nice, fresh, non-toxic clean

Guess what we're doing? Magazine purging!!! Any and all kinds of purging get me excited (well, except for throwing up!)--I just love that feeling of ousting something that was doing nothing by sitting around my house like a parasite, creating clutter. SO satisfying!

Anyway, I love magazines, and when I find one with lots of good ideas, it's so hard for me to throw it away, even though of course, I don't need the whole magazine. I tried the 3-ring binder with folders in it a couple years ago, and that didn't really take because I hated having loose clippings that could fall out of the folder, BUT I was inspired by Caitlin at Pink Peppers, who said she glued her decoration inspiration into an old accountant ledger.

My solution is a little less charming than an old ledger, but it's the same general idea. I purchased 3 ugly "composition books."Yes, THESE. Very classic. One for decoration inspiration/"house stuff," one for food and travel, and one for kids/family/general life ideas. I'm planning on recovering the books, but for now it's exciting enough to cut and glue away!

Anyway, in one old issue of Real Simple, they had a great article on cleaning with everyday products that was too big too clip n' glue, but too great to pass up, so here are some of their awesome clips I wanted to make sure and remember, and hopefully you will like them too!

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Lemons:

--Add a teaspoon to your dishwashing detergent to cut grease. (I'm wanting to try putting it in the dishwasher itself with the detergent...not sure that's what they mean, but sounds fun)
--Add 1/2 C. lemon juice to a load of laundry to brighten whites.
--Rub lemon on stained plastic tupperware to brighten.
--And, OF COURSE, feed them to your disposal. One of my FAVORITE things to do is feed any kind of citrus to the disposal. mmmmmmm!

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Essential Oils:

--Use orange oil to get gum out of things.
--Use lemon oil to clean soap scum out of the shower.
--Put a few drops of your fav oil inside the toilet paper tube--every time you use it, it will smell nice. HAHA, love that!

--Use lavender or lemongrass oil (10 drops to 2 ounces of water) to clean windows (helps repel flies)


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Castile Soap (Dr. Bronner's):

--Make your own "SoftScrub" by combining 1 T. castile soap and 1/3 C. baking soda. Right now we're using Mrs. Meyer's version of SoftScrub, but this will be cheaper.


(The next things aren't pretty, so no pics)

Cooking oils:
--Rub vegetable oil on wicker and rattan furniture to prevent drying and cracking.

Toothpaste:
--Put a bit on a cloth and rub on tarnished silver.

Salt:
--Pour salt on oven spills to soak them up. Makes it easier to clean out the oven. (I HOPE so! ovens are the WORST!)
--Sprinkle on grease spots on wooden counters/tables. Wait an hour, and then brush away the salt.

These are just the ones I wanted to never ever forget--check out the whole article for more ideas here at RealSimple.com!