Organize and Save Time: The Timer

Today I am going to talk about one of the most useful tools that I use to keep a clean and organized home; the timer. I love to use a timer throughout my day because it helps me to stay focused and on task, particularly when that task is something I don't really feel like doing. (Oftentimes cleaning!) I use my timer for all sorts of things and I'm sharing a few of them here.



One of my favorite uses for the timer is the Five Minute Pick Up. I set the timer for five minutes, and I use those five minutes to get as much done in a room as I can. So let's say I am working in the living room. I use those five minutes to throw away any garbage, remove dishes and put books and magazines back in  their rightful homes. Then I fold blankets, straighten pillows, hang up stray coats and return shoes to their homes. If I have time left I will wipe down the coffee table and do a quick dusting over all the horizontal surfaces.  It's fun to try and get the whole room back into shape before the timer goes off. When it does, I move on to the next room regardless of whether or not I've finished in the first room.

I find that nearly every time I have managed to whip that room into shape before the buzzer. Then I'll move on to the next rooms, and continue until all the main living areas, the upstairs bathroom and the bedroom are done.  Five minutes in the bathroom is more than enough time to quickly swish the toilet, wipe down the sink and polish the mirror, door and fixtures, and sweep the floor. This means that in 25 minutes my house is picked up, and some light cleaning is done.

Racing the clock is usually all I need to get me motivated for the day, but if it is a day I am feeling particularly tired, I know that I can just do less than half an hour of work and my home is in ship shape.

Another use for the timer: Timing Tasks. I used to hate doing the dishes. I would let them pile up, I'd dread doing them, and then I would be annoyed by the enormous amount of time it took to get through that giant pile. But once I started timing myself and racing the timer (can I finish the dishes in half an hour?), I found that a normal size load of dishes typically took me no longer than fifteen minutes to get through.  Knowing that this less than pleasurable task was so short made it much easier to get through, and made the "pain" more bearable.

The other benefit to this timer trick is that I now know how long tasks take me,  so I can plan my day out better. If I need to head out early in the morning, I know that I have just enough time to make the bathroom sparkle and get the dishes out of the way.

Here are some of the tasks I've timed and been surprised by how quickly they are over:

• Dishes: Typically  15 minutes. And that's by hand people!


• Sweeping the Main Floor: Five minutes. This includes the hardwoods throughout the living room and dining room, as well as the kitchen and entryways.


• Bathroom: Five minutes is just enough time, as I've said, to keep the bathroom in top condition.


• Mopping: Ten minutes per room. Mopping is strenuous work, so it does make it easier to know that in a mere ten minutes the work will be over!


• Making the Bed: Two minutes. Seriously! Why would I ever NOT make the bed? I can always spare two minutes!


• Vacuuming the Stairs: Five minutes. We have wood stairs, so it is quite easy. I know when we had carpeted stairs in the basement it took much longer.


• Wiping Down Kitchen Cabinets: Fifteen minutes. I simply fill the sink with soapy water and use a rag, and the cabinets are all sparkly in mere minutes!

It's important to remember to take time to rest, just as it is to make time to clean. So I will often set the timer for half an hour of relaxation. That way I don't have to watch the clock, and the buzzer going off is an impartial voice telling me to get back to work. I don't know about you, but I can always find a way to reason with myself and tell myself that I don't need to get back to work!

When faced with a particularly daunting task, or a strenuous one, I will often set the timer. I do this a lot with gardening, because I will get caught up in the work and spend the whole day  in the garden, only to find that I cannot get out of bed the next morning. So I set the timer for an hour or so, and accomplish what I can in that time. Then the next day I do the same thing and accomplish a little bit more! This also works great for big projects like decluttering every room or spring cleaning.

Those are all the ways I can think of today to use your timer as a tool to manage your time. Do you have any others that you'd like to share with me? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Keeping the Sinks Clean

After nearly four years of being responsible for my own house, I've learned a few things about keeping a clean home. Actually, I've learned a lot. :-) But today, I'm going to talk about clean sinks. I've discovered that if two main areas of my home are clean, then I feel like I have a good handle on the house's cleanliness. Those areas are the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink. If the kitchen sink is free of dishes, and the bathroom sink is free of hair and toothpaste, then I feel like I am doing a good job maintaining my home. It doesn't hurt that those are two areas that guests are guaranteed to see, so it helps my home stay visitor ready on a regular basis.

