2014 Goals

Happy New Year!

Well, another year comes to a close. Time to revisit our family goals and see where we stand. While there were a few that we didn't get accomplished, that's okay! There were a lot that we did do and there's always next year.

2013 Goals

Family goals for this year:

• Bring a healthy, happy, (and hopefully full term) baby girl into this world! (03.27.13)
• Spend more quality time outside the apartment.
• Adopt a rescue dog. (01.06.13)
• Get Charlie potty trained. We tried, we really did. Next year.
• Take our first family vacation in October. (10.26.13-11.02.13)
• Have at least one "date night" per month, even if its at home.
• Visit family more often. 
• Put together a will, power of attorney, and all the other documents we should already have. 

Home goals for this year:

• Anchor our large furniture to the walls and get more toddler safety proofed. (01.10.13)
• Organize all of our clothes into seasons to help with clutter and storage.
• Donate/sell 2013 things over the course of the year.
• Try out at least 52 new recipes (one per week). (Recipe Challenge)
• Grow another garden this summer.
• Freeze and can whatever we can from the garden.

My personal goals for this year:

• Lose the baby weight and get back to my "happy" weight. I think 2014 will be my year.
• Go through my clothes, donate old stuff, and update my wardrobe.
• Take and edit our own newborn pictures.
• Make quilts for Charlie and Ginny. I sewed twice this entire year. TWICE. :(
• Make it to 150 blog followers. Almost there!
• Read at least 3 books. This didn't happen. Heck, this didn't even get started.
• Keep our pictures organized and back them up once a month.

J's personal goals for this year:

• Go to the gym at least 3 times a week and get back to his "happy" weight.
• Read at least 20 books.
• See at least 3 movies (before they leave the theater)
• Get a full time teaching job.
• Keep up with the journals for Charlie and Ginny. Valiant effort...until teaching started.

Financial goals for this year:

• Stay ahead on our car payments and pay at least 25% of the car's balance (about $4,500).
• Save up enough money to go to Disney in October.
• Save at least $2,000 on groceries by couponing and shopping sales. (complete 09.15.13)
• Open a bank account for Ginny. Honestly forgot about this one until today!
• End the year with no consumer debt (besides the car).

Now to figure out our goals for the new year. Fun fact: 14 is my lucky number. I'm feeling REALLY good about this upcoming year, so get ready!

2014 Goals

Family Goals:

• Put together a will, power of attorney, and all the other documents we should already have. 
• Keep the kitchen table cleaned off and eat dinner there (novel idea, right?)
• Make time to play after dinner before the kids go to bed.
• Spend a week volunteering at camp this summer. 

Home Goals:

• Keep a constant donation box to cut down on clutter. 
• Make a cleaning schedule and keep to it!
• Plant a garden in the summer.
• Meal plan and shop on Sundays for the rest of the week.
• Print and hang updated pictures in the living room.

Financial Goals:

• Meet with a financial advisor to discuss our savings and retirement.
• Pay off the van by December 31st, 2014.
• End the year with no consumer debt. 
• Save at least $2,500 on groceries with coupons and sales.

My Goals:

• Lose 15 lbs. 
• Run a 5K
• Run a 10K
• Run a half marathon
• Make it to 150 blog followers/FB fans (almost there!)
• Read three books
• Make quilts for Charlie and Ginny
• Update Charlie's and make Ginny's scrapbooks

Habits I Want to Develop in 2014:

• Running
• Packing my lunch for work
• Laying out my clothes and work things the night before
• Taking better care of my skin
• Showing gratitude on a daily basis

Jeff's Goals:

• Survive first year of teaching!
• Spend the summer lesson planning for the year.
• Complete the Insanity work out program. 
• Lose 20 lbs.
• Run a half marathon.

Goals for Charlie:

• Potty training!
• Join t-ball in the summer.
• Learn to ride a tricycle.
• Learn to get dressed all by himself.

Goals for Ginny:

• Refinish the bed that matches Ginny's furniture.
• Sleep in a big girl bed.
• Open a savings account.

Spring Cleaning Saturday: The Kitchen

First stop on the decluttering and reorganization train was the kitchen. I figured it would be easiest to start in a room with clear storage spots and lots of surface space to work. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a lot of before pictures, so you're just going to have to trust me when I say it was a hot mess in there.

