rechelle's lifelyrics

Most of us have such busy lifestyles it’s hard to make time for “cleaning day.” I’ve been thinking I should offer a few cleaning hacks that could help you feel more on top of your chores overall. I really need you to know, before you read this article, that I did not go on a cleaning spree before taking these pictures today. This is how I keep our home on a regular basis – and I never spend hours at a time getting things clean, ready for company, or anything like that. The tips I’m giving you are habits I’ve developed over the years to limit stress about my dwelling place in my daily life.

• Always add water to dirty dishes before walking away. This simple step makes dishes much easier to rinse than if they are left with food in them to sit and harden. The next time you walk past the sink, get everything fully rinsed and stacked, ready to load in the dishwasher.
• Add apple cider vinegar to your bath water! It’s good for your skin, and cuts oils. I bathe almost every day (instead of showering), and I hardly ever have to make a special point to “wash” my tub. Normally, I use a bit of my bath soap with a few pumps of my apple cider vinegar (there, next to my lavender Epsom salt) on my bath sponge to go over the tub walls as the water drains.

• Apple cider vinegar is a wonderful, safe, cleaner and deodorizer! We keep a spray bottle handy that contains about 1/2 water, 1/2 apple cider vinegar, and one drop of liquid dish soap. Any time the toilet, sinks, or counters have a hint of grime, it only takes a few seconds to spray and wipe one or two small areas as we are getting ready for the day, or bed, or whatever.
• (If you use washcloths that will end up in your bleach laundry load for these tasks, please make sure to thoroughly rinse the cloth before adding to the laundry hamper! The fumes from mixing bleach and vinegar are highly toxic, so it is a very important safety precaution that I have always taken seriously.)
• Squeegee shower doors every time you finish showering! It literally takes less than one minute, and you avoid having overwhelming buildup. We’ve had this habit for years, and I can tell you I have to actually spray the glass and apply some scrubbing effort about once every 2 – 3 months.

• If you get in the habit to just take a few seconds to wipe down or clean something specific when you notice it, instead of putting it off for a block of time to take care of everything at once, you will find it lightens the burden of having to clean.

So I guess it’s like the old saying, “Inch by inch it’s a cinch, but mile by mile it’s a trial.” When I was so busy raising and homeschooling my 5 kids, along with so many other things on top of that, I needed to find ways to manage the work load. I worked hard to develop habits that would enable me to do all of the things that were important to me and our household while still having a tidy home to live in.