Lets Talk Housekeeping ...

I love my home and I love taking care of it, creating a fresh, clean and comfortable haven for my family. In the area of cleaning, I would heartily love to make more of my own cleaning products. My reasons being that they are friendlier to the environment than the toxic shop-bought  cleaners. Secondly, I really love the idea of keeping home the way my great grandmother and grandmother used to clean their homes. {I am quite old fashioned at heart :o)}

On a recent visit to the library I spotted this book on the shelves...

The cover appealed to me with it's simplicity - that, and the words 'Traditional Tips'. So I popped it into my library bag and brought it home.

Two cleaning tips/recipes jumped out at me withing the first chapter were how to clean your microwave safely and how to get rid of mold from the grouting between tiles. I thought that I would try these two things out today and see if they worked as well as they said.

So, to clean your microwave you need a microwave safe plastic container, fill 2/3 with water. Add a couple of teaspoons of Bicarbonate Soda, put into the microwave and heat on high for 2 minutes. Wipe down with a paper towel or clean cloth afterwards. All food stains should lift easily.

This actually worked pretty well for me. The stains lifted easily and my microwave smelled quite fresh afterwards.

The next recipe was for getting rid of that pesky mold that tends to appear on the grouting in between the tiles in the bathroom. This problem absolutely gets on my nerves and I have tried numerous products from the store with varying but never complete success.

All you need is some white vinegar or fresh lemon juice and an old toothbrush. I used white vinegar this morning. All you do is dip your toothbrush into the vinegar and scrub away at the mold.

This has worked a treat and is set to become one of my best 'weapons' in the fight against bathroom mold!  Here's a 'before and after'...

Before

After

Once scrubbed, I just rinsed off with water. The worst side-affect from this cleaner was a strong smell of vinegar! No harmful, chocking fumes from bleach based mold killers.

Do you buy or make your cleaners? Do you have any favourites ? I would love to read about any of your cleaning tips and I am sure that you must have a post or two on your blog to link up, or perhaps you would just like to leave your tip in the comments? You can submit your posts by using the Linky below :o)

See you back here very soon!

An InLinkz Link-up