When we moved in, we unpacked our boxes in a hurry to get the house set up. One of the cabinets in the kitchen is one of those awkward in the corner cabinets that is way larger on the inside than it appears from the outside. What did we put in there? Cups, mugs, and glasses. The cabinet next to it is a standard double door with a few shelves. We put plates, bowls, and Pyrex containers in there. Anyone see the problem here?

The cup cabinet is deeper than either of us can reach, so everything got lost in there constantly. The plate cabinet is shallow and the doors don't close 100% because the plates are too big. Yes, it took us over a year to realize the problem with this. After sorting through things we don't use (which was a lot) we did a quick swap, and wouldn't you know it -- everything fits perfectly now!

There is so much room in the dish cabinet now and I can't believe we fit all of our plates and bowls in the other one! The one unfortunate part of where the cups are is that the bottom shelf is as short as it goes meaning our taller mugs and sports bottles needed to fit there. We do use them a lot, but not as much as regular glasses. Oh well.

Another cabinet that got an overhaul was C's cup/plate/bowl cabinet. What a mess that was! We'd collected so many sippy cups and bowls that we weren't happy with and kept them in there for some reason. Out they came and right into the yard sale box they went. What's left are the things he actually uses. As a bonus, it made enough space in the rest of the cabinet for the baby bottles and accessories we need to get ready soon.

I really love this white shelf divider and will be getting another one for the other side of the cabinet. It keeps the shelf tall, while making room for shorter items.

We also cleaned out the spice cabinet, which I fortunately (unfortunately) did get a before picture of. It was an embarrassing mess of spice jars, clothes pinned bags, and expired ingredients. After throwing in some Tupperware, mason jars, and labels, it was much more manageable. I seriously save every jar we empty to store something else in later.

We also seriously pared down our plastic storage container stash, organized our baking sheets and pans, got rid of some small appliances, and of course cleaned as we went. So, no earth shattering or Pinterest worthy organizing tips just yet. Finding the motivation to actually go through stuff was pretty impressive if you ask me.

Riding the Nesting Wave

It's happening. That urge to completely down size, declutter, and throw out half the crap you own. Its here. The nesting phase.

Yesssssssssss.

J is very excited, to say the least. I think he's been secretly waiting for it, actually. I'd say we do a decent job of keeping things relatively organized, but we haven't done a good thorough stuff purging since this time last year. With another kid on the way, its definitely time. No need for our house to look like it did when C was first born. Granted, it was a much smaller space, but oy. Talk about drowning in baby stuff.

We've already gone through all of C's baby stuff and given a lot of it away. No use saving totes and boxes of boy clothes that we may or may not use at some point in the future. I don't have enough house for that kind of thing. I've found time to to through some of my clothes, make up/beauty stuff, and purses, but there's a lot more work to do.

There are several spots in our house that really need to be addressed, but haven't for one reason or another. The kitchen, utility closet (essentially the stuff you'd store in your garage), my craft room, our clothing, our movie collection, the front hall closet...just to name a few. We end up losing things or buying extra of things and it annoys me to no end.

I'm going to be setting up "Toss/Donate/Sell" boxes in the living room and going at it. A bunch less stuff and a few organizing solutions later and we'll hopefully be much better off. Normally, I'm a pack rat so I might as well ride this wave of hormones and throw some crap out.

52 Recipe Challenge: Ready, Set, Cook!

As you know, one of my 2013 goals is to try at least 52 new recipes (one per week) to spice up our routine. We find ourselves, as many families do, in a food rut - making the same things over and over again. No more!

If you're in a rut like us, join the 52 Recipe Challenge! I'll be posting every Monday about the previous week's recipe. Link up and share your recipe and review - together we can make our meals more interesting.

Recipes don't necessarily need to be a whole meal or even dinner specific. It could be a dessert, a drink, a side, a new lunch idea, etc. As long as its something new that you haven't made before. The source doesn't matter either - another blog, Pinterest, a cook book, or your own creative mind. Remember to give credit to any sources you've borrowed from, to give your review, and take a picture of your masterpiece!

Tomorrow starts week #1. If you didn't happen to try a new recipe, no worries! Link up an old favorite or something you want to try to get things started. I'm excited to see what nifty recipes turn up!

<br /><a href="http://www.allfourloveblog.com/search/label/Recipe Challenge"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg71MJjN0_8ttoKj8mn5FObM1n6rkX1jscEvURd4UhNB4-ryy-UaS-wAJzAgCa785lIlskz7gRinPDQmETP1Ry9kByPnfbqF9TV31wluWiFOJatIYBYOWAmKyYlRlXGaljNBlHM8GkdN8s/s800/52%2520Recipe%2520Challenge%2520Button%2520%25282%2529.jpg" border="0" /></a>

Hello, 2013!

