How I Organize - Cleaning Products

I've been on a mission lately to FINALLY clean and organize my garage. It has been a slow and very painful process. I like to keep my cleaners where they are most likely to be used. You can see most of my cleaners in my How I Organize - Under the Kitchen Sink post. On a small budget my organizing isn't always super cute, but it is super funtional. The cute part can always come later when you have a system that works.

I like to use coupons and buy just about everything I use when it is the absolute cheapest. I've also been switching more and more to natural homemade cleaners but I still have this 'stash' of cleaners in the garage. Why? Mostly because I couldn't find room in the house for them. I was simply using an old rubbermaid container and it really wasn't working. I couldn't find anything and I was buying duplicates because I thought I was out of a particular cleaner.

Here's my lovely before shot. Please don't judge, that's what before pics are for.

I started brainstorming where in the house to put these and I came up with the Laudry Room/Utility Room in the basement. It already has the childproof door knob covers on it and that's where the laundry cleaning supplies already are. Seemed like a no brainer to me. This is not actually a very large  room so I knew a shelf was not going to fit in the space or my budget so I started googling arould for inspiration. I saw over the door shoe organizers being used for everything from school supplies to barbies so I figured why not cleaners.

I picked this pink one up at target for about $12. My basement colors are pink, yellow and turquise so it fit right in.

 

Here is my after. Apparently I have a thing for room fresheners. I swear I didn't even know I had most of those. They were at the bottom of the bin. That's what happens when you just throw stuff in a pile. Now I can take a quick inventory of what I have and what I need to restock by just opening a door and it's still out of reach for my girls.

Have you ever used an organizing product for something different that what it was made for?

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Weekend Wonders

Erasing Permanent Marker

Have you even walked in and seen a mess like this before? I went to let the dog out and came back to my 3 year old "drawing" on my desk with permanent marker. It was one of those moments that make you just want to scream. 

 The first thought that came to mind is that dry erase markers take permanent markers off of white boards maybe it will work on the desk too.

I colored over all the black spots and said a little prayer then I wiped off the mess with a baby wipe.

I took off most of the permanent marker as you can see, but The downside is that now my green dry erase marker has a black tip. With out a camera flash you can barely see it at all.

Have you ever tried this trick for removing permanent marker?

How I Clean - Carseats

Yes, I let my girls eat in the car. As a result, their seat, especially my youngest's, get really gross. I mean crumbs galore, dried up fruit snacks, gross. Am I the only one? Because of this, I wash the car seats at least once every other month along with shop vac-ing the back seats a few times a week. I guess that's the price you pay with an on-the-go family. 

Please tell me other people have car seats that look like this.

After many years of scrubbing carseats, this is how I do it.....

Start by taking off the cloth cover and all the straps. If you've never done this before it can be really tricky and kind of confusing. The first time I took a car seat apart I separated the straps front/back then left/right.

Once everything is separated throw the cloth cover in the washing machine on a regular cycle, but do not dry. They start to come apart at the seams in the dryer. Learn from my mistakes on that one. Take all the straps and latches and soak them in a sink of warm water and dish soap. (If it can clean the food off your dishes, then it can clean the food off your car seats).

I usually soak the straps for an hour or so. Most of the dirk soaks off, some of the small spots will and buttons you will need a toothpick to get to. The water afterwards is pretty aweful looking, but better there than next to your little ones skin.



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Here is how it looks after a good cleaning.

This car seat is almost 2 years old and it still looks brand new thanks to regular cleaning.

After all this time I was starting to get bored with the same old seat so I decided to update it with a car seat cover that I found at Target.com and the Dora strap covers that I made her.

Here is my beautiful little Abby enjoying her freshing cleaned and newly update car seat. I think she's happy with it. :)

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"Clean It" Challenge Blog Party