The Before

Okay I really hesitate to do this because it is embarrassing.  As I mentioned I am disorganized which makes certain things messy.  But I feel to get the full effect of my organization month I had better take before pictures.  These are the main areas I am going to organize.  Keep in mind these are the worst areas in my house and they are pretty much at the peak of the worst they have been. So here goes nothing.

Area 1: The Pantry- It's like looking into an I-spy book.  Can you find 3 bags of marshmallows, a box of mac and cheese, rice cereal for baby and bubbles? (Why bubbles are in there I don't know)

  Area 2: The Linen Closet. The towels are usually stacked high and skiddy wampus but I had sick kids this weekend so my towels are now in the washing machine or dryer.

Area 3: The hidden counter space on the other side of the fridge where I keep recipes books. In my defence it usually isn't this bad.

And area 4: My unfinished basement craft space.  We moved the craft room down stair to the unfinished basement right before I had my third baby. Now that she is 6 months old I probably ought to organize it and really make it usable.

Okay now that I have put it all out there and embarrassed myself beyond measure let me try and redeem myself a little with some of my favorite helpful cleaning tips.  If you have any tips you want to share feel welcome too. You can add them here or I have started a discussion on my facebook page that you can share them at as well.

Tip 1- Vinegar.  Yes I said vinegar.  What do I use if for you ask?  The better questions is what don't I use it for?  I use it in my laundry.  Add 1/2c to your washer and it will de-stinkify your rags etc.  It's a great stain remover for any plant based item (most stains can be broken into ether animal or plant. Animal= blood, "pet stains" etc and plant is makeup, juice, food coloring etc.)  just stick some vinegar in a sink with cold water and let your stained garment rinse in there. I also wash my  dinning room table and chairs with it, it works great on walls as well.  I also put 1c of it in the bottom of my dishwasher once a month and run it empty to clean my dishwasher.  The list could go on and on but those are my most frequent uses of vinegar.

Tip 2- When you have sick children who are throwing up all night, put a towel down on there bed.  This way you only have to switch out the towel in the middle of the night.  The next morning I do wash the sheets as well, but this saves on so many sheets that have to be washed and making the bed multiple times in one night.

Tip 3- Nylon pan scrapers.  The little scrapers you get to clean your stonewear work great on a million other things as well.  When I've made bread and have a floured counter these work great to scrap the flour up before washing.  When me or the kids have been playing with glue, clay stickers etc, these scrap it right up.  When I have a stubborn piece of food on the floor while trying to mop I pull out my scraper.  I love them!

Well hope some of these tips help.  As we go along I will compile all the great cleaning/organization tips I hear into one great list to share with everyone.