Clean your coffee machine and your sink

The other day I was looking at my coffee machine and thought...ack!  This thing looks horrible!  I throw the pot, lid and basket thingy in the dishwasher very frequently, but we have such hard water, I knew it needed a deeper cleaning on the inside.  

I started by pouring a couple of cups of vinegar in the water reservoir.

And ran it through the coffee machine...twice.

While this is brewing, take some baking soda (that expires in 2 days) and clean your sink with it.

Then dump some down the garbage disposal.  Don't throw the rest away.  You can always use it for cleaning.  Your sink or toilet doesn't care if it's expired.  ;)

Then take the hot vinegar that you ran through the coffee maker and dump it down the sink.

Let it sit for a few minutes, then rinse with hot water and run the disposal.  Trust me, you don't want to use that vinegar for anything else.  Acky poo.

Fill the coffee pot with clean water and run that through your coffee maker at least two times, maybe three.

The last thing we want is coffee or tea that tastes like vinegar.

Remember to rinse the coffee pot out thoroughly and wipe down the heating plate. 

 Looks much better, right?

Sneaky Tissue Trick

I was at Aldi the other day and remembered we needed facial tissue.  Aldi carries the brand Willow that is surprisingly soft and strong.  I would even go as far as saying it is comparable to the Kleenex brand!  I was looking for the kind in the little cube, but the only ones they had were the ones with lotion in them.  I don't like those.  They don't absorb anything.  They did, however, have the regular tissues in the long, old fashioned boxes, like so....

Upon closer examination, I noticed that the box above has 184 tissues.  The little cubes have only 75, but they cost the SAME!  I can't believe I've never noticed this before.  Maybe it's because I've not purchased the above kind in 20 years, back when I had a tissue cover for one of those kind, lol!  I can only assume that they charge the same for way less tissues out of popularity.  I think most people these days have the cube kind of covers, perhaps.  I bought one of the above kind out of desperation.  I just needed them.  So, when I got home, I thought...ugh...I have no where to put this big thing.  Then it hit me!  I think I still have the old cube-shaped box from when it ran out!  I did!  Whoo hoo!  As a side note, I did not get this out of the trash, lol.  It was still in the tissue holder because someone who used the last one was too lazy to replace it, even though we didn't have any.  Ah-hem.

So the crafty mommy in me came out and I decided to make it work.  I opened up the empty tissue box.

I opened the longer tissue box and took out about 1/3 of the tissues.  I folded them in half, making sure the fold was showing on the top.

I placed them in the smaller cube box, making sure they're facing the correct way.

I then just folded the 4 flaps like you would a cardboard box.  If you've always had problems doing this, here's a tip. Start at 12 o' clock and work your way around going clockwise.  Works every time!

Because this was going to be put in my tissue holder, I didn't worry about the tissue coming out the side flaps.  I thought I'd reach in and grab the first tissue to see if they'd pop out the top like normal tissues do.

Whoo hoo!  Success! Oh, the little things that make a broke mom happy!

I am no longer going to buy the small little cube boxes!  I had no idea I was paying that much more for convenience!  I just assumed there was a similar count in each, but I was wrong!  I got two and a half times the amount of tissues for the SAME price!!!!  I do have to keep the extras in a closet in the long, opened box, but who cares!  I'd have to store extra tissues there anyway!  Just thought I'd share that little discovery with you today!  Can you imagine my life if I find something like this totally exciting?  LOL!

Freezing Fresh Strawberries

A few weeks ago my husband got a really good buy on strawberries at Aldi.  99c a pound.  Not too shabby!  When he came home with 4 pounds I thought...we can't possibly eat those before they go bad!  I eat a serving of berries a day, but I knew I couldn't eat these fast enough.  So I decided to freeze them.

Did you know that berries are really high in antioxidants, which are purported to be helpful in staving off cancer?  Particularly blackberries. The darker the berry, the better the benefits. When I was preggo with my son, my doula told us she ate them every day because colon cancer ran in her family. You learn something new every day!

Yes, I am aware there are only 3# of strawberries shown below.  I already plopped the first batch in the sink before I remembered to take a picture.  Sometimes it's hard to remember to take pictures of everything you make, lol!

Start by cleaning your sink with salt and/or baking soda.  We don't want any chemicals in there tainting our berries.  (Well, they're probably already tainted since they aren't organic, but what are ya gonna do?)  Rinse sink thoroughly with hot water.   Then fill with cold water and a big splash of vinegar. My friend  Mary has a post on her site about how vinegar can prolong the life of berries you intend to refrigerate.  I used it with the intent to clean my berries not realizing it would have that affect, so that's a nice added bonus!  

