Clearing the Kitchen Sink Clog

As a person who likes to do everything myself, I never thought I would be doing plumbing. My husband is very good with all of the construction and maintenance of the house, and does most of it with me as a mere assistant to "hold the light here" and "get me a wrench" and "QUICK, turn off the water!" Needless to say, I haven't had to actually DO any plumbing myself. But I have watched him do a lot of different things. And that's a good thing, because now I know I CAN do basic plumbing if the need should arise. Again. 

Since we moved in our house (a year and a half ago) one of our kitchen sink drains (there are separate drains for each side of sink) has never drained well. I usually just try to avoid that side, but I finally got fed up with it. I decided to play plumber today and I took off the trap to see if there was a clog. The "trap" is the U-shaped pipe under your sink, for those of you who don't know). I cleaned out lots of gunk..... but not enough gunk to stop the water from flowing. So I decided to check the pipe that goes from the trap to the wall. OH. MY. GOSH!!!! I'm sure this thing has been clogged for YEARS. And let's just say it's a good thing I don't have a sensitive gag reflex! Seriously! That clog covered 95% of the pipe opening...... 

and this clog went ALL THE WAY TO THE WALL! More that 18 inches of solid blockage!!! How do you even CLOG a pipe like that??? One of the grossest things I have seen. Ever. (This picture doesn't do it justice... and it got even worse as I dug deeper and deeper into the pipe). But after a half an hour of digging and scraping with various tools (except for the actual pipe snake which I am afraid to use and will let my hubby do later) the pipe was as clear as it was going to get.

 I was trying to save Danny a job.... which I did. Sort of. While examining the pipe, I found that it is rusted almost all the way through and needs replacing (to avoid a WAY bigger disaster). So, add another job to HIS list, because I am not THAT savvy with the plumbing. LOL! But at least, for now, the water flows without pooling up in the sink..... Yay me! :-)

Coke in the Toilet

I like my toilets to be clean. (I think everyone does.) In fact, even though I don't use a lot of chemicals to clean my house, the toilets are a place that I'm not afraid to use bleach. I want to know that they are REALLY clean. You know what I mean?

With three little kids, it is extra important to keep the germs away. 

When we bought our house, the whole place was nasty. The first thing I did was scrub the bathrooms. I mean, I REALLY scrubbed them. With bleach. 

All of the main bathrooms got clean, but there was one stubborn toilet in the basement that just didn't want to cooperate. I knew it was disinfected, but it just wasn't clean. It's not a bathroom we use often (it's in a room that is being renovated), so I wasn't that worried about it. But over the past few months it has started to bug me. No matter how much I scrubbed, it still looked dirty! I knew there must be a way to get rid of the rust and hard water stains (without spending a lot of money or using crazy harsh chemicals).

While looking for recipes for homemade bathroom cleaners, I came across this post HERE. Coke in your toilet? What?!?

Of course I HAD to give it a try. I mean, what did I have to lose? I didn't have any Coke, but I did have some Diet Dr Pepper. I've seen what Diet Dr Pepper can do with a Mentos....... and to a penny..... so I was confident that it would work as well as a Coke. 

Here is the before picture. I cleaned this toilet. I swear. That discoloration is from the rust stains. Eww.

I dumped a can of Dr Pepper in the bowl, and then dumped another one in just to be sure there was enough soda to do the work. (The website linked above used a 2-liter, so I probably should have used more, but this is all I had.)

Toilet looks even nastier with the soda in it. Bleh.

I let the soda sit for 30 minutes and then gave it a quick scrub with a toilet brush. One flush later and WOW!

Ok, now THAT is clean. Yay! (There is still one tiny ring of rust around the top of the water line, but overall I would consider this a success. I might try again with a 2-liter of actual Coke, just to see.)

Kinda makes you wonder what soda does to your insides.......

Cleaning the Stove Hood Filter

Okay. I'm a little embarrassed to post these pictures for all to see.  This is my stove hood filter.

In my defense, we had some brick work done in the kitchen and the brick dust stuck to the oil, making it look even worse. Gross!

I've tried scrubbing it, but that oil is really hard to get off. I hate washing normal dishes. Washing this was a hundred times worse.

Until now.

All you need is a big pot and some baking soda! NO SCRUBBING!!!!

Fill your biggest pot with water. Just as it comes to a boil, add 1/2 cup baking soda.

You probably don't have a pot big enough for your whole filter, so just boil half and then turn it over and boil the other side. Here is a picture of my filter in the pot. You can already start to see the water getting dirty!

After a few minutes, and NO SCRUBBING, this is what my filter looked like. See that nasty stuff on the left side? That was the part sticking out of the water. See the right side? It's COMPLETELY CLEAN!

Wow! I wish all cleaning projects were this easy. No chemicals, no scrubbing (except the pot when I was done), and no more grease! 

Homemade Bathroom Cleaners

There is really only one thing that I hate more than cleaning the bathroom: Washing Dishes. 

