Cleaning Painted Cabinets

If your painted cabinets can use a good cleaning, I have some advice for you.

1. Empty the cabinets.

2. Use the soft brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner and carefully vacuum each cabinet inside and out. It may sound strange, but this will take away loose dust and cobwebs, in turn you'll have less streaking and an easier job.

3. In a clean bucket, mix together a cup of white vinegar, two cups of ammonia, a half a cup of baking soda, and two gallons of warm water. (If the cabinets are really grimy, you may want to try some t-s-p or trisodium phosphate, which is a heavy duty cleaner that you can pick up at home improvement centers, instead).

4. Pull on your rubber gloves, open the cabinet doors, and with very little on your sponge scrub from the bottom up which will prevent streaking. Make sure that you get all of the surfaces of the cabinets including the framework, the inside and outside of the doors and all inside surfaces.

Trash Day Troubles

Trash day troubles? I have some easy and inexpensive ways to ease those woes!

1. To prevent odors and inhibit mildew growth, toss a half a cup of borax in the bottom of your trashcan. Replace it once a month!

2. If you have something sloppy that needs to be tossed, double up some plastic grocery bags, dump the item inside and tie off the bag. Then throw that bag in the regular garbage without worrying about leaks.

3. If you have early morning pick up and animals tear apart the trash when you put it out at night, throughout the week freeze your leftover food. Slip food scraps and bones into a zip top plastic bag and pop it in the freezer. Trash night, toss the zip bags into the garbage and the frozen food won't emit an odor and therefore won't attract any pesky critters!

4. If you have pests constantly in your trash spray the outside of the trash barrels with ammonia each week and you shouldn't have a problem anymore.