Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Reader Poll - What is the ONE Area of Your Home You want to De-Clutter?

In an attempt to get more organized and declutter more often, I'd like to hear from all of you on this question:

What area(s) of your home do you want to declutter? What are your biggest organizing challenges? Would regular email organizing tips help you stay focused on your organizing/decluttering goals?

Please post a comment on the blog OR email me at christina@happyslob.com and let me know your answers! Thanks for participating everyone. :)

A Reader's Amazing Laundry Stain Removal Tip - Use Shampoo

Helpful Reader Alert!
I got this email from Nancy W quite some time ago, and I kept meaning to post it but (ahem) I'm not known for my fabulous memory! She shares a great and frugal cleaning tip to tackle your nastiest laundry stain removal problems. Here's the email:

Removing Laundry Stains with Shampoo
"I think the best thing I ever learned about laundry was to use shampoo for removing spots. I have a squeeze bottle and fill it with plain old cheap shampoo. When I have a spot, I squeeze shampoo on it and rub it between my fingers and toss it in the washer. It works and if you dilute the shampoo with 1/3 water per bottle, it really saves money."

Thanks again Nancy, LOVE this tip! If YOU have a great tip you want everyone to know about, then email it to me at christina AT happyslob DOT com

Washing Dishes - Getting out Tough Coffee and Tea Stains

I've recently found that even good dishwasher detergents don't always completely clean coffee and tea stains out of mugs and cups. If you also have a rather unappealing collection of stained mugs you'd like to get truly clean, here are a few tips to try:

  1. Lemon and salt - Cut a fresh lemon in half and dunk in some regular table salt. Use this as a little natural scouring pad to get stains out. (This is also really useful on laundry stains, believe it or not!) Keep a few fresh lemons on hand anyway, for a variety of cleaning purposes.
  2. Baking Soda - Dip a damp rag into a bit of baking soda and use this as your natural scouring powder for edging away those tough tea and coffee stains. It may take a little effort, but this can really do wonders for stained mugs.