I've talked before about doing the dishes, and how I struggle with it. It's not the lack of a dishwasher, because the dishes were never done at our apartment either. It's just a general dislike of doing the dishes. It's boring, repetitive, and ruins my nails. And up until recently, I wasn't a very good dish-washer, so I had to repeat a lot of my work.  So I brainstormed a few solutions. I set a goal of having the sink clear each morning. That helped a lot. Then I started timing myself doing a sinkload of dishes, and discovered that a full sink of dishes rarely takes longer than fifteen minutes. If we have a lot of company over, it's a little more, but on a daily basis, especially when I clean the making dinner dishes while the food is cooking, it can take as little time as five minutes! So now I know that I can burn through a stack in less time than it will take you to read this lengthy blog post. :-)

Then I started thinking about the bathroom sink. I love the look of a freshly wiped sink and polished faucet. The problem was, I would wash the sink on Mondays, and then not again until the following Monday. And while that was less than stellar with just Lover and I, once my brother moved in that became a real problem. Just around the time my brother moved in, it seemed we started to do a lot more entertaining, and even had a bunch of people staying with us. So I put on my thinking cap, and came up with the following solution.

One of the reasons I would let a dirty sink sit, was because I had to track down a rag, get out the cleaning products and wash the sink. Then I had to put everything away, and find a place for the rag to dry before I could throw it in the "to be washed" bin. Not a big deal, but enough of a deterrent for me to talk myself out of it more often than not.

A trip to Walmart yielded two brown washcloths for a dollar each, and a set of 3M Command Hooks. I grabbed some bias tape from my ribbon stash, and hand sewed a loop onto one corner of each of the washcloths.



This little corner of the vanity in our bathroom, that butts up to the shower curtain would be the perfect hiding place for my "sink-cloth".



One command hook later, this little nook held a washcloth at the ready for whenever the mood strikes to shine up the sink. The loop makes it easy to hang up and it dries all on its own while waiting for the next time I need to use it.





Plus, it is hidden from sight, so no one is the wiser to my little solution. Most days I just use hot water to spruce everything up, but I also made up a spray bottle of vinegar solution that hangs out under the sink for when I have an extra second to clean it up good.



So that's my solution for clean sinks. What areas in your home equal clean to you? I'd love to hear about them. :-)

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday, Make it For Monday,

Fall Cleaning Begins!

I'm finally back home and getting settled back into my routine after spending two and half weeks with my little nephew in California. (He's adorable by the way) Now it is time to get my house in order! Fall cleaning begins today, as well as a bunch of other projects here at Wendhurst Castle. Here's a few things to look forward to over the next week or two:

• Tips for fall cleaning
• The final reveal of Project Curb Appeal
• How I solved our paper organization problem
• Decorating the castle for fall
• A few little makeover projects that are so much fun!
• Christmas projects in the works

What about you? What are you working on in the next few weeks?

Mission Complete!

I recently had a bit of an organization craze hit me. I went through the house and pulled out any and everything we could get rid of, making a big "garage sale" pile, and a Goodwill pile. Hopefully I will be able to do that garage sale before it gets too cold.

Then, still unsatisfied, and feeling like the house was overrun with clutter, I organized a few closets and cabinets. I started with the pantry in the kitchen.

This spice shelf wasn't working because I could never get to the spices that I wanted, and usually managed to knock some over in the process.

So I headed out to the workshop and found a scrap of wood that was the right depth for the organizational "gizmo" that I wanted to make. (I am very proud of this next part) Then I used Lover's cordless circular saw to cut the wood down to the right length. Here it is on the kitchen floor. Oh, and isn't our 70's linoleum beautiful? :-)

I wanted the board to be somewhat hygienic, so I covered the whole thing in a sheet of aluminum foil.

Next up I set the board in place in the cabinet (see the vintage contact paper too?)

And voila! My little spice rack was complete! Here's the finished and organized after:

Now I can easily spot what I am looking for. And, everything is organized to my little heart's content.

I didn't stop with the spice cabinet though. I also organized the tupperware drawer, going from this:

to this:

Ahh, so much better.

And the linen closet. This one was ok, but I was able to get rid of a bunch of old toiletries, and tidy everything else up.

Now I can sleep at night, knowing that behind closed doors, my need for order and organization is still satisfied. :-)

Check out the other transformations at Metamorphosis Monday and the other made-by-me creations at Make Your Monday.

