog!

I LOVE having new readers, so if you would like more....just type in your email and get new posts delivered right to your inbox!

You can also find me on Facebook!

Thanks so much Nicole! :) I am off to clean my van out. I needs it!

Have a great weekend!

Bonnie :)

Pressure Washing your House Naturally with Basic H

Well, it was that time of year again, the time where we need to pressure wash our house again. We usually do it once or twice a year. Since we live kind of close to several ponds, we get a LOT of bugs! It makes our house look like a haunted house a year, lol!

I wanted to share this post with you because several people have asked me what I use to wash my house. You will probably not be surprise that I use Basic H for this.

I upgraded to the large bottle this time since we have been gardening and for the fact that we go through this stuff more than most people. I even bathe my kids in it. Oh yes, now you think I am totally crazy! Don’t you? Well, I wasn’t even go to tell you that but I started telling some friends and they loved that idea and was so glad that I told them. Ha, I was embarrassed by that and yet, it makes sense. It is organic (so it won’t harm us), it cleans my kiddos (I do use it too) and it cleans the bath at the same time. I have NEVER had to clean soap scum in my bath!!! NEVER!!!! Which is nice because I don’t have time to do that anyway and then I don’t have to worry about chemicals left around the tub and then the kids soaking in them.

Anyway, back to this post. This is what I used…

I also used our pressure washer that we got on clearance last fall for $100. If you are looking to get one, hopefully clearance will start soon!!

This is what our house looked like before…I told you it was nasty!

We (I mean my husband, lol) just put some Basic H in the pressure washer and got to work. It took of ALL the disgusting stuck on bug poop too and that stuff is was caked on and is usually hard to remove!