Organization 101: Homeade Cleaners

Did you know that you can practically clean your entire house with just 2 products? Seriously. I love my house to be super clean, and although I fail miserably at times, I do try pretty hard, and employ the busy hands of my 4 kiddos. What I dislike about cleaning is the chemical smell and the concern that goes with that when my 4 year old is scrubbing.

So in order to be safer, greener, cheaper...whatever you wanna call it, I looked into some natural cleaners and became pretty pleasantly surprised by the results.

This post is going to be about Vinegar.
Vinegar is my best friend when it comes to cleaning. I use it to clean my bathrooms, floors, stains, and just about anything else. It does a great job and is super cheap to use. And the smell? Well it totally disapates when it dries.

Take a bottle of half vinegar and half water and you can:

Clean your bathroom counters and toilet
Mop your floors
Clean out your fridge
clean out your microwave, diswasher and other appliances
clean counters
clean up stains (will get the smell out as well) on carpet and furniture...I use it on my rugs all the time.
Clean out your bathroom tub
use instead of a rinse aid to have crystal clear glasses
Once a month dump a cup into your washer and run the cycle to keep it running well and not clogged with soap scum
Removes mineral deposits and coffee stains
Deodorizes your garbage disposal
Removes gum and sticky labels....and so much more!!!


Now the tub thing.... Here is the deal. I have 3 bathrooms, 2 which have those nice handy glass doors...THAT I HATE!! No matter what I do, they seem to be always covered in soap scum. I guess that is what you have when you have 6 people showering in them huh?

So anyways, My friend Tara commented on my last organization post about using vinegar and a majic eraser on the soap scum. I seriously was doubtful. Honestly I love Tara, but I have been fighting soap scum for over 20 years and never have managed to conquer it yet. So I tried it.....

WOOT!!! It worked! It worked so stinkin well that I went on to the other bathroom to do those shower doors and I wasnt even gonna clean that bathroom that day! YAY!! Mystery solved.

So what do you use vinegar for?????????????

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Organization 101: the beginning

So does your house look like this? Mine isnt quite that bad, but I still feel like I am swimming upstream most days. Part of the issue is that I have 4 kids, partly because I work crazy and unpredictable hours and partly cause I just dont like to clean. Sadly I am not an organizer by nature and for all of you like me, you know how hard that can make getting organized and staying that way.

I mean seriously, I would love to have a clean house all the time...wouldnt you? So Organization 101 is born. These post will be dedicated to helping you get organized and stay that way.

Lets start in the bathroom. With 3 people in my house standing up to pee, it makes for a necessary daily chore. But since I have 3 bathrooms, I dont want to spend my day scrubbing toilets either. So what to do?

Typically I perfer homeade cleaning products (more on this later) but for the bathroom I stock up on a container of the household wipes. I take about 2 min each bathroom and wipe down the counter sink and finally the toilet (and nearby floor :-)
Run the toilet brush around the inside of the toilet and voila...and isntantly clean bathroom.

By doing this each day, not only do I keep the yuck off the toilet and floor, but it saves me tons of time scrubbing the bathroom each week. (6 minutes each day vs. a half hour per bathroom!)

This is going to be an interactive set of posts (aka...leave comments please)
What do you do to make your bathroom cleaning easier?

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Are you looking for an attractive way to organize your coupons? The Coupon Clutch may be exactly what you are looking for! I know that I have gone on and on about the benefits of a coupon binder, and this has it all. Better yet, it is designed to look like a tote, so very much less inconspicuous than a huge binder. I love all the fabrics that they offer as well.

I am totally too frugal to buy a new binder until mine breaks, but if you are in the market for a new way to organize your coupons, check out The Coupon Clutch...and let us know what you get, so I can have coupon binder envy!

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Easy Organization

If you are like me, you are overwhelmed with paper. School work, junk mail, paperwork to fill out and COUPONS! I have SO MANY COUPONS! This is a great thing as far as saving money goes, but a bit challenging to keep up with at times. I tend to devote a ton of time to my coupons so sadly my other paperwork piles up.

One thing that I have been better at is my recipes. I love to try new and healthy recipes for my family...especially when I just bought 120 pounds of chicken or something on sale. I love tons of recipe sites like PW Good Cheap Eats All Recipes and Crockpot 365 just to name a few. What I hate is making a recipe, or even adding it to my menu plan and then not being able to find the recipe...or taking tons of time looking for it.

