Tackle It Tuesday - Shaklee Style

This week, we did a number of tackles. We tackled our living room and re-arranged it while also going through a bunch of "stuff" that was in it. At the moment, it is slightly messy due to kids and well, living in the room, but it will be cleaned up as soon as I am done with this post.

Our living room is long and rectangular and has a bank of windows on one side that make it difficult for some arrangements. Also, we have three vents in the room, which we try to not to cover up with furniture. We have a dog that covers the vents enough as it is.

So, here is what the room looked like before:

The main problem with this layout is the corner where the chair is. Stuff would get stuck back there and it was difficult to get to without pulling the chair out. I was getting tired of having to do that. Plus both the dog and Boo loved to hang out behind the chair (next to the vent) so there were a myriad of issues with that there.

Another was the entertainment center. The couch sat in front of the bank of windows and we would get a horrible glare on the TV if we had the windows open, which we didn't very often because it made watching TV up here nearly impossible.

The area behind the other chair (closest to our entry way on bottom right) often was the spot where we would put things that needed to leave the house, which makes sense. But it also often made it look cluttered and messy and let's face it, you open the door and that is the FIRST thing you see, followed by the entertainment center.

So, we changed it. The couch went to where the entertainment center was, one of the tables went with it, the entertainment center went to where the small bookshelf was, the small bookshelf went next to the door, and the two chairs and one table scooted in towards the middle of the window bank to balance out that side of the room. The cedar chest also got transplanted next to the entertainment center, instead of being used as a coffee table.

So now it looks like this:

Personally, I'd prefer to have the tall bookshelf on the wall next to the entertainment center, but Hubby says no to that for now. Plus that bookshelf may soon end up in our bedroom anyhow, so it's kind of a non-issue anyways.

And now, the small bookshelf next to the entryway is for our shoe storage, instead of having the shoes on the rectangular linoleum area that you all have seen before here. And that was okay, but it just didn't stay neat. And I am not about to spend 5 minutes ten or so times each day, straightening up the shoes. It's just not my thang. Yes, I said thang. No, it was not a typo. So anyhow, that's why the small bookshelf is over by the door. It is called the small bookshelf because it's short. Lower shelf, upper shelf and then top of the set. Three levels total. Lower shelf is generally used for kiddo shoes. The shelf has an open back and allows the vent to shoot air through it. The upper shelf is for more of the overflow shoes. The top of the unit is used for the things that need to leave the house. It can still look messy, but it still looks better than having the stuff sit on the floor behind the chair. Much better!

Then this weekend, I traveled to Erin's house to try out some Shaklee products. So, as of now, she and I are no longer online friends. We are in real life friends! Yay! So, anyhow, I came home Saturday night to a mess that Hubby left for me from his preparation of the family's supper. (I ate at Erin's house that evening. Thanks again Erin and Dusty!) The house was empty when I got home. Hubby had arranged for the kiddos to spend the night at Grandma's house and he had gone to his friends' house for the evening, so there I was with a stove looking like this:

Yummy right? Inviting? Wanna come over for dinner right about this point? If that isn't bad enough for you, try removing the burner and the drip tray. Just for fun. However, if you have a queasy tummy, I'd suggest looking away right now. Because I removed the burner and the drip tray and this is an example of what was below.

Yeah, um, gross. Just sayin'. I have no idea what it is or how it gets down there, but I *do* know that I don't like it and I had an idea that my handy dandy bottle of Shaklee's H2 would clear that issue right up, so I decided it was time to give it a try. I sprayed a generous portion of the H2 into the areas below the drip trays. Yes, our style of stove can lift up, but it is screwed shut and one of the screws is stripped, so I can't do it the easy way.

I let it set for a few minutes, just so it could do its thang under there and then I got busy and cleaned all the gunk out. It took several swipes and a few paper towels (sorry, but my nice microfiber was NOT going in THERE!) and then it was done. The end result?

Okay, let's do the before and after thing now:

I also took the time to do my microwave (inside and out), my fridge (inside and out) and my freezer (inside and out). It was awesome! I love the H2! I also have a bottle of the Basic G to try out in the bathrooms, but I haven't made it in there just yet. I was more concerned about the kitchen at that point.

