The One with the Helper

You guys. Is there seriously anything cuter than this?

I was busy "spring cleaning" our outdoor space earlier this week. There were a lot of things I wanted to get done and not a lot of time to do them! All. The. Things. Someone send help!

Imagine my surprise when I'm busy rummaging through the outdoor toy bin, throwing out the zillion broken toys we've managed to keep for the required minimum of six years, and I hear the hand-vac start up!

Bless. This. Boy! Such a sweetheart, amiright? Awwwww! He was insistent on vacuuming up all of the leaves on the rug. I so scored big when this little joined the fam!

Love him!

Laundry Soap

As long as I can remember, I've been a fan of using either Fab or Gain laundry detergent along with Downy fabric softener. It's just been the winning combination that has worked best for my family. Recently, however, I've considered the idea of making my own laundry soap! Gasp!! And yes, there's a good chance that Pinterest has been a very strong influence in said decision. Regardless, I found a super easy and very cheap "recipe" for laundry soap and decided to give it a go.

Oh my word! It was SO easy! And I was able to find all of the ingredients at Walmart... for a total of about $20 bucks.

Photo by beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com

Now I have this massive container of laundry soap that literally takes about 1 Tbsp. per load. I can see this soap lasting for a very long time! The blogger who posted this recipe said it took NINE (9) MONTHS to go through ONE BATCH of this stuff! You do the math! ;)

I've been pleasantly surprised by this soap. It cleans really well, both in warm and cold water. It has a very mild scent that combines nicely with my Downy fabric softener. And it really was so easy to make! Literally you just shred the Fels-Naptha soap (I used my food processor -- it was quick and easy, and cleaned right up!) and dump all the items into a large container. I gave it a bit of a stir and voilà! Fabulously awesome laundry soap that'll probably last me close to a year. How exciting! And thrifty!!

Let me know if you decide to give it a try. It's so economical and it's also nice to know that there aren't any weird additives or funky needless perfumes/dyes in my laundry soap. :)

Monster!

A few days before Christmas, hubs and I decided to make an unusual purchase. A Euroflex Monster Floor Steam Cleaner EZ1.

Unusual, right?

Honestly, I had never heard of steam mops until I saw an infomercial a few months ago. It was awesome. It talked about not only cleaning the floors, but sanitizing the floors. Talk about making a mom's heart skip a beat! I was intrigued, but never really did anything about it (other priorities in life, I guess).

As I started going through my top-to-bottom house cleaning ritual as I always do before having company over (yes, my in-laws are still categorized as "company" that I need/try to impress!), I thought about the floors. I dread cleaning the floors. It typically starts with sweeping the tile in the kitchen, the hardwoods in the living room and the linoleum ((gag)) in the bathrooms. For a "quick" version of clean, I bust out the Swiffer WetJet and go to town. My biggest complaint is the idea of sweeping a wet, dirty pad over my floors, masking the dirt with a misleading scent of "Lavender Vanilla & Comfort" (whatever that means), coupled with the pain in my back from bending over the short little handle (I swear it was designed for a child to clean with... there's a thought for another post). Needless to say, this was not the most fun nor successful endeavor.

Now, if I wanted the floors really clean, enter: a mop, scrub brush and a bucket o' bleach water. This entails the good ol' Cinderella-style cleaning on hands and knees. Surprisingly not my favorite thing to do, either. And the thought of leaving behind a little film of bleachiness where my little boy crawls on his hands and knees, well, doesn't make this mommy very happy.

SO, all that to say that there's been a certain element missing in my floor care routine for far too long, yet I never knew exactly what it was.

Until now. Er, I guess until about a week ago, actually.

Enter the steam mop.

Ain't she a beut?

I spent literally hours pouring over the Internet, reading reviews, checking with the gurus at Consumer Reports and pretty much anything else I could think of to help me in making my decision. Lots and lots of reading and lots and lots of research. In the end, I found a guy on Amazon who had reviewed 5 or 6 steam mops and provided a waaaaay too detailed review of the pros and cons of each. Almost solely based off his review (and the fact that this unit heats the water to the hottest temp of any other on the market -- 266ºF!), I landed on the Euroflex Monster Floor Steam Cleaner EZ1.

And, because I'm one impatient lil' floor cleaner, I selected next-day shipping. You know, for a whopping $3.99 (THANK YOU, Amazon Prime!). I was elated when it arrived less than 24 hours later.

With my company (read: in-laws) arriving the next day for Christmas Eve, I had quite a list of to-do's to ready the house for their arrival. But nothing could stop me from busting open that box so I could get steaming!! It literally took seconds to put it together (i.e. "insert pole here") and within 5 minutes, it was heating up in the kitchen, ready to go to town on our tile floor (yes, I had swept earlier in anticipation of its arrival).

So long story short? I. Love. This. Thing. It is easier than the Swiffer, cleans more crap off the floor than the Swiffer, and doesn't leave a yucky, sticky film on my floor like the Swiffer (or bleach). The fact that it uses no chemicals is fabulous (not to mention green), but that it not only cleans and steams, but sanitizes?? Come on. It's a no-brainer for me!

The best part is it comes with 2 microfiber floor pads that are machine washable, plus a special pad and attachment that allow you to use the steamer on the carpet! I haven't tried it yet, but I'm very excited about the possibilities!

It goes without saying that the folks at Euroflex haven't asked me to write a glowing review on their floor steamer, and they certainly aren't sending me a check in the mail. This is just my honest opinion of my experience with this product that I happened to think just maybe one of you might be interested in reading about! And for the record, the Monster was under $90 from Amazon. Worth every penny!