It’s been incredibly hot here lately so I’ve been working on indoor projects more than being outside. One room I’ve been working on all summer is my kitchen. Cleaning, fluffing, organizing it to work better. So today I thought I’d share a few cleaning recipes and my under sink area.

There are lots of green cleaners that you can buy these days in mass market stores like Target, Wal-Mart  and supermarkets. I always find Mrs. Meyer products at TJX and Marshalls at a good discount.  But I still like to make my own.  It’s really very easy and inexpensive.

There are tons of recipe’s out there for making everything from your own laundry detergent & liquid soap to furniture polish. You just need to find the recipe that works to your satisfaction.

I use 1 part distilled white vinegar, 1 part water, and a squirt of dish soap  for most basic cleaning.  Combine those ingredients into a spray bottle and shake to mix. It stores really well – I just swish the bottle before using.  I’ve read you shouldn’t use vinegar on marble or granite – just hot soapy water. My counters are laminate so I don’t have a problem with using this all-purpose cleaner in my kitchen.

For a lovely citrus smell, I soak my orange rinds or lemon peels in a glass jar filled with white vinegar for a few weeks and then drain the peels and use that vinegar. You could also add essential oils or make your own infusion of herbs. Many herbs are known to have antibacterial & disinfectant properties.

I also make a paste of baking soda  or borax (kept in the laundry area as it’s a good boost to laundry detergent) if I need a soft scrub type product.  Sometimes all you need is soap, hot water and elbow grease!

Bleach is very toxic to the environment so I try to limit my use of it.  Hydrogen peroxide sprayed after vinegar is also a good disinfectant. Tea tree oil is supposed to have disinfecting properties and is a natural fungicide but I haven’t tried it yet. I do think vinegar is strong enough to handle most germs but it’s up to you to decide what you’re comfortable with.

Here’s a post I wrote years ago about saving money  making your own cleaning products – it has a few more recipes.

Under Sink Organization

I don’t keep a lot of stuff under my sink. I’ve found that every time I’ve had leak under there it’s because something has pushed against the pipes. I guess it depends on how your pipes are situated under your sink – mine are all over the place. I just added that wire rack on the door to make it easier to grab a bottle of cleaning spray.

I have my composter, dishwasher detergent, big bottle of white vinegar, Brillo, Magic Eraser, Method wipes and scrub brushes on one side.

On the other side I have sponges, rags, micro fiber cloths, swiffer cloths and extra rubber gloves. I know a lot of people use contact paper in their under sink cabinet, but my cabinets are so old I couldn’t get contact paper to stick! So I used some old peel and stick tiles I had leftover from another house we had. I think they offer better protection against spills and they’re easy to wipe clean.

There are so many benefits to making your own cleaners!  So try replacing your traditional cleaners with some non-toxic alternatives (that you either make or buy) as you use them up.  You really don’t need a ton of different products to clean your house. You’ll find it frees up space under your kitchen sink!

Hello everyone! I finally put up an initial decal that I got last year at TJ Maxx.

I wasn’t sure where I was going to put it, but I got tired of it sitting on the floor so I just picked a place LOL!

It’s over my Inspiration board which I also gave a light blue wash. I thought that was a good place since the board is all about me!

But my happiest find last month was this fantastic basket at Goodwill. It has wheels!
It’s got a removable liner and wheels!

Have I mentioned it rolls! LOL! Right now I’m keeping my slipcovers for my Parsons Chairs in it.

I know most of you probably think I need something in between the board and the basket.

Well that’s where I usually stack my file boxes.

The first one is where we keep all our receipts in alphabetical order. Except Home Depot, Target, and Lowes which get their own folders since we shop there all the time. It makes it easier when you want to return something to have one place to go to for the receipt. Most stores have changed their return policies these days and aren’t quite as lenient as they used to be. You need a receipt to make a return unless you’re happy with a store credit.

The second box is where I keep all the paid bills and that’s organized by month.

So when I need to work on stuff I can just roll my basket over to my desk and file things and use it for another surface. Plus it’s storage! Multi-purpose pieces are so important when you have a house that doesn’t have a lot of built in storage.

Hope you are all having a good week and thanks for stopping by!

 I bought a very cute Mary Englebreit planner over the weekend on clearance at Barnes & Noble. I probably won’t really use it – I bought it mostly for her illustrations (which I just adore) and I love the quotes that she uses with her art work.

I LOVE that – “Your Home is Your Canvas Make Something Of It”. Anyway, I realized that I hadn’t talked about my Household Planner in a while.

