Day 156: Pom-Poms as Erasers (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

My kids love to use dry erase markers and this pin looked like a quick way for them to easily erase their work if they made a mistake.  This was easy and worked -- simply hot-glue gun a pom-pom on the bottom of a dry erase marker.

The only negative was that my son kept losing the marker cap (since he usually sticks it on the bottom of the marker while in use), but he was occupied for quite awhile with drawing and erasing, so I count that as a success!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 154: Olive Oil to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances (fail).

Pinterest pin (no website link).

I have stainless steel appliances and small kids with sticky fingers, so I was excited to try this pin.  This was my dishwasher last night:

As the pin suggested, I put olive oil on a paper towel and rubbed it on the front of the dishwasher before using a clean towel to buff the residue off.  Unfortunately, it just made the front of the dishwasher appear to have a film all over it; the olive oil residue wouldn't come off.

As you can see, I also forgot to clean the right-hand side of the dishwasher, so I'm off to do that now with the stainless steel cleaner I bought at the store!

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 153: Cleaning Dirty Oven Racks (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

 

I've completed several pins on cleaning my oven, but have never found anything on cleaning the oven racks.  And I think we can all agree that mine were disgusting :(

Instructions:

Place oven racks in the bath tub and fill with HOT water until racks are covered.  While the water is on, add about 6 dryer sheets and 1/2 cup of dish soap (I used the original blue Dawn).

Let sit overnight. Remove any remaining buildup with the dryer sheets.

They're not perfect, but they're SO much better -- and  most of the grease and build-up came easily off by lightly scrubbing with the dryer sheets in the morning.

This probably goes without saying, but you'll need to clean your bathtub after completing this pin!

 

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 147: How to Wash & Whiten Yellowed Pillows (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I have a front-loading washer, so I modified this pin based on the comments section below the original post; instead of soaking the pillows in the washing machine, I soaked them in our bathtub. 

A few of our pillows look like this (the sheet underneath is pure white, so you can see just how yellowed the pillow is):

I mixed together the following solution in our bathtub and soaked three pillows (FYI: it didn't say how long to soak them, and I think I may have overdone it, as the lining on two of the pillows started to disintegrate after soaking for 1/2 an hour on each side).

Mixture:
Hot water
1 cup of laundry detergent
1 cup powdered dishwasher detergent
1 cup bleach
1/2 cup borax

I then wrung the pillows out, transferred them to the washer and washed them in hot, hot water for two cycles.  It took 2+ dryer cycles to get them dry, plus lots of work to fluff out all the lumps.  In the end, I ruined two pillows (too lumpy to sleep on anymore and lining is ripped) and the remaining one isn't all that much whiter.  From here on out, I think I'll just run them through the washer -- 2 at a time -- with our regular laundry soap and bleach.  Most people don't see the yellowed pillows anyway with the pillowcases on!

 Verdict: FAIL. 

Day 144: Vinegar to Clean Dishwasher (fail).

Pinterest pin and website link.

To be honest, I've never inspected the bottom of my dishwasher to make sure that it's clean, as I assumed that since it gets my dishes clean, the actual machine would be clean too.  Wrong.  It's really gross in there:

In an attempt to clean it, I poured vinegar into the bottom of the empty dishwasher and ran a hot cycle without any dishes, per the pin instructions.  I'm still on the hunt for a way to clean my dishwasher, as mine is still really disgusting:

Verdict: FAIL.

Day 127: Upholstery Stain Remover (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I had credit at our local kids' consignment store and decided to "purchase" this cute chair (for free!) for my daughter's room.  I figured I could re-upholstery the seat, if needed, but this upholstery stain remover did the trick to take the majority of the stains out!

Chair with original stains:

Ingredients:

Baking soda (enough to cover stains)

1/2 tablespoon of vinegar

1/2 tablespoon of dish soap (I used Dawn)

1 cup hot water

Instructions:

Sprinkle baking soda on the stain and let it sit for 10 minutes.  I was very liberal with my baking soda.  If taking stains out of carpet, the pin says to vacuum the baking soda up after 10 minutes, but I left mine on and think it may have helped to "exfoliate" the stains out of the fabric in combination with the solution below.

 Create a solution by mixing the water, vinegar and dish soap together.

With a clean cloth, blot / scrub at the stain with the solution until the stains are gone (or much less visible).  Voila!

