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Showing posts with label spring cleaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring cleaning. Show all posts

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Using herbs & botanicals around the house

We are getting a preview of a channel called Veria on Dish Network this month, and I'm truly enjoying it!  This morning I watched a great show on there called "What a Relief" that talks about using herbs in your house.  I'm going to post some of these uses not only for you to enjoy, but also as a way that I can easily refer back to them! : )

1.  To keep your closet or drawers moth-free, fill a muslin sachet sized bag with equal parts of dried lavender and dried wormwood.  Store in drawer or closet.  After a few months, refresh by crusing bag gently between hands, replace in closet or drawer.  Wormwood is anti-microbial and a natural insect repellent! 

2.  To treat laundry stains:  resoak stains with hydrogen peroxide or white vinegar...a little goes a long way.   Drying your clothes in the sunshine helps as sunlight is a natural bleach. 

 3.  La Lavenderia Herbal Laundry Detergent:  Brew a handful of lavender & wormwood  stems/flowers/leaves in a large pot of water, then strain.  Add 1 1/2 - 2 cups of this strained herbal water to an empty glass jar or bottle, then add 1/2 cup castile-based liquid soap (like Dr. Bronners unscented, or lavender scented), or you can shave a solid castile soap bar into the bottle.  Add  2 Tbsp baking soda (which acts as a fabric softener, reduces static cling) & 1/8 cup of white vinegar or apple cider vinegar, which is also fabric softener.  Use a bit of this mixture in your wash, and it will smell great and be disinfected naturally!  It's non-toxic, safe on skin, and lavender is not only a natural cleanser, it has a calming scent too!  Sweet!

4.  Safe & Natural Insecticide:  boric acid kills ants, or sprinkle it on your carpets to deter fleas.  Wipe ant trails in your home with the following mixture:   Dilute hot sauce in water, add a dash of cinnamon, and a few red pepper flakes.  Then spray across trail, wipe, and watch them leave: it will upset their ability to pick up the scent of their old trail!  Organic, inexpensive and doesn't burn skin!

5.  To clean your toilets, first scrub with brush, flush, then add 1 tsp each of lavender & thyme essential oil to 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide.  Add to the toilet, let sit for an hour or longer before flushing.

6.  For toilets stained with rust or hard water deposits, baking soda or citric acid can be used to scour those stains without ruining the enamel.

For more information on any of these natural recipes, check out veria.com!  : )

Saturday, April 9, 2011

How to makeover your porch lights!

A few weeks ago I really noticed how badly faded our front porch light fixtures were! They were black when we bought the house, but now that we've lived here six years, the intense sunlight we receive on the front of the house for 6+ hours a day really has taken a toll on them.  I remembered reading a post on Thrifty Decor Chick's Blog that she had spray painted her light fixtures, so I asked my DH to take ours down so I could clean them up and paint them new again!

When he brought them inside they were so gross! Dead bugs inside (eww!), plus the glass was really dirty, so faded and even a bit of rust - can you say big fat hot mess?  I had gotten a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint - my favorite - at Walmart, and a really cool spray paint trigger that keeps mama's hands and nails clean (!!) so it was time to paint these suckers!

I used blue painters tape on the three glass sides after I cleaned the fixtures with soap and water and cleaned the glass.  Here's a side by side shot of one straight off the house, and one cleaned up and ready to tape the glass!
Left: Straight off the house, Right: cleaned up glass & fixture
And after they were painted:
Light fixtures after two coats of spray paint.

Each light got two coats of oil-rubbed bronze paint and they look AMAZING! Can you believe how easy it is to revive something with a little elbow grease and a can of spray paint? LOVE IT!

I can't wait for DH to put them back up tomorrow on the front porch - it's got grey river rock, so the black will absolutely pop off that now! : ) 

Have you done any spray paint makeovers? I would love to see them - leave a link so I can come by and comment! : )

spray paint party