Actually it’s my Home Notebook and it  holds info that I need/want at my fingertips. It also gives everyone in my home one place to look for certain things. 

Decorate the outside of your household notebook/binder:

It’s just a plain 3 ring binder that I had to put my spin on! My daughter likes to say I “cute things up” LOL!   You can just slip a piece of scrapbook paper under the plastic or go crazy! Of course, you don’t have to do anything to your binder.  I always try to make ordinary things just a bit pretty if I can, cause that’s just me .

Make dividers to separate your categories:

I had to scrapbook paper my dividers (a fun activity to do while watching a movie). I do a lot of things while watching movies! Your Notebook will be different from my Notebook. Use categories that make sense for you and your family.

Choose categories for your household notebook that have meaning for your family:

Emergency/Frequently used phone numbers is a good category to begin with. I also think a good thing to have at the beginning of your planner is some sort of Mission Statement for your family. Check out How To Write A Family Mission Statement. I LOVE Meredith’s Homekeeping Mission Statement .
Maybe you have young children that are involved in after school activities and you need a place to keep their schedules and info. My daughter is finished with high school but I used to keep contact info for her teachers, counselors, principle, class list, lunch menu, field trip info etc plus anything important that I needed to keep like permission slips. Maybe you want to keep a calendar with appointments on it. I use a separate calendar on my desk for that. Whatever works for you!

I keep my menu plans in my binder.  I try to plan out my weekly dinner menus. When I’m really on top of things I do a monthly one.

I keep my freezer inventory here also. I used to do a pantry inventory but I can pretty much just look and see what I’m low on whereas the freezer, who knows what’s in the bottom? I sure wouldn’t without some sort of inventory.

Some people (very organized ones- not me) have a cleaning schedule and all the tasks they want to get done. I’m more of a “I’ll clean it when I see it’s dirty ” kind of person. But I do keep a list of Spring Cleaning chores. Mostly because I actually start my spring cleaning in the fall. This way I know what I’ve done and still need to do. I don’t know how people do spring cleaning all at one time? I just can’t do it! Plus in the spring I’m out in the garden so I have to spread those tasks over the year. Also this list is so detailed that there are things on there that I probably wouldn’t do if I didn’t see it written down! If  you google “Spring Cleaning Lists” you’ll get all kinds from the very simple to the “you’ve got to be crazy I’m not doing that” kind!

Maybe your Home Notebook is also where you’d like to keep your budget and finance info (I have a separate binder for that). How about medical info that you need to access quickly in case of emergency. We used to keep a list of my MIL’s medications as we would need that info whenever she was taken to the ER.

This is  where we keep our take-out menus. We also keep a list of video rentals. We walk through Blockbuster and see what movies we want to rent and then I add them to my list. Once a month or so I update my Netflix que. You could also list books you want to read.

So a Household Planner can be as much or as little as you want it or need it to be. Here’s a link to some free  Printable Planner Pages to help you get started.

I’ve had a few people ask to see more of my pantry. I guess the picture on the sidebar with “My Showerstall Pantry” over it is intriguing LOL! So because long time readers will know all about it I’ll save it for the end and show you my broom closet first. How many broom closets do you see on blogs?~smile. I know I’m always looking for organizing ideas so hopefully you’ll get some here!

Basically this closet is where I keep my broom, mops, vacuum cleaner & bags, kitchen garbage bags, paper products, foil, dish soap – that sort of thing. I use one of these over the door shoe organizers to store my foil, Cling Wrap, plastic shopping bags (we only keep the really big ones the others we recycle), dish soap, sponges…whatever will fit. These are such handy things and can be used anywhere! You can use them to organize toys, craft stuff, sewing stuff, office stuff and use them for food storage like canned goods. All kinds of things. Be sure you get the clear one so you can see what’s in each pocket. This was under $10 at Target.

Do use some kind of hanging systems for your brooms and mops instead of just piling them in a corner. This keeps them organized and off the floor.

There was only one shelf in here when we moved in and so much wasted space. So we put another shelf above it so we could utilize all the space to the ceiling. My tall husband and daughter have no problem reaching that top shelf. Me, I need a step stool!

Isn’t that a cute feather duster? I hardly ever use it though!

I keep all my cute in aprons here too. I always forget to put one on though!

You may have noticed that the inside of the door is yellow and the inside of the closet is a orangey yellow. I have painted the insides of all my closets and my kitchen cabinet doors (there’s a picture on my sidebar). I just think it’s such a happy surprise to open a door and see some color. So often we get caught up in doing things to our homes just for other people or for show and forget to do little things that maybe just we would enjoy!