I have found that Springpad is a great way to keep all your online recipes in one place. How sweet is that? Super easy to use, cut down on paper and FREE!

What could be better??

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Coupon Lesson 2...organization

Ok, so now you have all the coupons, what ever do you do with them? There are several ways that people organize coupons and no one way will work for everyone. I have tried a couple of different things and my coupon organization is a work in progress still. So here is what I have found....

1. A set of hanging file folders. Take your weekly inserts, use a sharpie and write the date, and then file into the hanging folders by date. All of the coupon match up sites (we will get to later) will list a mfg coupon as something like RP 1/13. Which means you should be able to find that coupon in the Jan 13 Red Plum insert. This works great for many people, only clip what you need and go on. Now the issue I have with this one is that (a). coupons are regional and sometimes I wont have that particular coupon in the RP. and (b). I can be kind of a *gasp* impulse shopper. I like having my coupons handy with me in case I need to buy something while I am out running errands.

2. A three ring binder using baseball card holders separated by category. This puts all your coupons in easy view and you organize the categories by your preferences. I have yet to try this method since it seems more time consuming to me, but many people swear by it.

3. A recipe card holder or some other box with dividers to organize by what every way you prefer. Alphabetical, by category, by grocery isle...whatever. Simple and sweet. I don't use this method since it can be bulky and since I am normally shopping with my busy 3 year old, I can totally see him knocking it over and coupons going Everywhere!!!

4. I use a form of this method. An expandable file. There are tons of cute "coupon holders" out there to buy with nifty little pretyped categories. Those are great, but I found that they are a bit to limiting to me and since I am forever stuffing them into my purse, they get ruined quickly. Actually I just simply picked up 2 expandable plastic/vinyl? check files this year from the T*rget dollar isle and I totally love them! They rubber band close, I choose my own categories, and the slots are nice and big. One is for my grocery coupons and one is for all our entertainment coupons. I may graduate to a third one for all the drugstore stuff...but right now I am sticking with 2.



Please nevermind the g**dwill tear off I have still in my grocery file. I really need to move it over to the other file :-)

So now you know how to store 'em....next up how to match them!

Happy Clipping!

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Couponing...lesson 1

So I started this blog as an effort for people to be able to help others buy things like these...





for very little cash after we are all done!

Ok, so to start.. the question is where do you get your coupons?

Coupons can be found a ton of diffent places. They come in the paper, in magazines, in many packages, and tons of online sites. In the paper there are typically 2 inserts weekly. Red Plum (RP) and Super Saver(SS) about once a month there is a Proctor and Gamble Brand Saver (PG). I have also started a subscription to All You magazine that is filled with great coupons. You can order online and get 2 free trial issues here

You can also get coupons from Ebay or other various internet sites. I havent done this yet, but am sure I will at some point in time especially for the all important diaper coupons!! You dont pay for the coupon itself, but for the sellers time to clip and mail them to you. This is especially good for high dollar coupons that you want to buy multiples of.

Here is some of the coupon "lingo"

$1/1, $1/2, etc. = One dollar off one item, one dollar off two items, etc.
2/$1, 3/$2, etc. = Two items for one dollar, three items for two dollars, etc.
BOGO = Buy one item get one item free
B2GO = Buy two items get one item free
Cat = Catalina coupon, prints from a separate machine when your receipt prints
CRT = Cash register tape, usually used when referring to CVS coupons that print with receipt
ECBs = ExtraCare Bucks, CVS loyalty rewards system
ESRs = EasySaver Rebates, Walgreens monthly rebates program
FAR = Free after rebate
IPQ = Internet printable coupon
IVC = Instant Value Coupon, Walgreens’ store coupons found in ads and ESR booklet
MFR = Manufacturer
MIR = Mail-in rebate
OYNO = On your next order
OOP = Out of pocket
Peelie = Peel-off coupon found on product packaging
PSA = Prices starting at
RRs = Register Rewards, Walgreens’ Catalina coupons
UPC = Universal Product Code, bar code on a product
WYB = When you buy

I know this is confusing and seems overwhelming, but I promise...if I can do it, you can. I wont say that it isnt time consuming...it is. For me right now (and remember I am still a newbie) I spend about 3 hours a week with my coupons. It takes me a while to figure out what I want and matching and printing still, but it keeps my hands busy while I am watching tv so it doesnt really bother me.

So now you know how to get them, and what they are called. Next up...How to organize your coupons!

Happy Clipping

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