So I still haven’t decorated for Christmas yet . . . and mainly it’s because I like to clean the house before I decorate and I HATE to clean {if you’ve followed me for long, you know these things}. And I know it makes absolutely no sense to clean before you wreck things with little plastic pine needles all over every surface. Sue me, I’m flawed.
Thus, I’ve been putting it off and putting it off but this morning, I finally got serious about cleaning the kitchen. And I gave it more than the once over.
I gave it a deep clean.
And then I saved $125 dollars.
Here’s how:
I began by washing the dishes. No big money saving miracle there, right? But when I loaded the dishwasher, I used homemade powdered detergent {yay Pinterest!} and LemiShine {um, I LOVE that stuff and absolutely no one paid me or even asked me to say that, consider it a “Royal Endorsement“}. I’ve noticed that the interior of my dishwasher has gotten really clean from using both and I began to think, hey I bet that stuff will make a good all purpose scrub. I think I’ll clean my sink with it.
And I was not wrong. After letting it soak for a bit in a damp sink, I scrubbed that sucker up and it shined brighter than ever {and smelled more like lemonade than a harsh cleaner}. “Score!” I thought. {imagine little sparkles and a “brrring” sound as I stood back to admire my work}.
And then I glanced down.
The floors looked pretty bad. So I swept them up. But we have old school vinyl that’s primarily white {or at least it was at one time}. And then I began to think, what if I used some of that scrub on the most stubborn spots and then swept up any remaining granules.
{Note: this is sounding more and more like If You Give the Queen Some Homemade Dishwashing Detergent by the minute}.
Scrub, scrub, scrub, all the way across the kitchen floor on my hands and knees {no crown today, Lords and Ladies}, until I got to the little dining area where our table is located. I decided to clear the table, wipe it and the chairs down.
That’s when I noticed my adorable placemats that Lady Amber made for me this summer. They were placed in a chair that we don’t use unless there’s company which is pushed all the way back against the wall and wedged tightly there by the table. But alas, it looked like they needed ironed. So I got out the ironing board, and preheated the iron.
I went back to the table, pulled out the placemats to iron and discovered underneath them? {drumroll, please}
The Eldest Princess’ glasses.
The one item for which I have been ransacking the house and calling everyone I know in desperation searching for, for the last 3 weeks. Crisis adverted. No new glasses necessary {before you heckle me for being a poor parent, she needs them only for distance and currently sits near the board so I was waiting until the first of the year before caving in and buying new ones.}.
And I saved $125 {more or less}.
By the way, the Money Saving Lords and Ladies in the Court of the Queen of Free have been guessing what I did to save on Facebook and they’ve come up with lots of great ways to save money when you clean your kitchen. Join us and check out their responses {Minus the Desperate Housewives idea. That is not a Queen endorsed idea. Unless it keeps your marriage lively and no money changes hands. WHAT?! I just want you to be happy. 😉 }
Maybe I shouldn’t blog at 11 PM at night.
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