DIY Spot Cleaner for Upholstery and Clothing

If you have kids you know that messes are a big part of life. With a baby on the way I have started nesting a little earlier than usual because I know how fleeting time can be. So during nap time I decided to try a cleaning trick!

I have wanted to tackle Emma's car-seat for a LONG time. With juice and food spillage and it sitting in the heat of a car

<<<<<<<<< That's what were left with!

Yuck yuck yuck!!!!!

The majority of the seat only needed a little vacuuming and spot cleaning, but this pad was downright gross! I was determined to make it spotless before our San Diego trip.....so off to Google I went. I found a tutorial that recommended specifically the blue Dawn dishsoap. Well I didn't have the blue Dawn because I prefer to be frugal....I.E I won't spend $5 on a teeny tiny bottle of dishsoap. So I thought to myself I would try it with my Ajax dishsoap and see how it goes. Heck, it would probably be cleaner in the end anyways than it was before. So off I went to start my little adventure.

Here's what you need:
Dish soap (any kind that is a degreaser)
baking soda
hydrogen peroxide
toothbrush

Mixing Instructions
Step 1: Mix one part dish soap with two parts peroxide in your chosen container.

Step 2: Then add 1–2 tablespoons of baking soda, making a paste.

Cleaning Instructions:
Step 1: Pour a generous amount of liquid onto the stain. Using a toothbrush or garment brush, rub stain remover into the stain. I used a generous amount and used circular motion to really get the dirt out of the seat pad. **If your cleaning a clothing item be sure to do the same to the underside of the garment, where the stain may have bled through. It is important to treat both sides of the stain.**

Step 2: Let the item sit for at least an hour (more for really tough stains), and then wash according to the clothing label.

Step 3: Check the clothing item to be sure the stain is gone before you put it in the dryer. Dried on stains are harder to remove. Repeat the process until the stain is gone, then dry accordingly.

After the first scrubbing and washing I noticed a little area that didn't completely come out so I did another round just in the areas that needed extra love. Each time I washed it with towels. Once I was satisfied I just let the pad air dry.








Now for the reveal!

DUDE!!!!!! I was so impressed with this that I am going to treat every garment that the new baby girl will wear that has some spit up stains on them, and even do Emma's keepsake clothes! It's not perfect, but it looks almost brand new and I just used my on hand dish soap! Woohoo!

Feeling Blue.....

Hi friends. I know I have been MIA this week and I wanted to jump on here to say a quick I'm Sorry. I have been feeling blue all week and haven't really had anything to talk about. Well let me take that back, I have had things to talk about, I just needed to get my head together and work through it all. I promise I'll be back next week with some interesting content. I try not to leave this space un-updated, but sometimes you need to take a break!

In other news....remember last week when I told you we got some organizational stuff for our closet? Well we still needed to re-organize everything. Here's what it looked like pre-clean:

 Nothing had any sense of organization. Shoes, and blankets and everything just strewn about and it was driving me CRAZY! We took about 4 hours out of last Sunday and did a through deep clean. On Saturday I had re-organized both dressers and was able to empty 2 full drawers and that mean I could take some hanging items out and create more space. I cleaned out shoes, purses, bags, and trash. I had a full trunkload of donate when we were finished. We stacked jeans and sweatshirts in the cubbies. Shoes went on the middle shelf and blankets, games and other items that don't get used often (including all my crafting stuff) all went in boxes and on the high shelf. We overhauled where everything goes and of course color coordinated in all. The hubby even took all of his ties and put them in a basket.

I know it doesn't look a lot different in photos but trust me, it feels a million times better. Having that extra hanging room helps to avoid wrinkles on the clothes too! YAY! Next task.....tackling the garage. Sigh. We are in full Fall Cleaning in our parts! What about you?

Desserts and Cleaning go together right? - Pinterest Review

So I tried a couple of things this past week that were all the rage on Pinterest within the past couple of months. I figured I would do a little review post instead of a separate post for each item.

Banana Ice Cream
D had a hankering for dessert but neither of us wanted to go out and get something. So I took to my dessert board and remembered this recipe from Use Real Butter. We already had frozen banana's, peanut butter, but we didn't have cocoa powder. I could have cheated and used Hot Chocolate mix, but I thought it was weird. So I substituted it with chocolate chips and some frozen strawberries. I don't have a food processor so it was a slow go dessert with the not so good blender. Once done it was a little runny so I popped it in the freezer to solidify it a bit.
Verdict: D liked it, I was kind of eh about it. I think it needed the cocoa powder cause there was just too much banana taste for my liking.

Source

Oreo and Peanut Butter Brownie Cakes
I made these for my father-in-laws birthday this past Sunday. Everyone is a brownie and Oreo fan (I am meh about Ores, but if I need a chocolate fix they work.) If you want to head on over to Instructables to find the recipe. These are fairly easy to make and bake. I bought 2 packs of Oreo's not realizing that there are more than 24 cookies in the package, and some extra peanut butter. (we can always use peanut butter in my house) I considered making the brownies low fat, but who are we kidding here. We are slathering Oreos (chocolate cookie with LARD) with peanut butter and baking them in more chocolate and lard (vegetable oil)! This calls for full force brownie.

Verdict: 3 ingredients, and 30 minutes. Super easy to make! Really all you need is a cupcake pan. I did use liners in my cupcake pan, but you don't have to. Taste....I was skeptical about them, because of the oreo, but they were really tasty. Maybe a little rich, but none-the-less yummy!

Miracle Laundry Whitening Solution
Ok the recipe for this is from One Good Thing by Jillee. There were a couple of oopsies that I did. I did not have any powder dish washing detergent. I only had the tabs. So I substituted with extra borax. Then I assumed (because every other washing machine that I have used does this) that leaving the lid open on my machine would turn it off so that the solution could soak into my comforter. Well, as I am cleaning my bathroom I hear it start to drain! Gah! So I close the lid and just let the cycle finish.
Verdict: It did a really good job cleaning it. I can only imagine how it would look it would have soaked! Next time I will try again and soak it!

There you go. Some good reviews and some iffy reviews. Have you tried anything on Pinterest

Plastic Bag Obsession?!?

I may or may not have a plastic bag hoarding problem.
I have acknowledged this and am seeking help!

So, for those of you who don't know, I live in Los Angeles county. Last year, this lovely county passed a law banning all stores, grocery and the like, from providing their customers with plastic bags. You are not either required to bring your own bags, purchase paper bags for 10 cents a piece, purchase re-useable bags for $1 a piece, or carry all your items bagless. The good thing, when I get into the city where I live, they still provide plastic bags, which I use for bathroom trash cans, picking up dog waste and various other tasks. D works in LA county in a supermarket that doesn't provide bags and the city I work in has now passed the same law. So, we both no longer can get plastic bags, unless we shop at Target or other mass retailer inside the city we live. Usually not a problem unless we are meal planning at work. So what did I do? Started hoarding those stupid bags. It got to the point where there were so many that I couldn't get under my kitchen sink! So a couple of weeks back while searching my favorite time suck, Pinterest, I came across an idea on folding the bags in the shape of origami footballs. (you know, those things you would make when class got boring) It was a genius idea and I spent 2 hours (yes I know I am crazy) and folded each of those bad boys and threw them in a basket under my sink, so that we have a ton of saved space. Now they are so neat and tidy I can throw a couple in my purse for when I know I am going to shop in an area with no plastic bags! Yay! To see a tutorial on how to do this click here.

So much space saved!

Please send my husband flowers or support for my craziness! I am sure he will appreciate it! Although, it does come in handy when we have an organizational nightmare!