I am sold though! As soon as my check situation at work gets figured out and settled, I am DEFINITELY going to be ordering my own shaklee! And then you can sign up to become a member under me as well! Doesn't that sound AWESOME?! I think it does! And besides who wouldn't want to transform their icky yucky stove from the before picture to the after picture? Seriously? My stove SHINES now. It truly does!

And that was my main level tackle for this past week. Phew! I'm exhausted! Even if Hubby was the one that did all of the work, except the kitchen cleaning. But I am so happy with the results!

Menu Plan Monday - 4.11

Last week was terrible about the menu plans. I honestly have no clue what we ate most nights and it worked out, but man, do I ever prefer to have at least a guideline AND follow it!

This week our menu includes:

• Monday
• beef roast with mashed potatoes and gravy
• Tuesday
• pork ribs
• Wednesday
• grilled cheeseburgers
• Thursday
• chicken stirfry
• Friday
• homemade pizzas
• Saturday
• kids choice
• Sunday
• company's choice

It should be good!  I don't know why I try to plan for Sundays usually. For lunch we always have sandwiches, something just quick and easy for the purpose of getting something to eat after church and before the littles' nap time. And then for supper time, 9 Sundays out of 10, we have company over and we usually try to coordinate with what they want to eat. Saturday lunches are usually something Hubby fixes for the kids and we eat leftovers and Saturday nights, the kids choose to have a light supper so that they can have more junk food during our movie night. Saturdays are kind of the fly by the seat of our pants day of the week. We just never know for sure (until Friday night) what we plan to do on Saturday.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

For the very first time ever, I am joining in on the Ultimate Blog Party excitement! So, here we go!

I am Deanne, a mother to four children, who I affectionately named NattyNu (age 10), JoNo (age 7), PunkyPie (age 4), and Boo (age 3) for the internet. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Hubby, for 10 1/2 years now and am incredibly grateful for everything he does for our family.

I am a busy lady. I work as a housecleaner Monday-Friday and have a very "flexible" (read: unstable) ending time each day. Some days I am home by 2pm, other days, I'm not home until after 6pm. It's hard on me and I cannot imagine how hard it is on the family to never know when to expect me home.

I am also a CNA and wanting to get back to doing that as soon as I possibly can. Not that I don't love my job, but okay...so I really don't love my job. lol I also want to go back to school and finish my degree in Business Administration with an Accounting focus, but first I have to make sure that I am doing my part to make ends meet at home.

I also work out of my home as a crafter (I have an Etsy shop with a few items in stock - more as soon as I get around to taking photographs and listing the items!) and I also sell Tupperware and am looking to possibly start selling Shaklee as well in the near future.

I am a kind of crunchy mama. I believe in being as green as possible, we use cloth diapers at least part-time (Hubby and MIL prefer sposies and that's okay too - we do what works best for all of us - and this is how it has been for the last, oh, six years or so in the diapering department). I also try to use safe, homemade cleaners as often as possible. I want to be able to have any of my children help with the cleaning without worrying about the chemicals that they may end up having on their skin. (That is kind of part of a big reason behind wanting to become a Shaklee distributor.)

I have recently been working to lose weight by making better food choices (not dieting because dieting is temporary and I want this to be a lifestyle change that will be forever) and getting more exercise. So far, I am down 30 pounds over the last two months and I am very excited about that! I still have about another 60 to go, but already I am feeling better and overall, healthier.

My blog here is a cross between a mommy blog and a niche blog for cleaning/organizing and crafting. I tried doing multiple blogs before and you can see them if you click on my picture and go to my profile, but I tend to just be more of a one-blog kind of girl, with the exception of one blog that I am a contributor to.

Hmmm, I am trying to think of what else there is to tell you all, but I can't really think of anything, so if you have questions, feel free to ask! I'm pretty much an open book. Glad to have you visit! And if you'd like, follow me via Google Friend Connect and like my blog on Facebook. I will start hosting giveaways when I hit 25 followers on here. And considering that I am a crafter (a knitter and scrapbooker to be exact) AND sell Tupperware AND plan to sell Shaklee AND will be reviewing products from time to time as well (not too often because I don't want this blog to become all about reviews - they can get kind of old when that's all you see in feed reader), there are a LOT of possibilities for giveaways! So, come on in, sit down with a cup of tea (instant with artificial sweetener is my current choice) and have a nice read. Leave some comment love here and there so that I can check your blog out as well!