Happy 2013! This year for our goals, J and I put our heads together to figure out what we wanted to do. Here's our list of goals for the year...


Family goals for this year:

• Bring a healthy, happy, (and hopefully full term) baby girl into this world!
• Spend more quality time outside the apartment.
• Adopt a rescue dog.
• Get Charlie potty trained.
• Take our first family vacation in October.
• Have at least one "date night" per month, even if its at home.
• Visit family more often.

Home goals for this year:

• Anchor our large furniture to the walls and get more toddler safety proofed.
• Organize all of our clothes into seasons to help with clutter and storage.
• Donate/sell 2013 things over the course of the year.
• Try out at least 52 new recipes (one per week).
• Grow another garden this summer.
• Freeze and can whatever we can from the garden.

My personal goals for this year:

• Lose all of the baby weight and get back to my "happy" weight.
• Go through my clothes, donate old stuff, and update my wardrobe.
• Take and edit our own newborn pictures.
• Make quilts for Charlie and Ginny.
• Make it to 150 blog followers.
• Read at least 3 books.
• Keep our pictures organized and back them up once a month.

J's personal goals for this year:

• Go to the gym at least 3 times a week and get back to his "happy" weight.
• Read at least 20 books.
• See at least 3 movies (before they leave the theater)
• Get a full time teaching job.
• Be less of a "thinker" and more of a "feeler."
• Keep up with the journals for Charlie and Ginny.

Financial goals for this year:

• Stay ahead on our car payments and pay at least 25% of the car's balance (about $4,500).
• Save up enough money to go to Disney in October.
• Save at least $2,000 on groceries by couponing and shopping sales. 
• Open a bank account for Ginny when she's born. 
• End the year with no consumer debt (besides the car).

So long, 2012!

Time to revisit my 2012 goals and see how I did. Some of them went well, others....well, you'll see.

My hopes for this year:

• I hope J gets a permanent teaching job that he absolutely loves.
• I hope C continues to make progress and completely catch up with kids his age.
• I hope for many less sick baby days this year!
• I hope to see my family more now that we live closer.
• I hope 2012 is one for the books.

While J didn't get a permanent teaching job, he did get transferred to a new school that he enjoys a LOT more than than where he was last year. C has completely caught up and was discharged from PT just before turning two. After getting tubes in his ears in June, he's been much healthier than in the past. Living closer has been wonderful and we've seen so much more of our family than before! Add in a new addition on the way and I'd say 2012 was pretty great to us!

My family goals for this year:

• Spend more quality time outside the apartment (the park, going for a walk, etc.).
• Start three new family traditions.
• Find a church community we really like.
• Have at least one "date night" per month, even if its at home.
• Give J a really great 30th birthday. 
• Dedicate a week to West River this summer 

We spent a lot more time this year outside grilling, gardening, playing, going to the pool, and for walks. It was a nice change of pace. As C gets older family traditions have become easier to establish and keep up. One thing I've noticed is that even if its as simple as eating breakfast in your pajamas together - traditions come in all shapes and sizes.

We still haven't found a church community to join, but I'll be honest - we haven't done a great job of looking. Date nights have been less frequent than we'd like, but we focus on us more and that's what is important. J's birthday was a good one and though we ended up not being able to afford a big trip, he did get some quality time with his friends. Finally, we spent a wonderful week at West River volunteering and spending time with some of our favorite people.

My home goals for this year:

• Hang all of our picture frames
• Plan out meals on Sunday, shop accordingly, and stick to the plan.
• Utilize freezer and crock pot meals more.
• Never buy cleaners - make at home from natural ingredients.
• Create a cleaning schedule and stick to it. 
• Start a garden and grow our own vegetables and herbs.

All of our pictures finally got hung, we didn't buy a single store bought cleaner, and while we don't exactly have a cleaning schedule we do a lot better at clutter busting than in the past. We've also been doing a much better job planning and shopping for meals, saving over $2,000 with sales and coupons this year! We ate like kings from our garden this summer even though it was mostly squash and tomatoes and can't wait to do it again next summer.

