Household Tips

I thought I would share a few tips that help me around the house. Most of them you've probably heard of already but humor me. :)

1. Use the least amount of dish washing detergent possible. I read about this at iDreamofClean a few weeks ago. Since I've been using less detergent, my dishes have been coming out cleaner! True story! Part of how much detergent you should use also depends on whether or not you have hard or soft water. But play around with it and see if it makes a difference. I use about 1/4 of the amount recommended for my dishwasher. Obviously, this will also save some money which is always a good thing. (Whew! Who knew there was so much to say about washing dishes?!)

2. Use a plastic mesh vegetable bag to cover a sponge. I first read about this in Organic Housekeeping.

. I actually went and bought some scrubby sponges at the dollar store recently and they SCRATCHED my dishes! So, I'm back to the veggie bag!And I've been doing it ever since

3. Deodorize with a baking soda-filled coffee filter. I used to just pour some baking soda in the bottom of my garbage can, but that's rather messy. Pour about a tablespoon or two into a coffee filter than use a twist tie to close it up. I put one of these in my garbage can every so often and it helps SO much!

4. Put extra garbage bags in the bottom of garbage cans. Ok, so probably everyone does this, but I had to add it to this list. This really does save me so much time.

5. Sanitize sponge in microwave. This is a two-for-one tip. Not only does microwaving a WET sponge on high for 60 seconds sanitize it, it also makes the microwave super easy to clean! Just wipe it out after disinfecting your sponge. Voila! Clean microwave!

6. Use paper bags for newspaper and cardboard to be recycled.

Now, this might seem like a no-brainer to some of you, but I just recently stumbled across this tip and I love it! We used to put our newspapers and cardboard in piles or hard plastic bins and it was always such a pain to bundle them up! Now, the whole bag gets taken out to the curb! Easy peasy!

That's it! Those are a few tips to help make life a little easier! Please share some of your tips in the comments! :)