Until next time...

Tackle It Tuesday

This week for Tackle It Tuesday I tackled my lower level bathroom. I don't have a before picture, but let me describe it this way - I live with four males and one of them is potty training. And it seems that none of them can actually hit the target. Just sayin'.

So, I started with my shower. I sprayed some straight vinegar on my shower door to help tackle the hard water and soap scum build up and let it sit. Then I moved on to the mirror and used the same straight vinegar there and wiped it dry with a microfiber cloth.

Then, I moved down to the sink and sprayed an all-purpose cleaner into it and scrubbed it down really well. I used an old toothbrush to get between the faucet and the sink itself and really scrubbed it out well. Then I wiped it all out with a second microfiber cloth. After doing that, I used my first microfiber from the mirror and shined up the faucet and the knobs and the drain stopper thingie. Because that is what it is called, right? A drain stopper thingie? The vinegar and the microfiber together really makes it all shiny and nice.

Then I cleared off the toilet and picked everything up off of the floor. I think it was something like 6 bottles of shampoo and conditioner and other things, plus a large container of laundry detergent. Doesn't everyone keep a large bottle of laundry detergent in their bathroom? And then I cleared off the little shelf we have hanging above the toilet and straightened it up and made it look nice and neat.

Then it was time to tackle the toilet. I'm sure you all know how to clean a toilet, but bear with me. I sprayed the entire toilet down with the all-purpose spray, tank lid, tank sides, top of toilet lid, underside of toilet lid, top of toilet seat, underside of toilet seat, toilet rim, inside of the bowl (and then a little bit of powder in the bowl), then sprayed the outside of the toilet base, being sure to get the area by the bolts that hold the toilet to the floor. Then I started wiping it off with a large terry cloth towel. I like to use barmop towels personally because of their large size, but you could use a standard 12x12 terry cloth cleaning towel as well. But anyhow, I used my barmop towel and began wiping in the same order as I did the spraying, down to the toilet rim part, then I used my toilet brush and cleaned the inside really well. Then I finished up with the toilet rim and the outside of the bowl, all the way down to the floor.

The floor area in our bathroom is very small so it is more trouble than it is worth to try to use a mop in there, plus our toilet is not placed squarely in there either, so it's a very tight space between the side of the toilet and the wall anyhow. So, I just used my all-purpose spray and sprayed the floor on that side of the toilet and hand-wiped it while I was hanging over the toilet to get the area by the bolts cleaned on that side. I then worked my way from the wall behind the toilet to the wall in front of the toilet and then worked my way around the toilet. I used a thin line grout brush to get the area around the bottom of the toilet and let me assure you, it was DIS-GUST-ING. Blech! Then I continued hand wiping the remainder of the floor area. Oh - and in case it wasn't clear, I used the same rag for the toilet and the floor. Because honestly, the floor is much worse than the toilet 'round these parts. You could use a separate rag if you wanted to though.

For the finishing touches in the bathroom, I also shined up the handle of the toilet with my mirror microfiber cloth as well as the toilet paper holder and the switch plate. Then put things back into the bathroom neatly. The only thing left to do was to finish the shower.

Normally, I would have done the shower completely in one shot, but because of the hard water and soap scum, I wanted to give the vinegar some time to cut through it and break it all down. One warning though - when I opened the shower door to clean it, the vinegar smell assaulted my nostrils. It was a little bit overwhelming at first. It won't hurt you, but it is powerful.

I used a steel wool scratchy on my shower door - I don't think my shower door is glass, but it might be. But I used that scratchy on my shower door until it looked pretty decent. It always looks clearer when it is wet than it does when it is dry though. I then wiped the door with the mirror cloth. Then I sprayed down the inside of the shower itself and scrubbed it all really well and then dried it off with the same cloth I used for the sink, and then finished by shining the metal in the shower - the shower head, the shower knob, the shower door handle and the piece that holds the shower door on. Not sure what to call that piece though.