My personal goals for this year:

• Get back into knitting/crocheting.
• Make and donate at least 3 blankets to Project Linus.
• Get 100 more blog followers! (Ended 2011 with 67)
• Read at least 3 books (that's a lot for me, people)
• Have a handmade Christmas (make all of my gifts)
• Take the Two Peas photography tutorial course.
• Organize our pictures and back them up once a month

I think its very interesting and telling that this is the area that I did the worst this year. I really need to figure out how to take more time for myself, but with another kid on the way I'm not quite sure how that's going to happen! I did start crocheting again, but haven't made much of anything. I have hardly touched my sewing machine all year and haven't had time to do much reading. I did take the Two Peas photography course and really enjoyed that. I did more blogging outreach....and then didn't post most of the summer. Our pictures are completely organized though!! I guess that counts for something! Next year, I need to do better at this stuff...

My financial goals for this year:

• Pay off our current car.
• Buy a second (inexpensive) car. 
• Pay off said second car.
• End the year with no consumer debt (credit cards, cars, etc.)
• Pay off at least 20% of my student loans. 
• Bring lunch to work and never buy. 

So this area is going to be interesting to report on. We paid off the Versa, bought another car, paid it off....and then bought another car. Kind of threw a wrench in the "no consumer debt" thing. While we're in fabulous shape credit card wise, we are back in the car loan hole for the next few years. Truth be told, it was a good investment that needed to be made for our growing family, so what can you do. Our student loans are still in normal repayment, but we will get to them in time. I did, however, do great bringing lunch to work instead of buying all the time! There were a few times, for one reason or another, that I needed to buy, but when ever possible I kept the wallet closed. 


Well, you win some, you lose some and that's okay. If anything, revisiting this year's list has given me a lot of inspiration for 2013 - especially in the personal goals area. Once I'm done putting together the new list, I'll post it.

How did you do in 2012? What are you going to change in 2013?

Toddle Along Tuesday: A Day in the Life

Happy Toddle Along Tuesday! This week's topic comes from Katie at Love, Lattes, and Lullabies (whose blog and little boy are super cute). The topic is....A Day in the Life! What does a day in your house typically look like?

Since J and I both work full time, a typical weekday is quite lame.

6:00 am - J gets up to shower and then gets C up (if he's not up already).
6:15 am - They both get dressed, eat breakfast, and get packed up.
6:45 am - I get kisses from my boys and they're off to work and school.

(Yes, you should all be incredible jealous of my amazing husband that lets me sleep in while he gets C ready to go. He is basically the best ever. Ever.)

Fortunately, my hours are flexible and if I have a late meeting one night, I go in a little late the next day. Most days I'm in around 8:00 am, but some days I can arrive at 9:00 am. Woo!

8:00/9:00 am - Meetings, meetings, and more meetings with a dash of email, phone calls, and walking back and forth across campus. Good thing I love my coworkers and students or this would be a very boring job.

4:00 pm - C and J get home and stop by my office to say hi. My favorite part of the day! J starts dinner while C winds down from the day.

4:30/5:00 pm - I come home if I don't have any late afternoon obligations. C and I play and clean up the living room while J finishes dinner.

5:30 pm - We have dinner, clean up, and pack lunches for the next day.

6:00 pm - If we have quick errands to run, we would do it now, but much prefer to stay at home and play with C before bed.

7:30 pm - C's bed time. J brushes his teeth and I read him a story before bed. Lately, he's been staying up later for some reason, but generally he's pooped by 7:30.

8:00 pm - Time to tidy up the house, do laundry, and/or generally veg on the couch until bed time (between 10:00/11:00pm)


The weekends, are a very different story. Though we do end up traveling a lot to see family and friends, we cherish our weekends and try our hardest to do things together. This past weekend was a nice quiet few days at home doing some spring cleaning and working on the back yard...er...patio.

On Sunday, I took a turn waking up with C so J could sleep in (See? I repay the favor!) We got up around 6:00 am, had breakfast, and played until around 8:00 am when J was awoken by the worst kind of alarm clock...

"I think you need a diaper change, C. Oh....dear.....God....its....everywhere!! 

I can't even get your pants off safely! You need a bath...."

In his half asleep stupor, he got up and turned on the water for us before I even made it to the bathroom. What a great Dad. After that was all figured out, we headed out to Lowe's to pick up the rest of the gardening supplies we needed.

After lunch, C took a three hour nap (I know, crazy, right?) and we worked on the back patio. I spray painted some ugly old pots we had, planted some flowers, and set up our shoe rack herb garden. Hopefully, stuff grows this year. ::fingers crossed::

C joined us in the late afternoon and it was so beautiful outside, he played in his water table as we sat on the porch swing sipping iced coffee. Doesn't get much more perfect than that.We even ate dinner outside and enjoyed the amazing summer-esque breeze. Why can't every weekend be like that?

