Produce Cleaner

Growing up, to rinse our produce, was just a "rinse."  There was no soaking.  Never before, until recently, have I noticed how much dirt strawberries leave behind.  Even if you get the dirt off, you need something to kill the bacteria.  It will also prevent mold growth on your berries, making them last longer.

In a large bowl, sprinkle some baking soda, add a splash of vinegar, and fill the rest with water.  I let the produce soak for a bit and drain in the colander.  And that's it; it's ready to eat.  Now, I have some strawberries to go into some freezer bags for thick smoothies.

See the dirt?  Ewww. This is the remains from 9 lbs of strawberries...

Pesticide Removal

Prevent Moldy Berries

Powdered Laundry Soap

For the sake of convenience, I love this recipe.  Double the batch as necessary.  One batch is equivalent to about 17 loads, using 2 tbs/load.  It is not as cost effective as the liquid, in my opinion, however.

Ingredients:
1 cup Borax
1 cup washing soda
1 bar Ivory soap (hypoallergenic bar soap) or Fels Naptha shredded finely

Directions:
In a container, add the Borax, washing soda, and the Ivory soap or Fels Naptha.  (The bar of soap must manually be shredded by hand with a pairing knife, cheese grater, or by food processor.)

Mix together thoroughly.

Use 1-2 tbs/load.  Works fine in cold water.  However, if there is still soap bits in the washer, once the wash is finished, select a warmer water setting, or shred the soap finer.  For my own personal loads in my home, I use 2 tbs/load.

Easy Glass Stove Top Cleaner That Works!

The glass top stoves are so nice looking to me.  I really don't know why I chose to get another one when we moved, since they are such a pain to clean.  We've had this second one for a little more than three years. I've spent the time, frustration, and elbow grease put into trying to clean these without paying a lot of money, only to have little success, if any!!!  I found an idea, the boldness to try another method, from One Good Thing by Jillee on how to clean my flat top with ease.

Shown here are before pics and after pics, in the photos above.

Want to know a secret?!  Don't buy the Magic Erasers, the special cleaners at the hardware stores, the baking soda with peroxide or with vinegar and elbow grease, etc.   Just buy ammonia!  

Here's How:
Splash the burnt area with ammonia and cover with plastic wrap.  I used plastic baggies.  (If you use wax paper, the ammonia will evaporate and not work as well.)

Let sit overnight.  Mine soaked for a little more than 12 hours.

Remove the plastic.

Quickly and easily the stuff came off without any effort!  Must wipe quickly before the ammonia dries.  Be sure that you don't mix the ammonia with any bleach product.

The lovely stuck on gunk on my flat top stove now removed!

WOOHOO!  I'm a happy gal!