Clean Responsibly

About a week ago I realized that as an "adult" it would be in my interests to make my house presentable to guests and wanderers-in. I never really had any kind of cleaning schedule, figuring that we would just clean as we go. Which is silly really. When did I ever do that growing up? Never.
...Well, I would do it once my room got past being livable. When I couldn't walk on my actual floor, I cleaned.
Sometimes.

But I started to feel like the house was always dirty, even if it looked clean, presumably because I didn't regularly dust, vacuum, mop, or clean the trim/baseboards/cupboards/counters. And we have dogs. So that's gross, right? You're telling yourself that's really gross, aren't you. In your head. I know it is. I KNOW.

Which is why Joe and I had a little family council in which we decided once and for all that we needed to make ourselves a chore chart. Ya know, like parents make for their kids. Because we are children. We conveniently have five rooms in our house -- one for each day of the week -- and Saturday is the special day that gets everything else. Laundry, dog "present" pick up, yard work, gardening....and so on. Sundays I just water the house plants. Gotta have time for Downton Abbey, guys.

I also decided to try some make-at-home, DIY, whatever you want to label it cleaners. And for some reason, just the presence of something new to clean with made me REALLY excited to clean. I ordered microfiber rags and spray bottles online and was frowny-faced every day that I checked the porch to find they hadn't come yet. But come they did, and I made a few starter cleaners to stretch out my DIY cleaner muscles.

One was a wood polishing cleaner, like a Pledge/Endust equivalent, which is made with castile soap, water, vinegar and lemon essential oils. Should I share the recipe? I'll share.

It's the "Wood Cleaner" Recipe on this handy little picture here, which I got from IHeart Organizing. Her blog is great for little (and some big) ideas about how to make your house tidy AND pretty. And she obviously has several great cleaner recipes, as you can see. According to her blog, she has tried a lot of different recipes over the years and these are her ultimate favorites.

So wood cleaner = 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 tsp castile soap, 4 drops essential oil.

I also made the "Cleaner with Purpose" which is just a delightfully Tara-approved way of saying all-purpose cleaner. (1/2 tsp dish soap, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tbsp white vinegar, 2 cups water, 3 drops essential oil)

With these handy recipes spray-bottled up as my weapons, I attacked the house, kindly, with cleanliness. And so far I really like the cleaners. They smell nice and they clean, so I'm pretty content. For a few days it was super clean, and we followed our chore chart religiously. It's slipped over the last few days but we still tidy the room of the day and try to leave any rooms looking presentable when we go out of them.

This isn't really an exciting post, but it's something I've been doing lately and would like to maintain. Thus, if I put it on the internet I will probably do better, right? ....Right?

We've been working on lots of fun projects lately but I'll write about those another time. Aaaalways keep 'em wanting. And oh how you want to read about my baseboards and pillows.
You do.