General Housecare
- If you hate to clean, make a realistic cleaning schedule so that every other day, you get one or two areas cleaned. Turn on a good cd and sing while you clean to keep from getting bored.
- If you have pets, bathe them regularly to help keep your home clean. Keep them brushed and groomed, and trim their nails once a month. I trap my kitties in the shower with the door closed and scrub them down every few months.
- Re-staining the cabinets in your kitchen with a similar color is a great way to freshen the entire kitchen and make the cabinets look new. Even better, a small can of stain is only $5-10! (To make sure you get the closest color, unscrew a cabinet door and take it with you to the store.)
- Replacing the hardware on all your cabinets and drawers is an inexpensive way to update the look of your kitchen and bathroom. Most handles are only $1-2 each.
- For smelly carpet, sprinkle baking soda on the offending spot and leave overnight. Vaccuum the spot in the morning.
- For a fresh-smelling house, pour 1 c of Pine Sol (my favorite is lemon-scented Pine Sol) in with 6 c of water and leave it in the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, or toilet for 3-6 hours. Before company arrives, drain and flush!
- Write down the names of all the paint you use in your house, so in 10 years when you need to touch it up, you know what kind to buy.
- Spray-paint your shutters a cheerful, bright color that matches your house to give the entire home a welcoming look from the outside. We just painted our faded, black shutters a bright blue, and the entire house looks newer!
- Use hairspray to remove Magic Marker stains.
- If your home smells like smoke, place a bowl of vinegar in the room for a few hours to absorb the smell.
- Use hair spray to kill flies.
- Lay ant traps at all the doors and windows in the spring and summer.
- Use clear nail polish to repair small holes in your window screens.
- Buy a can of wood polish and use it to brighten and renew furniture while you dust.
Kitchen
- to get rid of coffee stains, beat an egg yolk and dip a clean cloth into the yolk. Rub the yolk into the stain and rinse with water.
- Run the garbage disposal once a week with hot water to remove clogs of leftover food.
- If your sink and drains smell bad, toss the quarters of a fresh lemon or lime into the garbage disposal. Citrus fruits are great odor eliminators!
- Keep a box of baking soda in the freezer and refrigerator to keep smells at bay.
- If your dishwasher has soap film, run an empty load filled with a cup of white vinegar.
- Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda and very hot water to dishes that have dried with the food caked on. Let it sit and then rinse, and the food will have loosened.
- To keep your water pipes from being blocked by tree roots, which can be very expensive and cause backup water into your home, flush a cup or two of salt down the toilet every 4-6 months.
- Clean after you've showered, since the steam helps loosen dirt and buildup.
- Scrub stains or smelly sinks with a fresh lemon. This dilutes the stain and helps control odor.
- Once a month, pour a half gallon of white vinegar into the toilet bowl and let it sit overnight. This eliminates toilet bowl rings.
- Place a fabric softener sheet in the trashcan to keep the bathroom smelling fresh and eliminate bad odors.
Gardening
- Before you go to the store, price shop. You can often get shoots and seeds at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Harware, and any home and garden store. (I always use Ace Hardware and have been very pleased with their service, prices, and the quality of my gardens. I highly recommend this store. They give great, friendly service to even basic beginners like me!)
- Flowers and potted plants you buy at grocery stores and other shops that don't specialize in gardening will be more expensive.
- Take the 5 minutes to fill out the form to get a customer rewards card at the store you decide to buy your plants from. You'll be spending hundreds of dollars over the summer on return trips for sod, fertilizer, bug spray, more seeds, pots, potting soil, and garden decorations, so you might as well get rewards for the money you spend. Ace Hardware has a free customer rewards card and you get points for every dollar spent.
- Your neighbors and relatives will probably have shoots and starts you can have for free. I currently have some mint that came from my mom's house that came from my grandmother's house. It's much cheaper than buying the seeds or shoots, and it always brings a smile to my face to remember my grandmother and picture her smiling down as I use her mint for yummy mojitos!
- Although it may be tempting to get those pretty flowers off the side of the highway, or lug rocks from your local riverbed instead of buying decorative ones, it's illegal to take wildlife or natural resources from state-owned land. Buy them or find someone who will give them to you for free (someone who owns land with a streambed, for instance).
- For beginning gardeners, start with flower beds or an herb garden. Vegetable gardens can be more difficult to plant and care for.
- If you don't want to spend half your summer weeding, buy some Weedblock Landscape Fabric. It lets water into the soil but keeps weeds from popping up (except around the edges, where those stubborn weeds will grow anyway. Buy some weedkiller for those spots.)
- Red mulch is a lovely and inexpensive way to add beauty to your home. Mulch around trees, in gardens, or over ugly rocky patches.
