Homemade Wrinkle Releaser

Here's another admission... I hate to iron clothes. I avoid it at all costs. It's painful. It's hot. It's tedious. I don't like it! So back when that wrinkle releasing stuff came out I rejoiced. Then I did some in-depth research  googling and found out how to make my own homemade wrinkle releaser.

What you need:

• vinegar
• water
• fabric softener
• empty spray bottle

What you do:
Combine equal parts vinegar, water and fabric softener.

Pour mixture into spray bottle.

Spray your wrinkly clothes. You know, the stuff you left in the dryer for a few days.

Tug and smooth all those wrinkles away. Hang to dry.

Done!

After

Before

Stinky Water Shoes

After our last vacation I knew I had to do something about our water shoes problem. The problem was that they were so foul and stinky that we couldn't even bear to be in the same room as the shoes. It's really not the shoes' fault. We wore our shoes all summer long. Every time there was water to splash around in, they were there to protect our feet. Unfortunately,  Water +  Feet = Stink

Today I'm using vinegar and the sun to kill the stink.
I put equal parts vinegar and water in a bucket and soaked the stinky shoes for a good long time or an hour, whichever feels best.

The wet shoes got to dry in the sunshine. Which, by the way, is a natural disinfectant.

Ahhh... finally I can stand to be in the same room as our shoes.

PS- Only Trouble's and my shoes had the stink. Apparently because Mr.Perfect is in fact perfect, his shoes were immune to the stink.

Homemade Febreeze

I keep seeing recipes for homemade Febreeze on Pinterest and I thought I'd give it a try. Of course the two cats, one dog and a boy who stinks stuff up around the house are also partly why I need Febreeze.

What you need:

• 1/8 cup of your favorite fabric softener
• 2 Tbsp baking soda
• hot water
• spray bottle (32 oz)

What you do:
Add fabric softener and baking soda to spray bottle. Fill the rest of the bottle with hot water. Shake it all up. Use as you would Febreeze.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I've always wanted to make my own laundry detergent, but brewing water and soap over the stove didn't appeal to me. I've had my eye out for a dry recipe and came across one on pinterest. (ps- Don't go to pinterest, you will become addicted and end up spending all your free time there... not that I know from experience or anything.)

 What you need:

• 4 pound box of Arm & Hammer washing soda
• 4 pound box of baking soda
• 4 pound box of Borax laundry booster
• 1 small container of some type of oxyclean
• 3 bars of Fels-Naptha or Zote soap (I used 2 Fels and 1 Zote)

What you do:
Combine first 4 ingredients in a big bucket, mixing as you go.

Using a cheese grater, grate the soap into the bucket and mix well. I imagine a food processor would also grate the soap well. Doesn't the Fels-Naptha totally looks like cheese?!

Done! I put some detergent in an old clear cookie jar next to my washer. The scooper that came with the oxyclean holds about 2 tablespoons, that's how much soap I add to a load of clothes.

Because this laundry detergent doesn't make much in the way of suds it also works in a high efficiency machine. My mom, Nana, gave this detergent a try and thought it worked great in her HE machine.

I'd like to experiment with different kinds of soap like my favorite... Grandma's Lye Soap. I'll let you know how that goes.

Spray Bottle Space Saver

I'm not the most organized person in the world. In fact Mr.Perfect would probably laugh and say I'm a big ol' mess. So this summer I've been working on it. I've cleaned up some closets and cabinets that were big ol' messes. The space under my kitchen sink was no exception. I counted 7 spray bottles down there. They took up a lot of space! And because I use them all quite often I need them to be near the front. After messing around on Pinterest, which I am slowly figuring out, I saw a simple solution to the problem. Put a spring tension rod down there! See?! Look at all of the room I have down there now!

One step closer to being organized!

Make Your Own Wood Cleaner

I realized that I was out of Endust and decided to try making my own wood cleaner. After checking out a few recipes I tried this one. I love that it's natural, safe and works just as good, if not better, than the stuff I usually buy.

What you need:

• 1/4 cup mineral oil or olive oil (I used mineral oil)
• 4 tablespoons distilled vinegar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• spray bottle

What you do:

Mix all ingredients in a measuring cup.

Pour into a spray bottle.

Don't forget to label the bottle. Shake before each use. Place any unused cleaner in the refrigerator. (the lemon juice can go bad)

I used the cleaner throughout the house today.
Here's a before & after of a window sill with a water spot.

I'm so not going back to Pledge or Endust.

Organizing Trouble's Work

I have finally developed a system of sorting and saving Trouble's school work, art, certificates, ribbons, awards and other stuff.

The first thing I do when he brings stuff home from school is quickly toss out anything that I know we don't need or would like to forget (worksheets, old spelling tests, etc...) Then I put what's left (the good stuff) in a drawer in the kitchen.

When the drawer is overflowing, I know it's time to do an "official sort." I dump all of the stuff out on the kitchen table.

Then, with my guidance, Trouble sorts the stuff into two piles: keep & recycle. He loves looking at all of his old papers.

The keep pile gets placed neatly into a bin labeled with his grade level.

I store all of his bins in his closet.

I realize that at this rate, by the time he's a Senior in High School, he'll have 13 bins in his closet. So I'm thinking maybe I'll be able to consolidate the bins later. He'll also think his mother is crazy, but he's an only child and it's just how it goes... Mom saves all of her baby's stuff.


www.organizewithsandy.com

Dealing With Scorpions

Spring brings us lovely Texas wildflowers...

sweet little ladybugs...

and scorpions. (It's smushed.)

Scorpions are my sworn enemies! If you've ever had the pleasure of being stung by a scorpion let me tell you... it's absolutely horrible. I had the misfortune of getting stung on the bottom of my foot. I'm traumatized and still have nightmares. Spring is just the beginning of scorpion season and time for me to start my pesticide-free scorpion strategies.

I place a little copper mesh in the weep holes in the mortar around the house. (This keeps the little buggers outside, which is much better than inside.)

I also place these sticky bug traps in places scorpions might take a midnight stroll.

 Here's a trap behind a cabinet. The scorpion walks through the sticky stuff to check out the bait... and he's mine.

I think scorpions are like rats. For every one you see, there's fifty you don't. Let's hope I don't see any this scorpion season.

Medicine Drawer Makeover

I have more of a medicine drawer than a cabinet and it's a complete mess.

Since the whole family is better (knock on wood) from all of our recent illnesses, I thought it was time I cleaned out/organized our medicine drawer. I also had medicine scattered around the house and I really wanted it all in one place.

After completely emptying the drawer...

I put some baskets in it.

The baskets got filled with all of the identifiable and unexpired medicine in the house. 

I was left with a lot of cardboard boxes and medicine bottles.

The cardboard and plastic medicine cups got tossed in the recycling bin.

The medicine is another story.  It turns out that it's not safe to just toss it in the trash or dump it down the drain. I checked out the FDA advice for disposing of unused medicine. 

-Remove personal information labels from bottles to protect you identity.

- Take medicines out of their original containers and put in a plastic ziplock bag. Mix medicine with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter. (The medication will be less appealing to children and pets, and unrecognizable to people who might intentionally go through your trash.)

Medicine in bag. (yuck!)

 Medicine with coffee grounds in bag. (double yuck!)

Medicine with coffee grounds and kitty litter. (Yuck to infinity!)

This mess can be put in the garbage.

I washed the empty plastic medicine bottles that had recycling symbols on the bottom. Then added them to my recycling bin. (Remember to remove the lids before recycling them. Lids are made of a different type of plastic.)

Decluttering feels great!