Behind this curtain is my food pantry. I don’t have a pantry in my kitchen. I also don’t have a closet that I can devote to food storage. This is an old house on the smaller side (18-1900 sq. ft.) I really believe in having a pantry. You never know what will happen and I know so many people who have lost jobs and were able to feed their families because they had a stocked pantry. Anyway, I thought about where I could store food and decided that the showerstall of my downstairs bathroom would be perfect.

I did this bathroom 10 years ago which is why it still has the rag painting technique on the walls (remember that)! It’s due for an update. We just got rid of the ugly 1960′s BROWN toilet!

You can buy your jars like this but this one I made. I painted the lid and just marked off an area with tape and painted it with chalkboard paint. You can you use that stuff on anything!

I like to keep like things together. I have all my baking things together on a shelf, all my canned fruit together, all my condiments together, all the soups are together etc.

This works for us since we have two other full bathrooms upstairs. We don’t need or have ever used this shower. Plus the temperature is just perfect in there for food storage. I like things to be pretty as well as functional so I added some paper on the outside of the shelves. Again, something only I and my family would see (and maybe a snoopy guest as I usually keep the curtain closed).

My point is that you need to think outside the box if your home is storage challenged like mine.

Even if you have to use the space under a bed or maybe you don’t need a linen closet for your linens, or maybe you have a window seat, or a trunk that you use for a coffee table that you can use for food storage. Those over the door organizers can hold canned food, pasta boxes etc. You’d be surprised at how much space is in those pockets!

I like to use these plain white magazine files from IKEA in my living room. That’s where I keep my Countryside/Mother Earth News/Natural Home issues that I want to keep for reference. You can certainly cute them up with scrapbook paper but I like them plain white in this room.

I organize the articles I tear out into file folders. That way when I need to look for something I don’t have to sift through a stack of magazine clippings! Some people like to keep them in a binder but I find it easier to grab a specific folder like “Fall Decorating Ideas” and just see all the tear sheets with those ideas. This way you can find the specific topic that you need. Other people like to paste them into composition books but to me that’s way too time consuming.

I keep all my tear outs that I need to file in the front of the bin and every now and then take a few minutes to file them. If there is just one small item on a page that I want to keep I circle that item. This way I know why I kept that page. Sometimes I make notes on the page.

I bought that bin a few year ago at TJ Maxx and you certainly don’t need one to organize your magazine clippings this way. You could use a large accordion file, you could use a cloth bag, you could use a box (you can wrap the outside with scrapbook paper, wallpaper or giftwrap paper, stickers, use your creativity), you could even use a file cabinet if you have lots and lots of magazines clippings. Nor do you need toile file folders! But pretty file folders are very inexpensive these days and I find that it makes keeping things organize just a bit more enjoyable.

This basket holds the magazines that I’m currently reading. I like that it has handles because it makes it easier to move around the house with me.

Recipes that I pull out I put in a big binder in sheet protectors. That way when I’m using it I can just wipe it off if it gets dirty. Also, if I print out a recipe from another blogger, I always include that blog’s name so that if I should make it and show it I can give proper credit. I find it very annoying when people say “I saw it on somebodies blog” – it takes a minute to make a note of where you got a recipe or idea.

I just use a really big binder that I decorated with some scrapbook paper. Although it’s getting too big and I’m thinking of using smaller more specific binders. Like a binder just for desserts or baked stuff, one for breakfast ideas etc.

I have an old bookcase that I keep in my closet where I store every Mary Englebreit magazine ever published as well as a few of my favorite old Victoria’s and a bunch of gardening magazine. I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of my Home Companion mags! I got rid of all of my Martha Stewart magazines a few years ago and I’m very sorry I did! But I only have but so much room – so sometimes you have to make some hard choices when it comes to storing things! I’d say I was more Mary than Martha anyway!

Also, every now and then I go through my clippings. It’s amazing how I always find some that I can’t for the life of me remember why I wanted to keep! This is a good rainy day or sick day activity. I also donate my magazines to my library (my library sells mags for 10 cents!) I used to be a magazine junkie but now I’m much more selective as they’ve become so expensive. Actually, lots of times I just go to Barnes and Nobles, order a coffee and sit and read magazines for and hour or so. A cup of coffee is much cheaper than a magazine these days!

I should be back on Tuesday with a brand new post as I’m getting another computer!