Tag: cleaning tips

family

Making the Bed

Andi

Making the bed with small children is often like those silly videos of people trying to make the bed when cats are playing in the sheets. Kids love to “help” make the bed. And by help I mean run around on the bed, hide under the sheets, and cause general mayhem. And if you’re like me and have both children and cats, the challenge doubles. You can keep grabbing kids and shooing them out of the room. Lock the door and listen to them scream. Yell at them to stay off the bed. Keep redoing the same thing over and over and never get the task accomplished. But no one wants to do that.

So how do you make the bed with helpers and not loose your mind? Let me take you through a bed making in our house to show you. Now, on my bed, I have a fitted sheet, a blanket (or if you wanted to use a flat sheet, you could replace the blanket), a comforter, and pillows.

Step one, forget perfection. Just let go of that right now. You won’t achieve a Better Homes & Garden cover level bed. It’d be pretty hard to do in general, but with kids playing everywhere? We often scrutinize and judge ourselves based on the immaculate pictures we see in magazines and social media. Don’t do that.

Once you’ve let go of trying to make everything picture perfect, grab the fitted sheet. Tuck the head side of the bed over the corners. Now it becomes a game. I tell my kids to jump jump until they’re on the sheet and then I pull the foot end of the sheet over the other two corners. Then the blanket. Have the kids jump on one side of the bed, they have to stay on that side to win. Lay half the blanket out flat before telling them to jump jump to the blanket side and spread the other half out flat. Then repeat with the comforter. Hold your hands up and yell, “YAY, you won!” After each time or my child doesn’t consider it a real game. I have my kids help me set the pillows. They usually jump around for a little bit after the bed gets made, but as soon as I move onto something else they do too. Then if you want, go back and smooth out the lumps.

With their beds, I put the sheets on and fold their blankets, but I have them help make their own beds. They put their own pillows and animals on the bed and lay out their own blankets. It’s simple and may not seem like much, but keeping them involved even in little ways is important. So I always try to include them in the cleaning and boring daily tasks.

Does my bed look immaculate? No. Does it look good and clean? Absolutley. I have an entire family to keep up with, and an organized house lowers stress levels, so I have to find ways to keep clean and clear and on top of everything else too.

clean living, family

Saving in the Laundry Room

Andi

One of my quests is to live a Zero Waste lifestyle, or at least minimal waste. There are challenges to doing this though. We produce a lot of waste most people probably don’t even realize they’re making, and a cost some individuals may not be able to spare.

For instance I buy local meat that’s wrapped in a paper, and fresh produce I put in reusable bags. But purchasing those reusable bags costs money, and the plastic bags in the stores are free. That meat is usually slightly more expensive than the styrofoam and plastic packaged meat you can buy in Walmart. And when you’re pinching every penny, those little savings are significant. So you buy the cheaper meat, the frozen or canned veggies, and use those plastic bags. I’ve done it, I’ve been there.

Not to mention the added layer of kids. Kids things seem to love being packaged in enormous amounts of plastic. Snacks, disposable diapers, wipes, tubes of rash cream and lotion, those containers of mushed baby food. Of course there are organic and environmentally friendly options, but most are more expensive than other brands. And if you’re on a really tight budget, you can’t even afford the name brand stuff, you’re buying the off brand everything to save those pennies. So again, I was the one buying the plastic tubs of baby food because they were more cost efficient. Now, you could make your own, of course, but that would require both the time to do it and the possession of a food processor.

Another challenge that I’ve encountered has been living in an apartment. We don’t have a recycling bin we can just roll out to the curb on trash day. I have to load up things and drive them to a recycling center. And we don’t have a yard where I can make a compost. There do exist resources for composting in an apartment, but I have to purchase it and find a place to put it.

So truly, I get it. I understand how you may want to reduce your waste, but are finding it difficult to accomplish. So I’m going to share with you one simple place I found to lower my waste and save money at the same time. In the laundry room.

For a long time I used Arm & Hammer laundry detergent. I use A&H brand in a lot of places. Kitty litter, toothpaste, diaper pail, I use so much baking soda I should probably buy stocks in Arm & Hammer. Until I read an article about the EWS ratings of big name laundry soap. I looked into it thinking it was A&H, it’s just baking soda, it’s good. It was not. So I looked into some organic brands, and discovered as with many organic products, they’re more expensive than regular brands. Since I’m not interested in spending a fortune on soap, I started searching for other choices and discovered all the laundry soap recipes to make your own. In searching I also learned borax is no good either. So I set out to find a borax free, home made, environmentally friendly, chemical free, laundry soap. I finally found one.

1 box Super Washing Soda

1 box Baking Soda

3 bars Castile Soap

1 tub Oxiclean Baby or Oxiclean Free

28 oz Epsom Salt (optional)

Entire contents cost about $20. Now, I realize that’s twice as much as a jug of soap, but keep in mind two things, it’s going to last you 5 months instead of 1, and that makes it $4 a month rather than $8 (you may be able to save a bit if you could find off brand ingredients and don’t opt for Epsom salt). I bought a lidded glass jar ($10 at Walmart), and use the scoop that came in the Oxiclean tub. There may exist an already shredded Castile soap, but I haven’t found one, so I shred it like a block of cheese. I even use a cheese grater. This is by far the hardest part of this. Otherwise it’s simply add all ingredients to jar and mix. I do use the Epsom salts as I love fresh smelling laundry. They don’t add a powerful scent, but it’s enough to fill my nostrils with lavender as I move the laundry to the dryer. I’ve been using this detergent mixture for a few months and I’ve been pleased with the results. Its getting my messy childrens clothes clean, and satisfying my husbands need to have fresh smelling shirts.

So I’m saving some money, avoiding dangerous ingredients, and reducing waste all at the same time. And I love that!