After soaking for a bit, drain the berries and put them on a towel to dry.  Pat dry with a 2nd towel.

Hull each strawberry, removing the green part.

This next part is something I did because I had just made an Angel Food Cake and I wanted to save some spare parts to toss with sugar.  I cut off the top part with the hole in it, creating a pile of strawberry 'donuts'.

I then took each strawberry and cut it into quarters.

I decided to line a couple of sheet pans with some waxed paper.  I had intended on using parchment, but I was out.  Looking back, I would have been better off just putting the berries on the bare pans because they stuck like glue to the waxed paper and was a pain to pick off.  Had they been on the bare pans, they still would have needed to be pried off with a spatula, but it would have been a lot easier.  So, please learn from my mistakes.

Spread out your cut berries on the sheets.  You can that the left pan has a bunch of smaller pieces cut up on it. I started out cutting them up very small because I don't like eating large pieces.  But darn, that was a pain so I gave up on that business.

Place pans in the freezer until frozen solid.  Gently pry off the berries and put in a freezer bag.  This way, you can take out as little or as much as you want.  I got a full gallon bag out of these!  Remember, I still have a bunch of little donut pieces, too.  

Here's what I did with those little donuts...I cut them up into a small dice.  

Then I threw in a couple of tablespoons of sugar, stirred it up and threw it in the fridge for dessert later.

So, basically, I had 4 Lbs of strawberries for $3.96.  The sugar-free frozen bags I normally buy from Aldi cost $2.99 for 2 Lbs.  This was a 33% savings for just a bit of work.  I think it was worth it because the strawberries I normally buy are frozen whole.  I have to wait quite a while for them to thaw half way each night before I have them.  Cutting my own should cut down on my wait time. What I do is throw some in a bowl and add in a little stevia.  When they're partially thawed, I smash them up.  It's frosty and has the texture of sorbet!  I also add in a tiny pinch of real sea salt.  It's healthy, super yummy and takes care of my sweet cravings!

Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

I don't know about yours, but my jewelry has been tarnished and filthy for quite a while now.  Since I (usually) only wear my watch and wedding ring every day, I don't usually worry about the state of my not-often-worn pieces.  A while back, I happened upon this recipe and finally decided to try it today.  What attracted me most was that it uses ingredients found in the average home that won't kill you.  Well, that, and that it's super cheap.  Here's what you'll need...

1T Baking Soda
1T Salt (use the cheap stuff)
1T Dish Soap
Aluminum Foil
1C HOT Water in a large glass measuring cup or bowl

Start by heating up the water in the microwave.  I heated it for 2 minutes on high.

Add in the baking soda, salt and dish soap.

Just give it a quick stir with the measuring spoon.  Mixture will be kind of thick and foamy at first.

 Tuck a piece of aluminum foil down into the bottom of the cup/bowl.

Say an Our Father and drop your valuables into the hot lava that could very well eat your jewelry alive liquid.

Wait about 10-15 minutes.  DO NOT WALK AWAY and forget it!  I'm sure it is possible for this solution to actually eat away at certain items and that would be horrible! Rinse under hot water in a strainer.

Dry each piece off and admire how good your once disgusting-looking watch looks!  Well, it still has its scratches, scrapes and dings, but it sure is shiny!

And check out this before and after!

At food.com where I found the recipe, most reviews said it worked great.  For me, it did, too.  However, there were  few that were complaining about silver and copper turning black.  Not sure that copper is a typical metal used for jewelry, but just be aware of that.  It's probably best not to use this on softer stones or pearls if I had to guess.  I did have a small silver chain that seemed to come out okay, so maybe it depends on the amount of nickel in it. Interestingly, baking soda and foil in hot water is the recipe for cleaning real silver, so perhaps the person complaining about it turning black didn't really have real silver.  The gold definitely came out the best, sparkling like new.  My wedding ring is platinum and it came out pretty good, too, but platinum really needs to be professionally polished to look the best.  Always be on the safe side and test it out for a minute or two....unlike me.  I dove in head first, but I'm happy with the results!  This whole batch costs about 10 cents!!!  I honestly think I could have halved the recipe and had more than enough.  If you're doing just a couple of small items, you could even quarter it.  I'm also not really sure the recipe needed the dish soap to be effective.  The electrochemical reaction between the foil and the salt/soda is what makes the solution work.  But the soap probably helps to get grease/grime off of the jewelry if that's a concern.  So, I'd say this is optional.  I think this stuff works way better than the stuff you can buy at the jewelry store or big box stores and the price cannot be beat!  If you give it a try, let me know what you think!

