Cleaning 101

*edit* - just realized this is a ridiculously long post, with no pictures of Logan - feel free to not read it :)

Ok, so maybe that title is a little bit of false advertising.  I am not qualified to "teach" a Cleaning 101 class - I need to be taking one.  It should really probably be titled "Crazy 101"  Ha!  However, as I've been trying to clean up from Logan's party, and get some organizing done around the house, I have used lots of little tips and tricks that I've learned over the years, and just felt like sharing them.  They probably aren't new to others, but I just felt like writing them down.  Some of these, I really wish I had some pictures to go with, but I don't, so you'll just have to make your own pictures in your head - although some of it, you will probably be glad I DON'T have pictures and you won't want to make the pictures in your head.  Ha! :)

Lets start in the kitchen...

I might be a little crazy for a couple reasons (ok so maybe there's more, but 2 in relation to washing dishes).  I wash most of my pots, pans, and serving dishes by hand.  Because of this, I use a couple different cleaning "tools" for washing dishes.  I know, washing dishes isn't exactly rocket science, so why in the world do I need more than just a sponge?  Well, maybe I'm OCD, or maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist, or maybe I'm just plain crazy, but here's my reasoning/methods.  I mostly wash dishes with rags.  I got a whole bunch for super cheap at walmart, and the great thing about them is you just throw them in the wash machine when you're done and they're nice, clean & sanitized when they're done.  Sponges are ok too, and you can actually put sponges in the dishwasher to sanitize them, but I feel like they don't last as long as rags and I hate having to constantly replace them (rags are cheaper too).  I also have a dish brush.  This is something everyone should have if they don't.  They are super at scrubbing and what I love best, is they easily clean some of the harder things to clean.  Have you ever tried to wash a cheese grater with a sponge or rag?  It's such a pain because you really have to scrub in one directions so not to ruin your sponge or rag and there's always still a few spots where you missed some of the cheese film (for lack of a better word) and you have to go back and clean it again.  Well a brush you can scrub every which direction, and it rarely leaves any cheese film.  Awesome!

And, if that wasn't enough to make you think I'm crazy, listen to this - I basically pre-wash all of my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.  I completely scrub/rinse them to make sure they don't have any specks of food on them.  The dishwasher is pretty much a sanitizer for my dishes, not a washer.  I do this because I feel like it keeps my dishwasher working better, and gets my dishes a whole lot cleaner.  I pretty much never have bits of food stuck on my dishes and I rarely have spots.  Although, for the no spots, we have terribly hard water here, and so I do use jet dry and I also don't use the heated dry cycle.  I found that the heated dry cause the hard water deposits to stick to my dishes, so I just let the dishes air dry.

Also, Dishwasher Magic is GREAT for cleaning your dishwasher and helping to remove hard water deposits.  You do need to do it somewhat regularly to prevent build up and if you already have build up you may have to use it a couple times to remove the current build up.  Although, if the build up is really bad, like the dishwasher that came with our house, you may just have to sell it to your dad for his rent house and get yourself a new one ;-)

Now let me tell you some things NOT to do in the kitchen...

Do NOT forget to wash your George Foreman Grill plates before moving, and then for whatever reason, choose not to use the grill for approximately 4 years.  Once you do decide to use it, and you take it out, you will discover that there is grease stuck to it that will take you 1/2 of your child's nap time just to scrub it off.  It will not come completely off, and you will get frustrated, and just decide that hopefully it won't kill you to use it sometime, and that maybe, if you're really lucky, after you use it and wash it the next time, it will come clean *cross fingers, hope, & pray it does* (Wasn't that a nice sentence too? Ha!) This is also something that a dish brush is GREAT for.  Way better than sponge or rag IMHO.

