Spring Cleaning, it’s really time to get your clean on!

This post is sponsored by Pine-Sol® Clean & Disinfect with Pine-Sol®: The Powerful Scent of Clean."
I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.


Spring is knocking on the door can you feel it? Sometimes in Utah it takes a while to break through. Saturday we were in flip flops, and Sunday we got snow! Even though the weather seems a little confused I have got serious spring fever. A trip to sunny California two weeks ago seemed to get me in the mood even sooner.  Along with the changing seasons, Spring Cleaning seems to top my priority list lately.

My home is my favorite place to be, but it’s not always sparkly clean and company ready. I like to think of myself as pretty domestic but a Deep Clean Diva I am certainly not!  Ironically the older I get, & the more kids I have had, along the way new tips and tricks have been implemented. With a busy family of 5, 3 kids 6 and under my time is more valuable than ever. Here is my top 5 tips for Spring Cleaning our homes!

1- Start with a list! Go through your home room by room evaluating what needs to be done. By giving each room it’s own checklist you can customize and help delegate to your family what needs to be done. This may take some time before the cleaning even begins but by creating a 1 time Master Spring Cleaning list it will save you time in the future.

2-Get Supplies Ready-Take a quick evaluation of what supplies you will need for spring cleaning, what you have in your home, and if there is any product, or items you need to pick up at the store so when you start your clean you are ready to go.

3- Schedule the Cleaning- a deep spring cleaning is a big undertaking and something that needs to be scheduled in my life, or it will never get done. Take a good guess on how long it will take you and plan accordingly. I like to give myself about 2-3 weeks to complete my whole list. Inside and out, and top to bottom.

4-Get Cleaning- Start from the ceilings and move down all the way to the floors, wipe all solid surfaces, and wash all linens, move any piece of furniture you can you’ll be amazed at what hides under beds and dressers!

5-Celebrate and Evaluate- Phew that was a lot of work but it’s so worth it, I love a clean home. It’s now time to evaluate on what worked what didn’t and record it. Or what needed extra cleaning, or took longer than expected and you can adjust your master list accordingly. Year after year it will get easier and won’t seem so daunting. Slowly we we become more effective about our cleaning to enjoy a good deep Clean!


Are you a little extreme when it comes to cleaning? Win the Pine-Sol® Deep Clean Diva Crown and $5000. Enter Now!

Easter Decor

It feels so great to get out all my spring and Easter decorations up after the gray skies of winter!

linking up to Tatertots and Jello!

Swatch Fabric Mini Banner

My mom had some sample fabrics she had leftover from an upholstery project and I snatched them up. This project could practically be done for free many fabric stores will give you a swatch of the fabric before you buy. They are all about 4 x4 squares.

I went to my go to twine from the Dollar Tree!

I cut my swatches into 1” strips with my pinking shears and simply folded over a small seam and hot glued it.

Once it dried I strung them on my twine and hung on my little hood mantle in my kitchen.

This turned out so fun and could be done for practically free from swatches from the fabric store or our own stash!

Happy Spring!

Linking up to:

Whipperberry Friday Flair

Tidy Mom I’m Lovin It

Tatertots and Jello

St. George Parade of Homes

Over President’s Day we headed down to St. George. It was also the Parade of Homes while we were there. While most of the homes tend to be more Southwestern style, that is so not my personal style.  I did enjoy a few great homes. That had bright and cheery interiors! With more of a cottage feel. Enjoy some of my favorite spaces that I saw over the weekend. Sorry for the iphone quailty pictures! I didn't feel like hauling around my big camera.

St. Patrick’s Day Printable

I hardly decorate for St. Patrick’s Day! I do like to pull a few pranks on the kiddos and we wear green. I created this little printable to display and be somewhat festive!
Click here to download the full resolution copy!
Linking up to Tatertots and Jello!
and Itsy Bitsy Paper.. St. Patty's Project Parade!

Homemade Bread

One of my new year’s resolutions for 2012 is to perfect bread making. I stumbled upon this recipe on Pinterest. And I really enjoyed it so I wanted to share!

This recipe is great and doesn’t need to rise twice an extra bonus. I threw everything in  my bosch and in less than 2 hours I had 5 loafs of yummy bread!

Ingredients:

5 Cups Hot Tap water

2 Tablespoons Salt

2/3 Cup Canola Oil

2/3 Cup Honey

Mix in Mixer

then add 4 Tablespoons room temp. yeast

and 2  Eggs also at Room temp.

Once all of the above are mixed in together its time to start mixing in your flour.

It takes for me at my altitude about 12 cups of white flour. Until it was slowly incorporated and the dough started pulling the sides clean.

Once that step is done I set the timer for 10 minutes and let the Bosch do the rest of the work mixing and kneading!

Then you will want to pour about two tablespoons more oil on your counter and liberally on your clean hands to knead on the countertop and form your loaves. The original recipe said it makes 4 loaves. I ended up making 5 since my pans seemed smaller and I had so much dough.

Place formed dough in Pam Sprayed loaf pans and let rise 30-40 minutes. It should rise about 1.5” from the top of the pan.

Then Bake in your oven at 350 for 35 minutes to bake.

When done slightly cool to remove from pans and brush some butter across the top. These were so good. We could hardly wait for it to cool slice it up!

 

Sharing this week on…

Tatertots and Jello

Mason Jar Drinking Glasses

In the past 8 weeks I have hosted 5 different parties in my home. I was getting a little tired of purchasing all those paper products! Ugh! Wasteful and pricey. I haven’t really jumped on the Canning Jar Trend but decided to go for it!
I purchases a dozen 8 oz. jelly jars at Walmart for around $7. and gathered up a few others I had around the house from making Jam last year.  I then tied a very simple bow from embroidery thread. And dropped in my favorite Paper Straws!
I loved it. They are simple, sturdy, have a gazillion uses.