Time & Money Savers

If you feel like you spend half your time and half your paycheck cleaning your house, I have some time and money saving tips for you!

1. If you buy commercial cleansers don't buy them in a spray bottle, buy them in a large bottle you'll get twice as much for half the price, then fill your own spray bottle!

2. If you never use a whole steel wool pad when you do the dishes and it just ends up rusting before you need it again. Cut them in half they'll go twice as far, plus you won't have to clean up that rusty mess.

3. Use baby oil instead of furniture polish, it's inexpensive and it will leave a beautiful shine.

4. Speaking of dusting, buy an inexpensive car washing mitt to use as a dust rag. You'll find you clean much faster, it cleans easily around corners and legs and you'll use less polish because the mitt will hold it and become a pre-treated duster!

5. Dingy toilet? Put a scoop of powdered lemonade mix in there and let it sit for a while you clean the rest of the bathroom, the citric acid in the juice will leave a beautiful shine on the bowl!

Alternative Uses for Paste Wax

Paste wax can do a lot more than shine your car and your floors. You can use it all over the house to protect surfaces. Here are just a few of them.

1. Apply some paste wax to the metal racks in your refrigerator. This will help protect them from pitting and will also help prevent rust and corrosion. You can also use paste wax on the outside of your appliances to give them a nice shine and help them repel dust and fingerprints.

2. If your toilet is all sweaty, turn off the water and then flush the toilet to drain the tank. Dry the inside and apply a thin coat of the wax to the inside. It will seal it up and prevent further condensation.

3. Some wax on the unfinished underside of furniture will help to seal the wood and protect the piece from drying out.

4. A thin coat of wax on your tools will help protect them from rust and corrosion.

Toilets 101

Toilets 101, this is your quick course in how a toilet works so you'll be ready if a problem arises.

1. The parts of the toilet: the handle, the chain, the flapper, the float cup and the fill valve.

2. Here's how it works, when you push the handle it pulls on the chain, which raises the flapper and empties the water into the bowl. That water forces the contents of the bowl down into the drainpipe. When the water empties from the tank it drops the float cup to the bottom and triggers the water supply. As the water fills the tank the float cup rises and When it reaches the top it turns the water off.

3. That's all there is to it, now if the toilet is running you know that you need to check the float cup for leaks. And if it won't flush you should check the chain or the flapper.

Toilet Care

If your toilet is dingy and yellowed, or if you have problems with clogging and back-ups, here are some easy ways to clean the toilet and keep it in good running order.

1. When the toilet is dingy like this there are a couple of easy ways to make it gleam. Try dropping a couple of denture tablets into the bowl. Let them dissolve. Then use the toilet brush to swish it around, and just flush!

2. Pour cola in the bowl and let it sit there for a couple of hours, and flush.

3. For a stubborn ring, apply a thick paste made out of borax and lemon juice. Let it sit for a few minutes and scrub the ring off. The elements work together to break up the stain and bleach it away.

4. To keep your toilet running well, flush a cup of baking soda once a week. It will help to control the pH level in the septic tank, and therefore keep the toilet running smoothly.

Antiseptic Mouthwash

Antiseptic mouthwash is designed to kill germs in your mouth and keep your teeth clean, so why not use it to clean and disinfect other things like your bathroom?

1. To clean the toilet a half a cup of mouthwash in the toilet is all you need. Just pour it in, swish it around and flush! It'll kill the germs!!

2. A toothbrush dipped in mouthwash will help clean grout and inhibit mold growth. It's also strong enough to cut easily through hard water stains and build-up. Just make sure you label that toothbrush for cleaning only!

3. Use a little on a lint free cloth to shine up mirrors and disinfect medicine cabinet handles, faucets and flush levers.

4. Use a little on a lint free cloth to shine up mirrors and disinfect medicine cabinet handles, faucets and flush levers.

5. Have a blemish? Use a cotton swab to dab some mouthwash on the area, it'll kill the bacteria and clear up the blemish.

6. You can use the same principle if you have a cut or a scrape and no antiseptic cream or wipes. The mouthwash will clean and disinfect in one quick step!