Exhibit A: Vinegar + Baking Soda conquer stains

Remember how I told you a while back about my best friends vinegar and baking soda? I'm back to show you literal proof of how these two BFF's work like a charm.

The backstory:

I recently blogged about making strawberry freezer jam and gave you detailed instructions, should you wish to make your own. What I neglected to mention was how I left the strawberry containers on my white countertops for a couple of days before I had time to make the jam. The berries in the bottom were apparently running over with juiciness, and shared the love with my countertop. Hello bright red stain!

I, however, did not panic, as my dynamic duo had come to my rescue many times before. I simply sprayed the stained area with a solution of half vinegar/half water, and then sprinkled a generous amount of baking soda over the stained area. I let it sit for a few minutes, then wiped it off with a sponge. Normally that would kick anything, but apparently this was a stubborn stain. It couldn't resist after a second application though, and here is what my countertop looks like now. Restored to it's former beauty cleanliness!

So the next time a stain appears, never fear, just have at it with some vinegar and baking soda!

How to Develop your Own Cleaning Schedule

Image courtesy of nowsourcing.com

Have you ever struggled with keeping your house looking spick and span, but still having time to do other things? I hear you, my friend, and what you need is a cleaning schedule. Having a cleaning schedule ensures that you won't forget important tasks that need to be done, and you will always know when it is time to do them. My schedule has every cleaning task for each room in my house, and it tells me when to do these tasks. This simplifies the process and allows me to have room in my brain to remember much more important things, like my parents' international phone number. (Not!)

The first step I took to assemble my own comprehensive cleaning list was to find exhaustive cleaning lists. Flylady.com has a great detailed cleaning list, and Martha Stewart has a great spring cleaning list here as well.

Next, I customized this list for my own home. We don't have a family room or a master bathroom, but we do have a deck and a porch that I wanted to include. I made a list of each room that would need cleaning. They are:

First Floor: Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Front Entryway and Porch, Back Entryway and Deck

Second Floor: Master Bedroom, Bathroom, Hallway, Office and Guest Room

Basement: Rec Room, Laundry Room, Bathroom and Kitchen

Then, I listed each task that needed to by done by room, and how often it needed doing.

Example: Dining Room - Wash inside of windows - Seasonally

Bathroom - Wash fixtures and mirrors - Weekly

Kitchen - Wash outside of cabinets - Monthly

Once I had each task assigned to each room it was valid for, and when to do said task, it was a cinch to assemble my lists by frequency; Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Seasonally, along with Spring Cleaning and Fall Cleaning.

An important point to remember in making your lists is to customize the tasks and frequency

to your own home. We don't drink coffee regularly, so cleaning the coffeepot is not a part of

our daily routine. It may be for you. However, we spend a lot of time on our deck in the summer,

so I like to add that to my schedule in the summer months. Don't be afraid to add some things in,

or delete ones that are not necessary.

I have summarised the lists by frequency for you to use, if you would like. These are not the

exact lists that I use on a regular basis, as I like to have my tasks broken down by room so that

I can see that everything is getting done. I'll show you where I keep my lists in another post, it's

a lifesaver!

Oh and you may be wondering why my fall cleaning list is longer than my spring list. I am

anti-tradition, what can I say. :-) Actually, because we are inside all winter, I clean a lot more and there really isn't a need for a big spring clean. But, throughout the summer, with parties, bare feet, gardening, and open windows, the dirt piles up. Come fall, the house needs a good cleaning! Plus, a big cleaning in the fall means that everything is spick and span for the holidays, and ready for the hard winters here in upstate NY.

Sure hope this helps you keep your sanity, and still have a clean house!

The Easiest Way to Clean Your Microwave

Truthfully, the easiest way I have found to clean your microwave.

Here is the culprit:

And the players:

You will need:

• A glass receptacle of some sort. I like using a one cup Pyrex.


• A sponge


• A few drops of imitation vanilla extract.


• A cup of water

Fill your Pyrex with one cup of water, and add a few drops of vanilla. The vanilla helps eliminate any nasty odors that may be accompanying your messy microwave.  Place the Pyrex inside your microwave, and set the timer for 5 minutes.

Essentially, the water is going to steam clean your microwave. While your microwave does the hard work, take the five minutes to do a little cleaning in your kitchen, for example, wipe down the front of your cabinets. In this instance I swept the floor and filled up a bucket for mopping.

