The Naturally Clean Home (My Book Review)

I first rented this book from the library when I was just getting interested in green cleaning. And I loved it so much that I bought it! I loved all the recipes in it using essential oils! Now I no longer buy the cleaners that I used to. I now buy things like:

Baking soda

Borax

Washing soda 

essential oils

lemons

vinegar

Although a lot of the recipes in this book you have to use more elbow grease and really scrub things, it makes me feel better to clean with these recipes! I used to get sore throats and headaches from the toxic cleaners I used before. Then when I got pregnant with Susie I was worried about what I breathed in. With these recipes you never have to worry about that! ;-)

"Common, nontoxic kitchen ingredients such as baking soda, borax, lemon, and vinegar are wonderfully effective household cleaners. Pair them with essential oils to disinfect and freshen every room. With 150 all-natural, easy-to-prepare cleaning solutions you can:

~Soften and whiten clothing                     ~Brighten bathroom mirrors
~Break up kitchen grease                         ~Scour Porcelain tiles
~Polish wood floors                                 ~Deodorize carpets
~Scrub the oven                                         And much more!"


A few of my favorite recipes:

I love the pine disinfectant! It is so easy to make, smells amazing, and actually works to clean the bathroom! You can mix it up in a spray bottle and keep it handy for when you need it!

I also really love the Lavender Lift automatic dishwasher powder! It doesn't always clean the glasses to how I truly like them, but other then that it does a great job! I love the smell of the lavender and the simplicity of making it up!

"Banish harmful chemical cleansers from your home; clean it green for a healthier family, a healthier planet."

Have you heard of this book? Do you have a favorite natural cleaner?

Part 4~ Tips on making housework easier

Finding your motivation! :-)

What motivates you? What make you feel energized?

Here are just a few things that help me get motivated:

~The sun
Sometimes just opening the curtains in the morning and seeing the sun shinning makes me happy and ready to do anything!

~Fresh air
Opening windows can let in fresh air that just gives me the urge to clean everything!

~Light
I cannot work in a dark room! No no no! ;-)

~Putting tennis shoes on
I don't know why but Tennis Shoes really get me going!

~Flowers
Sometimes fresh flower in a vase on the table or night stand or window seal just give a fresh, pretty feeling that makes me excited to make everything else pretty!

~Music
Uplifting, bouncy music does the trick! ;-)

~Marking things off on a to do list
This just really excites me! I get to mark things off and realize that I am moving along and getting things accomplished after all! :-)


Got any you wanna share with me?

Part 3~ Tips on making housework easier

In Sarah Mae's e-book 31 days to clean she talks about having reasons for why you want a clean home. She asks you to write down on a piece of paper all the reasons why and to keep it somewhere that you can see it everyday. This helps get you motivated!

By the way this e-book is amazing! It's uplifting, encouraging, and just gets me motivated! :-)

Reasons why I want a clean home

~ because I want my husband to feel like a king in his castle

~ because it’s healthier

~ because you can find things easier

~ because I want to be productive

“Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” proverbs 14:1

“She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” Proverbs 31:27

Part 2~ Tips on making housework easier

As wives and mothers we need to make our homes a haven to our husband and children! I am no expert in this... I fail. Daily. It's hard to want to keep up with things, but it's SO wonderful to have a comfortable clean home! Isn't that what you want? Lets work together to try and accomplish a haven for our families! :-)

Here is my example of my schedules that I'm trying to work on! ;-) I have a daily 'to do' list, a weekly 'to do' list, a master 'to do' list, and then my schedule of when to do these 'to do' lists!

Daily To Do:

Morning:

Clean kitchen 

Pick up clothes in bedroom

Make Bed

Feed Animals

Take something out for dinner

Afternoon:

10 min. daily room (every room) pickup

Put on laundry

Evening:

Clean Kitchen

Make Hubby's lunch

Weekly To Do:

Monday:

Baking day

Clean Fridge

Tuesday:

Clean all the bathrooms

Wednesday:

Vacuum

Sweep/mop

Dust

Thursday:

Change sheets and towels

Shopping day (every other Thursday)

Friday:

Tidy all desks

Tidy tops of things

Master To Do List: 

Empty Boxes in Master bedroom

Empty boxes in Master Bathroom

Clean master bedroom closet

Clean/organize school room

Clean Mandy's (the Dog) hall and empty box

Wash light fixtures

Fluff pillows in dryer

Fill Azure buckets and lable

Note: this list is an ongoing list of things that pretty much just needs to be done once

Schedule:

7:00 Dress

7:30 Feed baby

8:00 Breakfast and devotions

9:00 Morning 'Daily To Do' Chores

10:30 Feed Baby and put down for a nap

11:00 Exercise/nap

12:00 Lunch/ Wake baby/ feed her/change her

12:30 Dishes

1:00 'Weekly To Do' and 'Master To Do' chores

4:30 Start dinner

6:00 Dinner

6:30 Dishes/make hubby's lunch

8:00 Get baby ready for bed

These lists, of coarse, are all rough drafts, but basically there it is! Do you have any schedules or to do lists? How do they work for you?