Simple and Cheap Pet Stain Remover

Just look at this face!  I mean, look at it!  Is this not the most adorable, squishable, loveable face you've ever seen?

Oh, my gosh, Happy is the cutest, sweetest little thing ever!  Which is a good thing since he left a lot of the stains below around the house his first week home.  Ahhhhh, the poo poo stain of a puppy with squishy little doodies!  We've mostly had pee pee accidents, but I thought I'd show you how to clean up the poo so you can see how well this stuff works.

This idea came about a while back when I was cleaning windows in the front room.  I was cleaning 'snoot marks' from Sissy off of the windows when I found an old pee pee spot beside the couch.  I swear, that dog is as dumb as a post, but we love her.  I knew we didn't have anything in our cleaning arsenal to properly remove the stain.  So I thought...ehhhhh, what the heck...I'll try my homemade Schwindex on it.  I lucked out because I didn't put any dye in it that time and it was basically clear liquid.  I spritzed it on the stain and blotted it well.  It worked!  That got me to thinking about my Schwindex recipe.  It has 1/4t of dish soap in it, which is not good to use on carpet because the soap will actually attract stains.  So, I tried an experiment and it worked, too.  Here's what you'll need:

2T Ammonia (about 1T per cup of water used)

HOT water (enough to fill your container of choice)

An old bottle

Cleaning rags

Funnel (not pictured)

Start by dumping your ammonia into your hot water.  It's helpful if you use a measuring cup so you can pour it easily into your container.  I actually heated my water in the microwave beforehand.

Use a funnel and pour it into your container.  Careful, the water is hot.

I'm using a recycled shampoo bottle.  I've decided to use my hoarded plastic bottles for either non-food items or for powdered or dry ingredients from now on.  Trying to lessen my family's exposure to BPA where ever possible. Anyway my cap has a small hole that actually worked pretty well.  I was worried about not having a sprayer, but I think I actually prefer this.  Saves a lot of hand cramping!  Yes, I AM old, thanks for asking.

Squirt a liberal amount of the solution on the offending stain.  No need to let it sit.  As a matter of fact, don't let it sit or your stain will spread.

Lay your rag on top of it and put your weight on it.  Please ignore my 10 year old, quite possibly dorky-looking sandals.  They're comfy.

And through the magic of the internet, lift your rag to reveal NO more stain!  It took a couple of treatments for the poo stain but pee stains come right up with this!  

Now my cute little honey boy can go back to being adorable on a clean floor! 

Man, that's one UGLY stuffed animal!

Notes:  

This does not make your house smell like ammonia at all.  Or pet urine.  It works really well.

Ya know, homeopathy says to treat "like with like" and this is pretty much what we did here.  Pee naturally contains (or turns into???) ammonia, and we're using ammonia.  Maybe not quite the exact rules of homeopathy, but I like to think I'm on the right path.  Now, as a disclaimer, please please please test this on a small, hidden patch of your carpet before doing it in an obvious place.  Now, on to clean up the other 17 stains!  ;)

Curling your hair with a sock!

Are you sure you read that title correctly? Yup, I said curl your hair with a sock!  Here's how:

First, you need an old sock.  I used one of my son's that no longer fits.  Cut off the toe.

Then cut the rounded part off of the toe, creating a little band.

It will look something like this:

Use the band to put your freshly washed and dried hair up into a high pony tail up high on your head like this:

Take the sock and roll it down into a little donut kinda like they used to roll down socks way back when.   Slip it over your pony tail and bring it down to the base.  Forgot to take a picture of it, but you need to lightly spritz your hair with water.

Then pull it up toward the ceiling, stopping just short of the ends of your hair.

This next part is kinda hard to explain, but you're going to try to wrap your hair downward around the sock and roll it down into a bun. 

 As you can see, a few stray hairs tend to fly about.  It does take some practice.  Once you get them tucked in, you can just roll it all down like a bun.  

You don't even need to use anything to hold it in.  It stays in by itself!

Then just go to bed!  It's so comfy to sleep in because it's at the top of your head.  No bulky curlers to lay on!  Ouch!  The next morning, gently unroll the bun.

Rake your hands through your hair and be shocked at the volume and curls!  My pictures were really dark and you couldn't see the curls, so I had to mess with the brightness and contrast, hence the crappy photos.

Here's what it looks like with a clip in my hair.

And here's what my hair normally looks like.  It actually doesn't take up a lot of the length like normal curlers would.

This looks really nice on people with longer hair.  It gives that loose ringlet look that is so popular, but with minimal effort.  It is also ideal for those who bathe at night.  I can't really get away with that as my hair starts smelling oily half way through the day, but it was a nice change!