Homemaking on the Homestead

Hello Friends! I'm sharing with you today a homemade window cleaner. You can see more about it my newest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYibVNGM2j4 DIY Window Cleaner 2 cups water 1T cornstarch 1/4 cup alcohol 1/4 cup white vinegar Combine all ingredients and put in a spray bottle. Spray on windows and use a lint free cloth to wipe windows clean.

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic..BUT Please download the picture to your computer first.. do not just directly copy and paste.. otherwise you are using my bandwidth..thank you! :) .. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week It's so nice to back! It was a much needed break. Hubby and I enjoyed some vacation time as well. We headed south to the desert. Living in this waterlogged and cloudy part of the world we so enjoy just getting away and soaking up heat, sunshine and pool time. We also met up with friends of ours that are from England. We meet up with them yearly and always look forward to our visits. We stay in touch through the year with cards and phone calls, but in person visits can...

Wednesday Snap Shot is a quick peek into my week. If you'd like to join in on my Wednesday Snap Shot.. copy and paste my post, add your answers (you can also copy the pic..  BUT Please download the picture to your computer first..  do not just directly copy and paste..  otherwise you are using my bandwidth..  thank you! :) .. link your post to my blog and then come back and let me know you shared your week. I'll come and visit you and read about your homemaking week!! :) So Far This Week It has been a great week. We finally had a little break in the rain. What a relief. We had 2 dry days in a row. The first for the year! :) Living in the Pacific Northwest can be a challenge for some of us. You can go months and barely see the sun. I know it can get to even the hardiest Northwesters.. ha, ha.. People you meet out and about are grumpy and don't smile much. But when the sun comes out and it warms up just a little suddenly everyone you run into is...

Last week I mention in my Menu Monday post about organizing my chest freezer. Chest freezers are a challenge to organize. Things get lost in the bottom and items pile up on top. I know I've tried several methods over the years. I received a comment asking me to share with pictures of my organization job. I think the key to any method is consistency. As and example... after grocery shopping last week my son was helping me put the groceries away. He took the freezer items and put them in the freezer. Well.. he basically just dumped them in the freezer. So much of my organization plan was gone. When I realized what had happened (when I went to the freezer to retrieve something :) I spent a few minutes putting things back where they belong. I've not always been great at the consistency part. So an annual freezer cleaning is needed. Now that I have only one freezer my determination to keep it organized and usable is very high.  I did not purchase anything to organ...

OK.. this is my ideal schedule. With summer and other things I’ve not kept up with this and seem to be always be behind the curve. My desire is to hit these areas in my home on a regular basis, at regular days.. again!! :) … So far this week, I’ve been keeping up. It really, most days, does not take that much time to do this. Especially when I compare it to what it was like for me years ago!! I’ll keep you posted this month on how it’s going for me. Hope you are getting your cleaning schedule worked out this month too! Monday Clutter pick up Sweep kitchen floor Clean off counters in kitchen Clean out fridge to make room for grocery shopping (I shop on Monday) Tuesday Go through the house hitting each room and dealing with the basics Kitchen : sweep, mop, wipe out microwave, clean off counters, wipe down fronts of cupboard doors and drawers Living room : clean up piles of clutter, dust, and vacuum Dining room : clear out table and chairs, sweep & m...

  All 3 of my freezers are cleaned out! I managed to complete the task before the month ended and looking forward March’s challenge, which I’ll be posting about soon. The second freezer started out looking like this… And ended up… The 3rd freezer is completely cleaned out and now is empty. My goal had been to consolidate into 2 freezers. The fridge got a good cleaning as well My 2nd fridge is much small and was cleaned out not long ago so it did not need anything more than a wipe down. For anyone joining me this month in February’s homemaking challenge, I hope you were able to get this task marked off your list as well!   We Can Do This Girls!!  

  Do you do a yearly fall cleaning?  How is it going if you do?  I typically like to attack the cobwebs, dust and such from weeks of open windows and do some reorganizing of shelves, drawers, cupboards.  It’s always a nice feeling to get the house cleaned up from summer and prepare for the holidays.  I started a list this week and slowly been working on it as time permits.  I’m hoping today to make more headway on it.  I have my chicken soup simmering on the stove, the laundry humming away,  and dinner will be simple so I don’t have to worry about it and can keep on tackling the cleaning jobs.   Kitchen: Wipe down cupboards Clean out inside of drawers and cupboards, as needed Wipe down counter tops Clean stove top, wash vent cover and screen Laundry room/Pantry: Reorganize shelves Go through shoe tote and clean out summer shoes Move buckets (I keep my bulk goods in buckets with gamma seal lids...

One of the most common emails I receive is ladies asking if I have a good homemade substitute for dishwasher detergent. After making my own homemade laundry detergent and having such great success I was eager to try and find something that worked as well in my dishwasher. I found and tried a couple different recipes. I was not happy with the results at all. The most common recipe I came across was a combination of washing soda, borax and citric acid (some recipes used Kool-Aid in place of the citric acid). What I discovered is that this combination left a cloudy film all over my dishes that was hard as heck to remove. I quickly went back to Cascade and gave up trying to find a substitute. Well, last week I ran out of dishwasher soap. Because I live rurally just hopping in the car to run and pick up one item is out of the question. Plus, at that point my hand had not healed enough to be able to drive (I have a stick shift and could not shift with my right hand). I had ...

Or maybe it should be titled.. “cleaning the bathroom with vinegar part 2” .. :) Yesterday I posted on cleaning my toilet with vinegar and how well that worked and today is about the shower, tub and sinks.. I am a Scrubbing Bubbles fan, as much as I try and find things that work instead I find the SB to be so easy to use and quick. But, I wanted a natural cleaner that worked well and fairly easy. I have now found one and can happily say good bye to my Scrubbing Bubbles. I used 2 ingredients: Vinegar and Dawn dish soap I asked my daughter the other day to pick me up a spray bottle (I’m thinking for cleaning) and she brought me home one (she shopped in the health and beauty section, LOL )!! I took my 12 oz spray bottle and put about 3T of Dawn dish soap in it. Then filled it up with vinegar. Shook the bottle carefully to combine the ingredients. And that was it… I sprayed this on my tile, my tub and my bathroom sinks. I used a scrub brush to clean the tile and...

One of my favorite cleaners is Shaklee’s Basic H2. However my second favorite cleaner is vinegar and I use fairly often in my cleaning. Recently I tried it on my toilet. I’ve been using Mrs. Meyers toilet bowl cleaner (another natural cleaner). I do love Mrs. Meyers. It smells very nice, works very well, and is ok to use when you have a septic system. But it is on the expensive side. So this is what I did… I poured about a ½ cup of vinegar inside my toilet tank and let it sit for 30 minutes, then flushed.. I then poured a little vinegar into my toilet bowl, let it sit for a few minutes and swished it around. My toilet bowl was sparkly and clean, except in a few areas where there were still stains where the water fills up the toilet bowl. So I tried something else.. I put ¾ cup baking soda into a plastic container and added about 10 drops of orange & lemongrass essential oils (I wanted the nice smell :). Then I added ¾ cup vinegar to this mixture. It fiz...