All Natural Cleaning Products

Vinegar, vinegar, vinegar! Where have you been all my life?

I am not a granola person, I watch too much TV, I don't eat organic, and I use chemicals. But if there is one thing I am, it's cheap! I pinch pennies, I am frugal, and save money every second I can. This week in my DIY house tips and tricks I learned about cleaning with vinegar. I had no idea how efficient and effective it is, and on top of that vinegar is extremely cheap.

The first Pinterest pin I tried in my cleaning with vinegar tips was to clean a shower head. Just fill a baggie with vinegar, secure, leave for a few hours, then wipe clean.

The results to this pin were way better than expected. Our shower head had so much build up and I have tried multiple cleaning products to clean it. Nothing has really worked until I tried this pin. The results seriously speak for themselves. It is an extremely amazing difference. This wasn't just a Pinterest Success, this is a New-Outlook-On-Life Success, game changing, life changing!

After the surprising results of the shower head, I was super excited about trying the next Pinspiration. Creating an all purpose cleaning solution with vinegar.

To create the all purpose cleaning solution you combine equal parts water and vinegar (I went with one cup of each) and then you add in a few drops of essential oils (I did about 10 drops). I added an apple cinnamon oil, mainly because I already had it in the house. But really the possibilities are endless on the scents you could add. 

When using the solution the smell of vinegar is a little strong, but once it dries you are left with the scent of the oil. A very delightful after-smell. Again, vinegar left my world rocked. I cleaned my shower doors, sinks, and tubs; it got out the nasty soap scum film that only harsh chemicals usually remove. I also did my glass table, windows, and mirrors; it worked better than Windex does, and there were no streaks (as long as you dry it with a dry cloth). I cleaned bathrooms, the kitchen, surface tops in other rooms. It worked as good or better than many products that I usually use and at a fraction of the price AND no chemical residue left behind. I will probably never go back to a few products I have used and trusted for years. Again Pinterest Success!

Since vinegar is my new favorite thing, up there with duct tape and WD-40 for all you need in life, I tried one more Pinspiration this week. Cleaning smelly sponges by soaking them in 1/4 cup of vinegar and 3/4 cup of water overnight, then rinse. The pin is very uninspiring:

I tried to add a little more pizazz to my rendition of the pin. 

The results were as expected: staggering! My sponge smelled great. The pin also said it would disinfect it, but I can not confirm that because I did not swab my sponge, place the results in a petri dish, incubate the dish, then use a microscope to count the microorganisms. It however did do something a little unexpected, it made my sponge really soft. That was a pleasant surprise when I went to do the dishes. Another win for vinegar. 

This week's success with vinegar has made this whole pinterest challenge worth it. I might just need to walk away while I'm ahead. :P 

No Slip Grips

I have tried two handy Pinterest pins for around the house tricks this week. Both pins make you think, why didn't I think if that? While both pins seem great in theory, only one of them really worked.

The first Pinspiration is for all those pesky tank tops and shirts that are always falling off the hangers without special hooks built in. Just add a little hot glue to the ends of the hanger, let dry, and Ta-Da! No more clothes falling on the closet floor.

Here is my fancy rendition of the pin. This really was so easy and took about a minute per hanger, and I did a couple because the hangers worked so well when I tested it out. I have a few shirts and dresses that always fall off the hanger and the hot glue grip keeps them in place. This was a Pinterest Success.

The next DIY handy pin I tried was using acrylic-latex caulk on the bottom side of a rug to keep it from sliding around. 

I was really excited to try this pin because I have a few rugs that move around a lot and I'm too cheap to buy the rug-gripper-thingys (this is the technical name). But to my dismay this Pin was a fail. I had a test rug and I did the vertical lines every 2-inches, let dry and it slid more on my tile than it did before I used the caulk. I also tried diagonal lines on a rug that slid everywhere and again, no luck. 

I would have had more luck with this pin if I would have just caulked my rug to the floor, as apposed to letting it dry. Maybe you have to have special floors for this pin to work. Until I have those fancy floors, I am going to chalk this up as a Pinterest Fail. 

Week 4 Theme...

We are going into Week 4 and I'm still going strong on the Pinterest Challenge.

This week I will be trying out some DIY (do it yourself) Pinspirations tips and tricks. I'll be trying some easy cleaning tips using vinegar, and some handy tricks for around the house. Including how to get your rugs to stay in place, and how to get clothes not to slide off hangers.

The Pinterest pins should be fairly simple this week and some that might be really handy to know.