Do NOT neglect your kitchen floors.  Once you have a baby, that baby will start crawling.  That baby will want to spend 90% of his day in the kitchen, on the tile floor.  You will realize just how disgusting that floor really is.  It will then cause you to clean it once a week (or maybe 2 weeks if things get crazy) like it should have been cleaned for the last 4 years you lived here.  If you don't have dogs, you can probably stand to go a little bit longer.  However, if you don't have dogs, once said baby starts feeding himself, you will have no one to clean up after the baby.  Therefore, you'll have to clean up the food he drops to prevent him from eating hours/days/weeks later when he's playing on the floor in the kitchen.

Do NOT forget to look up in your kitchen.  I am not the tallest person, so I rarely look at anything that is more than 5 ft. 4 in. off the floor.  If you forget to look up, one day, when you do, you will see the grossest amount of dust sitting on, and hanging from (yes hanging from - yuck!) your curtains.  You will decide you never liked the curtains anyway, and you will have your husband take them all down for you.  Once he does this though, you will discover that the previous owners painted around where the brackets are, so you will now have white rectangles above your windows.  However, this is way better than the alternative.

Now on to some other general places/things...

If you have dogs or children, or in my case - both, and you have carpet, then you likely have stains in your carpet.  A neat, cheap, effective cleaning solution is just white vinegar and water.  It's amazing the things it will take out of the carpet - dog throw-up, baby spit-up, dog poop, baby poop, dog pee, baby pee, the list goes on - ha!  If you have a squirt bottle, you can mix it up and just spray it on the spot.  If you don't, just mix it up and poor a little on the spot.  Get a rag, blot/gently rub the spot and then repeat until the spot is done.  Use paper towels to blot dry.  Some of the tougher spots you may have to come back to, but it does a pretty good job the first time especially if you can get to it right away.

I hate dusting - always have.  It was one of my least favorite chores growing up.  However, now that they have swifter cloths and dusters, it's way better.  I still don't like doing it, but at least now all the dust gets trapped in the cloth/duster and all you have to do is throw it away.  No more stirring up the dust, or having to rinse your rag a million times.  Only negative though is they aren't cheap :(

I am terrible with organizing/dealing with clutter.  I've always been that way as long as I can remember.  I was always getting in trouble when I was little for having a messy room.  I'm trying to get better, but I still struggle with it a lot.  Especially with paper.  I'm very open to new ideas/suggestions for helping to organize/de-clutter my home.

If you have a stand up shower with glass walls/doors, I've found that the best thing to keep them clean is to use a squeegee after each shower.  It seems laborious at first, but it really is a time saver if you live somewhere with hard water.  Another trick for this that we learned from our previous owners is to put Rain-X (actually for cars - you have to get it at an automotive store) on the glass about once a week or so and the water just beads right off (you don't have to use a squeegee if you choose this method).

I'm a little bit OCD with my laundry too.  I have to start the water first, then add the soap, then I swirl it around a little.  I know - crazy.  But, I feel like it does a better job of distributing the soap, and therefore resulting in cleaner clothes.  I also use fabric softener & dryer sheets with most of the laundry as I like my clothes to smell good.  However, clothes always smell better when they hang to dry that go through the dryer.  I, however, am not will to do the extra work & wait the extra time it takes to hang dry.  The dryer also is awesome at getting the wrinkles out.  However, do not be like me sometimes and forget your clothes in the dryer because they then result in wrinkly clothes, which then causes you to re-run the dryer to de-wrinkle, which then causes your clothes to wear out faster, fade more, not smell as fresh and even shrink :(  We used to be really bad about that, but now that I'm home, I'm a lot better about it.

My last tip is the greatest vacuuming tip ever...get your husband to do it.  They are awesome at it! ;-)

I'm sure that as soon as I hit "publish" on this post, I will think of some more and kick myself, but these are just the ones that have come to mind recently and I've thought "I should blog about that." Ha!  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my "CrazyCleaning 101" :)

*edit 2* - decided to throw this in for those of you that stuck it out to the end ;-)

Cutest vikings ever!