Try It Tuesday!!

We're back for another Try It Tuesday!!

I hope this last week found you taking at least 15 minutes a day strictly for yourself and I pray that you can tell a very positive difference within yourself by doing that. Keep up the good work!!

This week's Try It, finds us looking for cheaper ways to clean our homes.
For about a year now, I've turned to plain, white vinegar for a good portion of my household cleaning.

I'd been hearing for years how well vinegar cleaned and already knowing how cheap vinegar was, made me very interested...but I was very concerned that by using vinegar, my entire house would begin to smell like a pickle factory--not very appealing to me, let me assure you.

One day though, I just took the plunge and thought if I can't take the smell, I'll open the windows and air out the place and start new.

To my amazement, my house didn't smell like an open bottle of vinegar!!! I was truly amazed by this!! I found that the vinegar was so diluted by the added water (usually a ½ cup vinegar to a gallon of water) that you could hardly smell it at all!!

So...our challenge this week is to strive to clean our house without using costly cleaners--an added bonus is vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice--they're not toxic!!

Below are some ways that I use vinegar in my cleaning. I'm sure you can come up with more ways to use it and other household things to clean your home.

* Add 1 cup vinegar to your rinse cycle in your washing machine. It's great for softening clothes. (I actually put the vinegar in my Downy ball. I just fill the ball almost to the top and drop it in!)

* Add ½ cup vinegar to a half-gallon warm water to mop your hardwood floors

* Mix equal parts vinegar and water to wash your windows. Dry with a soft, lint-free cloth.

* Loosen the food splatters in your microwave by heating a solution of ¼ cup vinegar and 1 cup water in the microwave until boiling (make sure to allow the water to sit a few minutes before removing the cup so you will not get burned!!)
The food particles will wipe right off!

* To clean the drains in my house, once a week I pour a ½ cup baking soda in the drains and pour a cup of vinegar on top. Yes, you do get that volcano erupting effect (and it's really cool to watch!!!---and if you homeschool, this just became a science lesson!!). I let that sit for about 10 minutes and follow with about 2 quarts of boiling water.

* To get rid of that ring around the bathtub, wipe the tub down with vinegar and then with baking soda. Rinse clean with water.

* Got weeds in your garden? Spraying vinegar full strength on the top of the weed will kill it. You may have to reapply a few times until the weed starves, but it will kill them. Be very careful to not let any vinegar spray on something you don't want killed--from my experience, this stuff kills fast and usually with only one application!!

There you go! Just a few things to get you started. Let me know about your cheap cleaning ideas and let's start working together to save money and clean wisely!!