cleaning: part one, my kitchen or how I use an old easter basket

I've had lots of people ask me how I go about cleaning, here's my kitchen "arsenal":

It's not a lot of silver and shine but it's been working for us for about a year now.  Here's a breakdown:

orange spray bottle (travel section, target): vinegar, undiluted
white spray bottle (this is a rubbermaid 32 oz, target): all purpose cleaner...see below
clear bottle (old method floor cleaner bottle): DIY floor cleaner
sponge
rag
yellow bucket (here's where the old easter basket comes in)
shaker (clearance bin, michaels): baking soda

Here's how I use it...

floor cleaner
mix up this recipe:

1 gallon water
1/4 C castile soap
1/8 C vinegar

I pour into this clear bottle and store the rest in a leftover vinegar container (I buy the largest one they sell at Target)...I like the ease of spray from this bottle, rather than a bucket/mop combo.

Mop (not pictured): I use a wet/drop mop with a reusable mop pad...it's a glorified swiffer without the refill cost...picked it up at Target but they no longer carry the model.

all purpose cleaner
2 C Water
1/2 C Vinegar
3/4 C Hydrogen Peroxide
1 tsp castile soap
10 drops of tea tree oil
5 drops of lavender oil
grapefruit oil to smell.

I use this cleaner for my granite counter tops, glass stove top and my cabinets...basically all surfaces in my kitchen, including to wipe down my chairs and cleaning the inside of my refrigerator.

This little guy is my best friend, I use this shaker of baking soda, a sponge and some water to clean:

Oven: remove racks, then sprinkle inside of oven surface with baking soda, let it sit and then wipe down with a sponge.  Repeat, rinsing sponge in yellow bucket.

Sink: at the end of each evening, I shake some baking soda around the sides then spray down with sink sprayer...to deep clean the sink, I use this method...so easy.

Deep cleaning with baking soda:

I have no methods of my own, I steal all from Pinterest

Garbage disposal she takes the idea of drain cleaning and applies to the disposal, brilliant.
Stove Top
Dishwasher

Random shout of to Epicurean...I love their cutting boards, they aren't plastic but an engineered, dishwasher safe wood...I use these exclusively for my cutting boards and they still look new after several years.

That's it, time to dirty up my clean kitchen with some yummy baking:)

snow days

I wish that we had good photos from christmas, but we really don't...and it's already february, so these snow photos will have to do:

Snow fell, the kids were ecstatic and we suited up to head outside...shockingly, it only took about 10 minutes to get them all bundled, and they actually waited for me to bundle and then obliged me with a few photos before I dropped the camera in the snow:)

Robert appears to be an old pro in the snow, while Joshua, despite this being his first real encounter, did amazingly well with the cold hands and wet clothes that come with falling in the snow.

enjoy:)

not sure exactly where that snow ball was going, I'm going to tell myself he wasn't going to throw it directly at his brother...