The one thing I realized that I missed when I was done was the window and blinds. I should have used a dry microfiber to dust the blinds before starting the toilet and then cleaned the window with the straight vinegar and mirror cloth and then dusted the window ledge with the dry cloth as well. But oh well, it's definitely in much better shape now than it was before I did it.

And that my friends, is how I clean our tiny bathroom.

Using this method, it took me all of maybe 15 minutes to clean the bathroom. Do you have 15 minutes available to kick your bathroom into tip top clean shape? I bet you do!

Also, I will be linking this up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Tossed It Tuesday - April 4

I don't have much to report about things tossed out this week. There's a few items and I will list them, but what I want to talk about is something else that I came across yesterday as well.

Okay, so my list first:

• Punky's old plastic play kitchen
• Three boxes worth of paper recycling
• One box worth of cardboard recycling
• One bag worth of glass recycling

And for the other part - the thing that I wanted to share? I stopped in at a newer consignment shop here in our city yesterday to find out about their consignment program.  Turns out, it has some really awesome things going on and two minor not so good things going on. I'll start with the no so good things. The first part is that it costs $12 to consign for 120 days. Not horrible, but not great either. But probably cheaper than listing things on ebay and still something that I'm willing to do.

Second thing is the consignment ratio payout. The shop gets 60% while the consignor gets 40%. Not the greatest payout, but when I take into consideration the fact that they do all of the work (and their overhead costs and the fact that it gets the stuff out of my house super easily, well, it's worthwhile to me, I think.)

Now for the good parts - all I have to do is wash it (which I would do regardless), toss it into a box (therefore, no need to go back to pick up my container) and drop it off. They do EVERYTHING else. They will sort though the stuff, keep what will work and either have me come pick up the items that won't work or they will donate it to the homeless mission here and they also take care of the tagging and pricing and marketing of the items. If there are certain items that I want to have back, then they will make sure I get them back if they either choose not to sell the item or if the item does not sell within 120 days. It's a very cool deal. Right now, they are taking clothes for spring/summer and in three months, they will be taking fall/winter clothes as well. And if I take clothes in as late as day 119 from the first date of consignment, then I will have 120 days from day 119 to have the items sell as well for no extra charge. I hope that makes sense. LOL!

And the best part, it gets it out my house super quick and easy. And doing this supports a local business, which is something that I feel strongly about. And if the items don't sell, then they will go to a charity that I think is worthwhile as well. So, in my opinion, it's a win-situation all around.

So very soon I will be getting more and more items out of here and it will be well worth it!

Small Things - April 1st and 4th

Even though I was on a blogging hiatus, I did still read blogs while I was gone - well, a few of them anyhow. And Home Sanctuary is one of the ones that I continued to follow. I just wasn't sure when I was going to get back to posting about my participation in her Small Things. But today seems like as good a day as any!

On Friday, which also happened to be April 1st, we were supposed to do something silly. Only one thing. Well, I'm going to count my day at work as being silly because I was a) sleep-deprived and b) hyped up on caffeine and no-calorie sweetener. I don't know what could make me more silly than that to be honest. I had my trainer, myself and trainee cracking up. It was crazy silly fun.

We were to receive 40 points for doing something silly and then an additional 10 points for sharing about it, so 50 points for Friday.

Then today, we were to take a damp cloth and wipe whatever you can with it until you run out of moisture. When you run out of moisture you are done! I did this in the kitchen. I got our counters wiped down, the stove top, the fridge front, the sink and the front of the dishwasher. I even got the small appliances and the primary knickknacks wiped off as well, such as our One Touch canister set (like this one here) and some of the other things we have set out full time on our counters.

So, there was an additional (and EASY!) 40 points! So, now I am up to 90 points for the month!

Menu Plan Monday

I have been absent for a bit and so has my menu planning. But I'm back and so is my menu planning. So here goes!

• Leftover burgers from grilling out this weekend (I had 20 patties made up and we still have about half of them left over)
• Lasagna
• Hamburger and noodles (Kind of like Hamburger Helper, except not out of a box)
• Enchiladas with beans and rice
• Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, eggs, sausage)
• Grilled pork chops
• Salad bar

So there you have it. This is the plan for our meals for this week.