Cleaning

So, we're back in Tempe. Which is great except that our tiny little side of the triplex was a TON messier then I remembered. Plus, we only managed to come home, with more stuff.

On our way in, we stopped by Dave's parents house for a quick refresher before heading home. While there my mother-in-law showed me this great packet of information that was compiled by a lady who was on the Church's welfare system for years because she really needed it, and this packet was her way of giving back. It was mostly quick and easy meal and snack ideas, that used all of the available church warehouse resources, but it also had great cleaning tips.

There was one tip that I'd never even heard of before (and trust me, my mother knows most of them). So when we got home and had a little down time, I decided to give them a try.

Here's the first one :

What you will need:
1 lemon or lime (any citrus fruit will work really)
a microwave safe bowl
water
a clean rag













Cut a lemon or lime in half then squeeze the juice from both halves into the bowl. Go ahead and toss the juiced halves in the bowl. Fill the bowl with water and place in your microwave. Then microwave cook on high for about 10 minutes -- long enough for the citrus mixture to boil and let off lots of steam. When finished cooking leave the bowl inside the closed microwave for another 10 minutes. Then using a clean rag and the warm (be careful it may still be hot!) citrus water wipe down the bottom, sides, and ceiling of your microwave. Rinse the rag as often as needed. Cooked-on food splatters will easily wipe away and unpleasant odors will be neutralized. Plus it leaves the kitchen and sometimes even the whole house (if you are as lucky as me) smelling like lemon bars. Its just lemon and water and the smell made Dave look up from his game. Needless to say, we'll be doing that a Whole lot more often

The next one is for the fridge, which, as my in-laws know, we forgot to clean or leave open. So the black mold moved in. It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and after I was done, the mold smell was gone, but the bleach smell wasn't. So I went online and used another lemon for this.

1. Slice a lemon into 1/2 inch this pieces and place in a small shallow dish or plate

2. Sprinkle 1-2 Tbs of table salt onto lemon pieces

3. Sprinkle 2-3 Tbs of baking soda onto lemon pieces

The combination of the soda salt and acidity in the lemons will make it sizzle, which is pretty cool. Then you just put it in the fridge, uncovered for 4-6 days.

My version has been in the fridge for only a few hours and it already smells less like cleaner.

Give it a try!

PS - The Return from Tennessee and Shaving the Beast will be coming shortly. :D