"Trail-Mix Mom"

My loving husband has officially dubbed me with the title "Trail Mix Mom." He says I'm not hippie enough to be full "granola" but I have enough tendencies to warrant some kind of title. Haha! I guess that makes me a little fruity, a little nutty, and a little granola. Perfect.

I blogged a few days ago about my experiences reading the book "Organic Housekeeping" by Ellen Sandbeck. I haven't quite finished the book yet, but I'm getting close. I will say this. The author is much more extreme in her natural housekeeping than I will ever be, BUT, she has armed me with a lot of general knowledge. She challenges the question "Why do we clean the house?" My first thought was...to impress company. Not really, but then she goes on to explain that we clean as a means of keeping our families happy and healthy. Whether you do the minimum or maximum, that's the goal. So I've been trying to look at things from that perspective for the past week or so.

My first goal has been to make my time useful. With two kids, life is super busy. I ususally have a list of forty things to get done and I get so overwhelmed that none of it gets done. So, I am attempting to make the most of my time. If I have a five or ten minute chunk of time that isn't specifically designated for something, I use it. Empty the dishwasher. Sort the laundry. Fold the towels. Shred junk mail. Make a batch of baby food. Sweep the kitchen floor. I'm really finding that doing these little things (rather than assuming I need to block off a couple hours to clean) REALLY REALLY make a big difference in my week. I feel like I've accomplished something, I haven't wasted time with my kids on a cleaning marathon, and it gets checked off the list (I personally benefit from being able to cross something off a list as DONE!).

My next goal was to find a couple of ways to limit our household waste and use of harsh chemicals that I can't begin to pronounce. I've already blogged about the use of old t-shirts in place of paper towels. It's been a great resource for us (we haven't even used up a roll of paper towels yet.). In the book, she talks a lot about cleaning with everyday products: vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and the like. So, I thought I would give one of her ideas a try. Our coffee pot was in desperate need of cleaning (I usually buy those $7 cleaning solution packets!) so I used her method. Pour one cup of white vinegar in the coffee pot tank and fill the rest with water. Turn on the coffee pot, let one cup run, turn it off. Let it sit for half an hour, then turn it on and finish brewing. Then run two pots of plain water through afterwards.

But, she's a frugal person and nothing goes to waste. SO her suggestion was to pour one cup of baking soda in each side of the kitchen sink, and then pour the hot vinegar/water mix in over it. Cleans and disinfects the sink all in one process! It's amazing. I've never seen my sink so clean and shiny-not even with regular bleach. Another awesome addition to our cleaning routine!

Another simple, but perfect addition to the the house. Baskets for the bathroom sinks. I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to do this previously, but just putting a basket on the sink to put toothbrushes, medicines, deoderant, and the like in makes wiping down the sink a MUCH easier task! Just remove the basket (instead of all the little individual items) and wipe. Crazy that it's new to me, but I'm very happy about it!

So far, so good. I feel much less daunted by the cleaning tasks. It's really been a struggle since having kids to balance everything, but I'm glad to be finding some sort of happy medium. Hopefully later this week, I'll get the June menu posted to the blog. I'll back-track and post May's too (since it never made it on here!)