Part 1~ Tips on making housework easier

I'm always trying to learn more tips for getting me interested in cleaning! Cause to be honest cleaning has never been that exciting to me. I wish it was! Cause then maybe I'd have a clean house all the time, but it's not. It's just something that I dread. Yet it's something that is completely constant:

~The dishes have to be done 3 times a day (or else you get behind)

~ The laundry continues to need washing

~After you wash the laundry, if you don't fold it quickly, it becomes a HUGE mountain that you now never feel like folding.

~If you don't fold the laundry right away some things then need ironed

~The bathrooms need cleaned (at least once a week)

~The floors need vacuumed/swept/moped

and so on and so forth!

And to top it off... if you don't get it all done then all of a sudden you not only have a mountain of laundry BUT a mountain of all the other housework as well! 

Over the next few day I'll be sharing a few things that I've been working on trying to put into practice to try and get things under control! Cause seriously if I don't start now then by the time my husband and I have our 12 children (if the Lord so wills ;-) ) then things will really be chaos. 

1: Scheduling!

Can I stress this enough? I don't think that I can!

Does it really work? I believe so!

Isn't it hard to stay on schedule? Yes!

But here is what I do:

Now I know what you are thinking... 'I tried a schedule once, it didn't work', 'I hate schedules', 'schedules work for some people, but not for me', 'I don't like having my days planned out' ... If your anything like me those are the thoughts that used to (Um I guess still do at times) occupy my mind. There is just something about having a schedule that seams daunting. But for me I think that it is the key to my problems! 

I think that the thing that most people run into is this:

They start a schedule with high hopes of staying on it! They stay on it for the first day. Everything went as it should! Stayed on the schedule completely! Now really excited about how the day went they wake up the next morning ready to pursue the next day of scheduled life, but uh-oh something doesn't go as planned. It's now 8 am and you were suppose to get up at 7 am. You try to manage. Then you have to run to the store because your out of milk, now breakfast, that was suppose to be ready by 8 is pushed out to 9:30. Now your really behind on everything and you just feel like giving up! But you decided to get yourself caught up and back on schedule by noon! At noon your having lunch right on time! Everything is somewhat okay. THEN you realize that in all your hurry this morning you forgot to take the dog out and to put on your load of morning laundry. 

Thus your day just goes about in an all mixed up fashion and you decide to shred the schedule into a million pieces! I know that I always wanted to! Until someone told me that really your day doesn't have to go completely by the schedule just so long as your getting everything on the schedule done in a somewhat timely matter, with the distractions that used to distract you out of the picture. Plus, don't you have days that you just want to drop everything and go somewhere? You just have to realize that these things will happen! Just continue to wake up the next day ready to pursue the schedule again! 

Plus, you don't have to put things on the schedule that you have no idea how long it will take you to do. For instance cleaning the bathroom... one day it may just take you 10 min cause all your doing if giving it a quick wipe down, the next day it may take you 45 min cause your giving it a completely thorough cleaning! Instead just put on the schedule to clean from 10:30 am - 12 pm. Then if you have left over time from cleaning the bathroom you can do other cleaning chores, you need to do that day, or you can have a little free time! 

I also schedule which days I plan on cleaning certain places in my house. For instance you can plan to clean the bathrooms on Monday, wash the sheets and towels on Tuesday, vacuum/dust/sweep/mop on Wednesday, clean the fridge on Thursday, and have a baking day on Friday! I write out all the chores I would like to get done once a week and then pair them together accordingly. For example I would need to dust the same day I vacuum. Washing the towels the same day I wash sheets is always a good idea. Or if you want to clean the stove once a week you could do it the same day you clean out the fridge. Get the idea?

Another good idea is to schedule in time to do the things that you enjoy! Such as sewing time, computer time, exercise time, nap time, or anything else you enjoy during the day! Then you can look forward to your favorite time of day! 

Remember that the schedule is there to help you! If you find that part of the day is just not going right rework the schedule out to suit your needs. Rewrite the WHOLE schedule if you need to. The first schedule doesn't have to work out perfect.

Tomorrow, I will give you an outline of my scheduling papers! :-)