This is Tuesday and my hands are like fine grain sand paper...

So today it's been around 10 months since I started to use my own laundry soap. This is my post about it. I spent almost 11$ that day on my Borax, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda and Fels Naptha. Total in that amount of time I've spent around 17& on laundry detergent. That's less than one whole month's worth. Wow. Cassie made a believer out of me! :) The reason I'm writing up this post is because as of today, I'm out of the A&H. I don't just use it for my laundry either. I use it to wash out my washing machine bin and keep it fresh. I use it to scour my bathtub and sinks. I've also found that it will get all the gunky grease off of the stove's overhead hood/fan/filters. What that stuff won't do, I have no idea, but really it is one of the best all around cleaners I've ever used. And I've used almost EVERYTHING that can be bought. It is just simply amazing. Now I need to put it on the grocery list to buy more of. That and vinegar. Oh my goodness, I love vinegar almost as much as the sodium bicarbonate...but that's another post for another day.

Wednesday's Hearth...Cooler days are here again...

So the last time I wrote on Wednesday, I was talking about the start of summer. And boy did it come. And am I glad to see it go. We saw some days that were over 100 degrees with heat indexes over 15 degrees hotter than even that. It really stinks for it to be 100 degrees with a relative humidity of 87%. It's so hot that the air can hold so much moisture, but not enough moisture to rain. And over the summer when it would rain, it wouldn't last long and it was blistering hot again. However, it has cooled off considerably. Though we're still seeing temps over 90, the humidity isn't bad.

There is no recipe today. I promise Grace that I'll find that funnel cake recipe and I'll post it. I will tell you that I tried Alton Brown's recipe and it is GOOD, but it's a bit involved for my tastes. The one I have isn't as involved. So I'll have to find that one. Because if you're anything like me, funnel cakes are a craving thing and I don't have the patience for involved.

Today we're discussing cleaning. As I've mentioned in a previous post, we recently discovered that my son has an allergy to dust mites. And no matter how clean you are, you will always ALWAYS have dust mites. There are ways of killing them. You can freeze them. You can expose them to sunlight/UV light. The best weapon you have are removing anything that will hang on to dust. Removing cloth furniture, carpets, stuffed animals, and bulky comforters. Mini blinds need to be changed to a pull shade, that can be wiped down, not cloth. There is no dry dusting. Everything needs to be wiped down with a damp cloth.  Curtains are best removed. OR if you MUST have them, they should be washed weekly with the bed linen. All bed linens need to be washed in HOT water. And bed covers and pillow covers are a great thing because your face is closest to them than any other surface.

So, we've been washing every article of clothing. Removing curtains from his room and washing them from the rest of the rooms. Changing his blind to a shade. Wiping down his bed and covering all the pillows. This weekend since Mr. V actually has the days off (he's been pulling a LOT of overtime at work) he's going to be vacuuming out the AC vents and I'll be taking care of the floors. THEN it's a matter of wiping down the walls and all the toys in his room. Then we can start working on the rest of house. This is going to be a slow, long process of getting it down pat. But once we get it, it should run like clock work. It's just a whole new and very detailed process.

We still haven't gotten all of our donate stuff together in one spot. When we do, I'm sure a good chunk of our house will be cleared out. The less stuff you have...the less that is there to collect dust. And right now...I hate dust.