When the timer goes off, remove the Pyrex (hot!!!) from the microwave and pour the now boiling water down the drain of your kitchen sink. (The bonus is that the boiling water will clean your drain) Then, take a sponge and wipe up the now easily removeable gunk off your microwave.

You're all set! Here's the before:

And the happy after:

Oh, your microwave doesn't have a smile on it? Hmm. Well, maybe mine's cooler :-D

Vinegar's First Cousin, Baking Soda

In a recent post I told you all about how I use vinegar in my cleaning. I also promised you that I would return with a post about vinegar's first cousin, baking soda, and tell you all about how to clean with it. Well, here I am, as promised. 

Ready for a quick science lesson? Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula NaHCO₃. Betcha didn't know that. I'm betting you also didn't know that ancient Egyptians used a form of baking soda as soap. I'm really wowing you, aren't I? 

I said all that to say this, baking soda is all natural and time proven. It's way better for you than Comet, or Fabuloso, or whatever else you've got under your sink to scrub away at nasty stuff. And, in my opinion, it works a lot better than those products do too. 

Exhibit A: My refrigerator. As I have referenced many times before, the previous owners were not big on cleaning. Actually, that's the biggest understatement of the century. I am convinced that there were areas of this house that they NEVER cleaned. The side of the refrigerator being one of them. When we pulled the fridge out from the wall, the side closest to the wall was caked in some combination of drips, goo and dirt. How did I conquer this colossal mess? Well, I sprayed it down with a solution of vinegar and water, and let it sit for a minute. Then, I sprinkled some baking soda onto my rag, and started scrubbing. Baking soda is abrasive, and the reaction between the baking soda and the vinegar meant that in no time at all my fridge was sparkly clean. 

Exhibit B: Clogged Drains. Old House + Girl with Long Hair + Other Yucky Stuff = Frequently Clogged Drains  The best way I have found to clear these clogs is the winning combo again. Sprinkle some baking soda down your drain (be generous!) followed by a healthy splash of vinegar. After all the foaming settles down, place a plastic lid (from a Tupperware) over the drain for 10-15 min. In the meantime, heat up some water in the tea kettle. Then remove the cover and pour the boiling water down the drain. Works like a charm, everytime. I also do this to my kitchen sink drains on a monthly basis, as a preventative measure. 

Exhibit C: Smelly Fridges and Garbage Cans. Baking Soda naturally absorbs odors too, so be sure to keep an opened box in your freezer and in your fridge, and sprinkle some in the bottom of your trash can. Seriously, what can't this stuff do?

Still not convinced? Here's a whole list of other uses for baking soda. Tell me, what are your favorite uses for the white stuff?

The Best Cleaning Product. Ever.

Are you tired of spending money on countless cleaning products that still don't seem to get the job done? Are you feeling nauseated by all of the fumes from the chemicals that you are spreading around your home? Do you want to simplify your cleaning routine and organize your under-the-sink cabinet while you are at it?

Well, my friend, let me introduce you to my BFF in cleaning...

Are you ready?

Are you sure? 

'Cuz it's seriously gonna change your life...

You're ready?

Okay... here it is

I know, you're like, seriously? Vinegar? Yup, vinegar. I use it for:

• Washing my hardwood floors Fill bucket with hot water, add a generous splash of white vinegar, and mop away. Leaves floors squeaky clean and shiny.
• Washing my tile and vinyl floors. Same instructions as above, same results.
  
• Washing anything that's dirty. :-) A combo of hot water and vinegar removed years of gross food and who-knows-what buildup from my refrigerator.
• Removing the smell of paint from a freshly painted room.  When you have finished painting, set out a bowl full of undiluted vinegar. Leave it overnight and in the morning you will wake up to a paint fume free room. 

So basically, you eliminate multiple, pricey floor cleaners, clean in more green, health conscious way and it actually relives the wallet. A gallon of vinegar costs me less than $2.00,  lasts me at least a month, and my house is so clean! If you don't believe me, here's the proof. The Rainbow vacuum cleaner guy came to my house and did a demonstration, and couldn't.find.dirt.   :-D

P.S. Stay tuned for a rave review of Vinegar's first cousin, Baking Soda, and how to use it. 

P.P.S I don't know if vinegar and baking soda are actually related in any kind of scientific way. They just work so well together, I assumed... :-)