And since there was a nice big pile of dirty pots and pans in the sink from my canning project yesterday, I thought today would be the perfect day to clean the bathrooms (and then spend more time blogging about it). The dishes will still be there later, right? The unfortunate answer to that question is always "yes." 

Off I headed to the FOUR bathrooms in the house to scrub and clean. My usual weekly regimen is to just wipe down everything with a disinfectant wipe and scrub the toilet with bleach. But, since it's been at least a week since I really scrubbed them down (ok, more like three weeks...... don't judge me), I decided to do a really good job. Besides, I have this really big pile of dishes waiting for me, so the longer it takes to clean the bathrooms, the better. 

I've been learning all about the natural germ killers, like vinegar, so I've been trying to use less and less commercial cleaners.

According to Wikipedia, 
"Vineagar is reputed to have strong antibacterial properties. One test by Good Housekeeping's microbiologist found that 5% vinegar is 90% effective against mold and 99.9% effective against bacteria,^[48]" 

I make a cleaner that I use for just about everything. (See original post HERE ) 

All Purpose Cleaner
16 oz spray bottle
add 2 Tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp Borax, and some warm water
swirl until borax is dissolved
add a few drops of dish soap (Dawn)
fill the bottle with warm water

(I use a 32 oz bottle from an old cleaner that I had, so I just double the recipe. You can adjust for the size spray bottle you have).

Nice fancy label, right?

I even made my own Orange Infused Vinegar to add the cleaning power of orange oil to the concoction. 

Orange oil "is also an effective, environmentally friendly, and relatively safe solvent, which makes it an active ingredient of choice in many applications, such as, but not limited to, adhesive and stain removers, cleaners of various sorts, and strippers."  Wikipedia.

Orange Vinegar
Collect orange peels and allow them to air dry (toss any that grow mold)
Break up the orange peels and put them in a jar
Fill jar with vinegar
Seal jar and set aside for 2 weeks
Strain orange peels out and keep sealed in a dark location

 I use this spray to clean countertops, showers, and the floor. So far I've been really happy with it. I ran out of it today, so my 4 year old daughter helped me make some more (she loves to stir and mix things). 

Before I knew it, the bathrooms were clean. I couldn't stop there, though, because I needed to put off the dishes for just a bit longer.

I'm always on the lookout for new cleaning recipes to try, and I've been looking for a new disinfectant spray. I came across a recipe for a thyme based disinfectant. (See original post HERE)  

"Oil of thyme, the essential oil of common thyme (Thymus vulgaris), contains 20-54% thymol.^[5] Thyme essential oil also contains a range of additional compounds, such as p-Cymene, myrcene, borneol and linalool.^[6] Thymol, anantiseptic, is the main active ingredient in various commercially produced mouthwashes such as Listerine.^[7] Before the advent of modern antibiotics, oil of thyme was used to medicate bandages.^[1] Thymol has also been shown to be effective against various fungi that commonly infect toenails.^[8] Thymol can also be found as the active ingredient in some all-natural, alcohol-free hand sanitizers." Wikipedia.

Since I have a TON of thyme in my garden, it was really easy and cheap to whip up. 

Thyme Disinfectant
Boil 5 sprigs of thyme in 2 cups of water
Turn off heat and cover, allowing the thyme to soak in hot water for 30 minutes.
Pour in a spray bottle and add 1/4 cup Borax (shake to dissolve).

How much is a sprig? I don't really know... I just grabbed a bunch. More is better when it comes to disinfecting power (in my opinion).

How easy is THAT? And is smells really nice too. 

So, my bathrooms are clean and I have a new disinfectant spray to try. These cleaners are so easy to make and do such a good job, that I still have enough time to do all of my dishes before picking up my son at school. 

Darn it!

Homemade Fabric Softener

I just got back from a week away, and with three kids you can imagine the pile of laundry I had to do. I started a load and realized that I was out of fabric softener. It's not a big deal since I often just use vinegar (which works great, by the way), but I decided that this was the perfect time to try a project I'd been wanting to do: Homemade Fabric Softener. I already make my own laundry detergent, so how hard could it be? It turns out that it is even easier that I had imagined.

I got the recipe here, but I cut it down because I didn't want to make a huge batch in case I didn't like it.

Here is what I did (actually, my 4 year old did it..... that's how easy it is):

1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup hair conditioner

That's it. Really. Put the water and vinegar in a bowl (or directly into your storage container, old softener bottle, etc), add conditioner, and stir until mixed. DO NOT SHAKE because it will foam up. At first I thought I was doing something wrong because my mixture looked like this:

But after I stirred it for a few minutes, all the conditioner dissolved and it looked more like liquid soap. I read that if you heat up the water and vinegar a little before adding the conditioner it will mix faster. I might try that next time. I poured my mix into an old pickle jar. I'm not sure exactly how much you are supposed to use, but some people say 1/2 cup.... I think that is too much. I just poured a little into the fabric softener dispenser in my machine. I've only used it on one load, but so far so good!

I used Suave Naturals Ocean Breeze. You could use any conditioner you have.