Once we get rid of a few stray cinder blocks, sweep, and set up the grill and C's baby pool, we'll have our own little pavement paradise.


What is a typical day like in your house? Head over to Growing Up Geeky and join today's blog hop to share your story and read about some others!

Meal Planning: An Update

We've been meal planning/intentionally shopping for almost two months now and I've noticed something interesting. Dinner is a lot less stressful, but our grocery bill is higher than when we shopped all willy nilly! What is that all about?

I think the mystery of the growing bill is that we're eating much better than we ever have. We're eating more whole foods and complete meals instead of slapping things together last minute.

Here are some examples of our weekly plans (the ones I can remember)...

Sunday: Grilled chicken Caesar salad
Monday: Eggs, bacon, and pancakes
Tuesday: Chicken fajitas and cilantro lime rice
Wednesday: Black and bleu burgers and sweet potato fries
Thursday: Marinated steak with sauteed onions and mashed potatoes
Friday: Spaghetti, salad, and garlic bread
Saturday: Left overs

Sunday: Eggs, bacon, and waffles
Monday: Chicken enchiladas and spicy black bean soup
Tuesday: Gruyere/Jarlsberg fondue dipping smorgasbord (for Valentine's Day)
Wednesday: French dip sandwiches, coleslaw, and french fries
Thursday: Left overs
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Lasagna cups, caprese salad, and garlic bread

And this week's menu is...

Sunday: Left overs
Monday: Pulled chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, and asparagus
Tuesday: Chicken corn chowder in bread bowls
Wednesday: Pot roast, veggies, and mashed potatoes
Thursday: Turkey meatballs, spaghetti, and garlic bread
Friday: French toast and hash browns
Saturday: Pizza

One thing that I have found very helpful in saving money is buying whole chicken (usually $.99/lb.). After roasting it in the oven or crock pot, I pull off the breasts whole for cutlets, fajitas, chicken salad, etc. and then shred the dark meat for pulled chicken, enchiladas, and other yummy dishes. Then, all of the bones and skin go back into the juices and turns into about 8 cups of chicken stock for soups, stews, mashed potatoes - you name it. It makes everything taste so much better! I freeze the stock in a silicone muffin tin (so I can easily pop them out) and store them in a zip top bag for when I need them.

We also coupon like crazy, take advantage of BOGO and manager's specials for meat, and keep our eyes peeled for which stores have the best prices. Most of all, we only shop for what we need that week meaning less food goes to waste. We haven't thrown out forgotten/unused food since starting this....which is a huge savings!

Overall, we're really enjoying the good food and since many of these meals are made in the crock pot or freezer dishes, we're able to come home and make dinner without much thought or energy. A MUST after a long day of work and school.

Do you meal plan? What are your go to dishes?

The Cleaning Frenzy

What else do you do on a day off - how about clean the whole house? We've been so crazy busy lately that the house has, unfortunately, taken a back seat. Not a huge issue if you ask me, but we're having guests stay the next three weekends, so its about time to get down to scrubbing.

The main areas of ick were the bathroom and the kitchen. Why is that always the case? To be fair, the bathtub and the kitchen floor were pretty dirty when we moved in from what I can only assume were years and years of bare bones cleaning by the previous occupants. There is no other logical reason for the permanent ring around the tub or black tile grout. Gross.

This was the perfect opportunity to try out some of my new home made cleaning remedies! For the tub, I tried the grapfruit salt scrub from Apartment Therapy. It was super easy and ridiculously cheap, plus it smelled amazing! It didn't get rid of the permanent ring, but it did scrub away any other grime and soap scum around the tub. J was happy with it, but mostly because he got to eat the other half of the grapefruit. Definitely something I'll do again.

For the kitchen floor, I used a paste of Borax, baking soda, and water along with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and a toothbrush. Oh, and plenty of elbow grease.

Two hours later, the floor went from this...

 To this...

Not earth shattering, but a huge improvement if you ask me. The kicker is that after the scrub down, I ran the Shark mop over it and the mop head STILL turned black. ::sigh:: I'm doomed to a dirty kitchen floor.

After additional dusting, vacuuming, and vinegar/water wipe downs, the house is arguably cleaner than it has ever been without using one single chemical. Woo!

