Household Cleaning Solutions

For cleaning floors it is best practice to actually scrub them manually. Most mops and sweeping materials are good for surface cleaning but will rarely clean the floor completely. Ammonia is the cheapest solution to use for tile, Formica, vinyl and other textured floor coverings. Wood or other natural fibers that need special attention will usually only require water or very simple solvents that are dried quickly. Old hand towels are sufficiently large and absorbent to do the preliminary slosh across the floor. Once the surface dust is wiped away, it is easier to see and feel the sticky substances that are left behind to be scrubbed out. Use a scrub-brush while on hands and knees for best results. The positioning of leverage over the brush allows you to apply enough pressure on the spot needing scrubbed without straining your muscles or your back. Likewise, a 'cat-like' position is good for overall core strengthening and relaxing normally tensed lower back muscles. After scrubbing stubborn areas, wipe with the towel once again to sweep away the suds and filth just released from its grasps on your floor. Move systematically in square areas of about three feet, or the length of your arm, backwards across your floor so that you exit the room when the floor is completed (rather than cornering yourself opposite the exit which requires you to walk across the floor that might not yet be dry).

One scrubbing of the floor a week for high traffic areas will keep them 'inspection clean' whereas other low traffic areas or under unmoved furniture need only be scrubbed monthly. I would recommend rotating areas on a weekly basis in the house for their monthly cleaning so as to not rearrange your house one day a month and to divide out the work over 4 weeks rather than one day. Other fancy cleaning solutions meet their purpose, but are generally based in ammonia so you are paying for the fancy smell and packaging. If you feel you need to apply wax do so only once a month.

Bleach is the easiest catch all solution for cleaning bathrooms. All surfaces can be cleaned and adequately disinfected with diluted bleach including tubs, toilets, and sinks. Again, other solutions for mildew or stains are viable, although they can be replaced (or are based) in bleach which is the most economical alternative. Use only rags that are colorless to clean with bleach. A sponge with a rough scrubbing side as well as a softer absorbent side is most useful in sinks. To get the grime around the faucet handles and on the nozzle of the sink use an old toothbrush to scrub them and then douse them with water to wash away the loosened scum.

Toilet water should be pushed down before you scrub the interior basin of the toilet; doing so exposes the normal area where water rings are most likely to be. You can push the water down with your toilet bowl brush or poor a large amount of water down all at once which will lower the water level (this is a fast way to empty a basin of water used to mop floors and serves a dual purpose, be careful however if the solution you have used for the floor mopping may react chemically with the solution you are using to clean the toilet). A toilet bowl brush or scrub brush should be sufficient to work away stains unless you choose to use a pumice stone for water rings. Pumice stone will leave slight scratching rings where they are used. Do not be afraid to touch toilet water. If you have flushed the toilet before you start cleaning it the water will be fresh, as fresh as the water you get from the faucet. Cleaning water from the toilet with bleach solution can be used to wipe down the exterior of the toilet bowl as well as the floor around it.

Showers are easiest cleaned if they are lightly scrubbed weekly with a sponge and soft cleanser or other spray on shower mildew solutions (including bleach which is cheapest and simplest) and then scrubbed deeply monthly. Concentrate your cleaning on the areas of the shower where water cascades and is left to dry. You can feel the difference between an area that has soap scrub and not by passing your hand over the surface when the area is damp. Although you may not be able to see the build up until a month later, there is weekly buildup that is easiest swept away regularly. Do not forget to scrub glass surfaces, faucets, drains and areas where you place shampoos or soaps. Cleaning the shower can be quick and effective it is saved as your last cleaning item for the day before you shower, you then are not concerned if your clothing or hair is dampened and can even get in prepared for showering in the final rinse of the shower.

Refrigerators should be cleaned out monthly. This serves two purposes; you are sure to throw out at that time any food that has been hiding in the dark corners going bad and you can eliminate stubborn spills that could permanently stain your fridge. Use the recommended solution that is directed with your refrigerator; most indicate ammonia like for the interior and shelves but using soft soap (dish soap) only for the drawers. It is wise to regulate things in the freezer also monthly although it may not be necessary to defrost and clean the freezer more than twice a year. At least once a quarter move your refrigerator forward and mop behind and under the fridge, you will find there is great dust build up from the motor of the fridge.