I don't foresee any problems, but I have to cover myself. So: **Use this at your own risk. I am not responsible for damage to you, your clothes, or your washing machine**  :-)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Kids are messy. There is no other way to put it. They leave their toys everywhere, they touch everything with greasy fingers, and they spread germs like it's a contest to see who can contaminate the most things the fastest. I am constantly washing clothes, cleaning up spills, wiping fingerprints, wiping noses, disinfecting counters, and washing hands. I don't ever expect to stop doing these things, though I hope I will have to do them less as my children get older.

Recently I have become very interested in making my own cleaning products. My husband says I'm obsessed. But who wouldn't want to make cleaning easier and cheaper,  and at the same time using fewer nasty chemicals?

The first thing I tried was laundry detergent. I've been using it for over a year now, and I am loving it.

My husband is sensitive to colors and scents in the laundry soap, so we have to use the "free and clear" stuff. And, of course, the products with FEWER ingredients always cost MORE. After some research, I found a homemade laundry recipe that seemed like it would work for me (and wouldn't irritate my sensitive hubby). It is REALLY cheap to make and makes my clothes really clean. In fact, it made my washing machine cleaner! (I was having problems with my machine smelling bad and making my clothes smell bad. This detergent stopped the smell!)

I found the recipe here. I only make a half recipe so that I can fit it into my handy gallon sized jar I already had. I just leave the jar next to my washer and scoop out what I need. No heavy bottles to lug around and no mess. And a few dollars in ingredients lasts me more than 3 months! With three kids, I do A LOT of laundry, so that shows you just how long this jar lasts.

Here is the recipe for MY amount of detergent. Feel free to double it if you have a larger container or make a smaller batch if you don't do much laundry. All of these items can be found at most grocery stores. I got mine at Wal-Mart.

32 oz Borax
32 oz Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
32 oz Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 1/2 bars of Fels-naptha soap
24 oz OxyClean

Using a digital kitchen scale, measure each ingredient and put in a plastic garbage bag (for easy mixing at the end). Use a cheese grater to grate the bars of soap. (I got a cheap one at the Dollar Tree to use for soap, but you can use the one from your kitchen. Since it's just soap, it washes clean easily). Using your hands, crumble the grated soap a little bit more for better mixing. When you have all of the ingredients measured and in your garbage bag, twist up the bag and "smoosh" everything around until it's well mixed. Pour into your storage container (preferably with a tight seal so that moisture won't get in).
***If you don't have a scale or don't want to measure, just double the recipe. The first three ingredients come in 4 lb boxes, which is the right amount for a double batch. Use 3 bars of soap, and two small containers of OxyClean (or 10 scoops of the Costco sized box).***

That's it! You are ready for laundry day!

Here is what it looks like. You want your yellow soap pieces to be evenly disbursed so that you get a little in each scoop. (If you want a step by step tutorial with pictures for each step, go to this website.)

I have an old coffee scoop (2 Tbsp) that I use to measure the detergent. For small loads I use half a scoop (1 Tbsp) and for large loads (or really grimy stuff) I use a full scoop (2 Tbsp). The scoop fits easily in the jar with the detergent so it's always ready to go!

This detergent has a very subtle scent, but it doesn't bother my husband's sensitive skin at all. If you wanted your clothes to smell more, you can just use a scented fabric softener. I use straight vinegar most of the time, and I'm thrilled at how clean and soft my clothes are. And no, they do not smell like salad dressing.

This detergent is safe for High Efficiency washer because it doesn't suds at all. And you use such a small scoop that you don't have to worry about powder buildup in your drain like you might with the store brand powder detergents. The Fels-naptha soap dissolves so well, you can even use it for cold washes. I've never found any left over pieces of soap on my clothes.

And just in case you were curious, here is the approximate cost breakdown for this detergent.

Box of Borax = $4 (I use half a box per batch) = $2
Box of Baking Soda = $4 (I use half a box per batch) = $2
Box of Washing Soda = $4 (I use half a box per batch) = $2
Fels-Naptha Soap = $1 per bar (I use 1 1/2 per batch) = $1.50
Oxyclean = About $7 for a 3lb box (I got a huge one from Costco but can't remember how much it cost) (I use 1 1/2 lb per batch) = $3.50

That comes out to about $11 for a batch of detergent. I do approximately 10 loads a week and use 2 Tbsp per load. This jar lasts about 3 months (12 weeks), which amounts to 120 loads of laundry per batch. That's less than 10 CENTS per load!!!!!! I could probably get away with only 1 Tbsp per load, since this stuff is so powerful, which would make it last twice as long and be less than 5 cents per load!!

***Disclaimer: Use at your own risk***

***Safety Warning*** 
Kids like to help measure out the ingredients, but I highly suggest making them (and you) wear a mask and goggles since the powdery ingredients get into the air and can cause irritation to eyes, nose and throat. The kids don't mind wearing them. My son said it makes him feel like a scientist.

Stay tuned for more cleaning recipes!