Tuesday Tip!

I've been reading a few books this week about hints to keep your house clean and neat. I found two that I really liked and that I will be using A LOT! I love anything that will help clean a microwave covered in baby puree and rice cereal and salsa and tomato sauce and cleaning clothes covered in ... well, the same thing. I hope these are helpful to someone else out there!

1. Steam Cleaning Your Microwave
Fill a microwave-safe dish halfway with water and put it in the microwave. Heat for a few minutes until the water boils. When you open the door the baked-on crusties will be much softer and easier to clean off.

2. Ivory Soap vs. Laundry Stains
Plain Ivory Soap is a great stain remover because it's mild (it has an almost neutral pH) and it doesn't contain moisturizers, deodorants, and other unnecessary additives. Other mild white bar soaps will work too, but make sure they don't have moisturizers, dyes, or perfumes. Here are 6 steps for easy stain removal:

1. Wet the stained garment with cold water.
2. Rub a bar of Ivory soap directly into the stain, then rinse.
3. If that doesn't remove the stain, rub Ivory soap on the stain again, and then soak the fabric for 30 minutes or so in cold water with a bit of powdered detergent dissolved in it. Ir you forget and leave stuff soaking longer, it doesn't really matter - you won't hurt the fabric. Rinse!
4. If that still doesn't work, rub more bar soap into the stain, scrub it with a scrub brush taking care not to damage the fabric. Rinse!
5. If a second scrubbing attempt doesn't remove the stain, blot it gently with some color-safe bleach diluted with water, then rinse with clean water to remove all of the bleach.
6. If all else fails, accept the stain as a trial through which you need to persevere!