 Here are the before and after shots of the chair upholstery, close-up!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

40 Bags in 40 Days: Week 5 Update.

This project is finished, and it feels good to have gotten so many things out of my house!  I didn't keep track of how many bags total I cleaned out of the house -- and although I don't think it was close to 40 bags of items to trash, consign and donate -- it feels great to have cleaned out 40 areas!

31. Master closet organization (I didn't want to spend the money on a dresser, plus I already had these bins, so I just added labels and now I feel organized!):

32. Outside toys:

33. Painting supplies:

34. Pantry:

35. Master bathroom cabinets:

36. Bedside table:

37. Husband's white socks and t-shirts (I basically just threw away everything he had and bought new!):

38. Birthday party prep bin (these items were randomly stashed throughout the house):

39. Kids' bathroom cabinets:

40. Random kid gifts (purchased on sale, and now safely hidden for birthday party gifts or birthday / holiday presents for my kids)

Done!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

Day 102: Miracle Cleaner (partial fail / success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I was given this stained shirt, so I have a hard time saying this "miracle cleaner" doesn't work since I don't know what the stain was from or how long it's been sitting on the shirt prior to trying the stain remover  Although it didn't completely take out the stain, it's much, much lighter and I feel comfortable wearing this shirt without the stain being too noticeable!

This is what the original stain looked like:

Ingredients:
1 part Dawn dishwashing liquid (the original blue kind)
2 parts Hydrogen Peroxide

Directions:
Mix together and pour directly on the stain (or use a spray bottle if you have lots of stains to tackle).  Wait a few minutes, give the stained area a little rubbing to agitate it, and then rinse the item out.

I then threw the shirt in with a load of washing, and this is what it looked like after being in the washer / dryer.  The stain is still there, but hardly noticeable, right??

The original blogger even got stains out of a kids' fabric chair that she couldn't rinse out, so I may try this on non-clothing items too!

Verdict: PARTIAL FAIL / SUCCESS!

Day 101: Removing Wax from Candle Jar (success).

Pinterest pin and website link.

I love this idea to save glass candle jars to put household items in!  When you're finished with a candle (or you just don't like the scent, which was the case for me), put the candle jar in the freezer for at least an hour.

The cold temperature helps shrink / loosen the wax from the side of the jar.  Then, use a dull knife to carefully pierce the wax into pieces that you can then remove from the jar.  Peel off the label (this label came off easily, but here's a tip about removing stubborn labels from jars.  You'll end up with a jar that looks like this:

Use baby oil and a paper towel to clean the remaining wax, glue and soot from the inside of the jar.  Baby oil worked perfectly for this -- and then I washed the jar with soap and water.

Verdict: SUCCESS.

Friday Favorite: OxiClean Paste.

I didn't have much luck using an OxiClean and warm water solution to clean my stained grout; the recipe never mixed into a paste and therefore didn't saturate into my shower grout.  However, I have since discovered that OxiClean does work wonders for cleaning when it is mixed into an actual paste and left on for many, many hours -- I couldn't find any recipes online, but instead scooped out some OxiClean powder, added a little bit of water and mixed the two together until it formed a very thick paste; make sure it's not too watery!  I then applied the paste with an old toothbrush, let it sit overnight for 12+ hours, and then used a grout scrubbing brush to work away the stains.  I had to do this process multiple times in my shower, and although it's not perfect, it looks so much better!

Stained grout (please don't judge me!).

What my paste looked like when I applied it to the grout:

What the paste looked like after 12+ hours of sitting on the grout:

Below was the result after the first 12 hours with the paste on my shower grout + scrubbing with a grout brush.  I still wasn't satisfied, so I mixed up more paste and applied it again for another 12+ hours.

I was so happy with my second attempt!

Verdict: SUCCESS!

40 Bags in 40 Days: Week 4 Update.

Heading towards the home stretch of this "40 Bags in 40 Days" Project!

25: Toiletries (nail polish, unused medicines, extra hair dryer, etc.)

Messy.

Paired down and organized.

26: Daughter's clothing to save for her -- I was sentimental about giving away my kids' newborn to 4T clothing, but found that it was much easier to get it out of my house if a) it was going to someone I know and love and b) I saved a few of my favorite items and included a picture of the kids in each outfit.

Clothing and pictures to save.

Packed away in her "hope chest" (a.k.a. a Sterilite tub!).

27: Son's clothing to save for him.

Clothing and pictures to save.

Packed.

28: Son's room.

29. Entryway closet.

Before.

After.

30. Craft, picture, gifting storage closet.