To be continued: windows, stoves, cupboards, closets, baseboards, blinds, light fixtures, walls, doors

Against the Fashionable Use of Credit Cards

In the introductory chapter of Mrs. Child's book, she lays forth some principles that are underlying the whole creation of her novel. One such regards the careful and watchful use of finances. As a homemaker we are not only responsible for the governence of our home and its surroundings, but the funding of it. Whether given an allowance by the breadwinner to spend yourself or otherwise alloted, you are responsible fore the expenditures made in your family budget for your home. Your wise influence and frugal conduct can deeply influence your husbands perspective of your home be it in taste, style, costliness or homeliness.

"It is wise to keep an exact account of all you expend - even of a paper of pins. This answers two purposes; it makes you more careful in spending your money, and it enables your husband to judge precicely whether his family live within his income."

Do keep and EXACT account. No fudging, smudging or shifting should occur in your ledger. Now that a substantial amount of money changing is done by online banking and use of debit cards, credit cards, and checks, it is both easier and more difficult to be as careful with our money. Because electronic transfers or money are automatically recorded by the bank, you are saved the time of entering them into a ledger. However, without your conscious notation of monies spent they can be recognized by only the bank and you will forever spend beyond your means. It is wise practice to review finances on a very regular basis, at the very least weekly. In times when you are writing several bills, buying several new purchases, or taking trips it is necissary to be watchful of our accounts daily.

"No false pride, or foolish ambition to appear as well as others, should ever induce a person to live one cent beyond the income of which he is certain." Such pride or foolish ambition rears its pretty head in amazing deals, weekend sales, pressured on the spot door to door sales, or even in government stimulus packages. Regardless of the amount you portend to "save" by buying now, if you haven't the money to spend on the remaining price of the item at hand, you would be spending more than you have. Unfortunately, the fashionable way to save money is to "buy now, pay later." I ask, in what way are you saving? By accruing interest rates on credit cards? By binding yourself to a payment on something you may very soon find you do not need? By garunteeing yourself more return in the future to pay off the continual debt you will be plummetting yourself into by complying to the ridiculous sales pitches of the now?

Do not be decieved by the idea of "certain income." You may very will intend to receive your contracted salary or collect your project hourly wage, but until the money is in your possession, it is not certain. The money is particularly uncertain if you have already several fixed expenses that sustain your existence. A projected salary or income is useful only in the calculation of what savings can be made in order for future necessary purchases or in the obtaining of a modest home that will likewise sustain your family. For no other reason should you trick yourself into believing that an upcoming paycheck will supply the demands you are placing upon it in the moment. Save all that you have and do not spend what you don't.

The Usefulness of Electric Mixers and Cake Mixes

An electric hand mixer can be a useful thing when mixing together recipes. However, they are only beneficial if the thing needing mixed requires more than thirty seconds of mixing time, which generally means the ingredients need to be 'whipped' not just mixed. This is likewise of note when making recipes that call for "creaming" the beginning ingredients. Because you must spend more than thirty seconds doing the above actions, it is most worth your time to buy an electric mixer that can operate without you holding it in the bowl (such as like the Kitchenaid types).

Note that when creaming or whipping the principle intent is to get the contents smooth and frothy (which is generally because of the presence of egg whites). To cream or whip you should use a whisk or whisk like attachment. Spades, spatulas, or spoon type implements will not give the desired result without an increased effort and more time.

Boxed cake mixes also have their useful properties. If your intent is speed, a boxed mix is handy. Often it is convenient when one already has the oven heated for other baking purposes to quickly prepare a box cake to follow the main dish and therefore use the energy already expended to raise the temperature of the oven. However, it is good practice in using long-term food storage items to create cake mixes from scratch. When possible, create ready-made mixes of your own to use in the tight pinch. Practice using correct portions and substitutes so that you are prepared to make due with whatever presents itself. Applesauce can be used as a substitute for butter or crisco in many recipes. Oil can be omitted and water used in its place. Several alternatives for sugar are available, including natural blended fruit substitutes.

If you do not suceed in your first baking attempts, do not get discouraged. Of all things, a dessert is the least valuable in your meal so an occasional flub will not destroy the eating habits of the family. Yet, if you do succeed in creating more healthy and quick ways to supply the end of meal sweets, your family will rejoice with you in your creativity.