Cleaning Your Shower the Quick, Easy, Green Way!

Green cleaning is rarely equated with quick and easy, but I recently stumbled upon the best tip for cleaning the bathroom, EVER.

Grab one of those dish sponges, the kind with the handle that you fill with dish soap to clean the dishes.  Fill it with vinegar, and you have a powerful tool for cleaning the shower.  Add a few drops of tea tree oil or lavendar oil to help disinfect and to give it a fresh and pleasant odour.

The one I have been using has just straight vinegar in it and I keep it in the shower.  I give the shower a quick scrub down before I get out.  I hadn't cleaned the shower in a while and it cut through soap scum like nothing else!   Surprisingly, I didn't notice a harsh vinegar smell.  Not even a little bit! 

 Other Tips:

Buy a good quality dish sponge.  They are designed to hold dish soap, not vinegar, so cheaper ones will leak more.  I keep it hanging handle-down on my shower caddy and doesn't seem to leak.  I also bought one that has a rougher scrubber on the end.  I knew that a straight sponge wasn't going to be effective to really give my shower the deep clean it needed. 

Add dish soap.  If your sponge leaks, consider adding some dish soap to the vinegar.  It will make it a little thicker.  My guess is you may have to be prepared to give surfaces a rinse after though.  When I use straight vinegar, I don't bother rinsing. 

I am going to keep one under the sink in each bathroom, and by the kitchen sink.  That way I can do do quick, cleaning on the fly in about 10 seconds flat.  Ah!  Now that is green cleaning for the 21st century!

The 2000 lb Challenge

If you've got clutter, more stuff than you have room, or are at all inspired by a minimalist lifestyle but are nowhere near realizing it, then welcome to the The 2000 lb Challenge. 

The basic idea is to get ride of (give away, recycle, or dispose of) 2000 lbs of the stuff you already own in 365 days.  

It will help you to reduce your clutter and reduce the burden that your stuff imposes on you.  It can be quite liberating!  If it enters your home since taking on the challenge it doesn't count; it has to be stuff you already own.

Mathematically speaking, to get rid of 2000 lbs of stuff in one year's time means you need to purge 5 1/2 pounds of stuff everyday.  Make it your mission to take 60 seconds each day to find 5 1/2 pounds of your belongings you can part with.

Good luck!

Keep Your Christmas Organized and Safe

Try storing your christmas ornaments in egg cartons.  Its inexpensive, and environmentally friendly, and they will stay nice and safe without the use of tissue paper, bubble wrap, or expensive bins and containers. 

Simply put one ornament in each egg cup and close the carton for storage. 

Keep Berries Fresh for Longer

If berries are a part of your daily diet (and they should be!), then you have probably reached for a handful of berries only to find that they've already turned?  is that berries go bad quickly.  If don't want to freeze them to keep them fresh, try this little trick to keep them fresh for longer:

Wash your berries in a mixture of 1 part apple cider vinegar and 10 parts water.  After bathing them in the mixture for a short time, drain them and store them in the fridge.  Berries should last twice as long or longer!

If you don't have apple cider vinegar, regular white vinegar will also work.  If you are worried about a vinegar taste you can rinse them with water afterwards. 

The vinegar works to kill bacteria and spores that cause them to go moldy. 

Berries are a great power food.  Eat them everyday!