Another project motivated by my no chemical kick and, of course, Pinterest is homemade dish washing detergent. Not only detergent, but pre-measured little soap biscuits - like the kind you'd pay $6 for a bag of 16-20. Using the recipe and tutorial at Lady with the Red Rocker, I made detergent with Borax, washing soda, Kosher salt, and Lemi Shine then slowly spritzed it with a water bottle until it became the consistency of wet sand. Then, I packed it into a tablespoon to create pre-measured little soaps.

In the tutorial, it calls for putting each soap biscuit into a little paper cup as it dries and for storage, but I found that tapping the table spoon out onto parchment paper until it hardened (about an hour) worked well. I then took one of those plastic shoe bins (WalMart - $.97) and layered parchment paper and soap biscuits. I doubled the recipe found on the tutorial and got over 70 biscuits! Its very dry right now because of the heat, they hardened really well. I can imagine in the middle of the summer it may be a little different, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So far, so good! The detergent biscuits fit in our soap dispenser perfectly and it works better than the store bought stuff! Our plastic doesn't have a film anymore and everything rinses so clean.

The awesome part about this recipe is that you can adjust the amount of Lemi Shine according to the hardness of your water. We've got middle of the road water, so a 1/2 cup of Lemi Shine works perfectly. Harder water, add more to the mix; softer water, add less. Nothing beats being able to customize a product until its exactly what you need.

Now we've got dish detergent for over two months (at a cost of about $4) and a clean house. I could get used to this.

What are your favorite homemade cleaning tips/tricks?

Wordless Wednesday: New Family Tradition

Since we get a family membership through C's daycare, we've decided to go to the YMCA and swim every Saturday that we can. New family tradition #1! Here are the pictures from last Saturday's swimming adventure.

Cleaning Supply Revamp

As part of my 2012 goals, we aren't going to buy a single commercial/pre-made cleaner this year, but instead use homemade and natural cleaners in our home.

Why? A few reasons. Firstly, I'm frugal. Cleaners are expensive and don't seem to go on sale too often. Secondly, there seems to be a gazillion different types of cleaners - one for every individual thing in the house meaning we end up with a collection like this...

That's 14 different cleaners from under the sink or the cleaning closet. After I took the picture, I realized I'd missed like 5 or 6 others, so that brings the total to at least 19 bottles. WHY!?

Lastly, the overwhelming majority of these cleaners are toxic chemicals - hence the gloves. Call me a crunchy granola Mom, but why use chemicals that aren't good for my home, my family, and the environment? Granted, we'll probably keep the Clorox spray around for the seriously scary stuff (i.e. like dropping raw chicken on the counter, down the cabinet, and on the floor), but otherwise, its all going. We're going to use up whatever we have a tiny bit left of and donate/give away the rest.

Instead, we're going to switch to these four ingredients - white vinegar, baking soda, Borax, and washing soda. Seriously - these four things will not only clean and deodorize your entire house, but whiten clothes, wash dishes, and keep away common household pests. As a bonus, the word on the street is that they do it better than the toxic stuff.

After lots of Pinterest-ing and searching for recipes, I found a ton of easy recipes for various cleaners using only these four ingredients with the occasional random ingredient thrown in - essential oil, citrus, hydrogen peroxide, etc.

Here's the basic breakdown of what the different ingredients do:

• Baking Soda - cleans, deodorizes, softens water, scours.
• Soap - unscented soap in liquid form, flakes, powders or bars is biodegradable and will clean just about anything. Avoid using soaps which contain petroleum distillates.
• Lemon - one of the strongest food-acids, effective against most household bacteria.
• Borax - (sodium borate) cleans, deodorizes, disinfects, softens water, cleans wallpaper, painted walls and floors.
• White Vinegar - cuts grease, removes mildew, odors, some stains and wax build-up.
• Washing Soda - or SAL Soda is sodium carbonate decahydrate, a mineral. Washing soda cuts grease, removes stains, softens water, cleans wall, tiles, sinks and tubs. Use care, as washing soda can irritate mucous membranes. Do not use on aluminum.
• Cornstarch - can be used to clean windows, polish furniture, shampoo carpets and rugs.

With that guide, you can clean just about anything. Need to clean grout? Borax and water into a paste. Need to clean baby toys that were all over the floor? Vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Need dishwashing detergent? Borax, washing soda, salt, and citrus.

Its all right there - and for cheap too. All four of these ingredients combined cost less than $10 and will make an absolute ton of cleaning solution. My first project is going to be to clean the nasty grout in the kitchen. More on that later this week!

Do you have any cleaning solution tips or recipes? What are your favorites?